What I Learned From My 3 Weeks of Fame

Earlier this year, a personal blog project of mine went viral. For a few weeks, it was all over the TV, radio and in the press: I was interviewed for BBC Breakfast, This Morning, Radio 2, Radio 4, Radio 5 Live, Heart FM, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, the New York Times, the Washington Post, even People magazine.

How? How did I end up becoming the world expert on the extremely niche topic of National Trust scones? And why were Jeremy Vine, Holly Willoughby, Amanda Holden and many others around the world so interested in the subject?

More importantly, what did I learn from it?

How I Accidentally Became a Scone Expert

The story starts in 2013. Like many marketers, I’ve always loved writing. I was writing a lot for work but I wanted an outlet for something in my own voice - something that would also sharpen my ability to tell a story and engage an audience. ?

At the time, my partner Peter and I had just joined the National Trust. If you’re not familiar with the Trust, it’s a charity that looks after 500+ properties across the UK - castles, stately homes, hills, bits of coastline, even a few pubs. It’s often seen as a bit old-fashioned but its 5 million members include a lot of young families as well as people like me wanting to visit historical buildings, parks and beaches.

I realised pretty quickly that every single National Trust property has a story. Many of those stories are shocking, inspiring, surprising, sad (the list goes on) and they all weave into the history of Britain and the world. I love history, so I decided to set up a blog and tell the story of each place that I visited.

I called the blog National Trust Scones. The Trust is famous for its scones, so by visiting the cafe at each property I could give the blog posts a common thread while rewarding myself for my efforts.

If you’re currently thinking this all sounds a bit crackers, you aren’t alone. My friends and family were baffled by it when I first explained the concept to them.

But I knew it was a good idea and I’d get a lot out of it. So, I launched the blog and a Twitter account and started publishing my posts. I half expected to get a cease and desist letter from the National Trust, but it didn’t come. So, I kept going. And I loved it. I learned about history, I saw bits of the UK I had never seen before, and I (largely) stuck to my promise to write each post at speed as soon as I got home, while making them as un-boring as possible.

The Blog Becomes a Best-Selling Book

Three years passed. I was still merrily spending my weekends working through the National Trust handbook when I got an email from their publishing house (now part of HarperCollins). They were producing a book of 50 scone recipes gathered from NT chefs around the country and wanted to use the stories from my blog to sit alongside the recipes.

I’d always wanted to write a book. Admittedly, I hadn’t expected to write a recipe book. But many months later, the National Trust Book of Scones by Sarah Clelland (later updated to my married name of Merker) started appearing on the shelves at Waterstones and on Amazon. It’s sold over 130,000 copies so far – an early indicator that National Trust scones were probably a lot more popular than I’d realised.

Dealing with Illness and Loss

Everything changed in October 2016 when Pete was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He underwent several rounds of intense treatment over the next 18 months. I continued to work very hard during his illness – work gave me a sense of normality for several hours a day, and being part of a US-based team at Oracle gave me very helpful flexibility on my hours. The National Trust scone project went on hold, although we did manage a few days out.

Pete died in the spring of 2018. I initially threw myself back into work with a vengeance. And then one day, about a year later, it suddenly dawned on me that I hadn’t really heeded the very important lesson from Pete’s experience: You aren’t guaranteed a healthy retirement. In fact, you aren’t guaranteed a retirement at all. And if you become terminally ill, you’re unlikely to get time to enjoy your bucket list (or in my case, finish my project).

So, I took the decision to leave Oracle. They were brilliant - two very senior directors separately took the time to talk to me about my situation and offer me a change of role or a paid sabbatical. But I knew I had to make a complete break and venture out into the world with nothing in my head but my own hopes and dreams, or whatever was left of them anyway. But that feeling of being valued will always remain with me and I’ll be forever grateful.

And so I spent the late summer of 2019 driving around the UK with various groups of family and friends, covering as many National Trust properties as I could. And once I’d felt a bit of joy of life again, I found a new role at iProov and returned to marketing feeling rejuvenated.

Coming Up With Ideas For Social Media During Coronavirus

And then COVID came along and halted the scone project for the best part of two years. But it also kick-started a surge of social media creativity.

I had built up a following on Twitter of people who loved the National Trust. So, during the pandemic I came up with as many ideas as I could to try and keep the community’s spirits up. I spent one Sunday live tweeting my attempt to bake a single scone from all 50 recipes in one day – I borrowed the idea from the film Bridesmaids and completely failed but it was brilliant fun.

We did ‘Not The National Trust’ tours of our own homes (you probably had to be there but it was very entertaining). Hundreds of people sent me pictures of their scones so I could post them on the blog. The @nt_scones online community was important to a lot of people during that time and I’m proud of the engagement we created.

2022: Woman on a Mission

2022 arrived and it was time for me to get serious about finishing the project. I wanted to officially close it out in 2023, as ten years has a nicer ring to it than nine. But 2022 was the year of the hard graft, with weekends and every bit of annual leave being devoted to road trips around Cornwall or North Wales. And it really did turn into an odyssey, with numerous challenges – the National Trust rather unhelpfully opened two new properties quite late in the game, one in Mablethorpe and one in Durham, which took a bit of unexpected effort.

2023: I Complete the Odyssey

Finally, the day of my last scone visit arrived (to the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland). That evening, I did an interview with the Press Association who had been following my project as they thought it would make a good story. The next day, they sent me a link to an article in the Independent. I was pleased with it – at least the story hadn’t been universally ignored.

Later that morning, I was walking around Bushmills Whiskey Distillery (not NT but highly recommended) when my phone started going absolutely crazy. I spent the rest of the day doing radio and press interviews –the Telegraph even sent a photographer to Portrush to take photos of me looking awkward on the seafront while cars slowed down to see if I was someone famous.

And it just kept rolling – I went up to Salford to appear on BBC Breakfast, and into Wogan House to be interviewed by Jeremy Vine on Radio 2. I was interviewed by Holly and Phil on This Morning. I did press interviews with the Washington Post and the New York Times and People magazine. I had a camera crew in my kitchen at 10pm one evening so I could do a live broadcast on New Zealand breakfast television. It was in the Guardian, the Frankfurter Allgemeine, the Sun, the Daily Mail…it was everywhere. Luckily, I'd resigned from iProov and was enjoying a short break before moving to my next role - managing media requests was a full-time task.

Why Did The Project Attract So Much Media Attention?

Why did such a niche project appeal to such a broad range of media? I'd love to tell you that I'd planned it all along but I hadn’t. I think a few things resonated:

1. Safe debate #1 - jam first or cream first? Do you put jam on your scone first and then add clotted cream (the Cornwall way)? Or do you put the cream on first and then the jam (the Devon way)? British people absolutely love arguing about this. And it's a safe subject in these times of angry polarisation. (Well, safe-ish - some people are scarily passionate about their preferences.)
2. Safe debate #2 - 'scon' vs 'sc-own'? I love the fact that I can be talking to someone about scones using the pronunciation of “scon” and that person will answer using “sc-own”. And it’s fine. We just accept each other’s differences and keep talking. (By the way, the town of Scone in Scotland is pronounced “Scoon”, just to add another option to the mix.)
3. Overcoming grief. Many people of my age will have lost someone. Maybe seeing other people doing things to remember their loved ones reminds us of our own departed family and friends. The highlight of the whole experience for me was seeing Pete’s photo on BBC Breakfast and This Morning. It was like having him back for a week.

Whatever the reasons for its popularity, I enjoyed my few crazy weeks of fame. With the scone project now over, I've turned my attention to my blog about B2B marketing and everything I've learned over the past 20+ years. Watch this space on that.

What Did I Learn From My Spare Time Project?

A LinkedIn article isn't complete without some shareable learnings for working life. What did the project teach me that has been useful for my career? I’ve tried to narrow it down to five things:

Lesson 1: Documenting your learnings is very worthwhile

If a young marketer asked me for advice today, I would recommend they start a personal website or blog to document what they’re learning and doing. Thanks to my National Trust blog, I can honestly remember at least one thing about every single one of the 244 places I visited. If I hadn’t been making notes, I’d have forgotten at least half of them.

My marketing blog focuses on good books that I’ve read, useful podcasts I’ve listened to, projects I've worked on and lessons I've learned. It’s a great way to process, retain, demonstrate and share your knowledge. ?

Lesson 2: Write for humans, even in B2B marketing

Corporate writing and personal writing are undoubtedly different. If corporate marketing materials were written in every individual writer’s personal style, the brand voice would be lost. But B2B marketers can and should make an effort to produce copy that is easy to digest in structure, language and content. As Donald Miller says in his seminal book, Building a StoryBrand; "You confuse, you lose." We should all be making much more of an effort to engage our audiences with clear, uncomplicated text that gets to the point.?I certainly got to practice that with the blog.

Lesson 3: Storytelling takes constant effort

There are very few people in the world who can justifiably refer to themselves as a natural born storyteller. To incorporate storytelling into our work, the rest of us need to apply skill, frameworks, process, testing and practice to every single thing we write and do.

My blog project certainly helped me hone my ability to decide what to leave out. It also taught me that while every sentence doesn't need to be brilliant, every sentence needs to actively avoid turning people off.

Lesson 4: Feel the fear and do it anyway

I’ve spent my career briefing CEOs and business unit leaders before they go in front of the media. I never expected to do it myself. I used to get heart-poundingly nervous for my iProov CEO whenever he went on live TV or radio. My agonies were completely unnecessary - he was always brilliant in front of a camera.

When BBC Breakfast called me, I had to decline as I couldn’t get to the studio in time. I was literally still breathing a sigh of relief about that when they called back and asked me to do the day after instead. I had no excuse, so I said yes. And it was one of the most exhilarating and important experiences of my life.?

(Just in case you ever need it, my tip is to visualise yourself as a calm, informed person with poise - I chose to channel Emily Maitlis - who is merely having a chat with a couple of friends. Answer the question they ask you and then stop talking. Slow it all down a bit. That's all you really have to do. Please note that this probably won't work if you're the Chancellor of the Exchequer or the Home Secretary.)

5: Keep a bias for action – just do it

I had the idea for my National Trust blog and a few days later it was up and running. You have a great advantage when nobody is watching; you can learn as you go, so just start. Of course, it's different in the working world when there are often many people watching but I still advocate a bias for some sort of action – if you’re sure about something, find a way to test it out and make it happen.

And Finally...Which National Trust Properties Should YOU Visit?

I'm a marketer, so obviously I need to end this article with a list. I’m going to leave you with something I hope you find useful - my recommendations of 15 National Trust properties you have to visit.

5 National Trust places with links to famous people:

1. Beatles’ Childhood Homes – you won’t find any scones at Sir Paul McCartney’s old house on Forthlin Road in Liverpool or at Mendips, where John Lennon grew up. And you have to book a tour. But hearing about their families and the early years of their music is a riveting experience.

2. Beatrix Potter’s House – there are no scones at Hill Top in the Lake District either, but the farmhouse where Beatrix Potter lived is beautiful in its simplicity.

3. Hardy’s Cottage - the author Thomas Hardy grew up in this tiny cottage in Dorset and wrote Far From The Madding Crowd here.

4. Washington Old Hall – it's amazing to think that the name 'Washington' originates from a small area of Tyne and Wear. This is George Washington's ancestral home (although he never actually lived there - just to manage expectations).

5. Agatha Christie’s House ?– Greenway in Devon was her holiday home and it appears in some of her books. You also get to have a snoop inside her wardrobe (don't feel guilty; she'd have done it).

5 National Trust places with major historical significance:

1. Moseley Old Hall – King Charles II (who was over 6 feet tall) was forced to hide under the floorboards in this house near Wolverhampton in 1651 when he was on the run from the Roundheads.
2. Hadrian’s Wall/Housesteads Fort – Hadrian's Wall was built right across northern Britain by the Romans in the year 122, which makes it almost 2000 years old. There’s also a fantastic museum nearby.

3. Avebury – I like to think of Avebury as the Charlie Watts to Mick Jagger's Stonehenge. They might not get the glory, but the Avebury standing stones in Wiltshire are nearly 5000 years old. They fell over but were put back up by a man who was heir to the Keiller marmalade fortune.

4. Runnymede – the spot by the river in Surrey where Magna Carta was signed.

5. Goddards - if you like chocolate, this place in York is for you. Goddards was home to the Terry family, of Terry’s Chocolate Orange fame.

5 National Trust places for beauty:

1. Giant’s Causeway – my favourite place in the world. And if it’s a good story you’re after, the one about the Irish giant Finn MacCool outwitting his Scottish counterpart, Benandonner, is a corker.
2. St Michael’s Mount – not to be confused with Mont St Michel in France, although they are similar. Check the tide times as the causeway floods and you might end up coming back by boat.

3. Lindisfarne Castle – another place where you need to check tide timetables or risk getting washed away (to Norway this time).

4. The White Cliffs of Dover – you’ll spend the whole trip singing “there’ll be bluebirds over, the White Cliffs of Dover” but it’s worth it. South Foreland Lighthouse is also nearby.

5. Stackpole – it’s on the very beautiful Pembrokeshire Coastal Walk in Wales, so you get to earn your scone with a nice hike in the sea air.

Let me know in the comments if you have a favourite National Trust property - or maybe just a particularly strong feeling on the whole jam first vs cream first debate.