This week I was named one of Women in PR’s 40 Over 40 — and then, 24 hours later, I found myself weeping quietly at an Alanis Morissette concert.
Blame the hormones, the humidity, or the overwhelming realisation that somehow, improbably, I’ve made it here.
She was singing Hand in My Pocket, the song that lived on every mixtape of my teenage years. Back then, I clung to those lyrics like a lifeline:
I’m broke but I’m happy / I’m poor but I’m kind / I’m short but I’m healthy, yeah…
A catalogue of contradictions, sung with defiance and grace. It felt like someone finally understood what it meant to be a mess in progress.
Nearly 30 years later, I’m still a walking contradiction. Still figuring it out, still a bit of a mess. But maybe that’s the point.
Because I wasn’t supposed to end up on any kind of power list. I was the weird kid, the shy one, the late bloomer who couldn’t tie her shoelaces until she was ten. I didn’t finish university until 27. I didn’t have a ‘five-year plan’. Christ, I barely had a five-day one.
And yet here I am. Still learning, still growing, still a bit of a shambles — and now, somehow, a Woman in PR with Power(ish).
Alanis was right. What it all comes down to is that everything’s gonna be quite alright.
So this week, I’m feeling grateful. For the path I took, however winding. For the people who walked some of it with me. For the chance to be recognised not despite my messiness, but alongside it.
And for the reminder — courtesy of Alanis — that sometimes, having one hand in your pocket and the other giving a peace sign is exactly where you’re meant to be.
This week at work
This week we’ve been helping an organisation finally switch off their old intranets. A sentence that sounds simple until you realise the average corporate intranet is less a communications tool and more an archaeological dig site.
As ever, replacing ancient systems was the easy part. It’s the switching them off that sparks existential dread. People cling to old content like it’s the Magna Carta — even though they openly admit they haven’t looked at it since 2014 and wouldn’t know where to find it if their job depended on it (and sometimes it does).
We did the usual: combed through analytics, talked to stakeholders, did a full content audit to identify anything vaguely useful, and rebuilt what mattered using content design principles that mean people can actually use the thing. The new site went live earlier this year and has been met with widespread relief, bordering on joy. And still, no one wants to press the off switch on the old ones.
So we went back to the business case. We helped the team show the real costs of keeping ghost sites alive “just in case”: confused users, conflicting policies, and enough licensing fees to make your CFO reach for the scotch.
Because sunsetting old systems isn’t just a technical task; it’s grief management, version control, and low-key therapy. This week, we gave people the reassurance (and receipts) they needed to finally let go. The content has been saved. The users are happy. The money is waiting to be saved. All that remains now is to find someone brave enough to push the big red button.
Also this week
I also headed back to London for the Women in PR 40 Over 40 Power List reveal event. Yes, I’ve mentioned it already — and yes, I’m going to bang on about it again. I’m incredibly proud.
I was honoured, thrilled and all the other cliches to be included. And even better, I got to celebrate it in a room full of brilliant, bold, and inspiring women who prove that purpose, power and possibility don’t peak at 30.
Yes, we celebrated. But we also had honest conversations about the challenges women face in reaching and staying in senior roles, and what needs to change. The night was a reminder of how much talent, insight and leadership our industry already has. The real challenge is keeping it, growing it — and making space for more.
Massive thanks to the effervescent Nishma Patel Robb for MCing with style and sparkle, and the powerhouse panel—Effie Kanyua, Gavin Ellwood, Jo Patterson and Kate Hunter—for insights, data, and real talk, particularly on intersectionality, and how age and gender are just two of many barriers that people experience. And of course, huge credit to the amazing Women in PR team for pulling off a wonderful and important event.
And to the four speakers — Daniela Flores, Tanya Clarke, Shalini Gupta and Sarah Lloyd—you moved me, inspired me, and reminded me why I love this industry.
Full list of the amazing honourees here
Consuming
👩🏻💻 Internetting
This week marked nine years since the Brexit referendum, and someone resurfaced that piece by Daniel Hannan, written in June 2016, breathlessly predicting the glorious future awaiting us this week.
Needless to say, on 24 June 2025, we did not mark Independence Day. No fireworks. No street parties. No soaring national pride. Just the dull hum of a country quietly reckoning with the cost of a fantasy sold by snake oil salesmen.
The UK didn’t thrive. The only thing that prospered was Hannan himself—rewarded for his mendacity with a lifetime seat in the House of Lords, where he now enjoys a taxpayer-funded perch to opine on the ruins he helped create. If Brexit is a cautionary tale, his article is the ur-text: a case study in intellectual dishonesty, wishful thinking, and the staggering lack of accountability in British public life.
📺 Watching
This week I saw David Attenborough’s Ocean on the big screen — a stunning, sweeping, and frankly soul-pummelling reminder that humans really are the worst houseguests the planet’s ever had. Shoals shimmered, whales sang, coral reefs pulsed with life… and then came the horror: plastic bags doing their best jellyfish impressions, bleached reefs that look like ghost towns, and enough trawler-fishing ecological devastation to make you want to walk straight into the sea (while apologising profusely).
But because it’s Attenborough, there’s still a glimmer of hope buried under the guilt. Nature, it turns out, is astonishingly good at bouncing back… if we stop actively making things worse every five minutes. The film offers glimpses of recovery: marine sanctuaries teeming with life again, species reappearing like they’ve been hiding from us (fair), and communities putting things back together with patience and care. I left feeling both furious and faintly hopeful.
📚 Reading
Reading around for book research but didn’t get stuck into anything in depth this week.
🎧 Listening
Wednesday was Alanis at the Ziggo Dome: cathartic, emotional, and a reminder that she still has the range — vocally and spiritually. My mate and I were already crying before she even sang a note, undone by a montage of systemic gender discrimination (as one is). Then came the bangers, the acoustic interlude two metres from us, and a room full of women scream-singing You Oughta Know like it was a TED Talk. 10/10, no notes.
Thursday I popped over to Haarlem for Sparks, who were gloriously weird and wonderfully theatrical, and made me regret not discovering them earlier. Also: PHIL is a lovely venue and I will be demanding to see all future gigs there, ideally while sipping their house IPA.
Coverage
The 40 Over 40 Power List got picked up by PR Week, meaning the whole thing is now official, on the record, and cannot be undone.
I also had another thinkpiece out in Strategic, this time on performative listening. If nothing else, it gave me the rare joy of citing Zygmunt Bauman for the first time since my undergrad dissertation. (You never forget your first postmodern sociologist.)
Travel
Next stop: Manchester for Camp Digital, where I’m once again hosting 300 Seconds, our lightning talks for new voices in tech. It’s our third time at the conference, and somehow I’m still surprised each year when a speaker drops out the week before. Nature is healing.
After that, I’m off to a festival. What kind? Who knows. Ask me next Monday. There won’t be a Weeknote 27 because I’ll be in a field, probably crying to something with banjos.
This week in photos
Sharon O'Dea 