As part of the launch of the 2021 mentoring scheme, we spoke to several of the mentees from last year’s cohort about what they have gained. Francesca Carpanini was mentored by independent consultant Sarah Samee.
I think the last eighteen months have been pretty chaotic for most people right across the globe. Frontline workers have tirelessly served their communities throughout the pandemic, some sectors ground to a halt and the rest hovered in a limbo as we bounced between lockdowns, with all the varying restrictions. PR and communications has had its fair share of turmoil, with furlough and redundancy reaching to the very heart of our sector.
This is something that I have experienced firsthand and its impact has certainly reverberated to the very core of my professional – and at times – personal being. This meant that I questioned my very existence as a PR practitioner and whether I would have the confidence to be able to step back up and truly deliver at a strategic level. Thankfully, the WIPR and PR Week mentoring scheme came at exactly the right time.
I applied for the scheme within a week of applications opening. It was honest, instinctive and I hoped demonstrated my need for a mentor to be able to suss out who I was a PR practitioner, how to embrace my ‘Marmite’ tendencies and what this meant for my career plans. To be honest, I didn’t think that I would be shortlisted, let alone be offered the chance to be part of this incredible year of support. I was very humbled to receive the successful stage calls each time and for that I will be forever grateful to the team for including me in the programme.
The last year with my mentor has been challenging, refreshing, reaffirming, and exciting. She genuinely sought to help me understand my professional values, how this reflects in the organisations I work for/with and why it is important to be true to these values. She showed me that while I have been described as ‘Marmite’ by some because of my tendency to challenge, look to push the boundaries and sometimes be brave in taking a brand in a new direction, that it was OK to be that way. That this is intrinsic to who I am as a professional, that it’s not about being awkward or difficult to manage but instead, truly investing myself into my roles because for me, it is about showing the value that PR and communications brings to an organisation. Being able to sit at a strategic level and present, to positively challenge and take things forward.
I feel really fortunate that I was matched with my mentor. She was able to quickly understand where I was emotionally, professionally and personally; this insight has only got stronger over the course of our calls and messages in between those sessions. I have felt that I was in a safe space to be honest about experiences, what I have learned from them and how some situations continue to elude me – the Disney Pixar Inside Out emotions have been a great way to quietly alert her to how I was feeling – and it makes such a difference.
As the year of mentoring draws to its close and I have to say farewell to my mentor in an official capacity, I am in such a better place than I was when it started. I have been able to identify those values that will now follow me for the rest of my career and while they might adapt as I progress further, I know that fundamentally I can use these as my foundation. I am proud to be the PR practitioner that I am and will continue to be as I learn to be better; no one can say they are the finished article. I may not actually like the real Marmite product, but without my mentor I would never have been able to embrace that aspect of my professional side.
I am privileged to be part of the WIPR tribe, ringing the bell for those of us in the Welsh network and hoping that more female PR and communications professionals join us. I would encourage those who are at a crossroads in their career to apply for the next mentoring scheme when it opens, and for those that get the chance to be part of the programme to really give their all to it. Don’t hide your light under a bushel or feel that you are being judged for showing vulnerability because you really aren’t; outside of my mentor, I have had 29 other women in our mentee cohort champion me, as much as we have championed others. WhatsApp has been a godsend in the pandemic world that we have faced and we have regularly talked about successes, concerns and opportunities.
WIPR is not about bravado or ‘faking it to make it’, it really is a network of women that all want to see the other succeed. So to everyone, enjoy the next step in your own journeys and as Beyonce would say, “Who Run the World”?
