Lessons from The Study: Doing PR on your own

Second Home
Nov 5 · 2 min read

“Breakthrough means not being afraid to put your own flag in the sand.” PR Expert Lucy Wern

Every week we invite different thought-leaders and experts to share their knowledge with the community as part of our Breakthrough Programme.

This month we got the chance to sit down with PR expert and founder Lucy Wern after her talk in Spitalfields, to pick her brain about how to do PR on your own as an entrepreneur.

Lucy’s Top 3 PR lessons

  1. Don’t spray and pray a press release. Pick your top 5 publications you would like to feature you and do some focused research
  2. PR is more than just getting into an industry newspaper. Think about other places where you can reach your audience
  3. Your personal story is more interesting than your business story. What can you share that has a human interest angle?

Being the first speaker to present with her 4-months old baby in her arms, Lucy says the hardest part of running a business as a new mother is turning down well-paid work.

How do you find the balance between work and life?

There is a severe case of workaholism in my family, so I have to be really self-aware to not fall down that path. I always book in a break every three months of some kind and try really hard to never work evenings and weekends. I find setting personal goals also helps me to stay on track.

What are the best sources to learn more about PR?

You can find loads of free or inexpensive PR events via Eventbrite or check out PR Examples for great examples of creative ways to do PR. For some quick tips and prompts try my 52 PR tips cards or pre-order my book Hype Yourself: A no-nonsense DIY PR toolkit for small businesses.

Lastly, what book has influenced you?

Be More Pirate by Sam Conniff Allende. Not many white men in a position of privilege put that to good use. Most of the time when someone says they are a disruptor it makes me have combustion of eye-rolling and toe-curling — but Sam genuinely is a mischief-maker.

To stay up to date with the latest Breakthrough events sign up for our newsletter or check out our upcoming events on our website.

Second Home

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Unique workspace and cultural venue, bringing together diverse industries, disciplines and social businesses. London/Lisbon/LA

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