Who Am I And Does It Matter?
I was born in the 1960s in Somerset, UK the eldest of two daughters of Heather and Nick Bune. My mum was a housewife and dad a welder after starting an early career as a coal miner. The coal mining industry ran in the blood of my family as both grandfathers and all of my great grandfathers were coal miners.
I grew up in a happy, loving home where money was always tight. There were no daytrips, no foreign holidays for me – in fact we didn’t have a telephone until I was a teenager and we didn’t have a car until I’d left home. At school I was one of those children who sits in the middle, grey and unnoticed, yet plodding on.
I got seven O levels and a qualification in touch typing –my careers ‘adviser’ told me I should am to be a secretary or a nurse. Not a chance! However, I didn’t do as well in my A levels as expected and ended up going to a more ‘lowly’ college of higher education, now Bath Spa University. I took a degree in English Literature & History and loved it.
I did well in my degree, getting a high 2:1 and took a PGCE and trained to be a teacher though quickly realised this was not for me. I always wanted to be a journalist – I used that year to apply for any relevant job. I eventually got a traineeship on a local newspaper in Somerset, then two years later moved on to a daily newspaper in Swindon, where I went on to be crime reporter and then business editor. I was also running as a volunteer a radio programme for Hospital Radio Swindon.
Television & Me:
I worked at ITV Westcountry (then HTV) for 13 years from 1995 working my way up from researcher to series producer. I made hundreds of television programmes from single subject documentaries, to political programmes through to factual entertainment and commissions for other broadcasters. I was involved in programmes which won multiple awards.
Those programmes included West Eye View, The West This Week, Out of Order, Teachers’ TV, Dispatches, Channel 4 News, The Bargain Hunters, Beat The Dealer and many other one-off single subject documentaries or arts programmes.
In 2008, I was made redundant when ITV pulled out of regional tv programming. I became freelance and set up my own media consultancy. Today I’m a freelance journalist, tv producer and director and also run my consultancy with a group of trusted professionals, many of whom also work in the media.
I Serve, I Don’t Pander:
Working with me is not going to work if you want me to pander to you and your team and say what you all want to hear. My core values are to be honest and straight from the outset.
If you undertake training and strategic consultancy with me – and you take no action or your team does nothing – nothing will happen and nothing will change.
If you don’t listen to what I say and the advice I give – and then get grumpy or upset that you are not sat on the sofa of This Morning or on the panel for BBC Question Time within six weeks of working together – we’re not right for each other.
If you ask me for crisis management support or advice and you go your own way, ignore my advice, the problem may come back around and you will spend even more money to deal with it. I will give you honest advice and quite often it will mean the problem which happened quickly will be slowly fixed.
I will listen to your goals and dreams when it comes to media exposure for you, your business or your organisation and I will tell you the truth – and the amount of effort it will take on all sides to achieve those goals.
Interested?
Visit my ‘Working With Me‘ page to discover my steps to Better Business Results.
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