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Communications

FIVE LESSONS ON BIAS IN COMMS

FIVE LESSONS ON BIAS IN COMMS

IT’S NOT ABOUT ME I knew that there would come a time when the news cycle would move on and I decided THAT would be the time for me to do more…

GUEST BLOG: TIPS FROM AN ACTUAL COPYWRITER

GUEST BLOG: TIPS FROM AN ACTUAL COPYWRITER

After Googling the words ‘COPYWRITING TIPS’ I was rather shocked to be hit with a seemingly infinite expanse of results (6,789,338 to be exact). But I was even more shocked at the quality of them. A lot of the articles were actually badly written…

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #17

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #17

FIVE LESSONS ABOUT LAUNCHING You may have noticed that I have been launching over the past few weeks. At the time of writing, the doors are open to Actually’s flagship training programme: How to Actually Spread the Word…

SNIPPETS OF INSPIRATION

SNIPPETS OF INSPIRATION

FINDING JOY This isn’t one of those blogs about the terrible things that happened in my life and how I overcame them, beat the odds and lived to tell the tale with joy. I have some of those stories inside me. Indeed, some of them are here on this blog page…

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #16

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #16

THE PERILS OF JARGON   Every industry has its own unique language. Some of it is necessary – for example, the technical names for things that to an outsider sound like gobbledegook but make complete sense to everyone in that profession. I am not an engineer, so I...

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #15

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #15

OBJECTIVES, STRATEGY AND TACTICS Can you define strategy? No? Well don’t worry, you’re not alone. Based on my very scientific poll and some extremely rigorous research*, I estimate that approximately 90% of entrepreneurs can’t define…

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #14

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #14

THE COMMUNICATIONS EDITION At Actually we believe that there are three things that you need to grow your business and your impact as a purpose-led entrepreneur: the right communications, the right mindset and the right support. In this blog…

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #11

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #11

WHY YOU SHOULD BE THINKING ABOUT PR Now, I love social media as much as the next person. I have spent a lot of time and effort building Facebook Groups and LinkedIn connections and I am often to be found whiling away a few moments (OK…hours…) on…

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #10

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #10

THE FUNDAMENTALS OF GREAT COMMUNICATIONS Last week Actually Associate Julie Minns blogged about the importance of knowing your audience to build trust and loyalty. Knowing and understanding the people you want to communicate with is the first…

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #9

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #9

BUILDING TRUST AND LOYALTY According to Gallup’s ‘Confidence in Business’ tracker, the percentage of people in the UK who say they have confidence in major companies has been gradually declining since the early 1980s, and now stands at around 40%. As someone who has…

FIVE LESSONS ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

FIVE LESSONS ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

In last week’s blog, Actually Associate Julie Minns shared what she had learnt from 46 days without social media. This week, following on from the Actually Masterclass on Thursday, we’re looking at how to ensure that your social media content stands out in this time...

FIVE LESSONS ABOUT GIVING UP SOCIAL MEDIA

FIVE LESSONS ABOUT GIVING UP SOCIAL MEDIA

Hi, I’m Julie and I’m a social media addict. And I am not alone. In its 2019 ‘Online Nations’ report, media regulator Ofcom found that ‘around 70% of UK adults have a social media account and about one in every five minutes spent online is…

FIVE LESSONS ABOUT CRISIS

FIVE LESSONS ABOUT CRISIS

At 9am on Saturday 14 March, I should have been stepping onto the stage as the MC at a major conference in Central London for 500+ women organised by the women’s leadership organisation, One of Many. At 4.30pm on Thursday 12 March, the Founder…

FIVE LESSONS ABOUT PR

FIVE LESSONS ABOUT PR

With 25 years of experience in communications, campaigning and PR, I guess I should qualify as knowledgeable on the subject! I’ve worked with brands and organisations from Avon to UNCIEF, I’ve worked on space missions and product launches…

FIVE LESSONS ABOUT WORKING WITH PURPOSE

FIVE LESSONS ABOUT WORKING WITH PURPOSE

Last week, in the Actually Facebook group, I asked people about the obstacles they were ready to let go of this year so that they could step up, make a difference and deliver their purpose. One of the group members replied to ask…

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #6

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #6

MEDIA COVERAGE So many of my clients come to me obsessed with national media coverage. ‘I want to be in The Guardian’ they say. ‘I want to be in the Financial Times’. Don’t get me wrong, national media coverage can be a game-changer – although unless you’re an…

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #3

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #3

HOOKS FOR STORIES & CONTENT Journalists receive hundreds of emails every day pitching stories. Literally hundreds. And every single person sending every single last one of those emails thinks that theirs is a good story. About 90% of them are wrong…

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #2

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #2

WHAT MEDIA WANT I see a lot of experts on social media, at conferences and writing books about PR and how to generate media coverage. And nearly every single one of them* makes it so much more complicated than it really is. Generating media…

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #1

TOP TIPS FOR CHANGEMAKERS #1

NAILING YOUR PURPOSE At Actually, we believe that there are three things you need in order to actually change the world: the right mindset; the right mindset; the right skills and the right support. Actually exists to support you in all three of these areas and in this new…

FIVE LESSONS FROM ONLINE DATING

FIVE LESSONS FROM ONLINE DATING

Yes, I know it’s the modern way to meet people. And yes, I know lots of people have met their soul mate on Guardian Soulmates or their match on match.com. But I LOATHE internet dating. Truly. Loathe. It. Nonetheless, every now and again I give it a go. And after my...

FIVE LESSONS FROM PR / MARKETING STUNTS

FIVE LESSONS FROM PR / MARKETING STUNTS

I’ve spent 25 years in PR and communications and over that time I’ve seen some amazing PR and marketing stunts by commercial brands and campaign groups that have really captured imaginations and headlines. And I’ve witnessed some absolute shockers that…

YOU HAVE MARKETING SUPERPOWERS®

You’re not bad at promoting your business, you’re just trying to do it in a way that doesn’t work for you.

Find out what your MARKETING SUPERPOWERS ® are and start communicating with your audience in a way that resonates with them & feels comfortable, authentic and natural for YOU.

Phew! Doesn’t that sounds awesome?  

week I wrote a newsletter that caused more people to unsubscribe from my list than almost anything I have ever written before. I'm not concerned - clearly they are not my people - but I thought I'd share it here so you can tell me: would this cause YOU to unsubscribe?

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"Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except backwards and in high heels."

I remember the first time I heard that quote.

I was in my teens. I laughed.

Then as I began to think seriously about my career, my Mum explained to me that to be a successful career woman meant working twice as hard as a man to be considered half as good (and paid half as much).

I was in my early twenties. I thought she was exaggerating.

After I burnt out for the second time, I went to a conference and listened to a passionate and eloquent woman - who has subsequently become a great friend - explain something that should have been utterly obvious to me: that our entire cultural paradigm is based on structures set up by men and for men.

I was in my forties. And I cried.

Because it is exhausting having to don your Superwoman cape every day to ‘compete’ in the workplace.

As a single woman, I didn’t have to juggle work with family.

As a white, middle-class, cis-gendered, heterosexual and mainly able-bodied woman, I wasn’t dealing with the raft of intersectional prejudices beyond your average, everyday sexism.

But I was still exhausted.

And it wasn’t just because the systems that we work within weren’t designed for women but for men who had stay-at-home wives doing all of the work in the home.

It’s because for me - as for so many women - every day was and is a balancing act.

Every day is a tightrope walk between safety and danger; between being listened to and dismissed; between familiarity and harassment; between authenticity and playing the game.

Every day is a fight to be seen, to be heard, to be respected, to be autonomous, to be considered, to be valued, to be safe.

Every day.

In the workplace, in our social spaces, in our homes, in our politics, in our media.

Everywhere.

This week my friend and client Harriet Waley-Cohen shared a post about this on LinkedIn. I’m going to share a section of her post here because she has put this so much more eloquently than I could:

"Sometimes it amazes me that there isn't a massive uprising.

Women are fed up of being objectified and judged on our looks, and only respected by how fu*&able we are deemed to be.

We are exhausted by feeling unsafe everywhere we go and watching our backs.

We are exasperated with not being paid the same, of our careers, choices and finances being marginalised because of caring expectations.

We are in despair about our allegations against powerful men being ignored because these men are too valuable to be held to account.

We are done with being told our tone of voice is the bloody problem, that we are too emotional.

We have had enough of not being able to trust the police or the legal system, and of people saying 'innocent until proven guilty' when the stats for prosecutions are laughably low and we all know most rapists never face any real consequences.

We are fed up of being told that it's not all men, because we never said it was, and it hurts to see so few men actively working towards making things better."

There has been an outpouring of grief, support and righteous anger in the comments on Harriet’s post. Of course there has. Because this is nearly every woman’s lived experience. And it is not OK.

I have written about these issues before in this newsletter. In the wake of the Sarah Everard murder and after the US Supreme Court struck down Roe v Wade. And there’s a part of me that didn’t want to write about this again. A part of me was concerned that you - my wonderful community - would grow bored of me ‘ranting on’ about this issue. A part of me that feared being judged or dismissed.

And that’s exhausting too, right?

The constant self-censorship. The constant voice in my head telling me that I can’t say this, shouldn’t write about that, mustn’t be too emotional, too strident, too ‘shouty’.

Well, in the nicest possible sense: f*&k that.

I am in my fifties now and as tired as some people may be of hearing me talk about these things, trust me I am WAY more tired of still having to talk about them. But until there is equity, it is up to every one of us to keep ‘banging on’.

And we need to do more than rant, we need to ACT.

Because here’s the thing, whatever your gender, you can either be an ally or you can be complicit in the problem. Please choose to be an ally. Here are three things you can do:

  1. Support people like Harriet when they share publicly about these issues. This kind of content often attracts trolls and the ‘not all men’ brigade - and it can be overwhelming to have to do all the rebuttal yourself. Another friend and client - the fabulous Stephanie Aitken, also did a post this week on a related topic and spent many hours having to deal with trolls in the comments. Help them.

 

  1. Call out misogyny, sexism, harassment, prejudice and bigotry when you see it - and when you feel safe to do so. I’m not advocating that you intervene when doing so would put you in real physical danger. But if a colleague makes an off-colour remark; if a family member behaves in a way that is inappropriate; if a friend displays ignorance, aggression or bias: name it. Don’t just smile and secretly roll your eyes. Don’t dismiss it. Don’t be afraid to be ‘awkward’. Have the conversation.

 

  1. Engage the next generation. Several of the commenters on Harriet’s post talked about children watching violent porn. They shared stories of how boys’ attitudes to girls are in some cases worse now than they were when I was a teen. The murder of Elianne Andam this week makes it clear just how important it is to speak to our children about these issues. Talk to the young people in your life. Find out about their experiences. Give them a safe space to explore these issues. And educate them about respect and equity. If we are going to break this cycle, this is VITAL work. Don’t shy away from it.  


There is so much more that we could all be doing but this would be an amazing start!

OK. Rant over, for today.

I’m not promising I won’t come back to this again.

My most fervent wish is that there will come a day when it won’t be necessary.

I hope to see that day in my lifetime.

My biggest fear is that I will not.
 

 

 

 

 

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I think that will do for now - I do hope it has been helpful!

Big love

Sara 

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