Today I’m pleased to be introducing a PR journo-hybrid who works in a very similar way to me. Niamh is a freelance national journalist, covering celebrity entertainment, showbiz and television. She also works for quite a few national titles, such as The Mirror, Daily Star, Okay magazine, and lots more. 

Niamh talks about some of the celebrities she has worked with and the programmes she’s covered, and how, like me, she loves TV. She shares how she accesses these people, and how even after the shows have finished, she has often stayed in touch with them, because when they stand up for important issues, she knows she can go back to them for stories or comment. Building that relationship is important to her.

We are definitely singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to talking about the use of photos and video.

Niamh also talks about the need for light and shade in news’ pieces.  Her reaction to what some people refer to as ‘fluffy’, is that we need some fun in our lives too, as there is plenty of heavy news every day. There is a huge variety of stories to be told, and if you enjoy your subject matter, because you live and breathe it, then that’s fine - write about it. 

We also chatted about what the important issues will be during 2023.

Niamh’s tips:

• Make sure you know which journalists write about your passion. 
• Talk about your passions on social media – journalists use it for their research.
• Use hashtags, so that your posts get noticed.
• Plan well ahead – if you know there are dates coming up that are awareness months, or days for your passion subject.

To contact Niamh:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/missnspence

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/niamh.spence/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niamhspence/?originalSubdomain=uk

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

If you would like to contact me: www.Scottmedia.uk or if you’d like to join my Facebook group: Fiona Scott’s PR Tribe.

Today’s episode is with digital marketing entrepreneur Carl Hewitt, who reached out to me on LinkedIn.

Carl is an enthusiastic young businessman, who is the CEO and co-founder of a paid media and web agency Hewitt Matthews, based in Portsmouth.

Carl is one of several people I’ve interviewed who started out in business at an early age, and doesn’t come from a family of business owners.  He started his first enterprise when he was 15, and then set up his current business with a friend at the age of 17. 

And his main reason for starting his business was for love. The love of his mum, who he wanted to send on holiday.

When it comes to business, this young man  understands the difference between sales, marketing and PR – so we are talking from the same hymn sheet!

We also talk about jumping into something and letting your ego take over, hearing with your happy ears and then being caught out because you didn’t really listen.

His main tips about marketing and PR, are:

• Try things out – don’t just give ideas lip service, spend time and money and go for it.
• Consistency – going for your goal, over at least three channels, and commit for at least six months.
• Create a roadmap of testing – measuring the difference between ­what works and what doesn’t yet over a long period of time. Results are not instant, it’s a long game. 

To contact Carl:

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/carl-hewitt/

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://hewittmatthews.co.uk/

If you would like to contact me: www.Scottmedia.uk or if you’d like to join my Facebook group Fiona Scott’s PR Tribe. 

This podcast is vital listening for anyone who is in a relationship where they are not treated with the respect they should be, and feel they are in danger.

My two guests are, Jodie Fraser, and Nick Gazzard, who are going to talk about a trust, set up in the memory of Nick’s daughter, Hollie.       

Jodie Fraser works in the block management sector, and manages blocks of flats on behalf of residents and landlords. Her main aim being, that she ensures those flats are safe and secure places for people to live. She shares with us, how as a child, she was seriously bullied while at school, and her safe place was always her home.  

Also, she talks about the dangers of working in her sector. Often being out alone at night, and feeling very vulnerable and increasingly, both she and her colleagues are faced with aggressive, upset people.

After the murder of Hollie Gazzard, a promising hair stylist by an abusive and coercive partner, her dad Nick and his family set up the Hollie Gazzard Trust. The initial aim was to help a few people, but it has grown, and one of its achievements has been the creation of an app to help those in domestic violence situation however it also helps anyone else who finds they are vulnerable or at risk. 

Jodie was aware of Hollie’s death, and after discovering the Holly Guard App, she is sharing it with the wider property managers sector and is an ambassador for the app. 

Nick shares how the Holly Guard App works, and how it can support anyone, male or female, and whatever age, to feel safe. 500,000 people now use the app. Nine police forces recommend the Holly Guard App and the Holly Guard Extra app too.

Jodie shares how she uses the app in her business, and how it could work for your business too.

To contact Jodie:

www.FraserAllenEM.co.uk

Phone the office on: 81242399150

To contact Nick:

Www.HollieGazzzrd.org

For the basic app: www.HollieGuard.com

For a business app: www.HollieGuard.co.uk

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

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hollie-gazzard-trust/

If you would like to contact me: www.Scottmedia.uk or if you’d like to join my Facebook group, it’s Fiona Scott’s PR Tribe.

Today’s guest is possibly the best known female, psychic medium in the UK, and I’m happy to say, also a client of mine – T J Higgs.

TJ shares how, as a youngster, she thought everyone else was odd, rather than her, because since a very young age she has seen spirits, auras and could tell when people were lying, but was unable to explain to them, why. 

Have you ever seen anyone’s eyes change colour? Well, you may do if you meet or work with TJ. Her eyes change colour, and I’ve witnessed this and it’s amazing!

We talk about some of the problems around PR for psychic mediums, due to the Ofcom code, which says that when a medium is demonstrating to an audience, they have to present it as, ‘entertainment only’.  

This seems very unfair, says TJ, because when sharing her spirituality with an audience, she doesn’t feel she is entertaining, she feels she is ‘serving’.  Religious bodies are allowed to share their spirituality on TV or in public place without this notice so why is spirituality any different? 

TJ also shares with me the wonderful relationship she had with other famous mediums Colin Fry and Derek Acorah, who she worked with on several television shows, and how she is grateful for their support, which has enabled her to use her skills to do what she loves.

Also, using her abilities to read colours and auras, TJ gives some great insights into the relationship between King Charles and Queen Camilla just before the Coronation? She talks about their choice of colours and also that very intricate ‘invitation’. 

TJ is on tour this year with her ‘Grief is Love Tour’ and all of the dates and ticket details can be found on her website.

To contact TJ:

www.tjhiggs.com

www.Instagram.com/tjhiggs.medium

www.facebook.com/tracyhiggs

If you would like to contact me: www.Scottmedia.uk or if you’d like to join my Facebook group – it’s Fiona Scott’s PR Tribe. 

My visitor today is from the part of the country where I was born - Somerset. Ben McGrail is an ITV journalist, with a role as Somerset correspondent for ITV News, West Country. 

A lot of our discussion is about working within a region, rather than being national. Its easy to think that the pinnacle of a career is to work on a national ‘title’ or for a national ‘programme’ yet it’s not always the case.  

We both agree about the benefits of working in a community that you know well, value and live within. Ben talks about how people often see it as a lack of ambition, not to be aiming for a career move into a national company.  

However, he thinks, rather than being a lack of ambition, wherever he is working, he wants to be the best journalist he can be, do the best job he can. He loves his job, where he lives and his passion is his home – Somerset. 

We talk about the variety of stories that you get working within a community, and in reality, with the web, everything is global anyway.  

Ben says the most important thing when working with someone like him is that it’s all about relationships and trust.  Locals come to recognise you and how you tell a story.  

Over time, they know what you do, and what you won’t do, and won’t say. He found this when revisiting people who had been badly flooded in 2014, and were in danger of being flooded again this year. They were happy to talk to him, because they knew and trusted him.  

He shares what a day in his life looks like, working in Somerset, to get a story in to the news on time. 

We also talk about Ben’s world and the relationship he has with PR companies, and his instinct for recognising people who have only emailed him directly , compared with the ones who send out a ‘catch-all email to several hundred journalists across the UK. 

To contact Ben: 

https://www.facebook.com/McGrailBen 

[email protected] 

If you would like to contact me email [email protected] or visit my website at scottmedia.uk. You can also join my Facebook group: Fiona Scott’s PR Tribe.  

Today’s guest is Chris Maslin, an accountant and tax advisor who has sold his business to an Employee Ownership Trust – have you ever heard of such a trust? 

Chris tells me why Employee Ownership (EO) can be a good exit plan for business owners who deeply care about the future of their company and its employees when they step away. 

He also explains the pros and cons between EO and a management buy-out.

After around 13 years, building his accountancy practice, Chris took this route himself as felt he had become less excited about the business, and wanted to step back.  However, he didn’t want to sell out to a larger company who would take over and quite likely sack half of the staff.  

While he enjoys making money, it isn’t his main focus in life, and wanting more and more money doesn’t necessarily bring you happiness.  For him, it’s also about feeling good about what you do.  So, rather than sell, take the money and run, EO sat better with his ethical standpoint – allowing him to make some money yet not at the expense of the health of the business and its future.

I also chat to Chris about PR, because it seems to be something people in the financial legal sector really struggle with – and I think that is borne out in our discussion.

With his new business Go EO, Chris is now helping other small businesses owners who are wanting to exit their business, or take on a smaller role within their business to explore the benefits of Employee Ownership.

To contact Chris:

Website: https://goeo.uk

Linkedin: https:// www.linkedin.com/in/chris--maslin/

If you would like to contact me: www.Scottmedia.uk or if you’d like to join my Facebook group look for Fiona Scott’s PR Tribe.

Today I’m talking to my friend and fellow journalist Samantha Brick. Sam is a Feature writer, who loves writing about people, and has lived in France since 2008 with her husband and their family of dogs. 

Sam tells me what it means to work as a feature writer. 

She loves to write about relationships, family issues and events, careers, whether we’re mothers or not, our friendships – in fact, anything that touches us as humans.  

Sam also shares how she deals with stories sent to her, that are not the type of things she is looking for.  She talks about the pros and cons of sharing your experiences, because these days once you tell your story, it’s out there on the internet forever.

Some of the things that Sam talks about is things that you shouldn’t do – like ask her to write about your business. She is not interested in that, it’s the backstory where the interest lies. 

Don’t expect journalists to interact with you, if you haven’t done your research to understand what they are looking for.

Sam’s biggest tip which may surprise some of you – read the press! The hardcopy versions, or electronic copies of the paper.  

Listen to today’s podcast, and you’ll hear more fascinating insights. 

To contact Sam:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SamanthaBrick

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sam.brick.161  

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

If you would like to contact me: www.Scottmedia.uk or if you’d like to join my Facebook group: Fiona Scott's PR Tribe

Some of you will have routinely heard me talk about the importance of good photography to go with your PR, and today I’m talking to a photographer who I regularly work with - the wonderful Barbara Leatham.

Barbara talks about how she has had her own photography business which is now in its 15th year, and how her previous training in marketing and graphic design informs her photography in terms of knowing what is needed for magazine layouts. Originally she was a photographer for the Royal Air Force so she knows her photographic onions. 

She shares some fantastic tips about the best and worst things to do with photography, including:

• What you shouldn’t have as your LinkedIn profile picture.
• Why using images of yourself that are not current is misleading.
• Why professional photos are needed at awards and business events.
• Why you shouldn’t use your mobile phones to photograph products.

I also talk to her about what can be the very confusing subject of copyright and image permissions. 

One of Barbara’s top tips is, when you book a business photoshoot you should always be planning ahead for the photos you and your business require for the coming year.

You can connect with Barbara on:

www.BarabaraLeatham.co.uk

www.Facebook.com/BarbaraLeathamPhotography

www.Linkein.com/in/barbaraleatham/

www.Instagram.com/barbaraleathamphotography/

If you would like to contact me: www.Scottmedia.uk or if you’d like to join my Facebook group: fionascottsprtribe

Today I’m talking to a Paralympian Gold Medal winner, who was awarded an MBE last year – Chris Hunt Skelley MBE PLY.  

Chris, a Judo champion, is visually impaired and has a condition called Ocular Albinism, and although he was affected by the problem from a young age, he wasn’t diagnosed until he was 17. 

He talks about the harrowing experience of living through the time when he realised that his sight was degenerating and he would never be able to work in the profession that he had worked towards, he would never drive, or be able to do many of the things teenagers normally look forward to experiencing in life. 

Chris shares, that the shining light that kept him going was judo, plus the huge support and love of his family- his mum in particular. He now has even more help; his wife, Louise Hunt Skelley is also a Paralympian, and together they support each other.

Chatting to him, it is obvious that his own resilience and positive attitude to life helped him survive that period, but also continues to drive him forward in his amazing Paralympic career. In his own words, ‘he’s not the most talented person in the world, but what he does have an abundance in is, he puts his head down and works like a Trojan, and never gives up’.

Chris’ biggest tips to other people struggling with disability, are; never give up, be adaptable, because you can do anything. Don’t be afraid of opening up to people who care about you; tell them when you are struggling and lastly, believe in yourself.

To contact Chris:

Www.chrisskelley.co.uk
Instagram: http://instragram.com/Christopher.skelley
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/christopherskelleyparalympicjudoka
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChristopherSke2

If you would like to contact me: www.Scottmedia.uk or if you’d like to join my Facebook group: Fiona Scott’s PR Tribe

I met Katie Neeves early in 2022, and my interview with her came as a result of that meeting. There’s a lot of misinformation on being trans & I asked if she would share her story and her insights with me and my listeners – and to my delight, she said ‘yes’! 

Our conversation in this podcast ranges from Gender Dysmorphia to a discussion about loos and urinals, how transphobic some of the mainstream media are, to the old stereotype around female trans sportswomen having an advantage. Katie puts things straight in her own words. 

Katie has two main missions in life; to reach out to other trans people, to let them know they are not alone, and that it is ok to be trans. 

The second, to educate society to recognise that trans people, like everyone else, just want to be happy in life. 

She talks about her first memories of trying on her sister’s clothes, her mother’s negative reaction, and how that one incident stayed with her for her whole life. It was many years later that she realised she had gender dysmorphia. 

Katie has been a photographer and filmmaker for 35 years, and four years ago, she bravely came out publicly about being transgender. 

She shares how scary that decision was, and how she had to balance the impact the changes in her personal life made on her professional one; a brand that had been established for 22 years. 

In her case, the response was overwhelmingly positive and supportive though since then Katie has experienced some terrible trolling and transphobic behaviour – especially online. 

Katie also explains the difference, very clearly, between sex and gender, which most of us don’t understand. 

Katies describes herself as a ‘gobby trans woman’ yet I’d call her a strong, resilient trans woman who is happy to open up to people about herself, and wants to educate society to change their mindset around trans people. I hope you enjoy this podcast as much as I did!

Here are all of the places you can find Katie:

Https://www.cool2btrans.co.uk

Instagram: @cool2btrans

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/katie-neeves

Facebook: facebook.com/katieneeves

Facebook.com/cool2btrans