From PR Pro to DIY No-No

Lallie Fraser | Managing Director at Polka Dot Elephant | Founder of The Forest Project

I left a luxury travel PR agency where I was cocooned with the safety of a team, a finance director who dealt with all the accounting admin and a roster of clients that were all on mid to long-term retainers to set up on my own. I was so hyped and said to myself in the first year I would say yes to every client opportunity that came my way. A lovely friend said that his company, a European-wide DIY start-up, were looking for PR representation to raise their profile across Europe. Was I down for it? Hell Yeah! Did I know any journalists or media that were interested in DIY? NO! but I could figure that out, right?

I enjoyed winning the business and the thrill of a new client but very quickly realised that this was not my wheelhouse and there was a reason for that. I didn't enjoy working on the campaign and found it hard to secure press angles that worked. After six months, we decided to go our separate ways and I made a vow to only say yes to the projects that set my world on fire because...

Life is too short to be working on things that I don't believe in. I also hired an accountant to focus on what I'm good at. That said, my DIY knowledge is pretty good (and I'll only do the bits that I enjoy).