March 22, 2025 • 23 mins
I love stories that started out as one thing and ended up as another and that’s exactly what happened with this week’s guest, Jenna Farmer. Imagine starting out as a teacher in China and then pivoting to become a PR powerhouse!
In an industry that was historically perceived as middle class and London-centric, Jenna has helped hundreds to buck this trend and made them masters of their own PR game.
We chat about how social media has literally blown the doors off the traditional media industry, making it more accessible than ever. Plus, we get into the nitty-gritty of why having a solid business strategy is a game-changer and the absolute magic of having a supportive community when you're building your empire.
We also tackle the jitters of public speaking, brainstorm future plans to shake up the PR world, and dream about making the industry more open to everyone. And of course, we'll wrap up with some real talk on personal branding and how public relations has evolved to be within reach for all businesses, big and small.
So, grab your headphones and get comfy, this is an episode you won't want to miss!
NOTES
You can find Jenna’s Podcast, PR in your pocket here as well as other podcast platforms.
You can also follow Jenna on Instagram
Download your unmissable FREE Ultimate Personal Brand Story Planner
Join The Personal Branding Academy Membership
Join the free Personal Branding Academy community on Facebook
The ‘Bravery Behind The Brand’ Motivational Song playlist on Spotify
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Welcome to the Bravery BehindThe Brand podcast, the podcast
that dives deep into the heartof the stories behind the
brands we encounter on socialmedia every day. On the
surface they make it look soeasy but I guarantee there is
blood, sweat and tears behindall the reels, posts and
beautifully presentedproducts. I'm your host Amanda
Jane, a personal branding andmedia skills coach originally
(00:25):
from the north of Ireland andnow calling beautiful
Cheshire, England my home. Iwork with business owners,
building their confidence andcrafting compelling brand
stories so they feelcomfortable stepping into the
spotlight and becoming thego-to guest that everyone
wants, speaking with authorityand selling with authenticity.
I experience first-hand thecourage that's required to
move beyond our comfort zoneand these are the
inspirational stories I wantto share. I'll also be doing
(00:48):
some solo episodes and sharinguseful tips that will
hopefully help you to getmotivated with your own
personal branding. Becauseit's more than just a
beautiful website and glossyphotos for Instagram, You do
actually have to talk topeople, so let's get started.
(01:11):
Hello everyone and welcome tothe Bravery Behind The Brand
podcast and today I have withme the lovely Jenna Farmer
from, well, PR strategist andjournalist and you also have a
podcast called PR In YourPocket and we'll talk about
that a little bit later.Welcome and thank you for
joining me. Thank you forhaving me. Really excited to
(01:33):
talk to you. Yeah, and I'mlooking forward to this as
well. So before we kick off,I'm going to ask you my three
questions and the song, ifyou've got a motivational
song, we'll add it to theSpotify list that accompanies
this podcast. So do you have afavourite motivational song?
So I'm not I'm not a massiveone around motivation but if
I'm trying to get stuff done Ireally like this seem to like
(01:55):
soundtracks to musicals thathave got quite like a high
tempo so I'm loving like thesixth musical soundtrack at
the moment because it's likereally high tempo it's quite
empowering and so I would saythe sixth musical track
soundtrack. Well I don't knowthat I'm gonna have to listen
to that one. It's really it'sabout um I love musicals and I
haven't seen that one and Iwill definitely look at it.
(02:16):
That sounds absolutelyamazing, thank you. And do you
have a motivational quote?So the quote that I used to
(02:39):
have on my phone was just thatlife is tough but so are you
so that's just something thatI try and live by because
obviously we have so manydifferent roadblocks and it
can just be really frustratingto think oh my god why is it
so difficult but justreminding yourself that that
has made you the person thatyou are can be really helpful.
I love that. Life is tough,it's so are you. Yeah, that's
fantastic. I love that one.And then the final one, just
(03:01):
because I'm nosy and I like toread. Do you read and do you
have a favourite book? I havea favourite book at the moment
because I've literallyfinished it about a week ago
and I think it was literallythe best book ever. I'll
probably have forgotten aboutit in a year's time, but it's
called So Thrilled For You.And it's about four women at
(03:21):
various times in their likemotherhood journey like one
has decided not to havechildren, one is pregnant, one
just has a child that's likenewborn and then another is
struggling with infertilityand it sort of brings them all
together in this sort of likemystery murder mystery type
thing but also Like a reallynew take on womanhood and like
(03:42):
motherhood and I read it inlike one day. It's absolutely
amazing. Do you know what? I'mjust leaning in, hanging on
your every word. I can't tellyou how much. It's one of
those books where I just likekeep telling everyone about
it. It's so clever and I don'tusually have children but the
way that she speaks abouthaving children is just...
Absolutely spot on, it'sbrilliant. I've got two girls
(04:03):
so I can totally relate to it.That sounds absolutely
fantastic but I was justtotally leaning in. Oh wow, I
love that, that's definitelygone on my reading list. I
would just spend the rest ofmy life reading if
circumstances So I'm Jenna andI help people get in the media
as a PR expert and I also workas a journalist.
(04:46):
What started my business wasreally randomly. Quite a few
years ago now I was livingabroad and I was a teacher so
I was teaching in China and Ibecame unwell and I was
diagnosed with Crohn's diseaseand I started a blog to sort
of share my experiences andlike traveling around South
Asia with Crohn's disease andfiguring out what I could eat
(05:08):
and all of those sorts ofthings and when I came back to
England That blog started toget like a following and
that's really how I got intothe media world. So one post
that I wrote about having anoperation got picked up by
various different mediaoutlets and it really gave me
that in to be part of themedia and to be talking about
(05:28):
it and it's something that I'dalways wanted to do. So I was
able to leave my job inteaching at this point and
start writing for my own blogbut also start writing for all
sorts of different newspapersand magazines and then after
sort of a few years peoplewere asking me like how did
(05:49):
you do that you know like howdid you write that article how
did you get yourself known aslike the person and that's how
I started doing PR really justsort of helping people figure
out their stories and telltheir stories Just like I've
done for myself. That'sincredible and I love the fact
that it was a happy accidentand you were on this journey
(06:10):
and you were just naturallydoing this thing and people
got interested in the storyBill because I spent a lot of
my time trying to convincepeople that they have their
own story. And that theirpersonal brand is interesting,
that people want to know aboutwhat influenced them, what led
them down this path. And a lotof people think that they're
not interesting or that peoplewon't be interested in what it
(06:30):
is that they do. But I thinkthat story of you... Teaching
in China, which is interestinganyway. And then the next
step, you find out you've gotthese Crohn's designs and
you've got to learn to growwith it, adapt with it, change
your eating habits. And Ican't imagine living in that
part of the world was easybecause the, you know,
culinary differences and whathave you. But that, that to me
(06:52):
is just like the perfectlyrounded story of where you
happen to find yourself rightat this moment. So, wow.
Amazing. Absolutelyincredible. And so you didn't
even set out to join thosepeople in that industry where
you are now. And it was ahappy accident. Absolutely
incredible. You're clearlygifted at it. So it was
(07:15):
destiny and something thatyou're meant to do and help
other people. So what a story.That is amazing.
I'm from Birmingham and when Iwas growing up I'd come from a
really working classbackground and when I was
growing up I'd always wantedto work in the media but it
just didn't really seem thatpossible for me. Everything
(07:37):
was in London, obviously nowit's a lot easier but back
then everything was in London.I didn't have any contacts, I
didn't know anyone and it isstill a middle class industry
but back then it was a veryLondon centric middle class
who you know industry. So itwas something that I'd always
wanted to do but I just hadn'tthought it was possible and
now that's why I'm sopassionate showing people like
(07:58):
look you know I didn't knowanybody you know I didn't come
from that media world but Ijust sort of went out there
and started telling my storyand that it's absolutely
possible for other people todo the same as well. Yeah
you're right it at one pointdid seem like untouchable and
quite glamorous and possiblyvery male dominated and with
(08:18):
all the you know the big namesand what have you and then
obviously with the evolutionof social media and the
internet the world got alittle bit smaller and people
got people started tellingtheir own story and really
sometimes I equated to beingYou can be a journalist in any
spot in the world. If youhappen to come across
something, people are filmingit, they're videoing
themselves commenting as the,you know, live on the scene
(08:41):
kind of thing. But yeah,you're right, it became more
accessible to ordinary people.I don't like to use that word,
but it is that. And itdemystified that persona of,
oh, I'm a journalist and Iwork in London and I'm one of
the media darlings. Andeveryone can, You can do it,
you can tell a story, you canlearn the basics and
(09:02):
particularly if you're abusiness owner those contacts
are more accessible andjournalists are probably more
hungry now than ever for gooddecent stories and there's
probably more publications,more online publications
Desperate for those storiesand well stories that are
going to get people on thewebsite get people reading
their stuff and yeah I justthink it's it's one of those
(09:25):
industries that's absolutelysnowballed possibly in the
last 20 years and it's justcompletely changed so I'd love
that that someone you know Whomaybe thinks, oh that's beyond
my reach, it absolutely isn't.Anyone can find themselves in
that industry if that's whatis of interest and is
appealing to them. So in thatsort of environment then, what
(09:47):
was the biggest challenge andhow did you overcome it? So I
think for me, when I firststarted out in business, well
first of all I'd left my jobin teaching so I was so really
happy to do that and I thinkone of the biggest challenges
I had in the beginning I wasvery much an accidental
(10:07):
business owner so I didn'tknow anything about strategy
and pricing. I was just givenan opportunity and then I went
for it. So I ended up doing somany different things. I
didn't have any sort ofstrategy with pricing and I
would offer to help anybodyand I would do one hour for
this person, one hour for thatperson and it was reaching a
point where I couldn't see howI could really a lot more
(10:30):
cohesively, that I could reacha lot more people, but have
something that was a lot morestructured. So now like over
the last few years, I'veswitched to having things like
programmes and memberships andcourses, which means that I
can still stick to thatmessage because I found it
really hard. I didn't know howto get in the media and I did
it myself so I wanted to showeveryone how accessible that
(10:51):
was but then obviously at thesame time you have to run a
business and you have to havea clear pricing strategy and
you have to so I found thatreally difficult in the
beginning but now a few yearson I have like just a few
different ways to work with meso I've really narrowed it
down but then because thoseare doing really well and
they're also really consistentit means that I can focus on
(11:12):
all the free stuff as welllike my podcast and Social
media and I can reach a lotmore people but that mindset
shift was quite hard in thebeginning because I was so
passionate. I just wanted togive everything to everybody
and then you learn prettyquickly you can't do that.
You've probably just describedevery single business as every
single business because you dodon't you? You start off, you
(11:33):
don't have a strategy, youdon't know what you're doing
and you start off with an ideaand you think oh this is the
thing I'm good at or this isthe thing I wanted to start my
business on. And that's likeyour core excellence and then
all of a sudden you find thatyou've got to do lots of other
things like get visible and dosocial media and do all these
other things but yeah you'retrying to be all things to all
people and so you either burnout or you find the strategy,
(11:56):
learn the strategy and youwork out how to do it but yeah
that's probably a lot ofpeople can relate to that.
People pleasing, doing stufffor free, doing all the things
and lists of sort of notproducts that you haven't
quite refined but yeah you'veprobably just described it the
perfect way to do it. Have theset amount of products that
are working well for you, nota mindedness confusing list of
(12:19):
things so then you can focuson all the other stuff that
you enjoy doing that you knowpodcasts and things like that
because These are really goodthings for our business,
getting out there, helpingpeople and being a little bit
more visible. But yeah, I'msure loads of people can
relate to what you've justsaid. So I'm curious, what
were you teaching in China, bythe way? I have nothing to do
with PR, so I used to be anEnglish teacher, so that's
(12:40):
what I traditionally trainedas. Oh right, was that
teaching English as a foreignlanguage or like the
traditional English? No, I waslike, so I was, first I was a
secondary school teacher inEngland and then I went over
to do the same sort of thingin China, so teaching it as
like GCSE and A-Level sort ofway. So interesting, so you
had good basics then to write?Yes, so I had the writing
(13:03):
background and also what hasreally helped me is obviously
the teaching background so nowobviously I teach in a very
different way but the formatof scaffolding things and
breaking it down and all ofthat actually transferred
across really well to teachingadults how to get themselves
in the media. That's sointeresting. So if you could
give yourself one piece ofadvice going back to that
(13:26):
time, what would it be? So Iwould say to get into sort of
communities or likemasterminds or you know work,
get into groups of businessowners soon. So for the first
couple of years I just did itcompletely by myself. I didn't
even know about likememberships and masterminds
and courses and things likethat and the one thing that
really helped my business takeoff was you know like I
(13:47):
invested and I was in amastermind. It was you know
like 10 other business ownershaving someone to constantly
ask questions to and bounceideas off. They are like
bigger investments in yourbusiness but that has just
been invaluable and I wishthat I hadn't spent you know
years just trying to figureout all by myself. I think
everyone really needs somesort of community to sort of
guide them along. Yeah you'reabsolutely right and I think
(14:09):
while you you'll have the coreskills for everything you need
You'll be able to quicklyidentify the gaps and that's
kind of what I've done. I'vestepped in stone and thought
right I need to learn that, Ineed to learn that and been
able to quickly identify thenext gap to move my business
along but the mastermindsurrounding yourself with
people that are positive, thatare moving in the same
direction as you and I thinkthat'll help you get there
(14:32):
much much quicker but you doat the beginning spend so much
time trying to do it on yourown and and it's hard and it's
overwhelming and it's easy togive up but if you get
yourself in with the rightpeople and it is going to take
a little bit of investment butI agree with you you
definitely need that need thatenvironment you need a good
teacher a good leader anddefinitely good people around
(14:53):
you to keep you inspired andTo keep you from falling over
and not giving up becausethere's plenty of times
whenever we think, oh I don'twant to do this anymore. So
how comfortable are youshowing up for your audience?
Are you comfortable on socialmedia? Are you happy just to
rock up and do lives? Howcomfortable are you doing
(15:14):
that? Yeah, I've definitelygot a lot more comfortable as
I've gone on. I think the onlything that I'm not as
comfortable is like speakinglive on the stages. So I feel
really comfortable now,obviously having your own
podcast, it really helps youpractice things. So like doing
lives on Facebook, being onsocial media, all of that, I
feel really confident. Thenext thing I know that I need
to work on a bit is speakingon stages and things like
(15:37):
that. That is something whereI sort of tend to put too much
information in and speak quitefast, So that's something that
I know that I need to work onproperly this year. I think
that is the biggie, everybodystruggles with that. And I
think if you're doing socialmedia or you're doing this,
I'm quite happy doing this ifI'm talking with someone
because I can have aconversation and I'm very
(15:59):
comfortable doing that. I cando the solos but I don't like
sitting talking to myself butyou know you have to do it.
And on stage it's like whenyou've got all these eyes
watching you and you know thatthey're doing it. I've spent a
lot of time teaching peoplehow to do that as well and in
my experience if you get theminteracting and you get them
(16:23):
sort of Asking questions andthen holding back at you and
getting involved. That kind oftakes the pressure off and I
remember once I was doing a, Iwas giving a talk and the talk
was from my industry so itwasn't that interesting. So
every now and again I threw ina little joke and I threw in a
joke which really wasn't thatfunny but the whole room
(16:44):
erupted in laughter and thatabsolutely threw me. It had
been recorded, it would havebeen hilarious but then I
thought that's reallyinteresting that observation
because after that I relaxedthen and I thought oh you know
it's not so bad but I thinkthat talking fast and things
like that's just practice butfor me it's asking people
(17:07):
questions, getting them to puttheir hand up, telling them a
story, taking them on ajourney and giving them a
question to reflect on so youcan stop, take a pause And
said that you're not rushingthrough it, but yeah, there's
very few people on this planetI think that are completely at
home on a stage. And if youget the opportunity to do it,
(17:29):
it's an absolute gift, butthat's the one thing
guaranteed to make everyone goto pieces. But yeah, I feel
your pain on that, butdefinitely a few tricks that
can be mastered along the way.So what is next for your brand
and where do you see it goingin a few years time? So I
think over the last few yearsI've been really happy with
what I've done but I'vedefinitely had sort of things
(17:51):
I haven't been able to do.I've had to say no to a lot of
things. My son is only fiveand he's autistic and he's
just a little bit harder withlike childcare and things like
that. So although I'm reallyhappy with where my business
is, I know that there's somany things that I could have
said yes to. My aim hopefullyfor this year and beyond is to
sort of do more in-personthings. I think that a lot of
(18:13):
people, especially with PR, Mebeing able to sit down in
small groups and really breakthings down is really
beneficial but I just haven'thad that capacity to do it
over the last few years so I'mreally hoping that in the next
few years I can really rampthat up and do more in person
things and just try and spreadthe message of how simple and
easy PR can be just in lots ofdifferent ways because some
(18:36):
people prefer online, somepeople prefer in person so
just being able to meet asmany people's different needs
as possible. It's something Ireally want to do so I'm
really hoping in the next fewyears I can just sort of keep
ramping up the in-person sideof things so I think that's
really important with PR. Yeahthat sounds incredible and
also when you've got your ownbusiness and you've got a
(18:57):
family it's just the joy ofbeing able to rejig things
when you need to, when youhave children and you know
that for me is the greatestgift because you get to make
your own decisions and youknow things don't always go
our way and your children needyou and to be able to have
that freedom for your businessto evolve and grow as your
(19:18):
children grow as well. And thefreedom and the choices that
it offers you as your businessgrows I think is incredible
and you've always got thatplan. What legacy would you
like to leave behind?I mean, all I can say for that
(20:00):
one is, I mean, I don't knowif it's necessarily a legacy,
but I know that one thing I'mjust really passionate about
is just slowly just maybechanging the PR industry and
the way that it's done. Youknow, a lot of people feel as
if they have to invest in anagency and for some people
that's still the right way,like some people still work
with me one to one, but Ithink those agencies do really
(20:22):
well because they create thatmiss, like you say, of secrecy
and like that's the only way Ireally want to show people
that literally anyone couldsend an email to a journalist
today and say hi and thatemail could literally change
you know their course of theirbusiness and I just want to
keep talking more about thatand show people that there's a
different way and then on apersonal level I also you know
(20:42):
having a son that's autisticand we've been on a whole
journey with speech and that'ssomething also that I'm really
passionate about talking aboutand just showing people the
journey because it has beensuch a journey for us and
there's not As many peopletalking about that, especially
if your child speaks yourname, wondering if your
child's ever going to speak.And so I hope that at the
(21:04):
moment things have been sobusy, but I hope that I'll
keep having that capacity tojust talk about that and raise
awareness because I knowthere's so many parents that
really are struggling to getthe help they need right now
and see that other people arein the same boat. That's
incredible to be in thatposition and that's the first
thing that people do when theyneed help and advice. They're
going to go online try andfind people like you who've
(21:24):
been on that journey. I know alot of people who've been
struggling with sort ofsimilar issues and the minute
that you can find someone whois ahead of you in that
journey that is comfortablespeaking up, signposting, It's
(21:44):
quite isolating, you don'tknow where to go, who to talk
to and sometimes the systemcan be difficult to navigate
as well. So the position thatyou're in to be able to offer
that to other families I thinkit's incredible and yeah an
incredible legacy and alsowith the medium PR sometimes I
wonder if people think it'sLess untouchable maybe now
(22:06):
than it was previously you canimagine that at one point I
imagined it to be sort of ohit's so glamorous darling and
all you know la-di-da andchampagne and lunches and all
that and you know it's notlike that anymore you're in a
position to make it moreattainable for a lot more
businesses and it's not ashard as once was thought. So,
(22:27):
no, absolutely amazing, lovewhat you're doing, it's
incredible and what you'vebeen able to achieve is
absolutely fantastic. So,where can we find out more
about you and your businessonline? So, as you mentioned,
I have a podcast called PR InYour Pocket, so that's
available at the usual sort ofpodcast places. I have an
Instagram, that's probablywhere I'm most active, at
(22:48):
Jenna Farmer PR and I alsohave a Facebook group called
Get Your Business In The Mediawith Jenna Farmer. Wonderful.
I will put those in the shownotes and thank you so much
for joining me. It's been sointeresting and I've
absolutely loved chatting withyou. Thank you, Amanda. Thank
you for listening today andspecial thanks to my fantastic
(23:10):
guest Jenna Farmer for sharingher fascinating story with us.
If you want to increase yourvisibility as well as your
sales with your personal brandstrategy, don't miss out on my
free resources or you can jointhe Personal Branding Academy
membership. You'll find allthe relevant links in the
podcast notes as well as thelinks that Jenna mentioned in
the podcast. And if you likedthis episode, please leave a
review and share it with yourfriends. Join me on the next
(23:30):
episode for more incrediblebravery behind the brand
stories. You can follow me onInstagram at CoachAmandaJane
or visit my websiteAmandaJane.co.uk. Bye for now!
Welcome to the Bravery BehindThe Brand podcast, the podcast
that dives deep into the heartof the stories behind the
brands we encounter on socialmedia every day. On the
surface they make it look soeasy but I guarantee there is
blood, sweat and tears behindall the reels, posts and
beautifully presentedproducts. I'm your host Amanda
Jane, a personal branding andmedia skills coach originally
(00:25):
from the north of Ireland andnow calling beautiful
Cheshire, England my home. Iwork with business owners,
building their confidence andcrafting compelling brand
stories so they feelcomfortable stepping into the
spotlight and becoming thego-to guest that everyone
wants, speaking with authorityand selling with authenticity.
I experience first-hand thecourage that's required to
move beyond our comfort zoneand these are the
inspirational stories I wantto share. I'll also be doing
(00:48):
some solo episodes and sharinguseful tips that will
hopefully help you to getmotivated with your own
personal branding. Becauseit's more than just a
beautiful website and glossyphotos for Instagram, You do
actually have to talk topeople, so let's get started.
(01:11):
Hello everyone and welcome tothe Bravery Behind The Brand
podcast and today I have withme the lovely Jenna Farmer
from, well, PR strategist andjournalist and you also have a
podcast called PR In YourPocket and we'll talk about
that a little bit later.Welcome and thank you for
joining me. Thank you forhaving me. Really excited to
(01:33):
talk to you. Yeah, and I'mlooking forward to this as
well. So before we kick off,I'm going to ask you my three
questions and the song, ifyou've got a motivational
song, we'll add it to theSpotify list that accompanies
this podcast. So do you have afavourite motivational song?
So I'm not I'm not a massiveone around motivation but if
I'm trying to get stuff done Ireally like this seem to like
(01:55):
soundtracks to musicals thathave got quite like a high
tempo so I'm loving like thesixth musical soundtrack at
the moment because it's likereally high tempo it's quite
empowering and so I would saythe sixth musical track
soundtrack. Well I don't knowthat I'm gonna have to listen
to that one. It's really it'sabout um I love musicals and I
haven't seen that one and Iwill definitely look at it.
(02:16):
That sounds absolutelyamazing, thank you. And do you
have a motivational quote?So the quote that I used to
(02:39):
have on my phone was just thatlife is tough but so are you
so that's just something thatI try and live by because
obviously we have so manydifferent roadblocks and it
can just be really frustratingto think oh my god why is it
so difficult but justreminding yourself that that
has made you the person thatyou are can be really helpful.
I love that. Life is tough,it's so are you. Yeah, that's
fantastic. I love that one.And then the final one, just
(03:01):
because I'm nosy and I like toread. Do you read and do you
have a favourite book? I havea favourite book at the moment
because I've literallyfinished it about a week ago
and I think it was literallythe best book ever. I'll
probably have forgotten aboutit in a year's time, but it's
called So Thrilled For You.And it's about four women at
(03:21):
various times in their likemotherhood journey like one
has decided not to havechildren, one is pregnant, one
just has a child that's likenewborn and then another is
struggling with infertilityand it sort of brings them all
together in this sort of likemystery murder mystery type
thing but also Like a reallynew take on womanhood and like
(03:42):
motherhood and I read it inlike one day. It's absolutely
amazing. Do you know what? I'mjust leaning in, hanging on
your every word. I can't tellyou how much. It's one of
those books where I just likekeep telling everyone about
it. It's so clever and I don'tusually have children but the
way that she speaks abouthaving children is just...
Absolutely spot on, it'sbrilliant. I've got two girls
(04:03):
so I can totally relate to it.That sounds absolutely
fantastic but I was justtotally leaning in. Oh wow, I
love that, that's definitelygone on my reading list. I
would just spend the rest ofmy life reading if
circumstances So I'm Jenna andI help people get in the media
as a PR expert and I also workas a journalist.
(04:46):
What started my business wasreally randomly. Quite a few
years ago now I was livingabroad and I was a teacher so
I was teaching in China and Ibecame unwell and I was
diagnosed with Crohn's diseaseand I started a blog to sort
of share my experiences andlike traveling around South
Asia with Crohn's disease andfiguring out what I could eat
(05:08):
and all of those sorts ofthings and when I came back to
England That blog started toget like a following and
that's really how I got intothe media world. So one post
that I wrote about having anoperation got picked up by
various different mediaoutlets and it really gave me
that in to be part of themedia and to be talking about
(05:28):
it and it's something that I'dalways wanted to do. So I was
able to leave my job inteaching at this point and
start writing for my own blogbut also start writing for all
sorts of different newspapersand magazines and then after
sort of a few years peoplewere asking me like how did
(05:49):
you do that you know like howdid you write that article how
did you get yourself known aslike the person and that's how
I started doing PR really justsort of helping people figure
out their stories and telltheir stories Just like I've
done for myself. That'sincredible and I love the fact
that it was a happy accidentand you were on this journey
(06:10):
and you were just naturallydoing this thing and people
got interested in the storyBill because I spent a lot of
my time trying to convincepeople that they have their
own story. And that theirpersonal brand is interesting,
that people want to know aboutwhat influenced them, what led
them down this path. And a lotof people think that they're
not interesting or that peoplewon't be interested in what it
(06:30):
is that they do. But I thinkthat story of you... Teaching
in China, which is interestinganyway. And then the next
step, you find out you've gotthese Crohn's designs and
you've got to learn to growwith it, adapt with it, change
your eating habits. And Ican't imagine living in that
part of the world was easybecause the, you know,
culinary differences and whathave you. But that, that to me
(06:52):
is just like the perfectlyrounded story of where you
happen to find yourself rightat this moment. So, wow.
Amazing. Absolutelyincredible. And so you didn't
even set out to join thosepeople in that industry where
you are now. And it was ahappy accident. Absolutely
incredible. You're clearlygifted at it. So it was
(07:15):
destiny and something thatyou're meant to do and help
other people. So what a story.That is amazing.
I'm from Birmingham and when Iwas growing up I'd come from a
really working classbackground and when I was
growing up I'd always wantedto work in the media but it
just didn't really seem thatpossible for me. Everything
(07:37):
was in London, obviously nowit's a lot easier but back
then everything was in London.I didn't have any contacts, I
didn't know anyone and it isstill a middle class industry
but back then it was a veryLondon centric middle class
who you know industry. So itwas something that I'd always
wanted to do but I just hadn'tthought it was possible and
now that's why I'm sopassionate showing people like
(07:58):
look you know I didn't knowanybody you know I didn't come
from that media world but Ijust sort of went out there
and started telling my storyand that it's absolutely
possible for other people todo the same as well. Yeah
you're right it at one pointdid seem like untouchable and
quite glamorous and possiblyvery male dominated and with
(08:18):
all the you know the big namesand what have you and then
obviously with the evolutionof social media and the
internet the world got alittle bit smaller and people
got people started tellingtheir own story and really
sometimes I equated to beingYou can be a journalist in any
spot in the world. If youhappen to come across
something, people are filmingit, they're videoing
themselves commenting as the,you know, live on the scene
(08:41):
kind of thing. But yeah,you're right, it became more
accessible to ordinary people.I don't like to use that word,
but it is that. And itdemystified that persona of,
oh, I'm a journalist and Iwork in London and I'm one of
the media darlings. Andeveryone can, You can do it,
you can tell a story, you canlearn the basics and
(09:02):
particularly if you're abusiness owner those contacts
are more accessible andjournalists are probably more
hungry now than ever for gooddecent stories and there's
probably more publications,more online publications
Desperate for those storiesand well stories that are
going to get people on thewebsite get people reading
their stuff and yeah I justthink it's it's one of those
(09:25):
industries that's absolutelysnowballed possibly in the
last 20 years and it's justcompletely changed so I'd love
that that someone you know Whomaybe thinks, oh that's beyond
my reach, it absolutely isn't.Anyone can find themselves in
that industry if that's whatis of interest and is
appealing to them. So in thatsort of environment then, what
(09:47):
was the biggest challenge andhow did you overcome it? So I
think for me, when I firststarted out in business, well
first of all I'd left my jobin teaching so I was so really
happy to do that and I thinkone of the biggest challenges
I had in the beginning I wasvery much an accidental
(10:07):
business owner so I didn'tknow anything about strategy
and pricing. I was just givenan opportunity and then I went
for it. So I ended up doing somany different things. I
didn't have any sort ofstrategy with pricing and I
would offer to help anybodyand I would do one hour for
this person, one hour for thatperson and it was reaching a
point where I couldn't see howI could really a lot more
(10:30):
cohesively, that I could reacha lot more people, but have
something that was a lot morestructured. So now like over
the last few years, I'veswitched to having things like
programmes and memberships andcourses, which means that I
can still stick to thatmessage because I found it
really hard. I didn't know howto get in the media and I did
it myself so I wanted to showeveryone how accessible that
(10:51):
was but then obviously at thesame time you have to run a
business and you have to havea clear pricing strategy and
you have to so I found thatreally difficult in the
beginning but now a few yearson I have like just a few
different ways to work with meso I've really narrowed it
down but then because thoseare doing really well and
they're also really consistentit means that I can focus on
(11:12):
all the free stuff as welllike my podcast and Social
media and I can reach a lotmore people but that mindset
shift was quite hard in thebeginning because I was so
passionate. I just wanted togive everything to everybody
and then you learn prettyquickly you can't do that.
You've probably just describedevery single business as every
single business because you dodon't you? You start off, you
(11:33):
don't have a strategy, youdon't know what you're doing
and you start off with an ideaand you think oh this is the
thing I'm good at or this isthe thing I wanted to start my
business on. And that's likeyour core excellence and then
all of a sudden you find thatyou've got to do lots of other
things like get visible and dosocial media and do all these
other things but yeah you'retrying to be all things to all
people and so you either burnout or you find the strategy,
(11:56):
learn the strategy and youwork out how to do it but yeah
that's probably a lot ofpeople can relate to that.
People pleasing, doing stufffor free, doing all the things
and lists of sort of notproducts that you haven't
quite refined but yeah you'veprobably just described it the
perfect way to do it. Have theset amount of products that
are working well for you, nota mindedness confusing list of
(12:19):
things so then you can focuson all the other stuff that
you enjoy doing that you knowpodcasts and things like that
because These are really goodthings for our business,
getting out there, helpingpeople and being a little bit
more visible. But yeah, I'msure loads of people can
relate to what you've justsaid. So I'm curious, what
were you teaching in China, bythe way? I have nothing to do
with PR, so I used to be anEnglish teacher, so that's
(12:40):
what I traditionally trainedas. Oh right, was that
teaching English as a foreignlanguage or like the
traditional English? No, I waslike, so I was, first I was a
secondary school teacher inEngland and then I went over
to do the same sort of thingin China, so teaching it as
like GCSE and A-Level sort ofway. So interesting, so you
had good basics then to write?Yes, so I had the writing
(13:03):
background and also what hasreally helped me is obviously
the teaching background so nowobviously I teach in a very
different way but the formatof scaffolding things and
breaking it down and all ofthat actually transferred
across really well to teachingadults how to get themselves
in the media. That's sointeresting. So if you could
give yourself one piece ofadvice going back to that
(13:26):
time, what would it be? So Iwould say to get into sort of
communities or likemasterminds or you know work,
get into groups of businessowners soon. So for the first
couple of years I just did itcompletely by myself. I didn't
even know about likememberships and masterminds
and courses and things likethat and the one thing that
really helped my business takeoff was you know like I
(13:47):
invested and I was in amastermind. It was you know
like 10 other business ownershaving someone to constantly
ask questions to and bounceideas off. They are like
bigger investments in yourbusiness but that has just
been invaluable and I wishthat I hadn't spent you know
years just trying to figureout all by myself. I think
everyone really needs somesort of community to sort of
guide them along. Yeah you'reabsolutely right and I think
(14:09):
while you you'll have the coreskills for everything you need
You'll be able to quicklyidentify the gaps and that's
kind of what I've done. I'vestepped in stone and thought
right I need to learn that, Ineed to learn that and been
able to quickly identify thenext gap to move my business
along but the mastermindsurrounding yourself with
people that are positive, thatare moving in the same
direction as you and I thinkthat'll help you get there
(14:32):
much much quicker but you doat the beginning spend so much
time trying to do it on yourown and and it's hard and it's
overwhelming and it's easy togive up but if you get
yourself in with the rightpeople and it is going to take
a little bit of investment butI agree with you you
definitely need that need thatenvironment you need a good
teacher a good leader anddefinitely good people around
(14:53):
you to keep you inspired andTo keep you from falling over
and not giving up becausethere's plenty of times
whenever we think, oh I don'twant to do this anymore. So
how comfortable are youshowing up for your audience?
Are you comfortable on socialmedia? Are you happy just to
rock up and do lives? Howcomfortable are you doing
(15:14):
that? Yeah, I've definitelygot a lot more comfortable as
I've gone on. I think the onlything that I'm not as
comfortable is like speakinglive on the stages. So I feel
really comfortable now,obviously having your own
podcast, it really helps youpractice things. So like doing
lives on Facebook, being onsocial media, all of that, I
feel really confident. Thenext thing I know that I need
to work on a bit is speakingon stages and things like
(15:37):
that. That is something whereI sort of tend to put too much
information in and speak quitefast, So that's something that
I know that I need to work onproperly this year. I think
that is the biggie, everybodystruggles with that. And I
think if you're doing socialmedia or you're doing this,
I'm quite happy doing this ifI'm talking with someone
because I can have aconversation and I'm very
(15:59):
comfortable doing that. I cando the solos but I don't like
sitting talking to myself butyou know you have to do it.
And on stage it's like whenyou've got all these eyes
watching you and you know thatthey're doing it. I've spent a
lot of time teaching peoplehow to do that as well and in
my experience if you get theminteracting and you get them
(16:23):
sort of Asking questions andthen holding back at you and
getting involved. That kind oftakes the pressure off and I
remember once I was doing a, Iwas giving a talk and the talk
was from my industry so itwasn't that interesting. So
every now and again I threw ina little joke and I threw in a
joke which really wasn't thatfunny but the whole room
(16:44):
erupted in laughter and thatabsolutely threw me. It had
been recorded, it would havebeen hilarious but then I
thought that's reallyinteresting that observation
because after that I relaxedthen and I thought oh you know
it's not so bad but I thinkthat talking fast and things
like that's just practice butfor me it's asking people
(17:07):
questions, getting them to puttheir hand up, telling them a
story, taking them on ajourney and giving them a
question to reflect on so youcan stop, take a pause And
said that you're not rushingthrough it, but yeah, there's
very few people on this planetI think that are completely at
home on a stage. And if youget the opportunity to do it,
(17:29):
it's an absolute gift, butthat's the one thing
guaranteed to make everyone goto pieces. But yeah, I feel
your pain on that, butdefinitely a few tricks that
can be mastered along the way.So what is next for your brand
and where do you see it goingin a few years time? So I
think over the last few yearsI've been really happy with
what I've done but I'vedefinitely had sort of things
(17:51):
I haven't been able to do.I've had to say no to a lot of
things. My son is only fiveand he's autistic and he's
just a little bit harder withlike childcare and things like
that. So although I'm reallyhappy with where my business
is, I know that there's somany things that I could have
said yes to. My aim hopefullyfor this year and beyond is to
sort of do more in-personthings. I think that a lot of
(18:13):
people, especially with PR, Mebeing able to sit down in
small groups and really breakthings down is really
beneficial but I just haven'thad that capacity to do it
over the last few years so I'mreally hoping that in the next
few years I can really rampthat up and do more in person
things and just try and spreadthe message of how simple and
easy PR can be just in lots ofdifferent ways because some
(18:36):
people prefer online, somepeople prefer in person so
just being able to meet asmany people's different needs
as possible. It's something Ireally want to do so I'm
really hoping in the next fewyears I can just sort of keep
ramping up the in-person sideof things so I think that's
really important with PR. Yeahthat sounds incredible and
also when you've got your ownbusiness and you've got a
(18:57):
family it's just the joy ofbeing able to rejig things
when you need to, when youhave children and you know
that for me is the greatestgift because you get to make
your own decisions and youknow things don't always go
our way and your children needyou and to be able to have
that freedom for your businessto evolve and grow as your
(19:18):
children grow as well. And thefreedom and the choices that
it offers you as your businessgrows I think is incredible
and you've always got thatplan. What legacy would you
like to leave behind?I mean, all I can say for that
(20:00):
one is, I mean, I don't knowif it's necessarily a legacy,
but I know that one thing I'mjust really passionate about
is just slowly just maybechanging the PR industry and
the way that it's done. Youknow, a lot of people feel as
if they have to invest in anagency and for some people
that's still the right way,like some people still work
with me one to one, but Ithink those agencies do really
(20:22):
well because they create thatmiss, like you say, of secrecy
and like that's the only way Ireally want to show people
that literally anyone couldsend an email to a journalist
today and say hi and thatemail could literally change
you know their course of theirbusiness and I just want to
keep talking more about thatand show people that there's a
different way and then on apersonal level I also you know
(20:42):
having a son that's autisticand we've been on a whole
journey with speech and that'ssomething also that I'm really
passionate about talking aboutand just showing people the
journey because it has beensuch a journey for us and
there's not As many peopletalking about that, especially
if your child speaks yourname, wondering if your
child's ever going to speak.And so I hope that at the
(21:04):
moment things have been sobusy, but I hope that I'll
keep having that capacity tojust talk about that and raise
awareness because I knowthere's so many parents that
really are struggling to getthe help they need right now
and see that other people arein the same boat. That's
incredible to be in thatposition and that's the first
thing that people do when theyneed help and advice. They're
going to go online try andfind people like you who've
(21:24):
been on that journey. I know alot of people who've been
struggling with sort ofsimilar issues and the minute
that you can find someone whois ahead of you in that
journey that is comfortablespeaking up, signposting, It's
(21:44):
quite isolating, you don'tknow where to go, who to talk
to and sometimes the systemcan be difficult to navigate
as well. So the position thatyou're in to be able to offer
that to other families I thinkit's incredible and yeah an
incredible legacy and alsowith the medium PR sometimes I
wonder if people think it'sLess untouchable maybe now
(22:06):
than it was previously you canimagine that at one point I
imagined it to be sort of ohit's so glamorous darling and
all you know la-di-da andchampagne and lunches and all
that and you know it's notlike that anymore you're in a
position to make it moreattainable for a lot more
businesses and it's not ashard as once was thought. So,
(22:27):
no, absolutely amazing, lovewhat you're doing, it's
incredible and what you'vebeen able to achieve is
absolutely fantastic. So,where can we find out more
about you and your businessonline? So, as you mentioned,
I have a podcast called PR InYour Pocket, so that's
available at the usual sort ofpodcast places. I have an
Instagram, that's probablywhere I'm most active, at
(22:48):
Jenna Farmer PR and I alsohave a Facebook group called
Get Your Business In The Mediawith Jenna Farmer. Wonderful.
I will put those in the shownotes and thank you so much
for joining me. It's been sointeresting and I've
absolutely loved chatting withyou. Thank you, Amanda. Thank
you for listening today andspecial thanks to my fantastic
(23:10):
guest Jenna Farmer for sharingher fascinating story with us.
If you want to increase yourvisibility as well as your
sales with your personal brandstrategy, don't miss out on my
free resources or you can jointhe Personal Branding Academy
membership. You'll find allthe relevant links in the
podcast notes as well as thelinks that Jenna mentioned in
the podcast. And if you likedthis episode, please leave a
review and share it with yourfriends. Join me on the next
(23:30):
episode for more incrediblebravery behind the brand
stories. You can follow me onInstagram at CoachAmandaJane
or visit my websiteAmandaJane.co.uk. Bye for now!
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.