I was lucky enough to be invited to give a talk to a group of students about PR, marketing and social media a couple of weeks ago. It’s always nice to talk to the industry’s future movers and shakers, and despite showing them the new Money Supermarket advert to illustrate a point, I think it all went rather well.

I like my talks or lectures to have an interactive quality, because I always find that I get the most out of events I go to if I can get involved in someway, even if it’s just asking a question. I always want the people I’m chatting away to to get something really useful out of what I’m telling them (even if it is just the link to a crazy advert on the TV), and I feel that giving people the chance to interact and comment is a good way to do this. At the end of my lecture, I asked: ‘Ok, does anyone have any questions about what I’ve been talking about?’. There was silence. I don’t really like silence. ‘Anyone?!’ I said. One person said: ‘well, actually, I have a question about you – what’s the best bit of your job?’. I wasn’t really expecting that as a question, so started the answer with my obligatory ‘ummmmmm’…

There’s a time and a place to think about this, and probably in front of a group of students in a university lecture room isn’t either, but as I was asked, well, I was in the thick of it. The thing is, it’s actually a very difficult question for me to answer. There are LOTS of aspects of the job I enjoy. I love working with likeminded, pro active people. I love looking at new products and ooing and cooing, giving opinions and contributing towards the design. I like the satisfaction of a job well done. I like the buzz I get when I can help people achieve their goals. These are all true…but they’re all a bit expected, aren’t they? I thought a bit more, and do you know what I think the bit I most enjoy is? It’s seeing people that I work with do well. It’s seeing a campaign work well. It’s seeing a great product fly off the shelves. It’s seeing a deserving company get the recognition it should from appreciative emails or even making it through to finalist stage in a prestigious awards…or better still, winning. And the best bit for me is helping them to achieve this. Even in a small way. PR people should help to highlight the best bits of a business…but there has to be a good business there at the start!

I’m lucky in that I work for a number of companies who tick all the boxes above, who make working with them a joy. One of these companies is Trilanco. Trilanco is the UK’s largest animal health and equine wholesaler, and twice winner of the BETA Trade Supplier of the Year Award. Most recently, they’ve made it through finalist stage in two categories of the Red Rose Awards, an awards set up to celebrate Lancashire businesses. Trilanco is modest. It doesn’t thrust its successes in the faces of others…I sometimes think that without me saying ‘we really should tell someone about this’ that they’d keep more things quiet. This isn’t a criticism at all, on the contrary, in my eyes it proves more than ever their worthiness. The team don’t sit there, pat themselves on the back and pop their feet up to enjoy the glow of their latest achievement. They smile and just crack on with further improvements in the quest to be bigger and better than they are. See, that’s something to be proud of, and being part of something like this is the best bit of my job.

Find out more about Trilanco here.