Becoming Fearless

50. Navigating Fear to Achieve PR Success with Nicola Rowley

Charlotte Carter

Ever wondered how fear can actually guide you to PR success?

Join me as I chat with Nicola Rowley, a PR virtuoso with over 25 years in the media industry. Nicola's journey from a budding journalist to a powerhouse in PR is nothing short of inspiring. She delves into the art of authentic storytelling and the magic of staying true to oneself in media engagements. Expect to glean insights on avoiding common PR pitfalls and learn how genuine visibility is achieved through empathy and connection.

Nicola doesn’t just talk theory—she shares gripping real-life cases where quick thinking turned potential media disasters into triumphs. Her experiences managing crisis communications and reputational risks are must-hear for anyone in PR, offering a blueprint for maintaining a positive public image even in turbulent times. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just stepping into the world of PR, Nicola’s wisdom on face-to-face networking and building lasting relationships will be invaluable.

Lastly, we dive into the transformative power of personal stories. Inspired by "The Big Leap" by Gay Hendricks, we discuss how breaking free from self-imposed limits can propel you to new heights. Nicola champions the courage to share your narrative and seize opportunities as they come. Tune in to discover how embracing fear and saying yes to life’s challenges can lead to extraordinary success. This episode is a powerful reminder that with the right mindset and support, anything is possible.

CONNECT WITH NICOLA

Website: www.nicolarowley.com
Facebook: The Communications Community
Insta: @nicolajrowleypr

Nicola's book recommendation: The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks

CONNECT WITH CHARLOTTE

Website: https://www.idaretoleap.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlotte_highperformancecoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/idaretoleap

Join my Becoming Fearless Community on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thebecomingfearlesscommunity

Sign up to receive my weekly newsletter, packed full of high performance hacks, positive vibes and fearless energy:

https://www.idaretoleap.com/newsletter

Interested in working with me? Schedule your free no-obligation call here:

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Becoming Fearless, the personal growth podcast for you if you are ready to overcome fear and step into your greatness. Our purpose is to help you overcome your limits, have loads of fun along the way, unlocking your fullest potential in life, business, health and relationships every single day. I'm your host, charlotte Carter, a high performance coach and entrepreneur with over 20 years experience. I'm your host, charlotte Carter, a high-performance coach and entrepreneur with over 20 years experience. I've supported many highly driven, talented people like you who dream big and are ready to take action to overcome what's holding them back. Each week, my guests and I will be sharing hacks and habits on how to build self-belief, courage and confidence, to master your mindset and navigate your emotions so that you can reach your human potential in a way that feels light, fun and easeful and helps you become fearless. Let's go.

Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to another episode of Becoming Fearless. This is a guest episode, and the person that I've got on today for this episode is somebody that's been in my world for a number of years. That I've got on today for this episode is somebody that's been in my world for a number of years. We have had some great laughs together, we've had some great conversations and I'm excited to bring this episode out into your ears and to expand your mind about what's really possible, about your story, your purpose, your visibility, your mission, your big, big impact in the world, and how you can create a bigger reach by just being yourself and being true to yourself. So my guest today is Nicola Rowley. Nic, do you want to introduce yourself and let people know a little bit about what you do?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, of course. Well, thanks for having me here, charlotte, first of all. Yeah, of course. Well, thanks for having me here, Charlotte, first of all. So, for anyone that doesn't know me, my name is Nicola Rowley and I help business owners and brands get go on and have incredible impact and impact the lives of those that you can help through what it is that you do, and I am a firm believer that, actually, when we lift other people up and we take other people with us, that's when we can create an incredible ripple effect and change things for the better. So, using storytelling to help yourself get seen in the media, getting yourself out there in a bigger way and with 25 plus years having worked in the media, as both a journalist and now a PR expert, I'm really well placed to be able to help you do that.

Speaker 1:

And Nick. I've worked with Nick on many, many occasions and got a lot of press through the stuff that Nick teaches. But let people know. Let's just set the scene a little bit from that for the listeners. Um, I want to talk today a little bit about fear with pr and also I want to talk about your expertise, because there's lots of people out there I found that will say that they're going to help people and promise people all these um publications in different spaces and some people get caught up in stuff and end up producing something that's not quite authentically them or not quite feels, not aligned, and just feels often puts them in a really difficult situation. So I know that some people who listen and I know there's been past clients of mine who've not had the greatest experience and so I think, coming from somebody like yourself, can you just set the scene about your journey, your story and how you got into actually the world of PR so that people can start to see you know that you know your stuff.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, of course. Well, it starts with journalism because it starts with storytelling. So it starts way back when I was six and I was sat in the classroom and the teacher said right, you can write a story, and you can write a story about whatever you want. And everyone went off and just was, like you know, writing a few sentences. Except in that moment, as I was writing the story about a cat, a witch and a spaceship, something happened to me that I can't really explain. I started writing and I never wanted to stop. I had that moment. You know, like when you speak to someone and they light up, they get really excited and really passionate about it. That was me, age six, and the teacher had never seen anything like it. So she was just like okay, carry on. Then, and a thousand words later, this story, which was okay, you know, first effort and all that she looked at it and she was just like you should be really proud of that, and she put it onto the wall. And then she said to me Nicola, it is on the wall, but can we take it down for a day? And then you go and read it to the whole school and I didn't think anything of that I know for some people that would be a very scary prospect. But I was just like, yeah, okay, bring it on. And so there was me standing up, reading my story out to everyone. And I discovered my second love, which was presenting and going out there and standing up and being in front of people and telling them a story. And so it was a natural kind of progression that I wanted to become a journalist.

Speaker 2:

So I studied journalism and sociology at university and my first job when I first went in to become a journalist, I was actually reading the news at a local radio station. I was very, very ambitious. I was very kind of like right, okay, I'm only going to be here for a certain amount of time, then I'm going to go to the next level and then I'm going to London and then, once I've worked in London, then I'm going to national radio and I pretty much did most of it. So by the time I was 25, I was reading the news on Radio 1 with Chris Moyles and Comedy Dave back in the day. And then I moved across into BBC what was then BBC News 24. And I was producing and then eventually I persuaded them that I needed to be in front of camera and doing things and they said, well, if you can come up with stories of your own, absolutely you can go off and do it. So I was just like great.

Speaker 2:

So I did all kinds of things, like I went running with Steve Cram and ran a story that ran across the whole of the BBC network around Cram tags. I did all these different reports and I ended up, before I left the BBC, I was an entertainment reporter for BBC Three and I used to occasionally get out onto red carpets and interview celebrities and go to film junkets and sit in front of people like Sir David Attenborough and Sir Richard Attenborough and people like that um, have you bar them like they were some incredible stars that I got to sit in front of and ask questions about the movies that they were doing. Um, but I couldn't see me doing that until I was, like you know, in my 40s or 50s. I just kind of thought I'm not going to be sticking a microphone under Simon Cowell's nose. So I moved across into PR, I took redundancy from the BBC and I went across into PR, having never written a press release in my life, and went in there and they were like okay, don't really know what to do with you, but we'll pop you into this team and this team is probably more news focused, so we think that's where you'll fit quite well. And the agency itself was like an entertainment agency, really really well known like multi-award winning agency, and there were some incredible characters in the agency and I worked there.

Speaker 2:

But the thing was because I could see what journalists wanted and I understood what journalists wanted. All of a sudden we were getting our clients that you know were just coming to us for a little pro bono work. I was getting them on to BBC World Service and BBC World and they're like how are you doing this? What's going on? And it soon became really apparent that I knew what I was doing. And my biggest client at the time was UK TV and I was overseeing the press office for the Edinburgh TV Festival one year and I went up to the then head of publicity at UKTV and I said look, I've got you another double-page spread. What's it like working in-house? And she just looked at me and she went oh my God, I've got a job. Oh my God, it's yours. And that was literally that was my interview. And so I ended up working in-house, which I loved.

Speaker 2:

I was there for six years before I then had Jay, my son, and then I went off and went back to the BBC, funnily enough, ended up back working internationally for BBC Worldwide as it was then. It's now BBC Studios and I was doing all kinds of things. I was looking after Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa and like, within two weeks I'm on a racetrack like making sure that the Stig is going around for Top Gear, you know, making sure that his identity never comes out, and all the rest of it. It was just like this kind of crazy journey that I was on. And eventually, when that contract ended, I landed a job at Thorpe Park and I was the head of PR there and I knew it was only going to be a year, but it was an amazing year and I loved every single second of it. But at the end of it Jay was starting primary school and I wanted to be the mum on the school gates. I wanted to be able to be there for him as much as possible.

Speaker 2:

So I quit my job and I threw myself into what was then my photography business, because I'd also trained at the same time to be a professional photographer and I thought that was the way to be able to combine the photography, do a little bit of freelance PR on the side, but mainly concentrate on the photography.

Speaker 2:

And I got a little bit. Well, let's just say, within that first few months I realized that it was never going to work. I had 25 weddings booked that year and I did every single one of them, but I think I got some of my ideal clients wrong. I think that's the nicest way to put it. And then, when I was starting to do some other PR projects, I realized, actually, do you know what? Maybe I should just set up by myself. And it took a really big nudge from my then business coach to say Nicola, just set up by yourself, this is how you do it, this is what you need to do. And then it has just taken off since then and I set up the business in March 2019 and it's gone from strength to strength since then.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so, so much for giving that like hugely inspirational background, um, so the listeners can start to get a feel. For you know, you're not in your 20s, you're not just showing up with um, you know, straight after out of uni, fresh face in any way, that the experience that you have is just um, very, very detailed and very deep. So there will have been lots of stages along that journey where you will have felt fear, I am sure, when you've packed things in, when you've gone into new things. But you're a real action taker, aren't you? There's a real inner drive and a real determination to make a big impact for both yourself, your family and then for other people. It's like within your heart. So one of the things that I want to talk about in terms of feeling fear and feeling it in your heart, in terms of PR, I want to just touch a little bit about my story. So my story. When Nick and I first met, nick said, said you know, it'd be great to get you some PR, in a very gentle way, and I was like, yeah, um, yeah, I've just got to do a million and one other things, but yeah, I hear you, I hear you, I hear you, and I wasn't like batting it off, but I was full of fear, not necessarily understanding that that was what was going on. It was a bit like here's my list of 10 things, and PR is probably number seven. I hadn't necessarily put it in the priority that it actually justified, to be fair, and so I was navigating through a lot of fear, working out things, working out on myself, working out all the business parts, bits and pieces. And then, when it came to doing the PR, I was like, ok, I'm ready. And I got into what I'm now calling my I'm ready energy. And the first thing that I went to was one of your in-person PR six-pack events down in London, and I had started working a lot on my energy then. So I started working a lot on manifesting different things and I thought I'm just going to give it a go. And Nick had said, oh, there's going to be hello online there and there's going to be some other places. So you know, it'd be great for you to just see, you know, talk about what we've talked about and see what comes up. And so I went in with that energy, but I also went in with the energy and I'm going to get in hello online. That's what I'm going to do in Hello Online. That's what I'm going to do, and so I went there and that's exactly what happened. It's exactly what happened.

Speaker 1:

Nick runs these great events where you can go for an evening and you can actually meet face to face. There's also an online version. You can meet face to face with the actual journalists that are then creating their PR articles in whatever publications they are, and it's very, very impactful and it's very, very straightforward and it's like just like a bit of an evening out for the person who's going along. And I think that's where I broke my fear. I was like, okay, well, this is, it's fairly easy, and I think part of the way that you work with people is around this nurturing supportive, it is your right time. But there's also a bit similar to me with this like gut punch growth part where it's like, well, you can hang around in this supportive place if you want. But if you really want to get great impact, then you really do need to take action and you really need to put yourself out there and overcome your fear. Would you say? That's fair.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, 100%. I think a lot of people want to be seen. Sometimes people think that PR is. It's a kind of like you know, oh, it's putting a spotlight on me and I feel very uncomfortable about that. It scares me to have that spotlight on me. But what we always need to remember is that it's never about us. It never is about us. It's always about the other people that can then find you through what it is that you do, so that then you can go on and help them and make a difference to their lives.

Speaker 2:

And I think too much of the PR industry is very much built around. Let's get everyone visible, let's build that awareness, let's do all of the things without realising the impact, the human element behind actually what we're doing, which is storytelling. And I've had a real issue with the PR industry for a long time. There are people it tends to attract a certain type of people, shall we say, and like I don't think that there's that empathy, that real kind of nurturing. Let's look after people, let's make sure that they're safe and getting their message across in the right way. That needs to happen. Sure, of course, you know there are so many people, especially in the online space, that are kind of like oh, I'm a PR and I can get you loads of coverage and everything else, but if you ask any of those people, right, what would happen in a crisis, Do you look after crisis communications? They all run for the hills. All of them run for the hills. And yet reputational management is such a fundamental part of PR and what it's all about, and it's as much as about keeping things out of the media as getting them into the media. And until you can find someone that can actually do both, you need to be really, really careful and really look into someone's credibility and their previous things that they've actually done. Because, yeah, they might have a few good contacts or they might be able to get you into a few places, but what happens if, for any reason, a journalist decides to spin a story in a different way? Can they get the headlines changed? Can they change the context of the piece? Can they go back and get something completely removed? And I've had that happen before now.

Speaker 2:

So I was working with the lovely chaps at the Mary Rose and the museum is beautiful and it's like they're just so fabulous and I love working with the team and I was working with them and I'd gone to a contact and I'd said, look, we're doing a big launch. It was all around their 1545 exhibition and I was just like it'd be really great if we could get this out there exhibition. And I was just like it'd be really great if we could get this out there. And they passed it on to their local kind of like person that would work across similar kind of things to them in that specific area and, for whatever reason, that person passed it on to a trainee who felt like they had something to prove. So they decided to write a really unflattering story about one of the UK's best loved museums and attractions and it was awful, and it got printed in the Daily Star and it was up on Hampshire Live and the CEO of you know, the Mary Rose Museum rang me and said, Nick, this is run. And I was like, okay, don't worry, it's fine, it's absolutely fine. Did they approach you for comment? And they had, and unfortunately at that time no one had actually flagged to me that that had happened, Because if a journalist ever asks you, you know, can you pass a comment on this? You need to go back to them straight away. It's not something you can sit on, because otherwise they will just run a line that says no one was available for comment. So that had happened behind the scenes and obviously I was brought in there. Nick Mendez had happened behind the scenes and obviously I was brought in there, Nick Mendez, and I did like within a very short space of time the entire online article was taken down. A really lovely article went up in its place and completely changed it, and this isn't a one-off thing where this has happened.

Speaker 2:

I've worked with people where they've been working with celebrities and they've had like a big photo shoot and a image that they haven't wanted used has somehow leaked through to the newsroom and they've used this image and the celebrity in question is getting really upset about oh my gosh, this image is being used and I really didn't want that out there. I've got it taken down within 20 minutes and then the celebrity is like, well, how does she do that? Like how did that work? How does that happen? But it's understanding how everything fits together and because when you work at theme parks and things like that, where things do tend to go wrong, you very quickly understand how to work in crisis communications and you understand best practice.

Speaker 2:

I've had training from the best in the business in terms of crisis communication. So we know exactly the steps to take, how to make things fit together, how to make it all work, and because of that it just seamlessly kind of comes together. But if you are feeling nervous, if you are feeling scared about PR, about putting yourself forward, please just always remember that it isn't about you. It really is so important to get your message across in terms of how you can help others and I think once we understand that it, it literally will change everything. I know it changed everything for me. It made me kind of feel okay. I like VR now because it's enabling me to help others tell their stories in as safe a way as possible.

Speaker 1:

And I think one of the skills that you have is this like wonderful blend of strategy and relationships. So the the strategy and I can only talk from my personal experience the strategy that you and I have and the angles that I take for me to be able to get the opportunities that I have I wouldn't have known how to do that. I wouldn't have known what angle to take. I would have just like spoken from maybe a completely different standpoint. That wouldn't have landed at all.

Speaker 1:

So I think the strategy of actually honing what it is that I personally have and whatever your clients have, and bringing that out, and then this whole longevity, sustainability of the relationships that you've built for years and that you encourage all your clients to build along the way, and the opportunities that you encourage us to seek and see and be brave enough to have a conversation about and start that relationship, I think that's a really key part of how I moved from being fearful oh my goodness, what am I going to do?

Speaker 1:

To getting in Hello, to getting in Metro, to getting in some other opportunities that are coming my way and to feeling like it's actually quite light and playful and quite easeful now because I have this kind of loose framework. I also know that I'm quite evolving and new things will come out, but now it feels much more easy and there's a greater reach and I think you help people find the different angles so that you end up reaching a wider network of people, because you've got five, 10, 15 different angles or more that you know because of your experience that they're going to be picked up by different publications.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely, and I think there is something else to be said that a lot of you know what what people might think of like you know someone that works in PR. Their power is the fact that they have these relationships. I don't believe in squashing those relationships and keeping them to myself. A lot of people in PR will do that, but I actually think it's far better to connect other people to those journalists and bring everyone together. I mean, recently we've just held Impact Live, my big event that we've done, and again, that was all about bringing people together.

Speaker 2:

Being able to get your story sounds really exciting and it might be something that we'd like to feature. Well then, great, because then the people that you're helping you're then able to go on and impact them in a way that you might otherwise not be able to do, but it's always. I mean, you have to remember that journalists think in stories, so they deal with stories and we all deal with stories. So, even if you're not thinking about securing PR for yourself, securing media coverage, but you're thinking I want to connect more with my audience, I want them to resonate with me, talk to them, tell them a story. There will be so many things that you can do, and the more that we do that, the more that we share stories, the more people start trusting us.

Speaker 2:

And we've all hear about the no like and trust factor and how important that actually is. Well, the biggest part of that is trust. And if you can build trust years, well, the biggest part of that is trust. And if you can build trust, then people will then follow you, like you, and then they will want to work with you eventually, so it becomes a full circle thing. But you're also helping them through what it is that you do so we could talk for ages.

Speaker 1:

But, um, what are the ways that people can work with you and how can people get in touch with you? All of this will be in the show notes, but what's the sort of offers that you have for people? If people have been listening and like how you explain things, like all your experience and your expertise, and want to find out more, where's the best place to guide them and what offers do you have?

Speaker 2:

You can always reach me, nicola, at njrprcom, the website nicolarowleycom. We also have an events arm. Charlotte talks about the PR six-pack events and the events that we run. Impact Live has just run and that was one of the events that we run, um, and that is PR six pack media events, uh, com, um. And then we've got an agency arm as well, uh, which is njrprcom for our corporate clients as well. But you can always find me on Instagram and Instagram at Nicola J Rowley. Pr is always like and I answer my own DMs. I'm not the sort of person that's kind of like passing it off to someone else. I'm always on there, usually dancing with the dog, like PR dog. He gets in there on in the action and, funnily enough, all of the reels that feature him seem to do very, very well.

Speaker 1:

Funnily enough, all of the reels that feature him seem to do very, very well. Yes, there's always an element with the old cockapoos, isn't there? Or any type of dog that you have. Pr Dog is quite famous, I think, in the business.

Speaker 2:

He's like a business partner, absolutely brilliant. I love him and I think what was really interesting, you and I went along to an event like the other month and there were people saying so he's so, he's called PR dog. And I was just like no, his name's Rufus. But they actually thought, because I talk about PR dog, they were just kind of like, oh, pr dog, when I tell stories around what he's been up to or what he's been doing or all of these kind of things, it's storytelling, it's taking people on a journey with you so they get to know you more. And you know, I've had people say to me oh you know what, nicola, because you love your dog so much, I want to come and work with you. Like you know, I saw you cuddling your dog the other day. You're the sort of person that I really like.

Speaker 2:

And that's the thing, isn't it? Without you even realizing it, what you're doing is you're showing people a snapshot of you, you're telling a story, whether that's visually or through words or whatever way it is, and then people are then connecting with you. They resonate with you. Maybe they've got a dog, or maybe they just like the way that you are with your dog, and then it translates and I've lost count of the number of people that have said to me they've either read my book, the Power of PR, or they have listened to the audio version and then they've wanted to work with me, not because they've read all of the information that's gone on throughout the book. It's the opening part where I tell my story and they all resonate with that and that has led so many people to me, because when we tell our stories and remember, you only have to share the parts of it that you want to share.

Speaker 1:

But when we tell our stories in a safe way, that's when people can get to know us better and your stories, everybody's stories are so, so powerful, um, and there's an element I think of for anyone listening that if you feel like, we'll reach out to Nick, if you feel like your story is something that you like, I just don't even know where to start, um, because Nick can help with that. Um, but if you're ready and you're like, okay, I want, I want to create in front of some more people, again, nick can help with that. But I remember for me personally, it was like, well, I don't know what my story is. And then it's like, well, it could be this, but I don't know if I'm ready for that. And I tried to analyze it all myself, I tried to find all the answers myself, and that just doesn't work for a number of reasons, because you're putting your own spin on it. You're not necessarily leading from your heart, and somebody with Nick's experience and strategic knowledge will go.

Speaker 1:

Well, this is what they're looking for. Let's work out whether it feels safe, whether you feel ready and whether you're able to be able to share this in different guises, to be able to reach more and more people. So, like I said, we could talk again. I'm sure there will be another episode coming on, where we'll talk about something slightly different, but for today, thank you so much. I just want to ask you the same question that I ask everybody else in terms of what's a book that has helped you, um navigate your life, your business, um fear? Anything really that's been able to help you grow and get to the place that you are in today.

Speaker 2:

Without a shadow of a doubt, it's the book you recommended, the Big Leap by Gay Hendricks, and this book had such a profound effect on me. I still listen to it on repeat, over and over again, whilst I'm out walking the dog, and I think I mean apart from the fact that he has the loveliest, smoothest voice ever it's really good to listen to. It's just there's so much sense and I realize, and I have identified as a result, that there have been moments where you know I've reached an upper limit or I've done something that I've then held back, or some major success has come and then I've kind of gone. Oh, I'm not sure about that. So let's just play a little bit safer and I'm all about seeing what is possible and exploring the possibilities and thinking as big as possible.

Speaker 2:

And a lot of people will say, when they get on a call with me in any shape or form, when they sit down, they say, right, I'm doing X, y, z.

Speaker 2:

And I've been having lots and lots of calls with people that have been writing books and they sit there and they go right. So I'm going to be doing this and it's going to be like this and I'm like, okay, I've just had an idea, what about this? And they're like what? And I'm like, yeah, make it really big, let's go next level, let's look at this and look at that, look at this, and they're just like, oh my gosh, I never would have thought of that, because I love that expansive energy, being able to look at things in a much bigger way and then just realizing anything is possible for us.

Speaker 2:

We can achieve anything. We just have to go out there and do it, and if that means just feeling a little bit uncomfortable, so be it. Just go with that and keep going until you get to the other side, because when you get to the other side, some incredible things are going to happen and that when you're ever faced with any media opportunities interviews, anything else other opportunities start coming your way. So's about saying yes and then working out the next steps to be able to be able to make that a success for you.

Speaker 1:

So whenever you do anything, it's about I'm going to do this anyway, I'm going to take a leap for certain and I think that's a great place to finish and I think, having that energy of courage, bravery and safety and momentum so that actually, when you keep taking those small steps, before you know it you will have, you know, your article. Hello Online. You've got other opportunities coming and all sorts of things come in your awareness and in your energy that are up for grabs and it's up to you whether you're going to take the leap. So thank you so so much. I have loved chatting with you. Please, we will put underneath all of the show notes and everything so you can get a hold of Nick, but please go and follow her or reach out to her if you want to have any questions. Just a conversation with her. I'm sure she will be open for all of that. So thank you so much for your time. I know you're a very busy lady.

Speaker 2:

I appreciate your time it's been great being here. Thank you, charlotte you're welcome.

Speaker 1:

thank you for tuning into this week's episode. I hope that you're feeling energised, fearless and inspired to take action today, to stand in your greatness to Leap products and services. But you also get brand new podcast episodes delivered straight to your inbox every Monday, meaning you'll never miss your weekly dose of becoming fearless energy. Sign up now at wwwidaretoleapcom. Forward slash newsletter or click the link in the show notes below.

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