Ep.79 - Sue Anstiss MBE: the game changer of PR and women in sport

Sue Anstiss has a lot of strings to her bow. In addition to her MBE for services to grassroots and women’s sport, she’s CEO of Promote PR, trustee for the Women’s Sport Trust charity, a Women in Fitness Association UK council member and host of The Game Changers podcast.

This episode of the Escape Your Limits podcast is a vital lesson in equality, dedication and a lifetime of getting a nation engaged in sport and wellbeing.

Watch the full episode on YouTube – YouTube

Sue Anstiss studied at Loughborough, graduating in Sports Science and English. After working in sales for Cadbury’s, she’s since honed her sports sponsorship background, having worked for Gatorade before facing redundancy.

Sue set up on her own aged 26, bringing Bupa into the fitness industry along with other contacts she’d developed relationships with through her previous experience. It was the start of a journey of hard work and putting the hours in, striving for perfection in everything she’s done.

Promote PR, now celebrating 25 years in business, and has proved to be the perfect vehicle for Sue’s passion in grassroots sport.

Promote PR has been changing behaviour with powerful PR, content and social media for over two decades.

Through Sue’s initial set-up, the company first concentrated on sport and then the fitness sector before coming back to sport as the mainstay of business. With a strong team, Sue has since evolved the business and its approach for a more effective delivery of everything it does. Promote PR also does work in elite sport but uses those relationships to drive participation.

In addition to her work directly with Promote, Sue is also a trustee for the Women’s Sport Trust charity, getting more media coverage and funding to women’s sport.

Giving a lot of voluntary time to projects and campaigns is something that Sue is passionate about.

If that wasn’t enough, Sue’s also host of The Game Changers podcast, dedicated to trailblazing women in sport telling their stories. If you’d like to guest on the podcast with Sue Anstiss, email her on sue.anstiss@promotepr.com

 

Episode highlights - 

• When is the best time to start your entrepreneurial journey? When you’re young and have little responsibility, or when you’re older and more experienced?
• Ways in which you can get help to recruit women in a male dominated world, and why you found yourself in that position as a top level male business owner or employee.
• Why you should call out prejudice and discrimination in order to stop it happening again, and why working for someone else can prevent employees from taking action.
• Why you need to constantly have a thirst to learn more, and why it’s really important for whatever you want to achieve.
• Why the boutique sector may be giving people the wrong impression of the fitness industry, and how it can negatively affect mental health when it comes to perception.
• Why the fitness industry is focused on unrealistic behaviour and makes members feel guilty for not using what they pay for, as opposed to inspiring them to engage.
• The difference between sport and fitness, and how sport can boost confidence whereas fitness in some ways increases self-consciousness.
• Why you need to think of the things that could come along tomorrow that would negate any benefit that you offer in business. Broaden your offering or know what benefit you’d offer if a disrupter entered the market.

 

Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Sue Anstiss MBE…