Meet Fiona Minett - Boss your PR
I am beyond excited to introduce my next guest on my Moments to Motivate interview series. Meet Fiona Minett, owner of Boss Your PR and an award-winning PR expert and coach. She has soo much wisdom to share and brings such energy wherever she goes.
Fiona Minett started her own PR agency at just 23 and continues to take the PR industry by storm helping small business owners with her amazing coaching. She is passionate about making PR accessible to businesses of all sizes and is on a mission. After all, who can afford hefty PR agency fees? I was lucky enough to be there when Fiona launched her business, Boss Your PR, around 5 years ago. I knew I always wanted to work with her, but it wasn't until earlier this year that we finally started working together.
Fiona is actually the reason this blog exists. Writing it has become part of my visibility strategy. As the phrase goes, you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket and whilst Instagram has been instrumental in the growth of my business, I wanted to increase my visibility and expand from Chicago back into the UK and needed more than just Instagram. I couldn't have wished for a better person by my side. Thanks to Fiona, I have landed speaking gigs, been a guest on podcast, guest blogged and launched my own blog in only 4 months! If you are wanting to grow and are considering PR, she is your lady.
Today Fiona will share some amazing PR tips but also delve into her journey and what she has learnt. I don't think anything beats hearing from fellow females about their business journey and their pivotal moments (I'm also obsessed with podcast for this), as we all need support from those that have maybe been there and done it. It can be lonely when you’re a solopreneur.
Fiona opens up about Boss Your PR and gives us an invaluable reminder that you have to do what is right for you and even if on paper it all looks amazing, you need to make yourself and your family a priority. Without further ado, let me introduce the amazing Fiona Minnett, owner of Boss your PR and an award-winning PR expert and coach with over 15 years experience in the PR industry. Enjoy!
In my community there are people who are just at the idea stage, perhaps just launched or have an established business. Tell us a little about your business journey, including some of the highs and lows.
The main thing to resign yourself to when building or running a business is that it is an absolute rollercoaster. Hands down. There is no substitute for being able to handle (and embrace) the ebb and flow of the madness that is entrepreneurship. From the lows of struggling to cover outgoings to the high of signing an epic client or winning awards; I’ve been there! One of the hardest things I’ve found is navigating social media and the visibility of competitors. I embrace collaboration and one of the most rewarding aspects for me in running my business is the community that I’ve discovered and built. However, I do find that I have to blinker myself from some elements of the PR industry because I find it quite easy to spiral and get distracted - ‘why did I not think of that?’, ‘why wasn’t my launch as successful?’ And the like. I learnt to mute accounts on Instagram in order to fully focus on my own work and making my own path.
When you’re running a business the tendency is to take everything very personally which makes the highs and lows infinitely more exaggerated. I find that when I experience a high; an award win, a brilliant launch, a good month of sales, I’m prone to a come down because the high was so heightened. And then a low can feel like the end of the world and you can question everything! Until the rollercoaster levels and you wonder why you were being so dramatic. It’s the life of an entrepreneur!
What was the biggest driver for going out on your own, building your own business and leaving agency life?
I spent a year or so working in the industry, both in house and in agency and was 23 when I decided to go it alone and set up my own PR agency. The naïvety of youth is a beautiful thing. I spent a year or two studying at the PR Academy and building my portfolio and reputation and then started to grow. After a few years I had an office premises, a growing team, a great roster of small business clients and we were working on projects with brands such as Go Compare, Made in Chelsea and The Brit Awards. A difficult pregnancy with my daughter brought a number of issues to a head and meant that stepping away from the agency I’d built was the best option for me health wise and mentally. It was a huge shift to go through and I had to take about a year and a half out before figuring out my path forward; whatever that looked like though, I knew that I didn’t want to go back to an agency model.
As a PR expert, what would be your "must dos" for a business owner ?
There are so many ways that business owners can use PR power in how they show up for their business.
My top three suggestions would be:
Expertise/Value - really understand the value/expertise that you offer as a business/entrepreneur and be unashamed when it comes to sharing this. Your audience needs to understand your brilliance and your value in order to consider making the investment in your service or a purchase of your product. Take every opportunity to share this across your website, social media, newsletters, networking and more.
Consistency - There can be no understating the importance of being consistent in promoting yourself and your business. There is no value in a stop/start approach to promoting that sees you popping up every few months when you have something you want to sell. People go through many phases of getting to know a business and getting closer to purchase. In order to foster the ‘know, like and trust’ factor, being consistent in your approach to showing up for your business in every aspect and via every promotion avenue is hugely important. Keep reminding people that you’re there.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket - speaking of utilising every promotional avenue… Instagram might work for you. Or it might be Pinterest or TikTok. Finding the social platforms that work for you and not spreading yourself too thinly is important. However, we can’t just rely on social media. Build your email database to capture those that are following you on social media and nurture with newsletters and incentives. Look at networking options online and offline. Think about guest writing or guest blogging. Maybe guesting on a podcast? Perhaps a collaboration opportunity? Think beyond the single basket that many of us default to putting all of our eggs into.
I know you are a mama too, how do you balance being a successful business owner and being present for your kids? It's a lot, I know and a big adjustment. I love sharing what has worked for you . As with all things it may not be right for everyone but it could be just the advice they needed.
It is difficult. I’m lucky that so many of the clients and people I work with are understanding of the juggle. One of the main reasons for me changing up how I was working and moving away from the agency model was to give me more flexibility to work around my daughter. I knew I didn’t want to be tied to an office for 12 hours a day and to have more freedom in choosing my hours.
Setting boundaries has been hugely important for me. It’s taken time to allow myself to do so and it’s not foolproof but it has certainly helped me find the balance. Monday and Friday are days that bookend the week for me when I do admin, client work and planning. Then Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays are when I will book in client calls and consultations within school hours. Where possible I try to make sure I’m available and present for my daughter before and after school and in work/client mode within school hours. There are of course exceptions to that; such as speaking engagements, events etc but having those boundaries 75-80% of the time has allowed me to achieve a level of balance.
What has been your personal highlight for Boss Your PR so far?
Oh my gosh, there have been so many. From the clients I’ve been lucky to work with and their incredible results and highlights to some of the experiences and connections I’ve made through networking and on this journey. One of the biggest highlights for me has to be working with Domestika. I was approached in September 2021 and asked if I’d develop a course with them around DIY PR. The whole process was the most surreal and creatively inspiring experience I’ve had and I’m so proud of that collaboration and the resulting course.
What is the best advice anyone has given you in terms of being an entrepreneur?
I don’t recall any specific advice as such. I have spent many an hour getting lost in inspirational instagram quotes, ‘must read’ business books, platitudes and the like which can all get immensely overwhelming, but I think the most important thing that you can retain as an entrepreneur is your sense of self and what you can offer that no one else can match or emulate. People will try, but they can never be YOU.
What has been the single biggest thing you have done that resulted in growth? If you could only do one thing, what would it be?
While I don’t advocate placing all your eggs in the Instagram basket, Instagram has definitely been a huge growth platform for me. Although, as I explore with clients, all the other work I do on getting visible gives me content and kudos to share and leverage to my audience on Instagram. Speaking at trade shows and guest writing are some of the most effective ways that I’ve found to reach my audience and share my expertise. One of the common denominators in all the activity I do in getting visible to my audience and working on converting to purchasers is delivering value. Giving followers enough value and educational content for them to see that you know your stuff and are well placed to support them can be hugely effective.
What would be the one thing you would have done differently?
There have definitely been a fair amount of hiccups along the way, but I’m not sure that I would do anything differently. I’ve learned from every experience and it all brings me to where I am now. Even failures are opportunities for learning.
Who is inspiring you as a leader and entrepreneur - perhaps your favourite podcast, Instagram or just public figure
I have always been driven by wanting to achieve; but I’ve not always known what that will look like. As a youngster I always thought that Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, was incredible and seeing entrepreneurs like Holly Tucker, Jo Malone and Natalie Massenet absolutely excel has been hugely inspiring. I don’t aim to build a business on the scale of any of these fabulous entrepreneurs’ ventures, but I do think that there are traits and learnings to take from these successes; a few being resilience, persistence and belief (in yourself and in your concept).
What is your life motto?
The further I go in my business, the more out of my comfort zone I get. I am always telling myself ‘say yes before you say no’ - say yes and worry about it later. And, as an anxiety riddled introvert by nature, I do worry about it later. Massively. However, I know that I have to say yes to opportunities and work hard to build my business and the fact that it takes me out of my comfort zone is a by-product that I have to live with if I want to do the best for myself and my business. The best things happen outside your comfort zone. That’s the truth.
If you are serious about your growth and increasing your visibility, Fiona is your lady. Give her a follow for regular tips and advice. Loved catching up and cannot wait to see what the next few months brings for us. Thank you Fiona.
Anna
Fiona Minett, founder of Boss Your PR and The PR Spotlight, is an award winning PR Expert and Educator on a mission to democratise PR for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Having spent over a decade in PR, including 6 years running a PR agency, Fiona now trains and coaches small businesses in taking a DIY approach to their visibility by making the most of savvy and cost effective PR techniques. She has contributed to and written for the likes of Jewellery Focus Magazine, The Guardian, Health & Wellbeing and The Oxford Times, taught and mentored with Domestika, Virgin Start Up and Small Business Britain and spoken at trade shows and venues including MODA, Top Drawer, Allbright, Oxford Brookes University and Harrogate Home & Gift.