JESSIE WALES: PR Expert & Founder of She Speaks

One evening last summer Jessie Wales found herself sprinting across London after a day rushing about for meetings, to attend a talk about slowing down (the irony not lost on her). During the talk someone shared how they had started a Supper Club for some friends – Jessie loved the idea so very quickly an idea was sparked and Supper Club, She Speaks, was born.

The next morning Jessie texted her friend who owned a restaurant, told her friend Amy (who she was with at the talk the night before) that it was happening, started an IG page, and within days had secured powerhouse fashion editor Jo Elvin as her first speaker. Twenty-five tickets sold out immediately.

This is how Jessie operates – not slow by any means, but instinctive, and with complete conviction it'll work. It's the same energy that led her to hand in her notice at a PR agency she’d worked at for 18 years without another job lined up, and tell her husband she absolutely wasn't cancelling the gym membership or the cleaner. And it's made her both a successful PR consultant running Jessie Wales Communications and the founder of a community that's become exactly what hundreds of women were craving.

Jessie possesses an absolutely winning combination of warmth, humour and unfiltered honesty that's super refreshing. She doesn't do corporate speak and just tells you how it is, always respectfully, and always from the heart.

The Hardy, Cutthroat, Ballsy Years

To understand how Jessie became someone who just does things, you need to understand the industry that shaped her. Fashion PR attracts a particular personality type, and Jessie embodies it completely.

"We're quite hardy, we're quite cutthroat, nothing fazes us, we're quite ballsy - not for the faint hearted," she explains. "So you just kind of get on with it."

This resilience carried her through two decades in the industry, starting at Prada in 2001 fresh from university. She laughs about the disconnect between her wearing runway looks in her hometown nightclub when everyone else was in Topshop and New Look.

"22 years old, head to toe in Prada, and going out in Kingston with my mates... everyone was just like, 'Oh, look at your weird shoes'. It meant absolutely nothing to them!”

More significantly, the role was boring. Because it was such a desirable and huge brand everybody wanted it. There was no challenge, so Jessie found herself just being a facilitator and packing boxes for celebrity stylist requests. The pieces might have been worn by Justin Timberlake on the front cover of The Face magazine, but there wasn’t much creativity or thought process behind it. Jessie realised she needed the hustle, not just the outcome. Moving agency side changed everything and over 18 years working across 60 global brands, she absorbed an education money can't buy.

"I learned how to be creative. I learned how to work with brands that had no budget, how to manage the brands that did have budget, and everything in between. There was nothing that would surprise me or shock me."

Alongside the creativity, Jessie learned how to manage a million different personalities and marketing teams. Becoming all things to everyone allowed her to understand every type of person, from what they wanted to see, feel and hear and more importantly how to manage expectations.

But that industry toughness - the ability to withstand enormous pressure and still deliver - can keep you there longer than you might be good for you.

"You become a bit of a slave to that salary. You just don't think about stepping out and doing it by yourself because you've got a mortgage. Better the devil you know - you just put up with it."

You tell yourself it'll get better, or you'll wait till the kids are older. You stay because you can handle it, even when handling it is slowly destroying you.

You Never See Opportunities When You're Surviving in a high-pressured environment

Lockdown in 2020 created a perfect storm. Physical stores closed, and major brands panicked, looking to PR as their salvation. Jessie's entire team got furloughed, leaving her solo managing multiple demanding clients whilst homeschooling two primary-age children. Everyone was carrying high anxiety, and it was all cascading down to her.

By 2021 Jessie had reached burnout. She took a week off, the first time she'd ever taken leave outside school holidays, and when her boss asked when she'd be back, she couldn't answer. She had reached the point where she was craving some space because the relentless way of working she had become accustomed to had resulted in it being impossible to think rationally.

That week, something fundamental shifted. She read books and just sat quietly, soaking up the beautiful weather in the garden. For the first time in a long time, she prioritised pleasing herself. The high anxiety that had over time become her baseline dissolved into something almost unfamiliar: calm.

"Going from feeling high anxiety to feeling this calm was so beautiful. I remember saying to my husband at the end of the week, I'm just going to hand in my notice. And he's like, 'What? You haven't got another job to go to.' And I said, 'Listen, I've got a three month notice period, and I know I don't want to ever not feel this sense of calm that I'm feeling now.'"

Her husband suggested cancelling the gym membership and definitely the cleaner. Jessie's response was ‘absolutely not!’

"I thought to myself 'I'm going to turn this around.' What could go wrong? I'm so confident in myself moving forward that this can't fail. And I truly, truly believed it."

Jessie updated her LinkedIn that she was going freelance and former contacts from two decades started emerging from everywhere - all working for different brands now, all wanting to work with her.

"Whilst for the last 20 years, I was making other people successful, what I'd actually done was made myself rich in contacts and relationships. And that was worth more to me at that point than having made lots of money."

Rewriting Everything

In November 2021, Jessie Wales Communications officially launched and she set about doing things her way.

"If I don't think something's going to work, I'll tell clients from the off start. If their expectations are unrealistic, I'll say, 'I think your expectations are unrealistic, and that's why I'm not the right person for you.'"

This stands in contrast to agency culture where the default is telling clients what they want to hear, for fear of losing them, but honesty creates longevity, and her clients trust her because they trust her word.

Jessie’s approach has never been confined to pure PR either. She contributes to brand strategy, business initiatives, positioning,  because getting foundations right makes her job easier. She works with a small team of trusted freelancers from her agency days. No micromanaging, no performative meetings. Everyone gathers on Zoom weekly, meets monthly in person.

Her management philosophy also completely rejects hierarchy, and says to the young people that work for her:

“I learn as much from you as you will learn from me. I don't know as much about some social channels and trends as you do. You will learn from me how to manage clients expectations, how to spot dangers ahead of time. But ultimately making people feel valued and important is really important."

The ‘She Speaks’ Story

She Speaks Supper Club is an intimate dinner for up to 30 women featuring exceptional food, drink and inspiring speakers, but crucially, without any labels attached. It's not networking. It's not exclusively for business founders or mothers. It's simply women gathering round a table for genuine connection, good food, and a laugh.

"Women have so much in common with each other without having to find common ground. Why can't women just have a Supper Club together for no reason other than that they are women?"

The speakers Jessie carefully curates from her own network reflect this ethos – Former fashion editor Jo Elvin spoke candidly about her full journey including unglamorous bits. Anna Wood, founder of Positive Retail shared her story of speaking her truth even when it cost her jobs. Emma Guns gave a warts and all account of the health & wellness industry and Rosie Nixon, former Hello! editor-in-chief who experienced burnout and retrained as a life coach, is hosting the next one.

These aren't polished success talks, they're honest conversations about the messy reality behind the achievements.

Jessie wanted women to feel uplifted and inspired, whether they were happy in their jobs or full-time mothers at home and just wanted a fun evening with other women. During those early dinners, two child free attendees told her:

"There's only so much socialising we can do with our neighbours and work colleagues. My husband's fine, but sometimes I just want to be with other women"

The vibe is what matters. That feeling when you leave lunch with female friends and feeling energised, with your face aching from laughing so much. The validation of hearing another woman say “me too” without having to explain yourself. That's what She Speaks is designed to bring.

The community is evolving rapidly, with plans for a cocktail event, panel discussions in London and a retreat in Chamonix in the next 12 months. Despite Jessie’s plans for expansion she one non-negotiable is that brand partnerships must align completely - female-founded brands only, everything making sense rather than being forced. When major brands approached after just one event, Jessie was very clear that the community isn't for sale. It’s a passion project, and what makes the community strong and authentic is the fact that it's not transactional.

"People say, 'You're so clever doing this, it's amazing what you're doing.' And I always feel uncomfortable hearing that because I haven't done anything special in my eyes.  All I've done is create a capsule, and everyone else has built it because they've invested in it. This is everyone's community."

Jessie has been gathering, connecting and introducing people for most of her working life, so something like She Speaks was a natural progression of that - but just doing it for herself and ultimately other women.

My Take

What I find most inspiring is Jessie’s unwavering self-belief when her husband suggested cancelling expenses to prepare for uncertain times. Jessie simply knew it would work. Not hoped, not thought it might - knew. That certainty, combined with two decades of relationship and reputation building, created something brilliant but also sustainable.

It’s quite rare these days that communities are created with no hidden (or obvious!) agenda for monetisation. Whilst the people in the community do get value from the experiences, there is usually a point where you are eventually sold to. With She Speaks, Jessie has created something that exists purely to bring people together. There's something powerful and almost ancient about women gathering to simply share stories with each other. Before networking became a LinkedIn buzzword and community became a marketing strategy, women have always gathered in circles - to share knowledge, validate experiences, and remind each other they're not alone. She Speaks taps into that primal need for connection without commodifying it.

I'm grateful to have a brilliant friendship network, but life naturally shifts - friends move cities, priorities change, and those spontaneous meetups become harder to coordinate. I’m quite put off my traditional networking events where it all feels like a big sales pitch, so I knew straight away I had to be part of this. Jessie's created exactly what I needed without even knowing it, which seems to have always been her superpower.

Jessie's story is ultimately about trusting yourself enough to just start. No perfect plan, no guarantee of success, just absolute conviction that you'll figure it out because you have always made it work. As she so wisely says, just f***ing do it.

You can follow Jessie's journey on Instagram @jessiewalescomms and join the She Speaks community @shespeakssupperclub.

About the author: Pippa Mellor is an accredited Executive Coach for leaders in the fashion industry and Personal Shopping Strategy Consultant based in London.