By Gabriel Princewill-
A Public Relations (PR) guru has written a book designed to inspire a host of professionals especially new entrepreneurs, PR professionals, members of the media, and communication departments build credibility confidence in establishing stellar careers that can impact their world.
Abbi Hoxleigh is a public speaker who has been in the PR industry for 10 years and has an impressively broader insight into the value of communication than most people would ordinarily farthom with respect to the importance of this fundamental concept.
Abbi has appeared in various publications online and in print, including the Saturday Business Guide of The Daily Telegraph, PR Moment, BBC Radio 4, St James’s Place and The Business Bulletin. She also won second place in the Public Relations Today Most
Valuable Post (MVP) Awards 2022.
A PR and Communications Strategist, Abbi owns a Little PR Rock team of freelancers providing PR training, consultancy, and content creation. She has collaborated with several business owners to offer services that meet the changing needs of her clients, including working with The Book Chief Publishing House in Birmingham, which published her book.
The multi talented lady is also a highly valued member of this publication’s thinktank, with a strong penchant for newsworthy stories, reported the with integrity.
An advocate of establishing reflective practices and developing a strong and credible ‘internal reputation compass’ in an organisation characterised by both useful checks and balances that ensure accountability, Abbi is a refreshing motivator worthy of appreciation. Her wealth of experience is reflected in both her writing and thinking.
The proactive PR expert additionally has experience as a Community Mental Health worker, an area she is also very passionate about.
Diligently honing her skills through life experience and a host of training programmes over the years, Abbi has been honoured to have promoted talented individuals such as four year old Jay Joyce, who is attempting to join the Guinness Book of Records, for writing a children’s book. The young child is currently having a cognitive assessment by a psychologist.
Highest Potential
Driven by a desire to positively help professionals evolve into their highest potential, the thrust of her message , while revolving around the profession of public relations, ultimately encompasses the professional domain of all organizations that deal with the media, or can benefit from engagement with the press.
A woman of legitimate gravitas, Abbi exudes wisdom, and admirably possesses a balanced perspective in relation to organisational growth and effective communication skills, used to optimise results that reflect well on individuals and their organisation.
Central to her message is credibility and trust, which she says is vital for those wanting to connect honourably with the public through the medium of the press.
Embodied in her multi faceted information pact is the desirable objective of inspiring individuals and small businesses to have a lasting impact by leaving admirable digital footprints in the course of their professional endeavours.
”Being a thought leader is not easy, she writes. It requires mental agility and a growth mindset that absorbs and processes knowledge in unique ways to give you a competitive edge. The thought leader provides a valuable service to society. As innovators within their field and expertise, thought leaders lead society by example and prove results”.
Highlighting the importance of developing interpersonal skills, she says: ”transferring ideas from your mind’s eye to others effectively is a competency vital to transactional business”.
Confident Communication
Abbi espouses the view that it is imperative for ambitious professionals to strive to attain a level of excellence in their professional domain, which makes them attractive for good relations with the public. This includes developing high ethics allied to confident, effective communication, both verbally and in writing, she says.
Elaborating on the priceless value of communication, Abbi explains: ”Communication is vital to humans; it is how we connect and transmit ideas to others from our mind’s eye. Understanding the most effective way to communicate helps us to share knowledge in an accessible and inclusive way that helps them to make informed decisions. It is also ethical in a diverse and ever-changing society to share knowledge with those that need it.
”Translating complex information into a digestible format with genuine authenticity, goodwill, and ethical standards is essential for any form of public relations, business strategy and the media, she says.
”Audiences crave information faster every day, which puts pressure on the journalist in print, online and on air. As the provider of newsworthy stories, PR professionals need empathy to help journalists to do their job. There is a responsibility that demands mutual trust between the sources of news stories and those that receive them. This book discusses how we can support journalists when doing our own PR”.
‘The stated level of empathy and mutual trust necessitates the PR individual to satisfactorily convey all the essential information for the journalist to competently share with the world for their worthwhile consumption”.
Confidence
A confident and fluent communicator herself, Abbi insists confidence is the first step in making an impact through Public Relations (PR), and aims to effectively communicate with an audience that include none PR professionals, to help the reader to understand her message.
Although directed at beginners and high aspirants of the field, the authour of this book worth reading explains many very important attributes that every ambitious and visionary professional business man and woman should have or develop in order to have
In a nutshell, her message is that establishing a credible foundation that paves the way for mutually beneficial networking with a vast and diverse press is the key to individuals building an authentic brand and a thriving business that impacts the world.
Abbi’s start-up mentor at the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said, “As a business advisor who supported Abbi on her early start-up journey, she tells it like it is, highlighting the highs and lows, successes and failures and how through her determination and hard work continues to work towards reaching her goals and that of her clients.
Communications Department
The perspective of Abbi’s message is equally pertinent to professionals in the communication department in every professional sphere, which she says is also a form of Public Relations, albeit slightly different from that of individual building their own brand.
Professionals in the communications department of various organisations are either promoting something on behalf of their department or organisation, or ostensibly serving the public interest by responding to queries from journalists.
According to Abbi, a similar level of ‘credibility confidence’ is required in adequately fulfilling their remit within that sphere of endeavour, accord to Abbi.
”Ethical communications can also help professionals in this department confidently deliver their message to the press on behalf of their organisation
The underpinning principles of credible confidence requires the media representative to be well immersed in predictable lines of inquiry likely to be made at their disposal in order to enable them to effectively reflect the mind of the organisation they are representing.
Generic press statements are often prepared in advance by media representatives, but the effective communicator can spontaneously fill in any emerging vacuum by crystallising for the media any particular areas of ambiguities or opaqueness. in consistence with Abbi’s model of credibility confidence..
Abbi is currently on her second cohort at the University of Warwick hub. Mentoring is monthly and learning key skills to scale a business including pitching, sales processes, value proposition, vision and mission, business or lean model canvas, operational excellence .
She is also on the NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator at the University of Warwick, and has been asked to give a webinar for the WMG Clean Transport Accelerator to explore communication and PR.