Jasmine co-owns and runs Leeds-based PR agency, Content Soup, a firm which describes itself as a PR agency with purpose.
She works alongside her friend and business partner Nina Green, and together they run the senior-only team of Content Soup, which has been supporting clients since 2014.
The agency works with clients it has a general connection and natural interest in, and has seen huge success gaining promotion for its range of clients of all sizes.
Today, Jasmine tells us about a pre-second lockdown week in her working life…
Monday
I’m a rubbish sleeper, so I wake up before 6am most days and spend the hour before my husband and four-year old son get up replying to emails and catching up on the news.
Once we’re all up and ready, I down a coffee, drop my son off at school and head to the office. I’ve always done a real mix of home and office working and love the freedom of choosing where I work each day, but since lockdown has eased, I’ve been going to the office most days to make the most of being out of the house.
I nip out to buy a strong coffee and then my business partner Nina and I sit down to plan for the week ahead. We’ve done it over Zoom for so long, so it’s been great to be able to do it in person again.
This week is all about pitching in a new lifestyle advent calendar, creating a social strategy for a university, writing features on the state of the UK’s property market and doing two virtual pitches. At lunch we go for a team run and then have a Zoom with our designer to talk through some designs he’s doing for our new website.
Tuesday
Since lockdown started, all our meetings have been via Zoom, but today we had our first actual face-to-face meeting since March with one of our property clients. Video calls have been a life-saver over lockdown, but you can’t beat human contact (even if it is socially distanced), and it was so good to catch up with the team and plan for the month ahead without any awkward technical mishaps and audio disasters.
I grab lunch from McDonalds drive-through (don’t judge) en-route back to the office, and then spend a good hour feeling guilty about it.
Spend the afternoon pitching in the advent calendar launch story. It’s the UK’s first ever completely plastic-free, cruelty-free and vegan advent calendar, and all the journalists I spoke to loved it as much as me. It’s even more rewarding as this is from a small independent business run by a fellow female entrepreneur, and we’re holding our own against hundreds of huge beauty brands with massive marketing budgets.
Finish the day prepping for our first virtual pitch tomorrow before heading home, having dinner and then logging back online to do my weekly virtual knitting class. Everybody will be getting hand knitted jumpers from me this Christmas.
Wednesday
I wake up even earlier than usual today, so get up and go for a run.
Once I do the usual morning routine, I head home to work as I want to be near the TV to see the advent calendar featured on ITV’s This Morning. When we first took the brief, our client (who had never invested in PR before) said that getting on This Morning was her ultimate dream, so it feels great to have made it a reality. And even after all these years in PR, I still love the feeling of achieving brilliant coverage for clients that will positively impact on sales.
Following an excited call with our client (and her sales soaring through the roof), I have a quick lunch and then jump onto a video call with a new education client, who introduces us to her team and briefs us on what PR support they need. It was a great call and we all really clicked, something that’s really important to us as a team.
The rest of the day is spent speaking to property contacts on the nationals to find out what they’re working on so I can plan for my property clients, and then prepping for a pitch we have tomorrow.
I feel privileged to have created a flexible working environment where I can pick my son up from school when I need to. I take him to his swimming lesson, before going out for dinner to celebrate a successful day.
Thursday
Meet Nina at the office at 7:30am to prep for today’s virtual pitch. It’s with a really exciting brand, so we’ve spent a lot of time coming up with creative and commercial ideas we think will generate the exposure they need.
The pitch goes well, and we’ll hear whether we’ve won the work next week, so we’ve all got our fingers crossed. Pitching over Zoom is one thing I won’t miss when this pandemic is over.
We go for lunch to wind down, before spending the afternoon brainstorming creative campaign ideas for our clients, something we do monthly. We finish off the day having our weekly Zoom call with our freelance team to check in on how everybody’s doing.
Friday
Friday is finance day for me, so I spend the morning invoicing, sorting out the accounts and chasing up invoice payments, the least favourite part of my job. Then it’s straight onto Zoom for our second virtual pitch of the week with a CEO who wants some help raising her profile prior to selling her business. We’re appointed on the spot, so a great result.
It’s then straight into planning mode, and I spend the afternoon making a start on the media strategy for our new client, checking a detailed list of influencers one of the team had prepared, and updating clients on results achieved for them this week, before sitting down for a quick catch up with Nina to talk through next week’s priorities.
It has been a brilliant but busy week, so I’m ready for the weekend! It will involve lots of long walks, plenty of nice food and a social media and Zoom detox. I need to get off my phone!
