In today’s episode, your host is Lynda Williams as she launches the Hack Your Own PR Singapore Series! Lynda is a phenomenal publicist taking the reins of Hack Your Own PR in Singapore and I can’t wait for you all to learn more about her and the amazing guests she’ll have on the program. Don’t tune out though - this series is great for listeners everywhere - not just in Singapore! Lynda’s very first guest is Christian Barker - and I am nearly out of breath listing his wealth of experience. Chris...
Aug 18, 2022•37 min•Ep. 48
Not only is today’s poddy jammed with juicy PR insights, it’s also one of the best things to ever happen to my business. I’m chatting with Lynda Williams, founder of the luxury travel and lifestyle agency, Vim & Vigor, that’s based in Singapore. After heading up global PR for a number of exclusive hotels and resorts, Lynda founded Vim & Vigor in 2013 where she now works with values-aligned brands such as Smith Hotels, Singita, TiNDLE, and Bamboo Bowls. She’s also the PR superstar that’s ...
Aug 18, 2022•38 min•Ep. 47
I could have chatted to today’s guest for hours. Not that Crystal Andrews, a journalist and editor who has worked for some of the biggest media brands such as Who What Wear, POPSUGAR and Daily Mail Australia, has hours to spare. She’s too busy running Zee Feed, an online publication aimed at Gen-Z that critically analyses current news and trends. Ditching the 24/7 news cycle and doomscolling through an endless stream of hot takes, Zee Feed offers its audience the in-depth context that’s sorely m...
Aug 05, 2022•55 min•Ep. 46
Learn how to pitch to CEO Magazine. Today’s guest is Ruth Devine, an award winning content editor, prolific blogger, occasional keynote speaker, who also has six published books under her belt. Her career began on a gap year in the Middle East when she found herself working as a freelance journalist during the first Gulf War. Fast forward 30 years and Ruth is now the Global Digital Managing Editor of The CEO Magazine Global. On the daily, you’ll find her working across an impressive five of the ...
Aug 04, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 45
If you are a food or beverage brand or a grower or producer, you will love this next guest. Of course, if you’re trying to throw company kool-aid at her, don’t bother…she explains why. Jessica Yun is a business reporter at the Sydney Morning Herald/The Age with a focus on the food, beverages and agribusiness sectors. Jessica is young, talented and going places, but she didn’t always know where she was headed. And yet, she has landed on her feet writing for the most widely read masthead in Austra...
Aug 04, 2022•57 min•Ep. 44
Today’s guest is so accomplished I’m exhausted just sharing her intro. We’ve been sharing time across the screens for a couple of years and it’s been an absolute joy to watch her business go from strength to strength. And as a HYOPR graduate, she was a standout performer, amassing over 20 pieces of coverage including articles in Smart Company, Better Marketing and Mumbrella. Her name is Mia Fileman and she’s the founder of Campaign Del Mar, a popular marketing education platform that helps switc...
Apr 24, 2022•34 min•Ep. 43
Victoria Carey is a celebrated award-winning editor who has seen it all at the helm of some of Australias most loved magazine titles. As many have said, Victoria Carey is nothing short of a publishing powerhouse time as editor-in-chief of both Country Style and Vogue Living. In an era plagued by magazine titles closing and subscriptions dwindling, Victoria Carey revitalised and modernised Country Style to the point that it bucked the trend in the print world. Over the course of her leadership Co...
Apr 24, 2022•43 min•Ep. 42
Everyone needs a sprinkle of Abbey Stuart when they enter the PR industry. She’s a dynamo with confidence, conviction and creativity in spades. It was this drive and determination that had her cold calling The Nine Network for a job at the tender age of 21. Abbey has packed a lot into her four years as a communications professional. At The Nine Network she was the publicist for Getaway and also drove publicity for Married at First Sight, The Block, Ninja Warrior and Love Island Australia. In her...
Apr 19, 2022•52 min•Ep. 41
Still think PR can’t make the world a better place? You haven't met Meg Harris, founder of MHPR, mumma of twin toddlers, and one of Australia's OGs in ‘Conscious PR.’ Meg earned her PR stripes working in Sydney and London across big brands such as Nestle, Amazon, Spotify, Covergirl and Johnson & Johnson. But after wrestling with the ethics of promoting consumer clients in a world of animal testing, plastic pollution and fast fashion, Meg knew she needed to switch focus. So she started MHPR i...
Apr 19, 2022•47 min•Ep. 40
Cara Waters is the startups and technology editor at Nine’s mastheads The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She’s also the lead of coverage for the recently launched Entrepreneur section published in the business pages every Tuesday. Cara has a robust CV of covering the startups and tech landscape - she previously edited SmartCompany and was a journalist at the Sunday Times and Financial Times in London. Thanks to the launch of the dedicated Entrepreneur section covering the rise and impact of ...
Aug 30, 2021•52 min•Ep. 39
Velvet Garvey is not too shabby when it comes to telling a story and sourcing the essential ingredients to conjure up a firecracker of a headline. It is of no surprise then, when Velvet pitched to Channel 7 during Hack Your Own PR that her story snowballed into a viral success. Velvet is the founder of Train My Mate, a platform that offers housework classes for men. She came up with the concept after leaving her beloved career as a medical editor, to become a stay at home parent. Velvet was horr...
Aug 06, 2021•48 min•Ep. 38
Leigh Campbell is the executive editor of Mamamia and host of the podcast, You Beauty. She’s also a snack influencer - yep that’s a thing and mamma to her little man. Leigh has worked in lifestyle media for 15 years, holding positions as Beauty Director at Cosmopolitan, Head of Lifestyle for HuffPost before joining Mamamia in 2018. At Mamamia she oversees the whole editorial offering but still writes about her favourite stuff - fashion, food, wellness, travel, homewares and of course, beauty. Le...
Jul 28, 2021•40 min•Ep. 37
Annabel Bower is a Hack Your Own PR graduate who’s been featured in Sunday Life (The Age/Sydney Morning Herald), Mamamia, ABC Conversations. But she didn’t just end up there by chance: she actively sought out this media coverage. After experiencing a devastating still birth with her fourth child, Miles, Annabel was confronted with a totally unique experience of grief that few people could relate to. She decided to use her loss to write a book for other parents going through similar experiences. ...
Jul 25, 2021•41 min•Ep. 36
Outside of the big-name media outlets, there are dozens of local news agencies that tell the stories of their local communities. David Kirkpatrick is editor-in-chief of my own local news source, The Northern Star, which has been in business reporting on the happenings of the Northern Rivers in New South Wales for a whopping 145 years. He’s been doing his thing as a journalist and, briefly, a publicist for 34 years. Those of us living in rural and regional areas know local news outlets are a vita...
Jun 08, 2021•52 min•Ep. 35
As a beauty editor, Amy Clark has tried everything - including poop stools, snail jizz and colonic irrigation - in the name of a great product review. This journo isn’t afraid to put herself in the firing line when it comes to road testing the latest and greatest - and the downright weird. But there’s one treatment she’ll never try (more on that soon!) I got into the fun and fabulous world of beauty journalism in this chat, a world Amy has been part of since 2016. She worked her way through the ...
May 30, 2021•50 min•Ep. 34
Who do you hire to do your PR when you work in the media business? Well, if you trust the opinion of executives at Clemenger BBDO, Leo Burnett and other world-class agencies, you turn to Katy Denis. Katy is a PR specialist with 20 years experience, and the founder and CEO of Extollo, an agency that works hard to raise the profile of media professionals among their peers. Representing personalities like Todd Sampson of The Gruen Transfer, Laura Aldington of Havas Media and other big names in medi...
May 05, 2021•51 min•Ep. 33
So you wrote a book - amazing. But the work’s not done yet. How do you get people to write about YOU and what you created? Publicity for books is a topic that Isabelle O’Brien of Allen & Unwin knows inside and out. Despite swearing she would never go into PR, thanks to her mum’s own career as a book publicist, today Isabelle is the Publicity Manager at Australia’s largest independent publishing house. I couldn’t wait to hear what this smart cookie had to say about getting media coverage for ...
Apr 21, 2021•49 min•Ep. 32
How do you go from PR Newbie to headline winning machine? Melissa Packham is what I would happily call a true and legitimate thought leader. The founder of A Brand Is Not a Logo, Melissa is a brand and marketing strategist. With over 15 years under her belt, she’s managed household name fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands like Campbell’s, Arnott’s and Parmalat. Since establishing A Brand Is Not a Logo, Mel helps small businesses and entrepreneurs find clarity in strategy so they can make de...
Apr 08, 2021•36 min•Ep. 31
National fashion editor has to be up there as one of the dreamiest job titles. Throw in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald as your employer, and you’re in heaven, right? I got to ask Melly Singer just that when this super glamorous, super talented human joined me to talk about product PR in fashion, pitching timelines, online versus print and so much more. Melly has worked everywhere from glossy magazines to community news, but the majority of her career has been spent with the publisher of The A...
Mar 23, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 30
As technology editor at The Australian, David Swan’s name will be familiar to anyone who lives and breathes the latest in startups, apps, gadgets, Silicon Valley and innovation. He got his first media gig at 15 years of age writing mobile phone reviews, but has spent the last six years of his career writing for The Australian, picking up numerous awards along the way at The Lizzies, Australia’s IT journalism awards. He also appears regularly on TV and radio as a technology commentator. We got to...
Mar 15, 2021•52 min•Ep. 29
Sam Koslowski is the co-founder of the social-first news platform The Daily Aus, read by 88,000 Australians each day. Creating news recaps and explainers in a social media-friendly format that prioritises Instagram first, The Daily Aus is on a mission to arm millennials with the tools and information to begin their own deep dive into the news. So, what did Sam have to say about Facebook’s sudden ban on local news, given his business’s entire distribution platform is social media? I couldn’t wait...
Mar 09, 2021•53 min•Ep. 28
Georgie Quigley is a dream publicist. Working on brands like Avène, Pukka Tea, Klorane, Outland Denim, Le Tan, Vittoria Coffee, Georgie is seriously well-connected, a breeze to work with and consistently generating amazing results for her clients, all while making it look completely effortless. The reality, as always, is that there’s some serious hustle going on beneath that calm and polished exterior! I sat down with Georgie, who recently established her own agency working with some top names i...
Feb 25, 2021•51 min•Ep. 27
It’s been a huge month for technology and journalism in Australia, with hardline stances by the government, multi-million dollar deals between NewsCorp and Google, and that Facebook dummy spat. But before all that went down, I got to speak to the people who write about tech news for a living. It was a massive nerd-out moment for me - and I’m sure you guys feel me. Kicking off our tech journalism special is Natasha Gillezeau, part of The Australian Financial Review’s highly regarded technology de...
Feb 18, 2021•57 min•Ep. 26
Lucy Blakiston is one-third of the team behind Sht You Should Care About, the game-changing social media account that’s delivering the most important news of the day to Gen Z in a format they know and understand. Using memes, witty banter, visual storytelling and snack-sized updates on important topics, Sht You Should Care About is a bit like the town crier of the 21st-century. And people are listening: the Instagram account has 2.4 million followers. In any given week, you might see posts on Co...
Feb 11, 2021•47 min•Ep. 25
Throughout my teens, my sisters and I would fight to steal the Good Weekend magazine from the kitchen table on Saturday morning. We would savour the intellectual commentary on societies emerging issues, satiate our thirst for knowledge of the culture beyond the four walls of our young existence, and we were fascinated by the interesting dynamics and relationships featured in the Two of Us profiles. To say this magazine is embedded in the DNA of my coming of age is an understatement. Good Weekend...
Nov 26, 2020•42 min•Ep. 24
Katelyn Swallow is the editor in chief of the Australian Strong Fitness Magazine - part of the global Strong franchise. Strong Fitness is a digital and print publication, that provides evidence-based training and nutrition advice to Australian women between the ages of 20-50 years of age. As Katelyn shares in this episode, it’s all about evidence for Strong Fitness - they’re looking for the research and data to back up their stories. Katelyn walks us through everything she’s looking for in a pit...
Nov 05, 2020•39 min•Ep. 23
Handle your own PR, hack your own PR - whatever you want to call it, sharing the fundamental skills of public relations with small business owners is the thing I live for. But it turns out I'm not alone. That theory about no original ideas being left in the world was shown to me to be true recently, when I found out about Handle Your Own PR, a Melbourne business that's been offering PR mentoring to small businesses and entrepreneurs for 12 years. Founder Jules Brooke got in touch with me and, ra...
Nov 05, 2020•50 min•Ep. 22
Eloise Keating is the editor of SmartCompany and along with a small but mighty editorial team, this niche business publication has become one of the most engaging, useful, and practical resources for small business owners. Eloise shares her tips to secure headline coverage with Smart Company including what not to include in a subject line, who the editorial team specifically want to feature and speak to within the business landscape, how Smart Company plans it’s content and it’s workday includin...
Sep 30, 2020•50 min•Ep. 21
Want to know the secret to scoring a story in Women’s Agenda? Angela Priestley is the Founding Editor of Women's Agenda, and as a classic journalist and editor entrepreneur and business owner, she starts the day bright and early, and says getting that pitch into her inbox for first thing will give you the best part of her brain -- that’s 4.30am for Angela! I’m so delighted to share this conversation where Angela shares everything you need to know to secure an article in this independent and 100%...
Sep 23, 2020•43 min•Ep. 20
Yatu Widders Hunt is a proud Aboriginal woman, communications professional and founder of online community, Australian Indigenous Fashion. Yatu is a Director of Indigenous Social Change Agency, Cox Inall Ridgeway and works freelance across the media landscape. In this episode, Yatu shares how she wishes to change the PR industry for the better by adopting more indigenous practices like deep listening, codesign, and collaboration into the heart of campaign development. She talks about the value o...
Sep 18, 2020•38 min•Ep. 19
