Branding Events Organiser
Freelance

Polly D

00:00:02 My name is Polly D and I now work in sports marketing, and branding events and team management. We work with big brands, I work with a shoe company, and we work with a team of young people across Europe, who are all professional surfers, snowboarders, BMXers. And we send them on trips, we organise adverts, we organise magazine shoots, and try and create an image around the shoe brand.

00:00:30 I’ve come from quite an unconventional background. I was a professional snowboarder myself for three or four years, full-time, so I’m not used to sitting in an office, I’m not used to going to work every day! And still I’ve only been doing this job for a year, and sometimes I’m like – Oh God, have to go to work, again, that’s ridiculous. But it’s always different, so it’s fine. And some weeks it’s quite quiet, other weeks it’s totally full on and really challenging.

00:00:57 My friend’s big brother went and did a season and learnt how to snowboard when we were younger, and I was just totally fascinated by it instantly. And then some of my Mum’s friends took me and my sister away for a week and we learnt how to ski. But I didn’t get to go very much through school. I went on like a school trip, but when I finished at school, I got a job as a chalet girl in France, and went and slogged out a season cooking and cleaning. I learnt how to snowboard there, and just got totally obsessed.

00:01:25 It’s a really good feeling when you scare yourself doing something that you didn’t think you could do, and then you’re doing it. And it’s like – woooer! And your heart goes at a million miles an hour. And then you land, and you’re on your feet, and it’s all good. It’s nice to push your limits, and push your sort of mental and physical boundaries, I think that was always -that’s something I miss sometimes. Now I’m back in London I’m like – God I really miss being totally scared. I guess those were the things that appealed to me, and then the lifestyle was amazing, obviously. Just hanging out with friends and not having to go to work in the morning.

00:01:58 I got quite injured, I broke both my arms, and I was like – it’s time to change career track, so that you enjoy doing something new, and start appreciating other things in life than just travelling all the time. That’s almost been a highpoint for me, was sort of choosing to stop snowboarding full-time and go into a job. And things just fell into place, this job came up that seemed – it was quite appealing, and I found a room that night pretty much that I really liked, in the area of London I really wanted to live in. And I was just like – Oh, it’s here, it’s on a plate, I’m going to go and do it.

00:02:28 I think when I was six years old I wanted to be an inventor, but I was awful at Science so that never happened. Yeah I don’t – I never really knew what I wanted to do, I still don’t. Both of my parents have always been self-employed, so I think because of my background, and my parents, I’ve never expected to come out of school and, you know, train as something and go and do something for the rest of my life, because I’ve never grown up with that around me. You always think that you’re not going to turn into your parents but I think, to a certain point, they are very influential, because what you see every day is what you come to think of as being normal.

00:03:05 I’ve always wanted to have my own business. I actually ran a small business in New Zealand, and I rented three big houses in a resort for the winter, and then sub-letted all the rooms out to people that were coming to snowboard and ski. It worked, I made money on it, and it was a really good learning step, and I’m definitely going to set up another business soon – watch this space.

00:03:29 I read this thing the other day, this lady wrote – if a door swings, kick it. And it’s something that really sort of struck me, that that’s kind of my attitude. Like I’m always looking for new opportunities, and if I see something that excites me, I’ll want to get involved in it straightaway. There’s been moments in my life where, you know, I’ve run out of money, or I’ve been dragging a bag around London, you know, with a broken arm. It’s like – Oh, I could just get a job, I could just go and, you know, work in the City and make loads of money, and have a nice flat. But I know it’s not me, and I would never be happy, I’d never do it. So I think, you know, you need to make your life suit you, or you’re going to be miserable.

00:04:07 ENDS