For the past while I’ve been on the hunt for a PR mentor. Someone I can look up to and aspire to be like. I’ve been looking to find someone female, successful, inspiring and a real #GirlBoss.
According to the Bureau of Labour Statistics, women make up 61.3 percent of the PR industry. So finding a female mentor shouldn’t be too hard, right? But we all know how fussy I can be. I wanted to find someone with the same interests as me and the same attitude towards work. Someone I could learn from.
I thought I’d compile a list of female PR professionals that inspire me and my career. If I mirror even a smidgen of their success I’ll be more than happy.
Cathy Martin, CMPR
The reason I got into PR was through work experience at CMPR in Belfast. If it wasn’t for Cathy opening her door to me I would probably be studying finance or accounting. I will be forever grateful to the girls at CMPR for giving me the wonderful opportunity and also giving me an eye opener into my future career.
Lynne Franks
One of the most prolific PR professionals in the UK, Lynne Franks has many successes under her belt. I consider Lynne as a huge inspiration and mentor as she is an advocate for the empowerment of women and has such amazing achievements in the PR world. Having initiated London Fashion Week, been a spokeswoman for sustainable living, worked on Fashion Aid in corporation with Bob Geldof and Live Aid and along with so many other successes, I would give anything for some advice and to hear all her fabulous stories of the PR and fashion industry. (It’s also rumoured that the character Edina Monsoon in the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, is based on Lynne!).
Barbara Charone, MBC PR
The Guardian named Barbara as “Britain’s most powerful music PR”. The PR guru’s career history is awe-inspiring. Barbara has worked with Cher, Madonna, Christina Aguilera and many more world-class acts so is definitely someone I aspire to.
Amanda K Ruisi, AKR Public Relations
Starting her own PR Agency when she was 27, this inspirational business woman has worked with Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez, Kristen Stewart and Chloé to name a few. Ruisi has also been noted in The Wall Street Journal’s “Women of Note”. For such a young age, Amanda has achieved so much in such a short time which is definitely something I hope to mirror.
Nikki Murray,
Nikki works in the TV and entertainment industry which is where I hope to find myself in years to come. I see Nikki as a mentor as I think I could learn a lot from her experiences and the advice that she could offer.
Sarah Doukas, founder of STORM Models
An inspirational business woman, Sarah founded Storm Models in 1987 from her house in London and even secured Richard Branson as a business partner. Doukas worked on changing models into brands and found success with the likes of Cara Delevingne, Kate Moss and Jourdan Dunn. Models now have Instagram and other social media platforms to thank for their careers. It is now about how many followers they have instead of how they look that gets them on the runway. STORM have had to adapt to this new way of recruiting and are now branding their models as ‘influencers’. In today’s society, world class brands are after those who have a substantial media presence so to target the millennial audience.
These are six women I consider to be mentors, a select few from my long list of inspirational people in business. With more research I will be able to make a shortlist of who I look up to and aspire to be like.
Don’t dream about success, work for it.
I am extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your blog.
Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself? Anyway keep up the nice quality writing, it is
rare to see a great blog like this one these days.