How do you know when it's time to change lanes?

People who live by the old-school method of finding a career and sticking to it for life need to get a grip. In 2024, the world’s your oyster. Isn’t it?

Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome!

Truth be told, I fell into journalism. I never grew up wanting to be a writer. It was an accident of sorts and I’ve mentioned it before.

In brief, I was working straight out of college in a post-production house where I duplicated videos, managed the office and generally looked after various production companies when they came to edit their shows.

I didn’t go to university. The thought of all that debt and paying it off for decades was ridiculous. The job I picked up was easy going, kept me out of trouble, kept my canary yellow Fiesta on the road and worked for me to get my foot in the door of the showbiz machine.

Like many things I’ve done during my work life, I learnt all about the TV world in that role. I now know what goes on behind the scenes when TV shows and productions go into the edit process. It’s still a useful thing to know even today. If I see a show shooting on the streets of NYC (HELLO, And Just Like That), I generally know roughly how long I’m going to have to wait for the TV series to premiere. Roll on the end of 2024/start of 2025 ;-)

It was only a chance meeting with my old college journalism tutor that pivoted my life into journalism. Sarah Onions was one of my favourite tutors at Richmond College and when I bumped into her in my local town Teddington, she asked what I was doing and said she always thought I should be a journalist, that I had a great nose for a story and it would be a travesty if I wasted my life dicking around duplicating videos.

Within weeks from her planting that seed I enrolled on a 20-week newspaper journalism course in Portsmouth, quit my job at the production house and was off changing lanes. My first big career pivot. A quick stint at a local newspaper in Sutton; knowing I was always only interested in writing about showbiz and I made my way to the Daily Mirror and the 3am column.

That chance meeting with Sarah led to the next 16 or so years on various newspapers and magazines across the industry. Sometimes I look back and wonder what my career would have turned out like if on that fateful day I’d not met the Onions. Who knows…

Fortunately, after a lot of practice and a lot of hard work, I can just about write these days. I’ve worked hard to find my voice - and most-importantly my humour – with the words I produce.

The second major pivot in my career came when my friend Natalie Pinkham suggested I helped her out with some PR. She is a successful presenter with Sky Sports F1 and she needed help organising some features within the media. Piece of piss, I thought.

The best thing about having been within journalism is the fact I know how the papers work. Well, worked. I’m sure they’re all rather dull in comparison these days. Less staff, social media’s ruined it all, news is generated far to quickly, AI….I could go on. Less phone hacking ;-)

So, into the world of PR I went. Journalist friends proclaimed I was going to “the dark side” - although, to be frank, I feel it’s far brighter than the murky world of journalism. I didn’t really know what I was doing but knowing I had a vast number of contacts across all sorts of genres within journalism felt like a positive attribute to begin with. Contacts in the field of PR mean everything and without blowing my own trumpet I know a lot of people.

From gorgeous Pinks as my first client, I built up a great roster of people to work with. Brands like Body Camp and Roar Fitness, names like Melanie C, Tamara Ecclestone, Sarah-Jane Mee and Gethin Jones and leading to where I am today – continually looking for new exciting projects that aren’t just the norm and require creativity and the use of my brain. Like the light work artist Chris Levine who I’ve recently begun working with.

Now, as time has moved on, I’ve discovered there are several issues with being a publicist. In some ways, it’s one of the most soul-destroying and unfulfilling career paths you could possibly embark upon. It’s doing nothing for my soul. I can do the job – but there’s no great vibe with it all.

In general, PR is a world – or industry - that’s struggling more than ever before. In ye olde days (actually, only 10 years ago) you’d get a feature for a client in a national newspaper or broadsheet, and they’d experience a huge uplift and garner sales immediately. One guest I got to the Body Camp wrote a personal feature in our first year and that piece sold out the entire season. Every single spot.

These days, I have journalists come to the retreat, write an amazing feature across 4/6 pages with social media support and it does ZILCH. Maybe a tiny uplift in website hits. But magazines and newspapers can’t be relied on in any way, shape or form to sell spots like they used too.

There’s also the thankless side of the PR world. You work on getting some clients a feature for literally months. The piece comes out and it’s amazing. Then you don’t hear from the client at all. No thank you. No well done. Some don’t even reply when you send them the piece on a What’s App. Some people just don’t appreciate how much hard work goes into securing a feature in a high end publication. It’s ridiculously time consuming - from pitching the idea, ensuring you have the right photographer, the right writer, you have to prep the client, prepare them for all eventualities of an interview, write captions, fact check with the publication…and then sit nervously waiting for weeks for the piece to land. It’s not just a simple quest for a small mention. It’s hard graft and time consuming - especially when you’re a control freak ;-)

This is one of the reasons why I slowly but surely have made my celebrity contacts my secret weapon. The power of having somebody ‘of note’ coming to the retreat, posting with tags and hashtags, has meant people immediately follow the client, enquire about the place and a handful will book. Celebs and – dare I say it – influencers really are the key holders to good PR in 2024.

Obviously, this is extremely depressing for the industry. For me, it’s meant I’ve realised I’m very much introducing people to the client, watching them go and have fun, do their posts and then they say thanks in a quick email and move on. In many ways, there’s zero creativity in the world of PR. Sure, I can do the job. But sometimes you just wish there was more depth or some more excitement.

As you grow your business, you quickly realise you’re juggling so many clients you’re just spending your entire life doing emails, chasing up journalists on email (who often won’t reply and other times you have to chase five or six times in the most soul-destroying manner) and even having to work weekends to stay afloat and get ahead of the week. If journalists were dogs, they’d be Siberian Huskies – “renowned for their stunning appearances and energy but known for their independent and stubborn natures”. They were bred to make decisions independently in the harsh Arctic environment. Sounds about right to me.

This week I even had a well-known writer come to me wanting me to organize an event for them at one of my venues. I’ve spent YEARS emailing this name. Years. I’ve invited them to press trips, events, restaurants, dinners – all sorts. They’ve never replied to me. And this week they got a writer to email asking for a venue to put on a sponsored party on a Saturday night for this writer’s big birthday. Somebody who has never tried to know me. Never bothered replying. Never shown any interest in what I do. Yet now, they want to host their birthday at one of my venues. It’s so depressing people deem this sort of behaviour acceptable in journalism. It’s not. It’s just terrible manners.

Within the PR world, I’ve also had a couple of clients over the years who I describe as Vampire Clients. You know, people who drain the life and blood out of you like a Vampire. Ultimately, we had to part ways and there’s never a better feeling than when you ditch a Vampire client. I had to get rid of one recently. Joyous, I tell you.

Dare I say it, this is where working in PR feels like it’s heading. The whole PR game is a Vampire regime. It drains your soul. Daily.

Journalism turned into a sack of shit with the introduction of social media firstly, now PR is becoming seriously laborious.

So, back to changing lanes - I’ve had two major changing lane moments thus far. Journalism and then PR.

I’m left asking this question. At the ripe age of 44 am I gearing up for another major pivot? The answer is maybe.

Maybe it’s something to do with my age. Maybe it’s something to do with the fact I’ve always fallen on my feet with bold moves before now. Maybe it’s just because the industry isn’t as fun as it used to be. Who knows. But it feels like there’s a change afoot.

I’m never going to stop writing. I’m probably never going to fully stop doing PR. But what is my future?

Let’s face it, we aren’t living in the olden days when you went to school, chose a career, started from the bottom, worked your way up a bit, retired and died. The best thing about nowadays on all levels if the fluidity in all aspects of life. There are so many options out there – possibly too many.

I can’t help but feel that maybe now in my mid-forties I’m ready for a new lane. And instead of being scared by it – I’m excited.

What have I done to enhance the thinking process? I’ve written lists. Endless lists of things I’d love to be doing. Some of them are utter batshit. Sure, we’d all like to be running a bakery, Dean. Lolz.

But others are really cool and exciting and something I’ve not thought about up until now and feel like they’re going to excite me once more.

So, after an entire month off on the boiling hot shores of Greece and Ibiza this is where I’m at. It feels like an exciting time to be alive. It’s time to follow one’s gut. Be brave. And make shit happen. Stay tuned for the next chapter.

Thoughts below please!