Proud Mummy Moment for Media First Director – Part 1

Many of you will know Sharon Francis. She's been a Director at Media First for approaching 10 years. She's a loud, caring, motivated, and determined person. A bit like her 18 year old daughter Georgia who is currently in Australia competing for Great Britain in the Australian Youth Olympics.

Georgia is part of a 120-strong GB team that will compete alongside 1700 athletes from 30 different countries across 17 sports. With aspirations of appearing in Rio 2016 Georgia rows out of the Pangbourne Rowing College Rowing Club and, like her mother, works exceptionally hard.

In between drinking champagne, taking sneaky peeks at work emails and throwing the stereotypical shrimps on the barbie Sharon will be providing an insight into the Family Francis experience in Australia.

Here's her latest installment…

Whilst I settle into the relaxed Ozzie way of life my daughter continues to train hard – they are up at 0530 every morning before it gets far too hot to row and then training again in the afternoon. They have now moved from their training camp to the Olympic village in preparation for their event this weekend which takes place in Penrith, about 45 minutes west of Sydney. Last night we went along to the opening Olympic ceremony which was incredible and even more amazing to see my daughter parading around the stadium behind the GB flag. At the ceremony they quoted some staggering figures of the number of kids who have gone on to compete at the senior Olympics having taken part in the youth Olympics. What hits you with all these kids taking part in the various sports is their unbelievable level of determination to succeed and how hard they have worked to get where they are now even though most of them are only 18 years old. They are totally and utterly focused on the matter at hand. They have had to take all sorts of knock backs  and yet are able to turn this negative experience into a positive one. They know they have to do this in order  to become better and better at what they do. I think this is a hugely valuable life skill. How many people do you know in the office who struggle to take criticism and simply refuse to accept that they need to change/learn from their mistakes. It’s the same when managing the media. So when your spokesperson has a tough time being interviewed by the press, rather than letting them simply go off in a bit of a huff, why not try my comparison with  how these young men and women down here have learnt how to turn a negative experience into a  positive one without making a huge fuss or blaming someone else. Her first race is on Saturday in a single and if I can stand the tension , we will be yelling our hearts out to spur her on (Even though she probably wont hear us!)  Right now I’m off to sample the best of Ozzie cuisine and throw another prawn on the Barbie!

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