Jenny Hooper is the managing director of Independent Freight Solutions
Anyone who works in freight and logistics knows how quickly things can change – but appearing on national radio with just over a day’s notice was not something I had on my to do list at the end of January.
BBC 5Live’s Wake Up to Money is one of the country’s most popular business shows and I had the privilege of featuring as the business guest for the hour-long programme last month, alongside other experts in their field discussing some of the day’s biggest business stories.
The shows are always extremely insightful and cover lots of ground – catering to professionals from all backgrounds and sharing topical news and views to help them start their day.
We have been speaking to all of our clients about the challenges the freight industry is facing, particularly as a knock-on effect from Donald Trump’s policy making across the Atlantic.
But at the start of the week, I hadn’t expected to be sharing some of that insight on one of the country’s most popular radio stations.
The offer to join the show came in on Tuesday afternoon, and by 5am on Thursday we would be live, so in reality there wasn’t a whole lot of time to be nervous!
The opportunity was secured through our PR agency, PLMR Advent, who then joined the briefing call and provided a briefing note ahead of the show.
On the call, we ran through how the show works and the types of questions that might be asked, how best to respond – with a key takeaway to be as specific as possible.
I found this advice incredibly helpful, and it informed a lot of what I said on the show, which was ultimately an opportunity to relate some of the day’s major stories back to the freight and logistics industry, and also how they were affecting small businesses like us.
Armed with that advice, I felt like all the key stories, from airport expansions to AI, and even the financial power of football clubs, related back to what we do at IFS and how we as a business fit into the national economic picture.
And I was particularly pleased to share insight on a key issue – the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), the EU’s carbon border reporting protocol – which will have rapidly increasing importance to any UK business exporting to or importing from the EU over the next couple of years.
We can’t emphasise enough the influence this will have on companies doing business overseas, so to address this live on national radio was a real coup.
It was a prime opportunity to show our expertise to other business leaders and, ultimately, be part of the conversation on the domestic and global issues affecting SMEs, and indeed all business, across the country.
On the back of IFS’ 20th anniversary last year, one of our goals was to share our expertise with more businesses and individuals across the UK, and it was fantastic to be able to do exactly that.
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