An entrepreneur’s business journey – Interview with Ronke Lawal
Ronke Lawal is the founder and director of Ariatu PR, where she works with start-ups and entrepreneurs on opportunities to publicise and promote their businesses through marketing campaigns and press and media engagement. Ronke specialises in digital projects strategy, working with social media and content marketing.
After graduating with a degree in International Business and Economics, Lawal’s first role was at the Department of Trade and Industry and the Insolvency Service. She talks about having aligned herself with the managers and getting to know how they led people as she eventually wanted to be in a position of leadership or management. “I knew I’d have to take control of my network if I were to get to where I really wanted to get to” – she adds. A personnel and finance management role in a health and fitness company followed, but Ronke eventually realised that she wasn’t quite fulfilling her purpose: “I thought there was a greater calling, there was more to it.”
Ronke then started her own business, a precursor to what is now Ariatu PR: a capacity building company, where she works with small business owners on their communication and their business development. When the opportunity to be the Chief Executive of Islington Chamber of Commerce in London arose, she took it as she has always seen herself in a position of influence, using her knowledge to guide others. The role appealed as it focused on engaging with the business community, communications, marketing and leadership. After three years she returned to self-employment: “I had to use the skills I’d learnt as a CEO to test myself again. I gave everything the time it needed to develop and grow”.
Amongst her lessons learned, Ronke highlights the importance of being willing to push yourself and push your boundaries. Fear quite often stops us, particularly as women, from going for those big jobs, those big contracts, or even being self-employed. Negative self-talk can get in our own way. “It’s really important to me to have myself as a self-coach. No matter what others told me, I had to believe in myself: everything I did had to come down to my own courage and sense of purpose.” She advises working on yourself and your self-belief to truly believe that you can do it. Then have the outside circle who can support you and encourage you, to get you where you need to go.
“I’m relatively young, I’m a black British publicist, I’m a woman in business, which is quite unusual and it can be tough at times, especially unpacking the media narrative. I’m just all about pitching for the story and building relationships and found that using social media and communicating in a certain manner has allowed me to break certain barriers and boundaries and change certain perceptions.” – Ronke reflects. She is thriving in business helping clients realise the value and impact of communications and PR. Clients, particularly women in business, go through phenomenal changes during their campaigns.
“You don’t have to be famous to be an influence or a leader, you can be where you are and be courageous.” Lawal shares these communication and publicity guidelines:
- Identify your ethos: know who you are, what your brand is about and stand by it, this will drive your message.
- Clarify your message for yourself before starting to promote it to others.
- “You have to package yourself in a way that you want the world to see you.” Be who you want to see and stand by it with confidence.
- Be what you want to see on all of your media channels: in traditional press, TV, radio and on-line on social media. If you’re not being a good representative of your brand, that can have a major impact.
- Have fun. The most interesting entrepreneurs and business leaders also have fun, the President of the United States doesn’t always tweet about politics, sometimes he’ll tweet about music.
In terms of internal communication, Ronke advises flexibility and responsiveness to external events. Find some safe spaces to discuss sensitive issues, share messages in a respectful way. In order to benefit from different perspectives, Lawal recommends that leaders set a clear social media policy and guidelines. Allow all members of the team to feel a part of the communication channels so they can share what they see as important about the brand.
Finally, she adds: “Whatever you have in your heart to be, you should just go for it. I grew up on a council estate and had to do a lot of making myself believe in myself. If you are faced with discrimination, be brave: don’t turn it into anger, turn it into action to become whatever it is you are trying to become. “
Ronke Lawal, Founder of Ariatu Public Relations, a public relations and marketing consultancy. Ronke started her own business in 2004 & became the CEO of the Islington Chamber of Commerce where she remained until the end of 2012 and became a non-executive director of The Hoxton Apprentice in 2011. In 2011 Ronke Lawal was honoured to receive a Precious Award for Inspirational Leadership.
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