At Pinstone, we see the true value in working collaboratively with external consultants. Bringing an excellent consultant on board is an important investment. It adds further strings to our bow as an agency and provides our team with an outside perspective; the stimulus to grow and to develop in certain areas, ensuring we’re in the best possible shape the continue to offer top level comms expertise to our clients.
Over the years we’ve developed close relationships with some fantastic individuals and businesses who have really brought an extra dimension to our capabilities.
In this series of quarterly guest blogs, we introduce you to some of the faces that support the Pinstone team and showcase their expertise and services.
Written by…
Name: Maud Davis
Role: Media trainer
Background:
I studied home economics at the University of Ulster in Belfast, spending my placement year in retail management at British Home Stores and thought I would go into food development.
Instead, I came out of university, was offered a job at the Good Housekeeping Institute and after a year, realised that I wanted to work in public relations.
I’ve worked for small, medium and large consultancies in London, changing jobs every five years or so. In that time, I was lucky to work with a genuine foody, Gareth Jones, who helped establish Organix Baby Food, free range chicken (for Moy Park) and get Lindt chocolate listed in the UK supermarkets. My time at Richmond Towers was spent building confidence in British beef after the BSE crisis. At Nexus PR, I handled English Apples and Pears, and Danish bacon.
After 15 years, I realised I didn’t want to run a PR agency – I was much happier coaching and mentoring others. So, I left and ran evening cookery courses at Enfield College to practice my ‘teaching’ skills and freelanced for Hill and Knowlton and Ceres PR, while I set up my training business.
My first client was the Chartered Institute of PR and today, I work with all kinds of organisations and individuals helping them be more impactful in public relations.
Reason for the career change?
The main driver was that I was working with HR at my last agency (Nexus PR) and running the training and development programme for all staff. So, I had some insight into what trainers were doing what and who was good.
There was one trainer in particular – Bill Moir, who I had recruited to run some management and presentations skills training. He had a fantastic down-to-earth, positive way about him that unleashed people’s true potential. I was inspired.
I wanted to be able to help people in the same way. So, I started to explore what qualifications I’d need to switch careers. Then when I got the opportunity of redundancy, that was it.
I’ve never looked back.
Overview of services:
- Media and presentations skills
- PR planning and strategy mentoring
- Writing for PR training
Why do these services matter?
Every organisation has stories to tell but getting them noticed and reaching out to people’s hearts and minds requires the use of some tools and techniques. I show people how to use these.
What benefits will clients see?
- Increased confidence
- Greater impact – interviews and presentations will be memorable, engaging and serve a purpose
- Being able to handle questions confidently
Your motto:
Sometimes we are our own worst enemy and we let procrastination stop us, so my motto is “Do it, and do it now.”
Projects you’ve collaborated on with Pinstone:
- In house training of the team
- Client media training
Testimonials:
Roger Kerr, Chief Executive, OF&G: “The training session OF&G had with Maud has been incredibly beneficial. Adopting the tips and techniques that she introduced has made a real impact and helped us to communicate our key messages much more effectively.”
Becky Callaghan, Account Manager, Pinstone: “Maud had already established a strong reputation amongst the Pinstone team as an excellent trainer when I was invited to take part in a session and my experience didn’t disappoint. The day was tailored to my developmental needs. She recently supported my decision to undertake a PR Diploma to advance my career and she’s always at the end of an email to provide advice.”
Twitter: @maudiemo
