Bec Brown is the founder and director of The Comms Department, a public relations and crisis communications agency, with more than 20 years working in the creative industry alongside people like Katy Perry and The Wiggles, and brands such as KIIS FM, Live Nation, and Amazon Prime Video. It’s a competitive but rewarding creative industry, and one that she says you can succeed in – if you set your mind to it.
She’s put together an essential career handbook for creatives, called You’ve Got This, and today Bec Brown is on the blog to answer a few of our questions about it. Read on!
Bec Brown
Tell us about your book, You’ve Got This!
BB: You’ve Got This is for those who want to succeed in their career in any creative industry, but also for anyone who wants to start their own business. It’s full of tips and real life stories on what works and what doesn’t – based both on research and some on my own shocking mistakes, which I’m very honest about.
With this ongoing global event that’s left the Aussie job market a bit uncertain, it’s a timely guide that offers practical solutions and easy-to-action advice to help women reach their creative and earning potential and find career fulfilment, minus the anxiety or burn out.
You’ve Got This covers everything from how to stand out from the crowd and build an exceptional reputation in a positive and authentic way, to defining your own measure of success and personal brand to ensure you end up on the right career path.
There are also tips on how to build valuable relationships – from networking, working well with your boss, dealing with office politics, introverts and extroverts, and the dos and don’ts of meetings, work events, and social media.
And because we want a career that we can have for a long time, there’s also practical advice on managing your work-life balance so that work remains fun and you never burn out, plus tips on starting your own successful business and other life lessons to apply to your professional life.
Helpful for what’s going on in the world today, there’s information on how to be cool in a crisis with tips on overcoming challenges, dealing with setbacks or change, and dismissing the fear of failure.
And because I have a music background, there’s also a chapter that explains how your voice can be your biggest ally – because how you say something is just as important as what you say, it helps you learn how to master your pitch, pace, tone and volume.
It’s also been beautifully illustrated by Inga Campbell and reads more like a magazine than a book, so it’s easy to dip in and out of and is an enjoyable read.
Why was it so important to you that you write this book?
BB: I wrote this book for three reasons – a lot of graduates, young professionals and those wanting to start their own business were coming to me for advice, so it was time to compile that knowledge.
But also, I had a really rough time navigating my career in my late teens and twenties. At times I felt very rudderless, especially when I was changing careers. I wish someone had handed me a book like You’ve Got This, as getting practical and honest advice from someone who’d gone before me would have been a game-changer. Ultimately, if this book can help just one other person to not go through some of the angst that I did, it’s done its job.
And thirdly, part of the author proceeds from every book sold will be donated to two incredible charities that support women – Fitted for Work and Life Changing Experiences.
What are some things that you think are holding women back in creative fields?
BB: There’s a misconception that creative people either shouldn’t be, or aren’t, very commercially minded. Often people will create amazing work, but they can’t sell what they create to be able to make a good living, to support themselves, their families and their community.
Learning how to place a value on yourself, your time and anything you produce will determine whether or not you can make a successful living out of your creativity.
When I was at school, because I studied subjects like music, art, drama and English, there was an assumption that I was terrible at maths. And I believed that for way too long. I later found out that while maths didn’t come quite as naturally to me as more creative tasks, it was still all learnable. And if you want to run a business, you need to decide to get good at it – You’ve Got This offers some great advice on how to become great at both.
Employment in the creative industries will look very different in a post-pandemic world. What would be your advice for future job-seekers?
BB: Firstly, do an audit of both your soft and hard skills and if there are areas you feel you’ll need to improve, can you start that process? Who can you talk to who’s gone before you in your chosen area to find out what you need to know? This can be important as, without them ‘you won’t know what you don’t know’.
I have a quote in my office that says “Isolation is the enemy of excellence” – and it’s to remind me how much we need other people. When you get busy or if you’re looking for a job, it’s sometimes easy to put your head down and just keep working, but a really important piece of the career-success puzzle is having real connections. Put simply, the more high quality connections you have, and the stronger those connections are, the more successful you’re going to be.
This may include your peers but it’s also other important people in the business or the industry – who are the stakeholders within your industry who are important to its success? How can you get to know them, what’s important to them, and how can you become valuable to them?
And while regularly connecting with your peers is great, it’s also helpful to be levelling up – so who are people who could be great mentors to you? Maintaining regular contact with those who are smarter than us will always help us grow and evolve. Early in my career I didn’t do that, I didn’t know that it was important or how to do it – and if I had, it would have fast-tracked my career and helped me a lot. So learn from my mistake there! I talk about ways to do this in You’ve Got This too.
Also, what do your social media accounts look like? Your digital presence is more important than ever given that travel restrictions mean that we may not be able to see each other in real life as easily as we used to – is your LinkedIn up to date, what’s on your Instagram, or Twitter? Is this something you want prospective employers to see?
A portion of the proceeds from every copy of You’ve Got This sold will be donated to two charities that support women: Fitted for Work and Life Changing Experiences. Can you tell us a little bit about these charities and why you picked them?
BB: We all need a helping hand from time to time. It’s what makes us human. I know that I’ve benefited greatly from the compassion and generosity of others over my short lifetime.
And if you’ve been fortunate to receive things like a great public school education, or been able to back-pay a university degree, or have the luxury of choosing your own career path, all before you head out into the workplace, I believe it’s your duty to help others who may not have been so lucky. In whatever way you can, big or small. It’s as simple as that. I was incredibly lucky to have had these opportunities. Not everyone has such a strong start in life. But everyone deserves to fulfil their potential, in a way that truly makes them happy. So part of the proceeds from the sale of every copy of You’ve Got This will be going to two brilliant charities to help even more women life their most successful lives.
The Life Changing Experiences Foundation helps Australia’s most marginalised girls grow into strong independent women capable of taking their place in the world and one of the ways that they do this is through their SISTER2sister program which provides structured mentoring, education, welfare support and crisis intervention services to vulnerable or disadvantaged teenage girls (Little Sisters) aged from 12 – 18 years old. By equipping the ‘Little Sisters’ with crucial survival and life skills, the resilience to overcome challenges, and a safe environment fostering self-worth, the SISTER2sister mentoring program empowers these girls to break the cycle of abuse and neglect and make positive choices that help them turn their lives around. As a result of these programs, hundreds of young women have completed their education and taken up further study or workplace opportunities that would otherwise have been out of their reach.
And Fitted for Work is the first Australian organisation of its kind, dedicated to helping women experiencing disadvantage get into work and keep it. They do this through a suite of tailored pre-and post-employment programs and services that are available nationally, that develop women’s confidence, self-esteem, skills and knowledge which then enable them to obtain work. Fitted for Work’s vision is economic independence and empowerment for women. They see a future where women contribute equally to the positive transformation of society through their role in the workplace. They know that when women have hope, dignity, confidence and economic security through work, the flow-on effect is transformative to them, to their families and to society as a whole.
What’s one tip from the book that you really love?
BB: If I were to give just one piece of advice, underpinning everything is learning how to be more mindful. It’s something that can be learned and when you can do it, it’s a career (and life) game-changer. When times are challenging – whether at work or with any generalised stress or anxiety – we need to be able to tune out the noise to focus on what’s actually important, and meditation or mindfulness greatly helps with that. It helps you to step back from a situation and see all the different possibilities so you can prioritise what’s the most urgent task to complete first, second, and so on. Apps like Headspace, 10% Happier or Waking Up with Sam Harris are great places to start if you want to begin meditating. And when times are changing, it’s helpful to remember that while we can’t control what happens to us, we can control our reaction to it. In every situation there are facts and there is drama – the first is reality, the second is a choice.
What is the best piece of writing advice you have ever received?
BB: I love the idea that “Small, repeated, daily steps create life transformations” and this really applies with any creative pursuit like writing. Some days you’ll feel the creative genius strike and you’ll be in flow. Other days the mere thought of having to write a paragraph feels like the most tedious thing in the world. But that’s when you just have to persevere. Just keep writing or creating, even if you think it’s bad. At least it’s something that you can come back to and edit, polish or launch off from next time.
What do you hope readers will get out of You’ve Got This?
BB: After reading this book, the aim is for you to feel more capable and empowered than before – to have a bunch of great new ideas but to also know what the practical steps are to make that happen. And ultimately, to know that no matter what, you’ve got this.
And finally, what’s up next for you?
BB: Life is never dull when you’re running a public relations company – every day delivers new challenges in a 24/7 environment, and with the creative and clever clients that we represent, each day is different and exciting. Whether that’s looking after the PR for Australia’s #1 radio network ARN’s 10 live stations across the country, including their KIIS and Pure Gold Networks and iHeartRadio, or for streaming services hayu and Amazon Prime Video, who each have an amazing slate of new series and movies launching filled with some of the world’s most brilliant talent, through to helping our client Bras ‘N Things as they continue to build a community of confidence warriors who celebrate and support women who want to express every version of themselves, however they choose to do so. But ultimately, for the next few months, as well as running The Comms Department, I’m focussed on promoting You’ve Got This – my aim is to help as many people as I possibly can to create a career that they love and earn great money doing it.
Thanks Bec!
—You’ve Got This by Bec Brown (Penguin Books Australia) is out now.
This book is part of Booktoberfest, the festival of new books!
You've Got This
The essential career handbook for creative women
Build your dream career in any creative industry by following the practical, achievable and 100 per cent proven steps outlined in this book.
Want to flourish in a creative industry such as entertainment, marketing, advertising, PR, design, photography, media or the arts? Would you love to score your dream job or start a business doing something you love and be earning a great income – but you aren’t sure how to make that happen? Then this is the career hack you've been waiting for...
On The Pod: Chantelle Otten, Amantha Imber & Bec Brown
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