I started Adia to help ambitious founders and SMEs be heardbe seenbe a success

I'm heading to the Festival of Entrepreneurs at the NEC Birmingham next week (3-4 November) and I'd love to see you.

Looking forward to two days of entrepreneurial inspiration, useful conversations and new connections.

I'll be on Stand P6 with the brilliant Lucy Whittington and Thea Brook, CMA so please do come and say hello if you're there. 👋

And if you know you're already going, let me know below.

It was a great show last year and the speaker lineup this year includes: 🎤 HomeServe founder Sir Richard Harpin 🎤 Ted Baker founder Ray Kelvin CBE 🎤 Grenade co-founder Juliet Barratt 🎤 Two Chicks co-founder Alla Ouvarova 🎤 The Turmeric Co. founder Thomas Robson-Kanu 🎤 former Dragon Piers Linney MBE 🎤 and stars of The Apprentice.

Add experts across marketing, AI, funding and leadership, and it’s a chance to learn from people who have been there and done it.

It’s all free to attend so bring a colleague or business partner and make a day (or two) of it.

🎟️ Get your free pass: https://lnkd.in/e_jkF6X3

#FestivalOfEntrepreneurs #FOE2026 #BusinessGrowth

EBConnect never disappoints - a room full of entrepreneurs - some just starting out, others with several startups/scaleups under their belt.

It was an opportunity to share ideas, advice and insights.

Thanks to the brilliant Arti Halai for chairing a great panel session on on what SMEs should be doing to grow over the next 12 months - with Isabel P. from Dell Technologies, Mark Sweeny of de Novo Solutions, Sarah Sahyoun from Sage and Tamara Littleton of Polpeo.

Scott English, CFE challenged us all to not say "I know" when speaking to others after explaining that those two words are the most dangerous for entrepreneurs. We think we know and understand when someone is explaining something to us. But do we really? Should we not rather take the trouble to listen a bit more deeply and ask further clarifying questions rather than skimming over and moving on to the next topic?

Unless you're talking about how fast this year is flying - we all apparently "know" about that one given that nearly everyone I spoke to said the same thing.

So glad you could join us Philipp Buschmann and Martin Damaske and great to see Simon George, Andrew Grill, Kim Antoniou, Dave Stubberfield and Clare Horsley- Freelance Business Development Manager.

Also wonderful to meet Helen Butler, Chris Butler and Chelsey Baker for the first time. In fact Chris called me out today in his LI post as we (and Helen) were already connected here on LI but none of us recognised each other. Now we've met in person we're unlikely to forget - LinkedIn connections are great but no substitute for meeting and speaking face to face.

So two things from yesterday: 1) dive a bit deeper in your conversations - don't assume 'you know'. 2) don't just connect with people here on LinkedIn - follow up with a call if you genuinely think that you need to get to know each other.

Great job as always Laura Hill and team for a brilliant event. 👏

Adia PR is proud to be the official PR partner of Elite Business CoNNect. 🚀

“People need to feel seen, heard and understood.”

My ears pricked up when I heard Scott Walker, former hostage negotiator and Sunday Times Bestslling Author of Order Out of Chaos, speaking at Will Polston's Evolve Mastermind.

Partly because our tagline at Adia PR is “Be Heard. Be Seen. Be A Success.”

But also because Scott's message was such a powerful reminder of something I believe is fundamental to successful relationships, both in business and in life.

People want to know that you're genuinely listening. That you understand them. And that you have their best interest at heart.

It's how you build trust. And trust is at the heart of everything we do in PR.

When a client comes to us, we don't just want to know what coverage they'd like or which publications they want to appear in. We want to understand their business, their ambitions, their challenges and what success really looks like for them.

Sometimes that means challenging their thinking or advising them against something they initially thought they wanted. Because having someone's best interests at heart doesn't always mean telling them what they want to hear.

The same applies to our relationships with journalists. It's not about pushing our agenda. It's about listening, understanding what they need and building relationships based on mutual respect.

You can't build meaningful relationships without trust. And you can't build trust without making people feel heard and understood.

A valuable reminder from Scott that sometimes the most powerful thing we can do is stop talking and really listen.

I was so engrossed listening that I didn't take one single photo of Scott, but I can direct you to the conversation Will and Scott had earlier this year - even better!

https://lnkd.in/eq-5hJyc

#PublicRelations #Leadership #Trust #Communication