From PR to powerlifting the woman bossing it all

For multi-award winning PR and marketing agency owner Aneela Rose there are three cogs in her life that make her the person she is today.
AneelaAneela
Aneela

“Without one I wouldn’t be who I am or work the way I do,” she explains.

“It is my family, my business and my sport.

“In my business I am the boss nurturing my employees, at home with my family I am there emotionally as a wife and mother.

AneelaAneela
Aneela
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I tell people what to do as I am the boss but in powerlifting it is my place to be told what to do by people who know more than me. It is my place to get support.”

Aneela has worked in the PR and marketing industry for 22 years, she is also the world and British powerlifting champion and she represented Team GB at the world championships in Finland in November.

“In the 1980s I loved sport and the javelin,” she reveals. “I looked up to people like Fatima Whitbread and Daley Thompson.

“Then the 2012 Olympics reignited my love so I decided to pick up a javelin again after 25 years.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I got in touch with Olympian and former javelin thrower and heptathlete Tessa Sanderson who invited me to her academy but I couldn’t go so I got in touch with British Athletic and starting training in Crawley.”

But after getting injured in her throwing arm it was suggested by her javelin coach that she should build strength in her arms.

“I got a personal trainer and they mentioned how good and strong I was at powerlifting,”

she explains.“Then my javelin coach told me I was better at lifting than javelin so I swapped disciplines.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Training consists of bench pressing, squatting and the dead lift, and Aneela trains in both Eastbourne and Brighton.

“I am in my 40s, a petite 5”2 and weigh about eight stone so I don’t look muscular enough to lift what I do,” she says.

“They say if you can deadlift double your weight or bench press your weight then you at league level.”

Aneela’s passion and determination clearly impacts all aspects of her life and her business Rose Media Group, based in Burgess Hill, celebrated its 15 year anniversary in September.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

What started in her bedroom has grown to a team of 18 professionals.

After graduating from university, her first job was for a flight simulation company.

“After eight years I decided I wanted to go it alone,” she says. “I knew I wanted to do what I wanted to do rather than having someone telling me.

“I have always been very independent and my husband just said ‘do it’.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Before she left her job she told an editor friend her plan, who mentioned that Amberley Castle was looking for PR.

“I contacted the owner and he asked me to do a handwritten letter as to why I was good for the job,” she smiles.

“I was asked at the interview which other luxury hotel brands I was working with, I knew I couldn’t blag it so I said no one and explained that I had never worked in that industry.

“The owner at the time Martin Cummings explained that he liked me and that he liked the fact I was coming to it fresh and with no conflict of interest – he was my first contract.”

In the years that followed her client base grew and grew.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I see us as a high end PR consultancy. I didn’t want a massive agency I wanted to work with small but really successful businesses.”

Aneela is a believer in positive thinking and the growth mindset, where you have a plan but are open to challenges, change and failure.

“The business has evolved three times over the years and I believe if it hadn’t evolved I wouldn’t be where I am today,” she says.

“I have made some howlers, but I have learnt from those failures and believe it has helped me grow.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Entrepreneur Theo Paphitis (former Dragons’ Den dragon) once told me to surround myself with people who know more than me. At the time I didn’t understand what he meant but over the years I have seen that to grow a business you have to surround yourself with people who know more than you and know different things. When I interview people I look for that nugget of information about things I don’t know,

“Just believe in yourself and always look forward.”

For more information, visit www.rosemediagroup.co.ukPhotography by Aslan Steele

READ MORE

Related topics: