What does it take to become a Marketing and PR Manager? We spoke to healthy living aficionado Natasha Perkins about her career journey
Interested in a job in marketing ? If so, we’ve got just the career inspiration: the journey of Rude Health Marketing and PR Manager, Natasha Perkins.
With a passion for wellness and healthy, hearty food , her role provided the perfect combination of ingredients for her dream job. So what are her top tips for success? We caught up with Natasha to ask her about her journey so far, her top career advice and for an insight into the ins and outs of her job.
GTG: Can you tell us about your background?
NP: I actually studied History of Art at Leeds University - nothing foodie or business based. I loved my degree, so naturally when I graduated I pursued the art world and landed a job in one of the big established London auction houses. I knew I loved art and seeing the overall ebbs, flows and operations of business and so I started in the Marketing department. It was an amazing, hugely valuable start to my career. However after 3 years, I became desperate to combine my work life with my ultimate passion: food and wellbeing. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it, but luckily, staying on the business side meant I had transferable skills - primarily marketing.
MORE GLOSS: What does it take to start a beauty start-up?
GTG: How did you break in to the industry?
NP: I have always been so interested in food, how it can heal, give you energy and bring happiness round a table. With no real training in food or wellbeing, I took a big leap of faith. I quit on the 22nd of January (22 is the master builder number in numerology). I rented my London room out to a good friend and booked a ticket to India and a place on a Yoga Teacher Training course. Yoga is something I’ve always benefited from and I felt that a bit of a drastic change would be good for me and being qualified would give me a talking point in the wellbeing world. It was and it did.
When I returned, I started teaching yoga, a blog and marketing consultancy for several health food companies. By doing this I really got to understand my skill set and where they were best suited to. Rude Health had always been a company I'd recognised the values of, so I got in touch with them and low and behold...
MORE GLOSS: Karren Brady on being a good boss
GTG: What’s a typical day in the life of a Marketing and PR Manager at Rude Health?
NP: I’m in the office with the team most days. When I’m out and about, I’ll be meeting journalists, other brands that we might work with on marketing campaigns, ambassadors, chefs and bakers.
GTG: What advice would you give to people who want to break into beauty/health/fitness industries?
NP: I really believe that having a passion for an industry like beauty, health or fitness is most important. They are all competitive industries that you need to have a consistent interest in. I think that any science skills will always be beneficial to a job in these industries especially as they continue to grow and consumers want to know more. I think Get The Job is a very good starting point to get to know what jobs are out there and what skills you need or might need to build upon to get to where you want to.