PR Not BS

Hosted by Fiona Scott, today’s podcast welcomes Morgan Thomas, who Fiona met at Swindon Town Football club. Fiona approached Morgan and asked if she’d be comfortable enough to share her story on the PR not BS podcast.  Morgan Thomas shares her experience of being a thirty-year-old trans woman in modern society. She tells us that she works as a DJ, Event Organiser and works as part of the Swindon C...

Hosted by Fiona Scott, today’s podcast welcomes Andrew Wilkinson, co-director of Secure Safety Solutions which provides health and safety, fire safety and compliance support, advice and services to businesses.  Andrew joins Fiona to share with PR not BS listeners the importance of running a Health and Safety business and sheds light on his passion for protecting people. Fiona starts her chat with...

Hosted by Lauren Roberts, today’s podcast welcomes Sally Holland, partner at PPS Chartered Accountancy as she discusses all things accountancy and PR. Sally joins Lauren to share with PR Not BS listeners the ins and outs of running an accountancy firm in their town of Swindon, Wiltshire. Plus, she dispels the myths and fables around what people think accountants to and shares the reality. “People...

Hosted by Fiona Scott, today’s podcast welcomes Sean Harper, co-founder of Just For Fun Holiday Club which provides childcare services through their clubs across the Swindon, Wiltshire area. Sean joins Fiona to share with PR Not BS listeners on the ins and outs of running a holiday club business and shines a light on how he fell into becoming a business owner. Fiona kicks off her chat with Sean by...

Hosted by Lauren Roberts, today’s podcast welcomes Rachel Bedgood, founder of CBS, trusted screening experts who help organisations stay compliant and reduce risks through screening processes. Rachel joins Lauren to share with PR Not BS listeners the ins and outs of running a background screening business and shines a light on this, often presumed boring, industry. Lauren kicks off her chat with R...

Hosted by Fiona Scott, today’s podcast welcomes Kevin Griffiths, co-director of The Care Show. Having met Kevin 7 to 8 years ago, Fiona found he was enthusiastic about business, networking and food. Fiona then introduced him to her VA, Hannah and now, together, Kevin and Hannah run The Care Show. The event is Swindon’s Health & Social Care Expo where care industry professionals, suppliers, and...

Hosted by Lauren Roberts, today’s podcast welcomes Ashlea Fisher, founder of iRecruit4. Recruitment business based in Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, iRecruit4 supplies businesses with their recruitment needs all across the M4 corridor servicing Basingstoke, Andover, Swindon, all the way down to Bath and Bristol. Specialising in the blue collar industry and temp contracts, Ashlea dives listeners...

My guest today is Rod Hebden, and you’re in for a real journey of discovery! In our conversation we cover everything from science, art, creativity and surprisingly, politics. Rod runs his own business Consulting New Elements and as part of that he runs the Festival Tomorrow and has also set up the Swindon Culture Collective.   The Swindon Culture Collective is a two year project set up to support...

Hosted by Lauren Roberts, today’s podcast welcomes Anita Jaynes, founder of The Business Exchange magazines which distributes its two editions, Swindon and Wiltshire and Bath and Somerset. Anita joins Lauren to catch up PR Not BS listeners on her business since her last appearance in 2021.  Five years on Anita shares how her businesses have developed over half a decade and kicks off this episode b...

Fiona’s guest today is Tamsin Welton, the new homes sales manager McFarlane Sales and Lettings. In this episode of ‘PR not BS’ podcast Tamsin dives into her journey to becoming an estate agent and how being a good estate agent is not about the numbers. Fiona first met Tamsin when she joined a local networking group, Professional Connections of Wiltshire, a couple years ago.  After becoming a netwo...

Lauren’s guest today is Dave Southby, the founder and managing director of Southby & Co Financial Planning.  Now in his fifth year of business having started in business alone, there are now a team of six. The team includes another financial advisor and an office manager, and having already moved offices to accommodate the team, they are now on the hunt for a larger home for the business as th...

My guest today is someone I hadn’t met until this podcast: Matthew Stafford who like me is an entrepreneur. Matthew is the founder of a business called 9 Others, which is a global network of entrepreneurs. Along with his co-founder, Katie Lewis, they started the business in 2011 and what began small has grown into quite a large network. At the time, he and Katie were working for a government backe...

My guest today is a good business friend who I’ve met through networking - Simon Read a business broker specialising in selling accountancy firms.   He shares his journey from working in sales to becoming a business broker. He talks about the importance of networking both in person and online and the value of PR in building visibility and credibility. Simon sees networking as a good way to get out...

Lauren’s guest is someone that we are well acquainted with at Scott Media, Jo Smyth, who runs her own PR business - Word Worker. Jo collaborates closely with Scott Media with a couple of mutual clients, and she also does Scott Media’s PR. She loves being able to collaborate with another PR company especially when you work in a similar area and it’s not seen as competition at all. Fiona and Jo have...

Today I’m my own guest! As you know, my main aim in business is to help people and their business or organisation to become more visible. I’m going to share some PR tips, insights and trends ready for 2026, that I hope will help you to plan and prepare your storytelling for the new year.  To start, I’m going to give you some general advice around understanding the value of PR, especially at a time...

My guest today is both client and friend, Janet Shreeve. We’ve both got exciting news to share about a new venture we’re working on together. Firstly though, Janet talks about Shreeve Care Services and how 2025 is ending for her. Janet shares the highs and lows of her business, starting with an experience that makes everything feel worthwhile. She shares the story of a lady in her late 80s whom sh...

One of my TV guilty pleasures to watch is Master Chef and today I’m thrilled to meet one of this years’ finalists – Sam Kaeokon. Sam has lived in Swindon for just over 10 years, and coming from Thailand, unsurprisingly he loves to cook Thai food!  He talks about how he learnt to cook after watching his grandma in the kitchen prepare Thai cuisine. After moving to the UK, he found that although ther...

My guest today is business friend Debbie Gilbert, who runs a marketing agency, the networking company called Businesswomen UnLtd and also runs events including The Best Businesswomen Awards and the Best SME Awards. She is also about to launch a brand new app called Leanier. Debbie tells how she began her own business at a time before the internet was so big, and when websites were just emerging an...

My guest today is a returning guest, Liz Perkins. Liz is the night news editor on the Sunday Telegraph and the Telegraph, plus she also writes freelance stories across the national papers too. She is incredibly busy and always on the go! She talks about a recent appearance on Crime, on CBS network talking about a crime story she followed years ago. The story was about a murderer in Swansea, who wa...

I’ve known today's guest for many years, and the first thing I asked Gareth Davis to talk about was his memory of first meeting the Scott family. Gareth first met my son David when he was at Westlea Primary School in Swindon. David was about five or six when he joined Gareth’s martial arts class and Gareth talks about how martial arts can help people/children to learn and move at their own pa...

Today, Lauren is talking to Louise Muir Sage of ‘Something Kind of Woo’, a crystal shop in Royal Wootton Bassett. Alongside crystals, she also sells incense, essential oils, tarot and oracle cards. Plus Lou is a Reiki practitioner and runs Reiki sessions and also Chakra realignment sessions. Explaining what Reiki is and how it works, she describes it as ‘cosmic glitter for the soul’. It’s a form o...

My guest today, Sandra Stahl is from New York, who like me has worked in PR for many years. She has spent her career working in both New York and in various other places around the globe, including London. Sandra talks about how she started her career as an intern while still at university, and at the end of the internship was offered a job. That job, working on research, was at an agency called R...

For today’s podcast, Lauren is talking to John Lewis, a mindset and performance coach at JL Mindset Performance. After working as a holiday rep, on building sites and owning a courier company, John went into coaching because it was something that he realised he’d always done; helping other people and being interested in others’. He trained and qualified as a performance coach, and has training in...

My guest today is Georgina Fuller who has been a journalist for over 20 years. She mostly writes for national newspapers, like The Times, The Telegraph and magazines. Her subjects are broadly lifestyle topics, including parenting, travel and neurodiversity. Georgina talks about how she started out in journalism, and how originally she worked on business to business articles, writing about trends i...

In today’s podcast, Lauren talks to Gamal Turawa, who prefers to be known as G. G has a fascinating background and story; one that resonates with many others.  Born in the early 1960s, his early life was traumatic. He went on to be a policeman, and he was in fact, the first openly gay, black policeman. He had a film made about his life, which won him a BAFTA, and was also a consultant on the drama...