Hosted by Lauren Roberts, today’s podcast welcomes Anita Jaynes, founder of The Business Exchange magazines which distributes its two editions, Swindon and Wiltshire and Bath and Somerset.

Anita joins Lauren to catch up PR Not BS listeners on her business since her last appearance in 2021.

Five years on Anita shares how her businesses have developed over half a decade and kicks off this episode by sharing about the expansion of her online magazine, networking events and the introduction of The Business Exchange Awards.

Anita shares how the media landscape has changed in the last 5 years and how content marketing is king and stresses the importance of having your business move through the times to stay profitable and relevant. Anita exemplifies this with her introduction of The Business Exchange VIP membership and how the subscription changed the game for the magazine, enabling her to tell the stories which are integral to the business community.

Anita discusses her growth and journey of starting The Business Exchange Show and Magazines and her focus of supporting SMEs in the region. She talks about what it takes to create two quarterly magazines and how she juggles the world of everyday life with this mammoth job.

“I don’t think people realise how labour intensive a media business is,” said Anita. “You’re only as good as your last magazine.”

2026 marks 13 years of ‘The Business Exchange: Swindon and Wiltshire’ and 10 years of ‘The Business Exchange: Bath and Somerset’.

Anita dives into her relationship with the charity sector in the South West and shares South West has a vast wealth of charities and has heard how businesses are struggling to connect with the sector in an affordable way. Therefore, she created free and cheap events to do just that. What started off as listening, became a thriving annual event which draws over 700 people to the region.

She shares her tips for business leaders and how her successful media business lies with her attention to detail, by listening and looking after people and their stories, something Anita believes has somewhat been lost.

“We’re Bath, Somerset, Swindon, and Wiltshire’s only dedicated business to business magazine and online outlet,” she said. “It’s sad.”

Her goal is to bring eyes to these counties and bring them together. To bring sustainable business and collaboration within the South West, particularly with the vastness of Wiltshire and its many small businesses.

Anita discusses how the relationship with the media has changed through time and how the personal, not the artificial, wins out for businesses who want coverage.

In their third year, The Business Exchange Awards for Bath, Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire are launching on 13th April 2026. Ready for businesses across these regions to be in the running for this award which puts community and collaboration first.

Tune in now to get all the details of Anita’s professional media journey and see the reality of building a magazine company, not the BS!

To contact Anita Jaynes at The Business Exchange:

Email: anita@tbesw.co.uk

To get in touch with Lauren and the Scott Media team, visit www.scottmedia.uk

Join our free Facebook group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/prtribe

Fiona’s guest today is Tamsin Welton, the new homes sales manager McFarlane Sales and Lettings.

In this episode of ‘PR not BS’ podcast Tamsin dives into her journey to becoming an estate agent and how being a good estate agent is not about the numbers.

Fiona first met Tamsin when she joined a local networking group, Professional Connections of Wiltshire, a couple years ago.

After becoming a networking friend and colleague, Fiona invited Tamsin onto the podcast to discuss the ins and outs of being an estate agent and what it means to Tamsin. As well as the role PR and networking plays in her role and industry.

Tamsin started working in the estate agent sector over 30 years ago and started working for new home sites in Swindon, working with apartment blocks and new developments. Tamsin travelled to North Devon to Westward Ho, working at the county’s beautiful coastline. She then moved to South Africa and worked on selling homes in the region and was involved in the selling and designing of homes before travelling back to the UK and settling back in Swindon.

After moving back to Swindon Tamsin worked freelance for two years before becoming employed with an estate agency before landing her current position at McFarlane Sales and Lettings, Swindon’s local independent estate agents, where she is thriving.

Tamsin dives into the reasons she returned to being an employed estate agent and the hands-on and personal way McFarlane approaches their work. In her extensive experience of different estate agencies, this one is an outlier in how they treat their agents and clients.

“You are a person, not a number,” Tamsin says.

Tamsin shares her experiences of working at a poor estate agency in the past and gives insights into how some estate agencies work to create ‘productive’ environments at the expense of employees and clients.

Her work at McFarlane couldn’t be more different and it’s about spending time with clients and not being chastised for investing in them and guiding people through a complicated process of owning or renting a home. Tamsin shares a personal experience about how being a good estate agent and going the extra mile brings new returns.

Tamsin dives into the world of networking and it pays off in the long term. She shares how investing in long term relationships and processes is something estate agents are used to. One referral can pay for the whole year's networking. Estate agents and business professionals should and are in it for the long game.

Tamsin discusses McFarlane’s interaction with many aspects of PR, including their apprenticeship scheme and charity work with Race for Life and Macmillan Coffee Mornings.

“It seems like a company prepared to give back and prepared to talk about it and it inspires others to do the same,” said Fiona.

Tune in now to get all the details of Tamsin’s professional journey and get the reality of PR. With no BS!

To contact Tamsin at McFarlane.

Website: mcfarlaneproperty.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mcfarlaneproperty

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mcfarlanes

If you would like to contact me, you can visit www.scottmedia.uk or join my free Facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/prtribe

Lauren’s guest today is Dave Southby, the founder and managing director of Southby & Co Financial Planning.

Now in his fifth year of business having started in business alone, there are now a team of six. The team includes another financial advisor and an office manager, and having already moved offices to accommodate the team, they are now on the hunt for a larger home for the business as the team has grown yet again.

Since being joined by a team, Dave rebranded the business which reflects that it isn’t just him, so now the business is known as Southby & Co Financial Planning. He talks about how life has changed since the expansion.

Dave explains that the job of a financial advisor involves far more than most people imagine the role to include. He also dismisses the false belief that you have to be wealthy to work with a financial advisor.

Working and living in the area where he grew up, giving back to the community is something that is very important to Dave. The business has already won two business awards – the Positive Business Award at The Business Exchange Awards and the St James’s Place Responsible Business of Year Award. To be able to support local projects, and local charities is a huge passion of his.

Networking has always been something that Dave finds an important part of growing his business which is also part of his PR strategy. Now that he has a team around him, it means he has the luxury of sending other team members to events, so he can work on other things.

This year he aims to enter more awards, hopefully find a new office - the forever home for Southby & Co, and there are also new partnerships and ideas coming up – including something he’s keeping close to his chest for now!

To contact Dave:

Website: https://www.southbyfp.co.uk/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/southby.dave/

If you would like to contact me, you can visit www.Scottmedia.uk or join my free Facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/prtribe

My guest today is someone I hadn’t met until this podcast: Matthew Stafford who like me is an entrepreneur.

Matthew is the founder of a business called 9 Others, which is a global network of entrepreneurs. Along with his co-founder, Katie Lewis, they started the business in 2011 and what began small has grown into quite a large network. At the time, he and Katie were working for a government backed project to help entrepreneurial companies to raise investment, and as you’ll hear, the ‘dining’ idea came out of that.

The premise of 9 Others is a dinner which he hosts, along with 10 guests, so it is literally, him and 9 Others. Basically they invite founders of companies, entrepreneurs, people working in startups - to come to dinner. The format is that each person shares a challenge they’ve come up against, and then for a short time the rest of the group try to help out with ideas and questions. Matthew explains how this works, and that it’s based on Chatham House rules – what’s shared around the table is confidential and there is no hierarchy.

He also talks about his love of What 3 Words, explaining the concept and how that business came about, plus how Chris Sheldrick, one of the founders came to a few of the 9 Other dinners when they started.

Matthew also shares how the entrepreneurs around the table are selected and invited; with the main aim of having people who will contribute. However, as you’ll hear they are not selected by how much they’re earning or by particular business sectors.

9 Others dinners have run in 50 cities around the world, so to hear more about this fascinating idea, listen in.

To contact Matthew:

Website: https://9others.com/

Email: matthew@9others.com

If you would like to contact me, you can visit my site: www.Scottmedia.uk or join my free Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/prtribe

My guest today is a good business friend who I’ve met through networking - Simon Read a business broker specialising in selling accountancy firms.

He shares his journey from working in sales to becoming a business broker. He talks about the importance of networking both in person and online and the value of PR in building visibility and credibility. Simon sees networking as a good way to get out of your comfort zone, plus a place where you have the opportunity to build trust and relationships. He also explains why networking in different areas to where you live and work can be very positive. Introducing you to new people and businesses who work in a different location to yours maybe a city compared to rural, that can your eyes to new possibilities and sometimes interesting challenges.

After listening to me talk (on several occasions) about making contacts with journalists, he did just that and contacted a journalist writing in his specific industry area. Following that he has written around half a dozen articles for that journalist on a variety of accountancy subjects including selling your business and private equity. In turn this has brought him other opportunities, including speaking engagements – one at Account X, a large accountancy Expo in London, and now he can share on his website, that he is a published author and speaker.

Simon explains what is involved when it comes to selling an accountancy business. When working with clients who are selling, he has to prepare them – addressing HR issues, improving systems, and ensuring positive financial trends on growth can be evidenced. He also talks about the challenge of attracting younger buyers to look at accountancy businesses that need modernization, when the younger generations are more likely to have adopted digital technologies.

He gives some useful tips about how to prepare your business a good time ahead of when you might actually consider selling.

To contact Simon:

Website: www.accountantsforsale.co.uk

Email: info@accountantsforsale.co.uk

If you would like to contact me, you can visit www.Scottmedia.uk or join my free Facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/prtribe

Lauren’s guest is someone that we are well acquainted with at Scott Media, Jo Smyth, who runs her own PR business - Word Worker. Jo collaborates closely with Scott Media with a couple of mutual clients, and she also does Scott Media’s PR.

She loves being able to collaborate with another PR company especially when you work in a similar area and it’s not seen as competition at all.

Fiona and Jo have known each other for years, and have a great deal in common, apart from both being in PR. They both worked for the Swindon Advertiser as journalists; they share the same birthday and even the same date for their wedding anniversaries! However, when it came to their careers, although starting out in a similar way, they then followed slightly different paths, before both ending up working in PR.

Jo talks about how she was brought up with newspapers in her household and then studying history she gained some very transferable skills. She followed her passion and went into journalism, having several different jobs, which she loved. After her second baby though she started freelancing, which she also loved; writing for many women’s and parenting magazines. After that she worked in different PR jobs, where she found having been a journalist benefitted her in the different roles she held, because she knew what journalists would be looking for; what was newsworthy and what was not.

She also talks, as Fiona often does, about the importance of good photos. If you don’t have photos to go with a press release, then that won’t get used. Jo gets very frustrated when people don’t invest in professional photography. Although these days fewer local newspapers have photographers, so it tends to be use generated content i.e. pictures from readers. She says that’s fine for some stories, but if you want your business to be taken seriously and you want to look professional – use professional photos.

Jo also talks about AI, which she considers a useful tool, and does use it herself for ideas, for re-phrasing things, but only as tool rather than an end in itself. She makes the point that it’s fine getting help to write a press release etc, but you still need a good PR person to get that story in front of the right journalist and get it published.

You can contact Jo here:

Website: https://wordworker.co.uk/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josmythpr/

If you would like to contact me, you can visit my www.Scottmedia.uk or join my free Facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/prtribe

Today I’m my own guest! As you know, my main aim in business is to help people and their business or organisation to become more visible. I’m going to share some PR tips, insights and trends ready for 2026, that I hope will help you to plan and prepare your storytelling for the new year.

To start, I’m going to give you some general advice around understanding the value of PR, especially at a time when businesses are having a tough time. Because of this many people want to know how you can prove that PR is worth the spend.

PR is not sales! It's all about visibility, and that visibility will lead to sales in the long term. Becoming visible in business doesn’t happen overnight.

I also talk about in more depth:

*Owning your story and personal branding, and in 2026 it’s not going to be enough to only rely on traditional media. You have to become proactive and engage with other people, such as podcasters, guest blogs, influencers etc.

*Hyper-local and niche networks. This is all about tighter communities and looking at and engaging with hyper local media outlets, Facebook groups etc.

*Reputation management. It’s far easier to take care of your reputation than do damage control at a later stage. A lot of small business owners, things going wrong are usually around social media chatter and/or staff issues.

*Trends in media and storytelling. Look out for stories around climate, stress, adaptation, resilience and sustainability.

*Embracing AI and its impact on PR. Don’t stick your head in the sand! Find ways to be positive about AI.

You can still book your place on my No BS Media Summit. To find more information and costs, follow the link to buy your tickets: https://scottmedia.uk/product/the-no-bs-media-summit-2026/

If you’d like to talk to me about how I can help with your PR, then please contact Hannah on: hannah@fionascott.co.uk

My guest today is both client and friend, Janet Shreeve. We’ve both got exciting news to share about a new venture we’re working on together. Firstly though, Janet talks about Shreeve Care Services and how 2025 is ending for her.

Janet shares the highs and lows of her business, starting with an experience that makes everything feel worthwhile. She shares the story of a lady in her late 80s whom she is working with, who out of the blue had a conversation with her in Italian. As a fluent speaker herself, Janet loved being able to talk to this lady, who hadn’t spoken Italian for over 30 years!

Janet also talks about the advisory services that she offers, which has been a large part of her work this year, which she is looking forward to continuing in 2026. This service is something that has come about partly due to the fact that social care has been so badly funded for so long, and people just don’t know what choices they have with care – or what funding is out there. Sadly, many people seem to think that these options cost too much, but by collaborating with other organisations and advising clients about options, people can be supported in the way that they need, often remaining in their own homes. She is passionate about people understanding that they have choices!

She also talks about the new project that we – including my step-daughter Lauren have set up together. Completely unexpectedly by all of us, we have set up ‘Enlightening Escapes’ - to provide a variety of retreats. The retreats are all going to be, as the title suggests, escapes to do something different and have a bit of fun. They’re hard to organise on your own, so it will be great for us working together. She talks about some of the retreats we have coming up in the new year.

We also talk about the budget and the massive omission that was social care which unsurprisingly Janet finds very depressing. However, she shares how she is working in different ways to support people in the care industry – looking at different ways to make things more efficient and cost effective. One being where she works with Agora Staff, and the other a new part of the business, called Care Assist.

To contact Janet:

Website: https://shreevecareservices.co.uk/

Email: Janet.shreeve@shreevecareservices.co.uk

Phone: 07827324590

If you would like to contact me, you can visit www.Scottmedia.uk , https://enlighteningescapes.co.uk/ or join my free Facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/prtribe