Welcome to Inclusion Bites, your sanctuary for bold conversations that spark change. I'm Joanne Lockwood, your guide on this journey of exploration into the heart of inclusion, belonging, and societal transformation. Ever wondered what it truly takes to create a world where everyone not only belongs but thrives? You're not alone. Join me as we uncover the unseen, challenge the status quo, and share stories that resonate deep within. Ready to dive in? Whether you're sipping your morning coffee or winding down after a long day, let's connect, reflect, and inspire action together. Don't forget, you can be part of the conversation too. Reach out to jo.lockwood@seechangehappen.co.uk to share your insights or to join me on the show. So adjust your earbuds and settle in.

It's time to ignite the spark of inclusion with Inclusion Bites. Today is episode 157 with the title, Raising Voices, Shaping Change. And I have the absolute honor and privilege to welcome Sarah McCracken. Sarah is an award winning PR and communication specialist, empowering women and diverse voices to raise their profiles and create meaningful change. And when I asked Sarah to describe her superpower, she said she said that it is helping others find confidence in their visibility and voice. Hello, Sarah. Welcome to the show.

Hello, Jo. Thank you so much for having me this afternoon.

Oh, it's absolute pleasure. And, for the accent, I'm guessing you're for the Emerald Isle somewhere in there.

Yes. Indeed. I am in County Down, Northern Ireland, and we're about maybe 25 miles south of Belfast. So nice nice and handy. And, you know, if I'm going further south, we're maybe about an hour and twenty minutes from Dublin, so I really have the best of those worlds here.

Beautiful. My wife and I went on a a holiday to Dublin in the summer, and we drove north to the because they don't have national trust in Dub in in Southern Ireland, in The Republic Of Ireland. So we had to drive across the border to Northern Ireland to find a national trust property, which we visited. It was quite high. A a trek from County Cowan, but, yeah, we were determined to find a national trust property to visit and, yeah, had a good time. And I've been to Belfast a few times, and I've got happy memories of going to Newfernard, which can't be far from here.

You're never far from anywhere here, to be honest. But, yes, next time you're over then, we'll have to meet up and get a week of tea.

Yeah. That sounds great. Sounds great. If you're listening to this and you're wondering why my voice sounds a little different to usual, I think I've got a bit of a throat thing going on. So every so often, my voice cuts out. So please bear with sure. I'll be fine. As a I've got strep cells.

I've got herbal tea in front of me, so I'm sure we cope. So Sarah Sarah, what makes you tick? You know, why do you do what you do? You know, you're in in PR, but why does visibility, diversity, inclusion resonate with you so much?

But but the more I did, the more I headed towards, like, the PR and marketing side of things, and I just absolutely love it. I get such a buzz out of, you know, seeing things in the media, prepping spokespeople, seeing you know, prepping people to go on podcast, but it whatever it happens to be. Just the more I worked within sort of the communication sector, you know, the more I was able to to create that change. So I've worked in the health care sector, the environment sector. I worked for a political party. Once upon a time, I worked in education as well as working for businesses and entrepreneurs. The more I worked in that, the more I could see how communications could create change, particularly around campaigning. So, I mean, many years ago, you could smoke in public workplaces, in Northern Ireland, obviously, right across The UK.

And in 02/2006, the charity I worked with at the time was involved in the smoke free Northern Ireland coalition and that campaign to bring in legislation to ban smoking in public places. And that was kind of my first kind of we can do this kind of moment, you know, when you're there at a speech and the secretary of state is making these announcements, and you've got your your clients from from the charity with you. You and the stakeholders of people are gonna be really impacted for the better as a result of this, and it was just brilliant to be part of that. So, yeah, since then, I've worked on other campaigns most recently working on the campaign to bring in climate change legislation in Northern Ireland, which was brought in now full of years ago, and my team at the charity I worked with at the time worked really hard on that as well.