Welcome

I'm Sarah Mainprize and my job title is Head of Communications and Marketing. I've worked in the media for all my working life. I continue to be excited about it and I continue to want to go in to work everyday and make a difference with what I do.

When I was at school I knew I wanted to do a job that involved writing. When I was in sixth form I worked on the school newspaper, I very much enjoyed it and I think that stuck with me. I started doing a masters degree, an MBA, that was kind of teaching me to start thinking more strategically about management and that kind of thing. About that time, a job opportunity came up at my local council, as it was then, for a manager of the press team and I took that job and did that for three years. It took a lot of thinking for me to make the move, because working for a newspaper is a lot like working for your own family. I almost felt as if I was betraying them by jumping out and going into communications and PR.

I would say yes, I'm a positive person and I'm optimistic as well. Self talk's really important and if you keep telling yourself "you're not very good or you're not going to do very well," you won't. You're going to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. So if you keep focusing on what you're good at and try to develop where you know you're not so good, then at least you know that you're doing everything you can to succeed.