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Shine founder and serial PR agency entrepreneur Rachel Bell

This week on the PRmoment podcast I caught up with serial PR entrepreneur and founder of Shine Communications Rachel Bell.

Here is a quick summary of what Rachel and I discussed:

  • Why she left Fleishman Hillard as an account director in 1997 to set up Shine.

  • How the death of her father impacted her decision to launch Shine.

  • Why Shine Communications was launched.

  • Why Rachel took her first new business call for Shine on the morning of her father's funeral.

  • Whether the anger Rachel felt about her father’s death helped to launch Shine

  • Why the launch of Shine represented no risk for Rachel, in her mind.

  • How Shine, launched by Rachel, previously an account director at Fleishmanhillard, won the FA Premier League and Timberland accounts in its first year.

  • Why pride is often the reason people don’t launch a new business.

  • Why Rachel loves the “fire in the belly” approach of new businesses.

  • Rachel talks about the growth of Shine in its early years.

  • How Rachel has been involved in so many people’s start ups from John Doe, to Mischief, to Shine and Aduro.

  • Why Mischief started out as a Shine conflict shop.

  • I ask Rachel whether Shine would be a bigger business today if she hadn’t launched so many PR firms from it.

  • Rachel identifies the attributes she believes PR entrepreneurs need.

  • Rachel identifies the most common mistakes PR entrepreneurs make.

  • How Rachel owns businesses outside PR that are bigger than all the PR businesses put together!

  • How the Shine/The Academy merger came about.

  • Whether Rachel shed a tear when the Shine brand disappeared

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