The Hype - October edition
My free monthly newsletter
Hiya loves 🌊,
What a month. I’ve been a bit battered by COVID whilst trying to finish off client work and not just because of the impending school holidays.
A lot of change has swelled behind the scenes and today I’m announcing a few changes for me.
I’m going to be writing more to you, some of which will be behind a paywall. As a thank you to my historical readers, you can access it at a pilot price of £4.99 a month.
To learn more, scroll to the end of this email, but for now on to the juicy stuff…
Lucy x
👩🏼🎤 Hadrien, the cofounder of my children and Creative Director of The Wern is leaving. It is his story, follow him on Instagram or LinkedIn to know what is next but as a little reveal, he was headhunted for something amazing…
🚥 Without Hadrien, I am now closing my agency The Wern. Don’t panic, I will be operating under a different guise, keep reading. Honestly, it’s a relief. I never left agency land to create my own agency but to help champion the underdogs. Playing small has never felt better.
📇 I’ve been moving away from client work towards education be that workshops or content creation, supporting founders through mentoring or in-house training coaching and speaking.
✍🏼 Since arriving in France, I’ve been writing more on Medium. I’ve always written articles alongside my two books but now is the time to switch it up.
Hype Yourself: Lessons on self-promotion and creative living for small business owners, to help you make an income from your expertise and passion.
🗺 A few things I’ve written in the last month include;
WORKSHOPS
✍🏼 You can join me for a guest workshop with London Writers Salon on November 16th for a 1-hour online on building your PR Roadmap Use code: LUCY15 for 15% off
🎤 I’m hosting a beefy 3-hour in-person workshop on creating your media kit as part of Atomicon 2024 on June 17th. If you want me to handhold you in a small class, there are 34 seats left. Grab your seat here - tickets are £100 plus VAT.
FOUND & FLOURISH DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
👯♂️The first is a collaboration with Hatch Enterprise on "The power or community in Entrepreneurship", this will be in Manchester on the 3rd of November at X+Why. More info here.
💵 The second is a Startup Grind event on the afternoon of the 9th of November, Plus X Innovation in Brighton hub with a panel event on "Back to Basics; how to run a profitable *and* sustainable business". More here.
USE the code GRAB5 for £5 access to both events.
It is Black History Month in the UK and this year’s theme is all about celebrating our sisters - pioneering black women.
I want to introduce you to a few trailblazers in my network who I would love you to support all year round.
🙋🏾♀️ LONDONERS ASSEMBLE
You might know her as the former host of Bad Ass Woman’s Hour on Talk Radio, CEO of Belu or for her work with the Fab Four (YES! The Royals) Natalie Campbell is throwing her hat into the ring as an independent candidate for the Mayor of London. Whatever your political views, please help her out by filling out this questionnaire (takes 2 mins) on how to make London better.
Next, watch this or follow Team Campbell on Instagram and please share what she is doing to your neighbour, parents at the school gate, Cornershop, and strangers on the bus (you catch my drift).
🤰🏾NEED A PR AGENCY?
Listen. I’ve got a lot of time for supporting self-employed Mums at the best of times but if I could offer you an agency referral now that I’m not running mine, I highly recommend Rachel Allinson founder of Axe & Saw.
Rachel’s intelligent work shakes up the conversation and traditionally stale approaches by an agency. A genuine trailblazer and generous leading voice in this space.
🤷🏾♀️ CLUELESS ABOUT BRAND STRATEGY
Can I send you the directions to get uncluttered with Collete Philip from Brand By Me? Not only will she help you create a coherent brand strategy and messaging, moreover she will also help you build anti-racism into your brand.
If you are a stage below this level of support right now and an individual starting out, then connect with her through her on LinkedIn or Instagram and watch out for one of her talks or workshops where she shares gems.
📚 LOOKING FOR A NEW BOOK?
3 brilliant reads from Black women in my network.
Love It Or Leave It: How To Be Happy at Work by Samantha Clark. Are you team Great Resignation or Great Return? Either way, Sam’s book is going to help you find happiness in the place you spend most of your time.
Cash is Queen: A Girl’s Guide to Securing, Spending and Stashing Cash by Davinia Tomlinson. Aimed at tweens and teens but in fact perfect for anyone who wants to learn the basics of finances in a fun and practical way.
Side Hustle in Progress: A Practical Guide to Kickstarting Your Business by Elizabeth Ogabi. Got an idea of something to start on the side? Liz will help distil the mass of noise for you in this handy book.
This really is looking different for me.
👩🏻🏫 The culmination of no childcare until next Sep, Hadrien full-time elsewhere and if I’m honest, me needing some recalibration after a few traumatic years (more on this another day) means I’m stepping right back. It’s either paid-for content here or occasional workshops for the foreseeable.
🌍 I want to invite you, to become a paid-for subscriber to my work
Annual membership is less than a junior freelance PR day rate, You will get the following:
Accountability, creative ideas and pitch feedback in the comments AND a monthly live Q&A. Plenty of access to me, to help you with knowing what to say and to whom.
A weekly email with either an actionable prompt exercise, exclusive article, pitch examples or templates sent directly to your inbox to help you Hype Yourself
Backstage pass to my own personal lessons on creative living to help you with alternate ways to make money from your expertise and passions
👻 It’s new, scary and not perfect but if you lock in the pilot price for now at £4.99, no matter how much I change it in the future, you will always be at this lower rate.
🐣 I have given away free advice in daily posts, podcasts, articles and monthly newsletters for five years 👀! A HUGE thank you in advance to anyone who becomes a paid subscriber at the beginning of this journey and supports my self-employed freelance maternity leave.
💌 Free subscribers will always receive this monthly newsletter The Hype and occasionally I will send you other bits and bobs.
P.S. Keep an eye out for workshop updates on this platform if you want to join me at one of these. In the meantime, I’ll be back in your inboxes next week with something different…
P.P.S This is one of those emails that feels like a seismic groundbreaking shift for me and I’m scared to push the button on it 🙆🏻♀️ when in reality I know it’s barely a blink for you
Eeeeek! Huge news. Excited to see your creativity, knowledge and plans unfold Lucy.
Loved todays newsletter, and thanks for featuring authors at the end! This has helped with a job on my podcast to-do list that’s stalled.
p.s Buckets of empathy for the Covid side dish that got served up,
I'm excited to be part of the community! I LOVED your book Hype Yourself and managed to get some good coverage, so I'm looking forward to more excellent advice and some accountability, so PR doesn't always get put on the backburner!