I am pulling myself together
- Linda Gregg, Grinding the Lens
Hi Friend,
My friend Helen asked me if I sent a newsletter last week. Nope.
I work towards a weekly Conversation, but sitting down to write, in a week already flooded with budgets and World Book Days and International Women’s Day, I had nothing to add to the conversation. And that was before Kategate.
Sometimes you just need to sit your own marketing out.
Five things about me
I’ve never been good at intro posts. Basically because I forget to do them. But I’ve had a few new readers come and join The Conversation.
Hi. You’re so welcome.
And if you’re a longer time reader, this is a little overdue. Like when you feel it’s too late to ask someone their name…
I’m 12 years into running my PR business. I work with ambitious SMEs and startups using thought leadership, storytelling, and community building to build their leadership, brands, and impact. I love what I do and I absolutely love getting results for my clients.
Last year, I hit my best revenue to date. I say it’s never been about the money; also, it hasn’t not been. I’ve also learnt that business shifts in seasons.
Busy season.
Stressed season.
WTAF season.
Wait, I can do this season.
Right now, it’s March and it’s the season of getting my s**t together. Like spring, it’s happened many times before.
Create first is a practice that changed my life. As much as early mornings. It’s the magic of spending the first 15-30 minutes of every day on your own work.
Before you consume anything else.
Before you get sucked into the busy rush of traffic of your day.
It could be your morning pages. A LinkedIn post. Your newsletter. So long as you’re creating for you.
By recalibrating the balance of creating vs. consuming, you get to set the tone, plant seeds for new possibilities and growth and self-trust. It shifts you into a more connected creative space. Every day.
Around five years ago, I found myself coming back to poetry. Something I’d loved as a child, then into my teens and early twenties. I thought all 17-year-old girls stayed up reading Sylvia Plath.
The truth is, it didn't occur to me that I could be a writer too. My parents were refugees. I had a bit of an accent when I moved to the UK. In my first (amazing) internship in a publishing house, I was surrounded by girls with trust funds and paid- for Pimlico flats. It didn’t feel available to me. It’s taken years to undo that.
It started with a poem here, a workshop there. Writing early mornings or at weekend. And then things started getting published. I made friends with other poets. I got invited to readings and launches. Last year, I was selected as a Nine Arches Primers Poet with a book out later this year. Things happen in the sidelines.
It took me a year to move The Conversation over to Substack. For someone who moves fast, I can take a long time making things happen.
I thought it was like Mailchimp but with community, and a lot of brilliant writers also doing their thing.
It isn’t.
I have thoughts on all the Substack things: the comparisonitis, the growth at all costs, the cliques and the hierarchies.
Also, whether it’s right for your business. For a future post.
With The Conversation, I want to offer a regular hit of creative caffeine to fuel your business, marketing, and creative life. It’s a newsletter for marketers, founders, and creatives to explore and grow their communications in a more intentional, thoughtful, and aligned way. To reflect on how you want to share your work and businesses and whole self with the world. To build creative connection and community.
You’ll get: PR and brand strategies, marketing trends, essays on the life of business and writing and creativity, and some poems, because it’s me. Hi.
Some things I love: Cyprus, city breaks, soaking up moments with my two teens, humous, George Michael, kitchen discos, yoga, Paris. Desert Island Discs, cooking Greek food, new notebooks, NYC, 10k steps every day, morning pages, eucalyptus, Friday coffee and croissant dates, candles, Italy, a white shirt, eye shadow, the Turkish shop on the Oxford Road for when I’m homesick and run out of proper oregano.
Anyway, that’s me. For now.
Tell me about you in the comments below.
One thing. Five things. Or your thoughts on intro posts. I’m listening.
And if you’re not on Substack yet, just hit reply.
With love,
Antonia xo
Lovely post Antonia, and I love your list of loves! Five of mine are: walking in nature, making jewellery, Cornwall, tea, Hanging out with my teen daughter. ❤️
I’m so pleased you wrote this post. Great to find out about you! X