I’m celebrating my first 100 days as Brand and Communications Manager at Raise the Bar and if you’ll indulge me, I’ve got a few things to share.
Spoiler: this isn’t a ‘here’s what we do and why we’re amazing’ sales piece. This is about culture, curiosity, connection and what it’s really like to join a business that’s built on people and performance.
First things first, I didn’t know what to expect. New job, new team, new sector. But what I walked into is something rare: a hybrid role that works, a genuinely warm welcome, and an organisation that promotes empowerment and means it. Two days a week in the office, three at home, a great balance for our UK-wide team. The structure works.
Our HR team? Incredibly warm. Our exec team? Present and grounded. They’re not hiding behind glass walls or layers of bureaucracy they’re in the mix, showing up and checking in. And to me, that stuff matters.
Within my first few weeks, it was clear that communications and brand marketing here are paramount to our business growth potential and I’ve been given space to evolve. We’ve been busy. We’ve rethought how we tell our story. We’ve safeguarded creative time each week (yes, really! No meetings, no admin, just thinking, writing, shaping). We’ve prioritised collaboration, not just within our marketing team but across the whole organisation. And we’ve made one thing clear: comms isn’t just a function. It’s a vital part of business strategy and a driver for change.
And then there’s the work itself. I’ve had a crash course in apprenticeships, and I’ll be honest, I had some unlearning to do. Like many people, I assumed apprenticeships were mostly for school leavers or early careers. I’ve been schooled by our dedicated and inspirational apprenticeship team on just how outdated that thinking is.
I’d also never encountered a speaker Bureau before. Working alongside the Raise the Bar commercial team is a riot. It’s loud, busy and bursting with energy. Hearing household names pop up in emails, calls and bookings is such a rush as is having access to inspiring online sessions through our Change Catalyst and Empower programmes.
A normal day for me could be anything from meeting world-renowned motivational speakers, creating dynamic animations, briefing our internal teams on new products, celebrating graduations and company wins, playing with Lennon (our office dog), setting up my annual volunteer day, or preparing our state-of-the-art kit to capture video footage with one of the world’s most recognisable brands. It’s all go!
As a former journalist and PR exec, storytelling has always been my compass. It’s how I make sense of strategy, shape campaigns, and build trust. So much of my role now is about owning the Raise the Bar narrative internally and externally. It’s about asking, “What do we want people to feel when they hear our name?” and then making that real.