E11: Creating Massive Impact using the Power of Storytelling with Nicola Rowley

Nicola's journey to multi 6 figure business owner has been a rollercoaster but failure was never an option as her why is too important.

In this episode we delve right into that journey and the reasons behind her super strong 'why'

Nicola J Rowley has worked in the media for over 25 years as both a journalist and an award winning PR expert. She helps entrepreneurs and brands get seen in the media safely through strategic storytelling so they can impact the lives of others through what they do.

Nicola's Link:

www.nicolarowley.com

Want to connect? Find me here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamemmahine

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/behappybesuccessful

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-hine

Website: https://www.emmahine.co.uk

You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/@EmmaHineStrategy

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Dream Business, Dream Life. Helping ambitious people like you to grow a business they love.  I'm Emma Hine and I'm on a mission to show you that it is possible to grow a business without sacrificing your life. Having experienced the roller coaster of making millions of pounds, but feeling overwhelmed, anxious and totally unsuccessful, I know first hand the importance of growing a business on your terms. 

On this podcast, I'm going to share with you lots of tips and advice that will enable you to grow a business that gives you the financial freedom. To live the life of your dreams while sharing with you some inspirational growth stories from other fabulous business owners,  ready to live the dream, then let's get stuck in.

Hello and welcome to today's episode of dream business, dream life. Today I'm joined by Nicola Rowley. Nicola has worked in the media for over 25 years as both a journalist and an award winning PR expert. She helps entrepreneurs and brands get seen in the media safely through strategic storytelling, so they can impact the lives of others through what they do.

Nicola has helped so many people to get published in the media, including me, and I am super excited to be chatting with her today. Hello, Nicola. Great to have you here. Oh, it's brilliant to be 

here, 

Emma.  Excellent. Super. Right, I'm going to dive straight into this. Let's go back to the beginning a little bit.

Nicola, tell us about life for you as a journalist.  

Oh, that is, it feels like a really, really long time ago now. So, I trained as a journalist mainly because I loved storytelling. So, my focus always was on writing stories. So, I was the person at school that won the English prize and ended up going on to win it twice in a row because I just love to write and create and come up with characters and all kinds of things like that.

So it felt like a very natural transition to go into journalism. And originally I thought I would work in  papers in newspapers or, you know, magazines didn't even cross my mind, which is a very strange thing. But when I was at university and I was studying journalism at university,  Broadcasting kind of kind of came around.

I was like, Hmm, I think I'd probably quite enjoy broadcasting. So I secured some work experience at both the local BBC  radio station, which was BBC Essex, and then also the commercial radio station, which was Essex FM. And I fell in love with broadcasting and it was amazing. And because Essex FM at the time, they, the news team found themselves quite short staffed, I went in  to do an extended amount of, um, work experience in effect, and it was meant to be like a, a month of work experience.

And what happened was they said, we'll pay you.  And I was just like, Oh my gosh. So I started getting paid. And at that moment, everything kind of like fell into place. I was just like, absolutely loved it. I was doing something that I really loved. I was driving around in a radio car. I was speaking to people.

I was interviewing people. Um, and it went from. All the way from that to me working for the BBC, I've also done stints internationally working for Euronews. So I used to do the reporting in Euronews in Lyon. And we had to take briefings in French as well as in English as well. So my French A level came in very, very handy for that.

But I ended up reading the news on Radio 1. Um, and reporting, uh, for Newsbeat, went across to BBC Radio 5 Live, and then, I'd always wanted to work in TV, and at the time, it was BBC News 24, and because they were right next door to where  Radio 5 used to be, it was quite easy for me to transition across. So I went to BBC News 24 as a producer and then they said, Oh, well, if you've got any story ideas, um, always come to us and then you can go out reporting.

Well, of course, I'm all about the ideas. So I was always coming up with all these ideas and consequently going out with the camera crew and doing all of the reports and everything else and turning them around. And I loved it. I absolutely loved it. And there'll be occasions where I'd get to also go out and do like reports or they put me on set asking my expertise as a reporter.

And when I left the BBC, I was the entertainment reporter for BBC three, which I did really enjoy.  But I just couldn't see me standing on a red carpet at age 50, sticking the microphone under Simon Cowell's nose. And I just thought, and I think I need to do something else. There's something more, but I don't know what.

Um, and that's when I started exploring moving into PR. And I, first of all, I started working in an agency. And that was very hard work.  But a real eye opener at the same time, and I went off and did, um, a communications, a marketing communications diploma at the same time.  You know me quite well, Emma, but like, I'm not the sort of person that would just sit there and go, right, so I've just changed careers, and then that's that. 

I decided to do a two year, what should have been a two year diploma in one year  to get it over and done with and then came out with a distinction, um, from the CIM. But at the end of it, I was just like, right, okay, what next? What am I going to do? And  I think for me, working in agency was great. But, um, my biggest client at the time was UK TV and we'd already launched lots of their channels.

So TV channels like Dave and Watch and Alibi and all of those suite of channels. And so when I was at the Edinburgh TV Festival and I was overseeing the press office there, the then head of PR,  at UK TV. Um, I just went up to her and said, look, I've got you another double page spread in the Daily Mail.

And she just looked at me and she was just like, Oh, Nicola. And I was like, what's it like working in house? And she was just like,  I've got a job. Oh my gosh, it's yours, but don't tell anyone. Um, but so went through and then I ended up at UK TV and I was there for six years and like I did a, a lot of fun things whilst I was there.

I mean, we recreated, um, the prison from porridge as 40th anniversary party. Um, we had, uh, the likes of Christopher. Biggins coming along and, you know, original cast members actually turning up for this launch and the producers were just blown away by what we'd actually done.  And it was just so much fun. I traveled  abroad an awful lot.

So went to LA on set with, you know, Rachel Billson for Heart of Dixie. And then I was very ensconced in, um, working with a lot of very well known chefs. So like Rick Stein and James Martin and the Roux family. Um, and I would travel all over. We went to Malaysia and all the rest of it. And it was great. It was absolutely perfect. 

But then my little boy came along  and then at that point, obviously everything changed for me because you can't carry on  going here, there and everywhere. And  as much as, you know, I would have loved to have carried on in that vein, your priorities change as well. And I really struggled with  going back into my job, although I absolutely loved it.

I had severe separation anxiety and I was really, really struggling with the concept of dropping him off at nursery and then someone else being with him all day, in effect, bringing him up. And I really, really struggled with that. Um, And so eventually what I did was I took redundancy and I took a maternity cover contract and worked back at the BBC, but this time for BBC Worldwide.

Um,  the job was meant to be, I was told, like, don't worry, there won't be much travelling involved. And within two weeks, I am in South Africa. Uh, the Stig is going around a racetrack. We're launching, um, Top Gear. And I, like, I was just like, okay, this is fine if it's a one off. And then all of a sudden I'm in Dubai or I'm in Doha or I'm in, you know, all these other places.

And I, like, it was okay. And I managed to cope because I knew that there was an end in sight. So when the contract came up, I was just like, okay, I'm going. See you later. And, and I applied for two jobs. So, well, I applied for one job and it was at ITV  and I got the job as a PR manager and I was really excited about it.

I thought it was going to be really great. But at the same time, my friend got in touch and she said, look, I'm leaving my role as the head of PR at Thorpe Park. Why don't you come down? I need you to oversee a weekend where they're doing the X Factor auditions at Thorpe Park. So, they're all going to be there, um, and.

Can you just oversee it all? And I absolutely loved it. It's 20 minutes from my home, um, and it's back with celebrities. looking after leisure, like the leisure industry. It was perfect for me. Um, so I politely declined the ITV role, ended up as the head of PR at Thorpe Park, loved it, but knew also that  it had a finite timeframe on it because my little boy was about to start school.

And up until that point, he'd been in nursery like four days a week. Um, and I just wanted to be the mom that was doing school. the drop offs and the pickups. I wanted him to know that I was there. And so I quit my job and I had a bit of freelance work set aside and everything was kind of set aside. And I was just like, okay, this is going to be okay.

And I'd also built up my photography business. So I was working as a professional photographer because obviously it's never enough to just do one thing. Um, And so I was photographing all of these amazing weddings. I had 25 weddings booked in for that year, so that had enabled me to leave my job.  But I soon realized that actually working weekends  didn't really fit with him being in school because, hang on a second, the time that he now does have available.

Yes, I'm there during the week, but I'm now not there at weekends. And I felt like I was really missing out. So the wedding side of things really didn't work for me. So I started looking at, actually, I think I need to be in PR, um, and doing that. And it was with the help of a, uh, an amazing business coach who just said to me, why aren't you doing this?

And I was just like, I don't know. Um, and she showed me how to do it and I started my online business and it's gone from strength to strength ever since.  

What a journey. You've really shown us a picture of you there, Nicola, because, you know, it's like, how many jobs in one, in one time?  I was 

very, I was very, very driven.

And I think I had a plan. So I would very much like I'd sit down with my Plan and I'd be like, right, I'm going to go and work at Heart FM in London, and I'm going to go and be the deputy news editor. But, within a certain amount of time, I'm going to go and be at BBC Radio 1. And then once I've done a bit of time at BBC Radio 1, I'm going into TV.

I had this plan, it was like a, I'm going to be like Davina McCall or whatever it was. I'm just going to, I'm going to work my way to get to that point. And I think. I found that there were a lot of ceilings and a lot of, um, glass ceilings that were put in my way, not, not necessarily out of spite or anything else.

I always remember having a conversation when I was working at News 24 and I was trying to discuss my salary with them and they were saying you can't possibly have more than 30k. And I was just like, well, it has to match what I was on Radio One and I kept arguing for it. But  Like it kept coming back as a buffer and when you look at now the online space and what is possible thinking more expansively,  actually,  it was probably like a kind of reflection of where I was at in terms of my own mindset as to what was actually coming my way.

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

And I think also something that, you know, as you moved into what you do now, because now you're helping other people to get in the papers and the magazines on the television and all of that thing, but all of these contacts that you have built up along the way, so all of these different jobs, all of these different Big companies, you know, they're not just little, little, small, you know, companies that are doing a little bit of television or broadcasting from a, you know, a small studio, the BBC, the ITV, they're all the big players here  that has enabled you to have a business that I suppose is quite unique, isn't it?

Yeah, it is. I think for me, the beauty of what I do now is it's still storytelling, but it's helping other people be seen and going on and helping others. So impacting other people's lives through strategic storytelling, because the more that you are  scene, the more that you put yourself out there, the more that people can see how it is that you can help them.

And then they can come and find you and work with you and everything else. And you're right. You know, I think with all of these things, what we have to remember is that we're all unique. We've all had a different journey to get to where we are. where we are and no one's experience will ever, ever be the same as yours.

And so when people come to me and they say, I don't have a story. Everyone has a story. There are so many stories within stories. It's just deciding how much of that story. You want to share. And that's where the safety element comes in as well. It's getting crystal clear right from the very beginning, what it is you want to say, what you want the outcome to be, and then understanding that actually you are in control of what you actually divulge and what you say to journalists as well.

But yeah, like very varied experience. And  I've been really really fortunate to work with some incredible, incredible journalists along the way. And I guess one of those things for me that really sticks out is that I really love talking to people and building relationships. And because I'm naturally like that,  I've been able to, I guess, get more coverage along the way because the journalists have got to know me and they're just like, Nicola, have you got anyone or can you help with this or can you do that?

And I will always go above and beyond. And they know that I'll always meet deadlines and they know that I'm really reliable and professional. So then therefore,  Always works for them. 

Yeah, completely. And, and you just spoke about, you know, people think they don't have a story. I was one of those people when we first connected, wasn't I?

We sat down and I went, well, I don't really have a story. I've just done what lots of other people have done. And, you know, having that conversation with you, it's the, it's how you look at your story. I think for me is the big difference between seeing it as, you know, because some people they can sit there and they can bring out the stories that are really sort of like instantly.

Yeah. catch the attention, don't they? You know, they can sit and share that this thing happened to, it was major, it was huge, and then this happened, you know. Um, and I think people think that's what they've got to have, this really huge transformational piece that takes them from, you know, from rock bottom to, to the top, to the ceiling, or the other way around, or something.

Something in between, and it's all the stuff in between that I think is where people like me who just think, well, I'm just a normal person that's done normal things. Um, you know, exploring that story is, I think it opens lots of doors beyond PR in terms of who you are as a person as well, how you can, you know, promote your business as well.

Because a lot of people connect with me. Because of my story  and, and, and spending that time understanding that story with you from initially from a PR perspective has helped me to do more than, you know, just consider PR more than, you know, to get myself into the papers or, or, or the magazines. It's, it's helped me to. 

Shape of messaging and things as well. And I don't think that's something that I mean, certainly not something you promote is what you do. Um, but there's so much, isn't there in storytelling, so much in storytelling. So what would your advice be to somebody who, who was sitting here doing what I did thinking?

I 

don't have a story. I would say get someone like myself who can help you unpick your story. It's really hard, I think, to do it yourself. I know that I would struggle to do it myself, even on myself. I think it's one of those things that sometimes you just need someone that is capable of having a helicopter of what  works for the media 100%, but then also understands,  okay, Let's take that bit out.

Let's move that there. Let's like, have a look at the angles that could potentially work for journalists, but then let's put your story back together for you. And you're right. It doesn't have to just be for a media perspective at all. It's absolutely fundamental for you to be telling stories in your weekly emails that you're sending to people in communications that you're putting out across social media, because When we're looking at know, like, and trust, people will trust you a lot more if they can understand who you are, where you're coming from, the kind of values that you have, because if they align with their values, then they're much more likely to want to explore working with you in whatever capacity that may be.

And I think it is so important that you put that messaging out there all the time. It's really interesting as well, because  There are different kind of levels of messaging and everything else, but one of the things that I'm quite well known for, apart from storytelling, is PR Dog. And people always kind of say to me, Oh, do you know what?

I really love the fact that you love PR Dog so much. Um,  And as crazy as it may sound, people come to me because I love the fact that you love that dog so much. Um, or I love the fact that you incorporate him into your social media. Or I love the fact that, you know,  he helps you with things or he's, he's promoting something or he's doing something.

He's almost like got his own personality, but that came from, it was just a natural thing. I'm with him all of the time. And so, you know, It made sense that I brought that to the fore and that's he's super cute and you know occasionally he's well behaved as well and he does like really fun things so it made sense and of course.

All of the reels that do really, really well on Instagram, they feature PR Dog in some shape or form.  

And if you haven't seen PR Dog, hashtag PR Dog on Instagram, you will, you will see PR Dog when she says he's cute. She's not kidding. You're not kidding. He is super, super cute. Super, super cute.  So you now become, you know, you've got your own business.

What would you say the key challenges for you as a business owner were coming from, you know, a really sort of high powered, busy, busy, busy role, knowing that from a personal point of view, you need to slow down that busyness a little bit. It's not always that easy, is it? When you go into your own business, what would you say your, your hardest moments were?

There were 

a lot of moments where I remember  taking Jay along to Um, whatever, it's like a, an after school club and he'd never been able to do anything like that before because I'd never been around because I'd always been working and we're talking about when he was four, um, so four and five. And I remember standing, um, outside the club and just thinking, I have no idea.

where my next money is coming from to pay the mortgage. I have no idea how I'm going to do this.  And I've done a lot of mindset work anyway, because I had to, um, in terms of building myself back up. I mean, the separation anxiety,  Like it was a massive, massive thing. I had to get myself to a position whereby I could stop sitting in the toilet cubicles, crying my eyes out because I just felt like I was just too far away from him to actually then just going, I'm coming up with a plan and then I'm going to do this.

So by the time I'd started my own business, it was very much about how am I going to be able to get myself out there in a way that is going to work for everyone, that I can start regularly bringing in.  you know, the money and everything else. And I think it just, it came down to a few factors. A lot of it came down to, I'd been in the online space since 2015.

And in that time, I basically built up like really good relationships with people. I'd like spent a lot of time networking with people and I had never asked for anything in return. And I think by the time We get to 2019 bearing in mind that I've been online and I've not really been doing anything. I've been there and I've, you know, supporting people and talking to people and everything else.

So when it came to me actually launching the actual business,  I knew people, so I could go to people and say, are you thinking about PR? Is it something that you're interested in? And that wasn't something that came naturally to me by any means, making those kind of like outbound approaches to people and just getting on like calls with them and having a chat with them. 

That side of things was always like quite natural, but it was always the kind of like getting my head into you know, you need to be selling and speaking to people and getting them on board. And I started off with one to ones. And then in the September of 2020, I launched my membership, the PR Mastery membership.

And  I remember doing that, obviously we were in, you know, We were in another lockdown and everything else, um, but because I'd built up more of a network, instantly, I think we had 30 new, like, members. They just came in and I spent the whole time, I had like a sheet of like a prospecting sheet and I went through everyone and I was just having chats with them.

Would this work for you? And everyone like jumped in and I couldn't believe it. I think because the way that everything was during lockdown. Obviously there was the homeschooling, there was the everything else going on. I was still working for another agency at the time and I must admit that gave me a little bit of respite in terms of when clients at the start of lockdown were turning around and saying, Nick, I just can't continue.

I'm really worried that like my, my entire business needs to be put on like pause. I was just able to say, That's absolutely fine. Let's just pause everything. We'll come back to it when we come out of this because I had that buffer and that allowed me to do that and then concentrate on being there for Jay at the same time.

So I was doing the homeschooling, the working full time and everything else. Um, but when I finally stepped away and was just like, no, I'm doing this myself, there were, there've been so many moments where I've, I've like looked at it or, you know, in the online space, it's really, really interesting that sometimes people don't pay when they're meant to pay and things like that.

And that, and I think there's not really an understanding of the impact that that can have. on others as well. And so, yeah, there were a lot of moments where I was sitting there going, I don't know whether I'm going to be able to do this. Um, but I just kept going and I just hung on. Even when those moments were just, there was never really an option to quit and there never has been because my why is so  like, it's concrete.

My why is I need to be there for Jay. No matter what happens, I need to be his mum so he knows that I'm always there for him. Therefore, I'm going to do whatever it takes to make sure that I am there for him. And when I say whatever it takes, obviously, not to the detriment of anyone else, because that's not me, but it's very much,  I have to find a way through the difficult times, um, as well as riding the waves of the amazing times 

as well.

Yeah. And I think, I think that's absolutely right, isn't it? When, when we are passionate about our why, when we're passionate about why the reason we're doing this, somehow you can always find that little bit of extra strength, that little bit of whatever it is you need to tweak and change to, to make it work for whatever purpose you've got.

So at the end of every episode, I ask my guest to share with us a top tip that's going to help our listeners with, with their growth journey. So Nicola, what's your top tip? 

I would say.  My favorite quote of all time. And I w I would love for everyone listening to this podcast to take this away. I'm really take this on board because, um, Audrey Hepburn said, there's no such word as impossible.

The word itself says I'm possible. And I think once you have that self belief, once you start believing in yourself, all of a sudden,  Doors start opening, because you're looking at things in a completely different way. You're looking at things that you might otherwise have found scary, like you might have otherwise thought, oh, I can't possibly do that.

Why not? Like, absolutely, why can't you do that? And if you don't know how to do something, you don't know how to do it yet.  It's that thinking in a more limitless way so that we take that on board. So the biggest tip is start believing in you and from there it becomes the springboard for everything else that you will do. 

Absolutely amazing tip. So finally Nicola, if people want to find you, where's the best place? I'm always on Instagram at Nicola J Rowley PR. Um, you can find me on my website,  NicolaRowley. com. We also run events as well. So we have a separate, uh, website, which is, uh, PR6PackMediaEvents.  com and I'm all about connecting.

So I'm very much about connecting people with journalists. A lot of people that work in PR are very much kind of like, Oh, I'm going to keep all of my contacts to myself and everything else.  I think that actually we all do well when we grow together, when we lift each other up, so I'm all about, you know, come along to an event, meet with some of these journalists, secure amazing.

Coverage, because then more people will know about what it is that you do. And then therefore you can help change their lives. And through doing that, we're having a massive ripple effect. And we're being able to change other people's lives. And to be quite honest, I think that's why we're all here on this planet, to be able to have that impact, to be able to make that change and just make everything better for everyone else.

Absolutely agree. And for anybody that is listening, I have been to one of Nicola's in person events and also to one of her online, uh, six pack light events. Um, they are amazing. It is a great opportunity. I got in hello magazine on the back of the last, um, online event of Nicola's I went to. So definitely look those up.

Um, I highly recommend them. So thank you so much for joining me today, Nicola. It has been amazing chatting with you. Oh, no, thank you for having me, Emma. And thank you everybody else for listening. We will see you next time. 

You have been listening to Dream Business, Dream Life with Emma Hine. If you want to know more about how I can help you to build your dream business and your dream life, then visit my website, emmahine. co. uk.  Until next time, remember, you really can have it all.