Fiona’s guest today is Tamsin Welton, the new homes sales manager McFarlane Sales and Lettings.

In this episode of ‘PR not BS’ podcast Tamsin dives into her journey to becoming an estate agent and how being a good estate agent is not about the numbers.

Fiona first met Tamsin when she joined a local networking group, Professional Connections of Wiltshire, a couple years ago. 

After becoming a networking friend and colleague, Fiona invited Tamsin onto the podcast to discuss the ins and outs of being an estate agent and what it means to Tamsin. As well as the role PR and networking plays in her role and industry.

Tamsin started working in the estate agent sector over 30 years ago and started working for new home sites in Swindon, working with apartment blocks and new developments. Tamsin travelled to North Devon to Westward Ho, working at the county’s beautiful coastline. She then moved to South Africa and worked on selling homes in the region and was involved in the selling and designing of homes before travelling back to the UK and settling back in Swindon.

After moving back to Swindon Tamsin worked freelance for two years before becoming employed with an estate agency before landing her current position at McFarlane Sales and Lettings, Swindon’s local independent estate agents, where she is thriving.

Tamsin dives into the reasons she returned to being an employed estate agent and the hands-on and personal way McFarlane approaches their work. In her extensive experience of different estate agencies, this one is an outlier in how they treat their agents and clients.

“You are a person, not a number,” Tamsin says.

Tamsin shares her experiences of working at a poor estate agency in the past and gives insights into how some estate agencies work to create ‘productive’ environments at the expense of employees and clients. 

Her work at McFarlane couldn’t be more different and it’s about spending time with clients and not being chastised for investing in them and guiding people through a complicated process of owning or renting a home. Tamsin shares a personal experience about how being a good estate agent and going the extra mile brings new returns.

Tamsin dives into the world of networking and it pays off in the long term. She shares how investing in long term relationships and processes is something estate agents are used to. One referral can pay for the whole year's networking. Estate agents and business professionals should and are in it for the long game.

Tamsin discusses McFarlane’s interaction with many aspects of PR, including their apprenticeship scheme and charity work with Race for Life and Macmillan Coffee Mornings. 

“It seems like a company prepared to give back and prepared to talk about it and it inspires others to do the same,” said Fiona.

Tune in now to get all the details of Tamsin’s professional journey and get the reality of PR. With no BS!

To contact Tamsin at McFarlane.

Website: mcfarlaneproperty.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mcfarlaneproperty

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mcfarlanes 

If you would like to contact me, you can visit www.scottmedia.uk or join my free Facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/prtribe

Lauren’s guest today is Dave Southby, the founder and managing director of Southby & Co Financial Planning. 

Now in his fifth year of business having started in business alone, there are now a team of six. The team includes another financial advisor and an office manager, and having already moved offices to accommodate the team, they are now on the hunt for a larger home for the business as the team has grown yet again.

Since being joined by a team, Dave rebranded the business which reflects that it isn’t just him, so now the business is known as Southby & Co Financial Planning. He talks about how life has changed since the expansion.

Dave explains that the job of a  financial advisor involves far more than most people imagine the role to include. He also dismisses the false belief that you have to be wealthy to work with a financial advisor.

Working and living in the area where he grew up, giving back to the community is something that is very important to Dave.  The business has already won two business awards – the Positive Business Award at The Business Exchange Awards and the St James’s Place Responsible Business of Year Award. To be able to support local projects, and local charities is a huge passion of his. 

Networking has always been something that Dave finds an important part of growing his business which is also part of his PR strategy. Now that he has a team around him, it means he has the luxury of sending other team members to events, so he can work on other things.

This year he aims to enter more awards, hopefully find a new office - the forever home for Southby & Co, and there are also new partnerships and ideas coming up – including something he’s keeping close to his chest for now!

To contact Dave:

Website: https://www.southbyfp.co.uk/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/southby.dave/

If you would like to contact me, you can visit www.Scottmedia.uk  or join my free Facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/prtribe

My guest today is someone I hadn’t met until this podcast: Matthew Stafford who like me is an entrepreneur.

Matthew is the founder of a business called 9 Others, which is a global network of entrepreneurs. Along with his co-founder, Katie Lewis, they started the business in 2011 and what began small has grown into quite a large network. At the time, he and Katie were working for a government backed project to help entrepreneurial companies to raise investment, and as you’ll hear, the ‘dining’ idea came out of that.

The premise of 9 Others is a dinner which he hosts, along with 10 guests, so it is literally, him and 9 Others. Basically they invite founders of companies, entrepreneurs, people working in startups  - to come to dinner. The format is that each person shares a challenge they’ve come up against, and then for a short time the rest of the group try to help out with ideas and questions. Matthew explains how this works, and that it’s based on Chatham House rules – what’s shared around the table is confidential and there is no hierarchy. 

He also talks about his love of What 3 Words, explaining the concept and how that business came about, plus how Chris Sheldrick, one of the founders came to a few of the 9 Other dinners when they started.

Matthew also shares how the entrepreneurs around the table are selected and invited; with the main aim of having people who will contribute. However, as you’ll hear they are not selected by how much they’re earning or by particular business sectors.

9 Others dinners have run in 50 cities around the world, so to hear more about this fascinating idea, listen in.

To contact Matthew:

Website: https://9others.com/

Email: [email protected]

If you would like to contact me, you can visit my site: www.Scottmedia.uk or join my free Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/prtribe

My guest today is a good business friend who I’ve met through networking - Simon Read a business broker specialising in selling accountancy firms.  

He shares his journey from working in sales to becoming a business broker. He talks about the importance of networking both in person and online and the value of PR in building visibility and credibility. Simon sees networking as a good way to get out of your comfort zone, plus a place where you have the opportunity to build trust and relationships.  He also explains why networking in different areas to where you live and work can be very positive. Introducing you to new people and businesses who work in a different location to yours maybe a city compared to rural, that can your eyes to new possibilities and sometimes interesting challenges.

After listening to me talk (on several occasions) about making contacts with journalists, he did just that and contacted a journalist writing in his specific industry area.  Following that he has written around half a dozen articles for that journalist on a variety of accountancy subjects including selling your business and private equity.  In turn this has brought him other opportunities, including speaking engagements – one at Account X, a large accountancy Expo in London, and now he can share on his website, that he is a published author and speaker.

Simon explains what is involved when it comes to selling an accountancy business. When working with clients who are selling, he has to prepare them – addressing HR issues, improving systems, and ensuring positive financial trends on growth can be evidenced. He also talks about the challenge of attracting younger buyers to look at accountancy businesses that need modernization, when the younger generations are more likely to have adopted digital technologies. 

He gives some useful tips about how to prepare your business a good time ahead of when you might actually consider selling.

To contact Simon:

Website:  www.accountantsforsale.co.uk

Email: [email protected]

If you would like to contact me, you can visit www.Scottmedia.uk  or join my free Facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/prtribe

Lauren’s guest is someone that we are well acquainted with at Scott Media, Jo Smyth, who runs her own PR business - Word Worker. Jo collaborates closely with Scott Media with a couple of mutual clients, and she also does Scott Media’s PR.

She loves being able to collaborate with another PR company especially when you work in a similar area and it’s not seen as competition at all.

Fiona and Jo have known each other for years, and have a great deal in common, apart from both being in PR. They both worked for the Swindon Advertiser as journalists; they share the same birthday and even the same date for their wedding anniversaries! However, when it came to their careers, although starting out in a similar way, they then followed slightly different paths, before both ending up working in PR. 

Jo talks about how she was brought up with newspapers in her household and then studying history she gained some very transferable skills. She followed her passion and went into journalism, having several different jobs, which she loved. After her second baby though she started freelancing, which she also loved; writing for many women’s and parenting magazines. After that she worked in different PR jobs, where she found having been a journalist benefitted her in the different roles she held, because she knew what journalists would be looking for; what was newsworthy and what was not.

She also talks, as Fiona often does, about the importance of good photos. If you don’t have photos to go with a press release, then that won’t get used. Jo gets very frustrated when people don’t invest in professional photography. Although these days fewer local newspapers have photographers, so it tends to be use generated content i.e. pictures from readers. She says that’s fine for some stories, but if you want your business to be taken seriously and you want to look professional – use professional photos.

Jo also talks about AI, which she considers a useful tool, and does use it herself for ideas, for re-phrasing things, but only as tool rather than an end in itself. She makes the point that it’s fine getting help to write a press release etc, but you still need a good PR person to get that story in front of the right journalist and get it published.

You can contact Jo here:

Website: https://wordworker.co.uk/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josmythpr/

If you would like to contact me, you can visit my www.Scottmedia.uk or join my free Facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/prtribe

Today I’m my own guest! As you know, my main aim in business is to help people and their business or organisation to become more visible. I’m going to share some PR tips, insights and trends ready for 2026, that I hope will help you to plan and prepare your storytelling for the new year. 

To start, I’m going to give you some general advice around understanding the value of PR, especially at a time when businesses are having a tough time. Because of this many people want to know how you can prove that PR is worth the spend.  

PR is not sales! It's all about visibility, and that visibility will lead to sales in the long term. Becoming visible in business doesn’t happen overnight. 

I also talk about in more depth:

*Owning your story and personal branding, and in 2026 it’s not going to be enough to only rely on traditional media. You have to become proactive and engage with other people, such as podcasters, guest blogs, influencers etc.

*Hyper-local and niche networks. This is all about tighter communities and looking at and engaging with hyper local media outlets, Facebook groups etc.

*Reputation management. It’s far easier to take care of your reputation than do damage control at a later stage. A lot of small business owners, things going wrong are usually around social media chatter and/or staff issues.

*Trends in media and storytelling. Look out for stories around climate, stress, adaptation, resilience and sustainability. 

*Embracing AI and its impact on PR. Don’t stick your head in the sand! Find ways to be positive about AI.

You can still book your place on my No BS Media Summit. To find more information and costs, follow the link to buy your tickets: https://scottmedia.uk/product/the-no-bs-media-summit-2026/

If you’d like to talk to me about how I can help with your PR, then please contact Hannah on: [email protected]

My guest today is both client and friend, Janet Shreeve. We’ve both got exciting news to share about a new venture we’re working on together. Firstly though, Janet talks about Shreeve Care Services and how 2025 is ending for her.

Janet shares the highs and lows of her business, starting with an experience that makes everything feel worthwhile. She shares the story of a lady in her late 80s whom she is working with, who out of the blue had a conversation with her in Italian.  As a fluent speaker herself, Janet loved being able to talk to this lady, who hadn’t spoken Italian for over 30 years! 

Janet also talks about the advisory services that she offers, which has been a large part of her work this year, which she is looking forward to continuing in 2026. This service is something that has come about partly due to the fact that social care has been so badly funded for so long, and people just don’t know what choices they have with care – or what funding is out there. Sadly, many people seem to think that these options cost too much, but by collaborating with other organisations and advising clients about options, people can be supported in the way that they need, often remaining in their own homes. She is passionate about people understanding that they have choices!

She also talks about the new project that we – including my step-daughter Lauren have set up together. Completely unexpectedly by all of us, we have set up ‘Enlightening Escapes’ - to provide a variety of retreats. The retreats are all going to be, as the title suggests, escapes to do something different and have a bit of fun. They’re hard to organise on your own, so it will be great for us working together. She talks about some of the retreats we have coming up in the new year. 

We also talk about the budget and the massive omission that was social care which unsurprisingly Janet finds very depressing. However, she shares how she is working in different ways to support people in the care industry – looking at different ways to make things more efficient and cost effective. One being  where she works with Agora Staff, and the other a new part of the business, called Care Assist.

To contact Janet:

 Website: https://shreevecareservices.co.uk/

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 07827324590

If you would like to contact me, you can visit www.Scottmedia.uk , https://enlighteningescapes.co.uk/ or join my free Facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/prtribe

One of my TV guilty pleasures to watch is Master Chef and today I’m thrilled to meet one of this years’ finalists – Sam Kaeokon.

Sam has lived in Swindon for just over 10 years, and coming from Thailand, unsurprisingly he loves to cook Thai food!  He talks about how he learnt to cook after watching his grandma in the kitchen prepare Thai cuisine. After moving to the UK, he found that although there was some Thai food available, it wasn’t the particular type that he enjoyed, so he taught himself to cook, by watching YouTube, reading cook books, looking online – any and every way he could to spend time cooking.

As well as loving cooking, Sam also shares what it is that he loves about living in Swindon – which includes, as much as the town itself, the places that are around the area too.

Master Chef is a huge TV hit, and Sam explains what it was like to be involved in the competition – from the point where he decided to apply to the final weeks. He talks about how nerve-racking it is when you first arrive, as you don’t know anyone, and you meet the judges, the camera crews and everyone who works behind the scenes.  Plus you also have to learn how to use the equipment too. He was so nervous and filled with so many different emotions,  he didn’t even remember his interview. However, once he got cooking things were fun.

The hardest part for Sam was the time-lag between filming and the airing for the programme, and having to remain quiet about the outcome! 

Sam also talks about how being on the show has made him reassess his life – although he still wants to work in care – probably alongside cooking too.  

A very modest man, Sam is proud of what he has achieved, and underlines that it’s not about winning but the journey.  He loves caring for people, and he also puts care into cooking!

To contact Sam:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samkaeokon/?hl=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573564905057

Tiktok: tiktok.com/@sammikaeokon

If you would like to contact me, you can visit my www.Scottmedia.uk or join my free Facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/prtribe

My guest today is business friend Debbie Gilbert, who runs a marketing agency, the networking company called Businesswomen UnLtd and also runs events including The Best Businesswomen Awards and the Best SME Awards. She is also about to launch a brand new app called Leanier.

Debbie tells how she began her own business at a time before the internet was so big, and when websites were just emerging and social media didn’t even exist. She fell into her business due to a number of difficult family events that coincided when she moved home to Hertfordshire, having left her job. She soon found herself taking on work to support herself and her family making use of her previous skills in marketing.

We talk about the challenges that women face, but men do not. Debbie first began to think about this when she entered for her first business award, and she realised that out of the 25 winners, there were only 3 women on stage! She shares her reasons why she thinks this is – one being because women are working for themselves, for flexibility to work around families. It was following this revelation that she created the Best Businesswomen Awards in 2015 – which are running 11 years later.

Debbie also talks about how she doesn’t feel women are taken seriously in business and it becomes more noticeable when it comes to venture capital and funding. You may be surprised when you hear the small amount that goes to female businesses – still in 2025.

Debbie’s three top tips for all business owners for 2026:

• You need to get AI fit.
• Connect with human beings.
• If you haven’t yet, enter some awards.

To contact Debbie:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debgilbert/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debbiejanegilbert/

If you would like to contact me, you can visit my www.Scottmedia.uk or join my free Facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/prtribe

My guest today is a returning guest, Liz Perkins. Liz is the night news editor on the Sunday Telegraph and the Telegraph, plus she also writes freelance stories across the national papers too. She is incredibly busy and always on the go!

She talks about a recent appearance on Crime, on CBS network talking about a crime story she followed years ago. The story was about a murderer in Swansea, who was suddenly placed on release warrant, and allowed to wander around where he pleased. Unsurprisingly his family wanted to know how he was there.

Liz is from South Wales and is known there for her story exposing sexism and misogyny in the Welsh Rugby Union and she has also written a lot of stories about domestic abuse too. She writes about a wide variety of subjects because many different people get in contact with her with stories they want to share. She also gets invited to interviews all over the world, from General Petraeus, who was in charge of the US Army to UK TV presenter Jeff Brazier. 

She shares some of the favourite people she’s interviewed, from those who are nationally known, to people she met at my No BS Media Summit earlier this year. Liz is always on the lookout for potential stories. Taking part in my summit was the first time she had done something like that, and found it amazing that the attendees had the opportunities to meet national news editors and journalists  - something that is incredibly rare. Following the summit, Liz has written the stories of several people who attended, and still has stories where she is waiting for a chance to submit them to the right place.

The types of stories Liz says she is interested in are the ones about the person – not their product or service. People are interested in how people have got where they are and their backstory - that’s her passion.

Always a busy person, Liz talks about the exciting places she’ll be visiting in the future, including Australia and Saudi Arabia. She is a very sought after journalist, who is always on the move, and always looking for the next story.

Liz will be joining me soon on a webinar on 19th November. To book on visit https://scottmedia.uk/product/want-to-be-in-the-national-news-in-2026/

To contact Liz:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-perkins-7b667b75/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/journoliz/

X: https://x.com/lizperkinsmedia 

If you would like to contact me, you can visit my www.Scottmedia.uk or join my free Facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/prtribe