Two become one – the good news story

It’s March 25th and there’s a cake here at Box PR HQ with 12 candles on. Those candles each represent a year of Box PR, blowing out each one is such a simple task, but the reality behind each is so much harder, especially that candle number 12 the year from 25th March 2020 to 2021. Has it really been that hard or have we (I) forgotten all the other challenges along the way? Here is what the 12 candles on today’s cake represent to me.

1. Establishing. Creating Box PR Ltd, a brand and a company that remains true to its core – promoting and protecting the brands we represent.
2. Achieving. Getting my Master’s in Marketing Management in year two of Box PR and committing to CPD throughout the last 12 years.
3. Adapting. I am a great believer that in any situation we must adapt, survive, and thrive – hello Box PR motto. We often refer to survival of the fittest but being supple and adaptable is far more progressive.
4. Relationships. We are a business built around relationships, relationships with clients, the media and connections in the industry. You never know where that next door will open.
5. Collaborating. A bit like keeping your friends close and your ’enemies’ closer but the realisation that together we are stronger and working with perceived competition can in fact build more bridges and make you stronger.
6. Networking. Put me on a start line in a running event and I am the first person to speak to the fellow runner next to me, put me in a room full of people I don’t know or on a zoom call in a group then I could literally hide. I understand the value of networking, but this candle is a slow burner and a journey I am still on.
7. Knowing when to close a door. The great thing about a door is it opens and closes. Sometimes it’s within your control sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s temporary, sometimes it’s permanent. The hardest lesson I continue to learn is when I need to permanently close a door, holding onto to something whether it be a client, a service, or even my good old faithful boat show comfy boots. Change can be a good thing and I have the power to make that change happen.
8. FEAR. Face Everything And Rise. Facing your fear (networking!), or the first piece of work for a new client, or a client that is challenging you. Take it on, focus that fear and perform.
9. Criticism. I am a critique. My own bar is set pretty high and I hate it when I am not able to give 110% (which we all know is impossible, or is it?!). Constructive criticism which whilst can be something hard to take, if approached correctly can be the most powerful tool and enable you to question things to enable you to be the best version of yourself you can be.
10. Listen. We have one mouth and two ears; doesn’t that say it all. I used to think I had to have all the answers, but in reality, answers come from productive conversations and from listening to those around you.
11. Acceptance. I am a great one for giving praise but acknowledging praise and accepting it is not something that comes naturally to me. Box PR recently took on a new client I mentioned this is passing to a journalist, his response was, ‘I know they will be in good hands with Box PR.’  My response, ‘thank you’ I listened, acknowledged and gladly accepted that one. It has given me the drive to continue to work to exceed their expectations.
12. Pat on the back. I have not been alone on this journey, and Box PR would not be where it is today without its co-founder Louise, the clients that have been on the journey with us, the media who have share our news, my family and my friends. It also wouldn’t be what it is today without me, so the 12th candle is for me, for not just getting through the last 12 months, but for saying YES and showing that I can.

What next?

I have always feared from saying I. One person sounds so small (and those who know me know I’m not the tallest person!) and Box PR has always been ‘we’, but that’s going to change. Small is the new big. I doesn’t mean no support network, I is me and me is Box PR, Lou Johnson, a marketer, an outdoors enthusiast, a partner, friend, daughter, niece and an auntie. From here on, Box PR will be referred to as I – please join me on this journey.

More blogs at https://www.boxpr.co.uk/blog/