The next interview with inspiring businesswomen is with Bridie Hinson from Why You Create.

Bridie is a PR strategist who is passionate about shining a spotlight on small businesses. She teaches small business owners how to shout about what they do in the right places.

What was your first job? Did you enjoy it?

I worked as a hotel waitress in the summer holidays while I was in sixth form. I loved the idea of getting a job for some reason. I think I was excited to get out into the world and do things independently!

I think I enjoyed it but I didn’t like feeling I wasn’t very good at it. I broke a lot of crockery and once spilt a bottle of red wine over someone…

What do you do now? Is this what you originally trained to do?

I now have the privilege of working with small business owners and helping them to feel more confident promoting themselves. I help them think outside the box about new ways of promoting themselves, find the wording to communicate their stories and all about what they do, and bring in opportunities like speaking on podcasts, getting press features, and collaborating with other businesses.

It’s very much drawn from my career in PR and communications, though I did that in art galleries and now I work with all sorts of small business owners. Find out more on my website and follow me on Instagram where I share lots of PR and self-promotion tips.

How do your services help small business owners?

I think a lot of small business owners are great with social media but are not taking advantage of other promotion methods. Social media is great but you’re trying to build that audience all by yourself. Leveraging opportunities like podcast guesting, collaborations, press features, guest teaching, expert articles and speaking slots gets you seen and heard on other people’s platforms, which is really powerful for your visibility and audience growth.

But not only that, these types of opportunities give you the chance to talk in more depth about your passion, expertise and impact, which is going to build your reputation, nurture your audience, and help you consistently attract the right clients.

What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve been given? How did it help you?

I really recommend the book A Job to Love* from the School of Life, which has helped me through various career decisions and challenges. One of my favourite pieces of advice from the book is to acknowledge: “we truly have talents in many more job areas than we will ever have the opportunity to explore.” The point is that no job can be everything we want.

If you could give your 20-year-old self, one piece of career advice, what would it be?

You likely have a 50-year career ahead of you. Don’t overthink this first step. Get stuck in and figure out what you enjoy  – it’s likely to surprise you.

Which do you prefer, tea or coffee? Beach or pool? Seaside or countryside?

Couldn’t survive without either tea or coffee but, for me, tea is a comforting hug and coffee is to get me into the zone – very different!

Can I choose both again? If I have to pick it’ll be beach because I like watersports and seeing the sea animals. But I like a pool too because it’s easy – sand annoys me!

Love seeing the sea, but I think I’ll choose countryside. I just find it soooo nourishing, beautiful and inspiring.

What’s your dream job or client?

Good question. I love working with people who are really passionate about how they can help people and what they have to say to the world but need a hand on how to get their message out there. Time and again I see business owners who are doing great things but doubt themselves when they try to talk about it.

My dream client sessions are when we leave buzzing with ideas for how to talk about what they do and where they can share it.

That’s why I created my group course PR Confident. It helps people to feel more confident promoting their small business and putting themselves forward for PR opportunities. Through 4 live group workshops and weekly tasks, PR Confident will walk you through the practical steps to bringing in opportunities and intentionally grow your audience.

The doors are closed on PR Confident at the moment, but you can find out about all the ways I can help from my website or download my free guide to getting more opportunities that aren’t tied to social media.

If you’d like to read about more inspiring business women, head over to the blog page.

*This is an affiliate link. That means if you click on it and buy the book, I get paid a fee from Amazon.