Jule Wilson’s Journey: From Journalist to PR Freelance Expert

Tell us a little bit about yourself & your work.

I work both strategically and operationally to support organisations of all shapes and sizes to build and manage their reputations. From one day to the next I could be augmenting an integrated agency team to develop a pitch, crafting, editing or repurposing compelling copy or working on campaigns, collateral or competitor analysis.

There are an ever-expanding range of channels to work with, and I also teach at a local university, and offer media and communications training to help organisations identify and make the most of the right ones for them to use to meet their specific objectives.

However, I started my communications career around 20 years ago as a journalist, cutting my teeth on a provincial weekly paper in the Midlands before making my way back to my native North East via a busy news agency, where we covered news and features for national titles across the whole of Yorkshire, Humberside and parts of Lincolnshire. I’d often start my day at a high-profile criminal trial or inquest in Leeds or York and end up door-knocking in Hull or Grimsby to secure a story on something random like a tarantula falling from the sky, or a swearing parrot!

But the role that brought me home was as part of the news team at The Journal in Newcastle, which also introduced me to some great colleagues and friends, many of whom remain a big part of my work and my life.

Having made the move into public relations (PR), I’ve gained both agency and in-house experience in fields as diverse as local authorities, financial services, book publishing, software engineering, and the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector, taking on both operational and leadership roles spanning all aspects of internal and external communications.

Now, I’m proud to be one of only around 700 or so practitioners globally to be individually chartered by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), in recognition of consistently delivering at the highest standard of professional excellence and integrity.

What inspired you to pursue freelancing?

It was a little bit by design and a little bit less so. I had been thinking about beginning a side hustle and successfully applied to reduce my employed hours when I was unexpectedly made redundant for the second time in two years. Thankfully I had already secured my first freelance client so it was a case of now or never. That was more than seven years ago.

How did you get your first freelance client?

Through a fellow freelance colleague in my network who recommended me. A coffee with the client followed and we took it from there. It was a relatively short engagement over a few months, involving primarily copywriting and content creation for the web, but it led to additional photography work with a couple of other early clients by way of client- to-client recommendation. It feels like a very long time ago now, but it was a great experience.

What has surprised you most about being self-employed?

Initially, that I didn’t actually enjoy it as much as I expected to. I hadn’t factored on the transition being as challenging as it was, and it took me about 18 months before I found my stride. Now I love it, and am glad of that difficult period, and the fact I persevered through it, as I learned a great deal that helped me build a freelance practice to suit both me and my clients.

What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learned as a freelancer?

Value yourself, your network, and your time; the PR industry and the value and variety of its skillset is much misunderstood and often underrated, as can be the case with freelancers in general, so it’s important that practitioners support one another to gain greater quality work and in turn, better recognition.

That’s why it’s fantastic that the North East Freelance Network exists for all of our benefit, and that of our clients. There’s a sense of mutual support and affinity among freelancers in the region that is just brilliant to be part of.

If you were just starting out, what advice would you give yourself?

Set a higher fee than you think you should; there’s a lot of non client-facing work time to factor into building a successful freelance practice, and that has to be reflected in your rates to be sustainable, and to ensure clients get the best of you rather than a permanently burnt out version.

How do you manage work-life balance as a freelancer?

It’s an ongoing challenge because it’s tempting to say yes to anything that comes your way if you aren’t sure when the next engagement might be, but trust yourself and the value of your expertise.

Learning to say no is an important lesson for any freelancer, as more work will always come along. I’m pretty disciplined about my availability these days, while remaining flexible enough to shift things about to accommodate unexpected work when the right opportunity calls for it.

What do you wish clients understood better about working with freelancers?

Results aren’t instantaneous. Building a following on any channel and creating the kind of advocacy that makes people take action, particularly in today’s market when so much is vying for a consumer’s attention, takes time and requires consistency in terms of tone of voice, message, coverage, and feedback.

How do you measure your success as a freelancer?

Whether I’m enjoying my work is the biggest measure of success for me. I thrive on the variety offered by my field, so am rarely bored by my work, and it always means a lot when clients choose to keep working with me over time. I work on a mix of retainers and ad-hoc tasks, many of which come from clients who have come to me time and time again over the years, and I love that we’ve developed a seamless relationship.

What are you most looking forward to over the next 12 months?

I’m not great at making enough time for, and being comfortable with self-promotion, so I’m aiming to be better on that score over the coming months.

There is also a lot of change happening in the freelance landscape at the moment, much of it following the introduction of an array of AI-assisted tools, so I’m looking forward to integrating more of these into my practice to help me be more effective and efficient at what I do.

What’s the best way for someone to learn more about you or get in touch?

Visit my website at https://julewilson.com/ where you can also contact me and let me know which services I can support you with, or book a time to have a chat about your needs.

You can also find me on LinkedIn.