promotion and publicity ideas | agapyearforthesoul

Promotion and publicity plan - ideas

The book, perfomance/s, exhibition are part of a wider, multifaceted narrative of living with an invisible disability, navigating oneself through the world with an invisible disability, the lack of public understanding and prejudice, grief and loss – of identity, career, relationships, self, as well as bodily organs/functions and abilities, the lack of services for those in mid-life (as well as any age really between 18-60 where support services don’t exist to assist those who do not have family/partner and who aren’t young enough to be considered a child nor 60plus to fall under services aimed at those two age groups), of being more than a disability, of the breathing into a trauma and seeing what unfolds, of resilience, of neurotraining, of perseverance, of hope, of meditation, of listening to the body and the cells, working with it, of nature and being in nature, about our place in the universe, the interrelated ness of it all, about herbal cures and parallel universes, about life being only that that we individually perceive, about brain function in the body and the role in plays in our lives, about brain health and how to learn to listen to your body and cells and instinctively work with them and watch yourself heal/survive beyond all hope.

I launched the online campaign Living in the Grey, making invisible disabilities visible and the motto of “You are more (than your disability), what is your more” which is inclusive of all people, not just those with disabilities.

I also started the Living in the Grey challenge – revealing something we hide on a daily basis to raise money for a charity/cause associated with invisible disabilities. Mine has been to let me grey hair show through and no longer dying my hair.

By all accounts, I have not been very active on social media given the health challenges I have been facing over the years. I have Instagram and Facebook accounts under Living in the Grey and A Gap Year for the Soul (happy to change name/create new accounts). I am not in any way active on these and would need someone to help me promote and manage them - I have relied on publicity via word of mouth, charities and publications below. I am more than happy to work on this and feed in more with other authors and professionals and the public and release snippets of the book as well as ‘how to survive a brain injury/chronic illness guide’ as well as hire a social media marketing person to do focus the message more for me and gain more traction.

I would actively seek to talk on brain health and to explain what happened to me and the experiences I had neuroscientifically on Dr Andrew Huberman's podcast, who has a huge online presence both on Spotify, Youtube and social media. Andrew is a neuroscientist and tenured Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He has made numerous significant contributions to the fields of brain development, brain function and neural plasticity, which is the ability of our nervous system to rewire and learn new behaviours, skills and cognitive functioning.

I am eager to talk at more events – I am very comfortable in front of an audience of all demographics and types of speaker events, even with a brain injury which affects my ability to communicate (I believe in rather than trying to compare my abilities to the person I once was, which is impossible, to allow for my disabilities to show through - acceptance - even if it means, in my eyes, I have failed to give a perfect talk etc). I have experience as a performer for many years – from acting to stand up improviser and if well enough, I am happy to consider doing an acting/stand up event around the campaign of the book and exhibition.

I have decades of experience of working with and speaking at events, giving presentations and representing at meetings that involve international Prime Ministers, govt ministers & MPs, students and the public. I have facilitated groups with addicts and prison wardens so I am not easily intimidated by the audience. I have sat on many influential and policy change committees.

I consult leading UK charities on policy PR and campaign strategy and work with graduate innovation and design students on making their innovations and products more inclusive and accessbile.

I run a monthly online support group for those with invisible disabilities. A hundred support the support group page, and monthly attendance varies on the meeting but that is also another access point that I am happy to utilise.

I also run creative meditation/ecotherapy/death classes locally in Camden (Royal Parks funded 5 sessions), run minduflness creative walks with UCH medical students and on behalf of Camden and Ramblers UK and speak regularly on my tools of recovery www.pasithea.me

I have previously featured in and have continued support and access to the public, audiences and members via:

Meningitis Now – regional and international. Their social media accounts, website and newsletters feature me each time I have news, I talk on their behalf at events about having meningitis and how I cope/d and impact it has had (from university students, local older person’s community centres, House of Lords and Parliament). I have done social media takeovers of their Instagram. They are eager to push my publicity and endorse /promote them too through all their channels. I also provide consult to them on campaign and policy strategy.

Encephalitis Society – I am linked into them, go as a speaker to many established events, usually at the Royal Society of Medicine conferences on encephalitis. They support me and my projects on their social media pages and have said they would be willing to endorse /promote any work I do in press and social media.

Crohns and Colitis - regional and international - I am linked into them and they support me and my progress on their social media pages and press. I also provide consult on policy/campaigns.
Headway UK – regional and national support of my story feature in their social media and they would be willing to support me in social media and press.
Colostomy UK - regional and national support and willing to support my endeavours in social media and press.
Scope UK - eager to feature me in various media channels.
Nominated and chosen as Artist of the Month by Theatre Deli, November 2023, coinciding with their Social Model festival and asked to sit on various meetings with them.
Poetry chosen by Hampstead Theatre community creates festival as part of their public reading of upcoming talent, 2023, even though i wrote the poetry 32 years prior to the festival. Working with them in an acting capacity, the directors of the festival read my work and asked me if i would be okay to have it featured in their festival of upcoming writers reading, read by professional actors. Hampstead theatre have continued to support and encourage me to continue my focus on creating a larger written piece of all my poems, with a long abstract performance in mind.
I have been invited to write again/re-feature/have a slot on radio show/write a feature piece in:
- BBC Radio 2 Somerset (and they said when the book is published that I must let them know to feature me again on a 20 minute or longer slot)
- Express paper (eager to feature me again)
- Mirror paper (eager to feature me again)
- Real People Magazine
- UK Health Magazine and Radio
- British Medical Journal
I am an active member of Nextdoor.co.uk with access to a local audience of 11k members, incorporating 20 neighbourhoods from St Johns Wood to Hampstead, including Primrose Hill, West Hampstead, Maida Vale and Queens Park. I will be posting about the book and hold a local talk/launch events to cover the demographic – from local Headway charity events and at Swiss Cottage Library but also at a local established bar.

PR events:

Pop up senses booth or VR headsets - touring major London and UK stations - where participants can experience an essence of forgetfulness, confusion, overwhelmed senses, bumping into things, walking into on coming cars, falling over, constant post it reminders popping up etc.

Tease campaign using QR codes around cities, little statements from my writings and 'love letters to a stranger' left randomly in places etc

A journey of living through a brain injury with sound: I have approached a good friend, Terry Francis, a world renowned DJ known for creating the world’s techno house music scene, about collaborating on a music event which combines readings from my book, alongside relevant music brain frequency pieces that we produce and curate together. We would work alongside sound scientists to enable us to find the brain frequency for each moment. He has a world following and the marketing of it alone would reach an audience that is as diverse as I could ever imagine – from 15-60 year olds who thrive on his music and an industry hungry to find ways for new sources of income, and are eager to work with me on a good cause and educational event. We have talked about staging it here in London as a one off, either using an independent venue (in Waterloo with the potential to hold 300 people) or via the international club Fabric (based in London) which is eager to promote an event like this.

Tour with author and pianist, Aeham Ahmad (The Pianist of Yarmouk, Penguin). I met Aeham a couple of years ago at one of his concerts and during a workshop he was running, I explained how the trauma of having a life changing illness and ongoing chronic disease is similar to the trauma of being in a war zone (not likening it to or reducing the experience of being in a war but the similarities on the self). So very different to the one he faced in Syria, but the same in respect of being powerless with what happens to your life/body/safety, living daily with the fear of physical trauma and death, each pain and symptom is another bomb falling on your own house (your body), not trusting doctors or getting the help you need, wasting away trapped in your body and physical home, loss of career, identity, the exhaustion and survival skills you have to find, the desperation, the isolation from the world and misunderstanding/prejudice, how the illness is seen as the evil dictator, how you live in hope and need resilience minute by minute. Aeham then contacted me and asked when I was ready with my book to consider touring with him whilst he played, I would read excerpts from both our books interspersed between each piece. Aeham has a very large following and is invited to play at many events internationally.

Improvised theatre show to represent having a brain injury and the imprisonment as well as the miraculous experiences using body and voice at the Edinburgh Fringe/collaborate with existing performance groups of disabled actors etc.

Photography exhibition: using my own and in collaboration with other disabled photographers’ curating an exhibition representing my story as well as other invisible disabilities.

London Sound Project: collaborating with well known LSP choir (I used to be a member, their members are well connected in society and the composer is a music composer that just directed the music for the new Sting musical) to do flash mob events in London stations/squares singing songs about the brain to bring awareness to brain injury and health.

Health and Wellbeing festivals and literary events: I am willing to talk at and host events/workshops at festivals and literary events such as Buddhafield, Primadonna and the like.
Feature as a guest on podcasts such as Dr Huberman, Steven Bartlett.

Potential leads:

London Mayor hopefuls where I provide the voice on invisible disabilities and promote the idea and issues that fall under Living in the Grey – challenge them at questions time on what they are doing about invisible disabilities and providing services for people such as myself and regularly get asked about when my book will be published so they can read it.

My GP is Dr Ellie Cannon – a well known Sky news medical doctor and Daily Mail doctor and author as well as Meningitis Now ambassador. Will approach her for endorsement on book and recommendation to patients.

Feed into brain/disability/healing/power of self healing events at Wellcome Collection.

Collaborate with artists and scientists such as Susan Aldworth, neuroscientists, gut researchers, Heart Math Institute and various theatre ensembles focusing on disabilities.

Hold talks and workshops on retreats and events such as Alternatives, the UK’s longest running weekly mind body spirit events company (landmark speaking platform for spiritual teachers, alternative thinkers, conscious business leaders and visionary thought provokers for the past 30+ years). I am friends with the founder, Malcolm Stern and professionally known to the co-directors. I will also look to hold my own events via charities that I am connected to above and community groups I feed into on a regular basis.

Author Endorsement: I would look for endorsement via relevant authors/experts whose work I admire such as: Norman Doidge (The Brain that Changes Itself, Penguin), Shane O’ Mara (In Praise of Walking, Bodley Press), Richard P. Brown MD (The Healing Power of the Breath, Shambhala), Jill Bolte Taylor (My Stroke of Insight, Hodder), Guilia Enders (Gut, Scribe), Michael D Lemonick (the Perpetual Now, Anchor Books), Erling Kagge (Walking/Silence in the Age of Noise. Penguin, and Penguin Viking), Aeham Ahmad (The Pianist of Yarmouk, Penguin) and Dr Andrew Huberman. There are many in the self-help and spiritual realm that could also be approached for endorsement including Neale Donald Walsh and Elizabeth Gilbert.

Potential future projects:

Children/YA/Adult book series:
I aim to follow my memoir with a children’s (with adult appeal) illustrative book about the brain’s function with the ultimate goal to encourage positive actions that improve brain (and overall) health. Called Brian and His Orchestra, it is a series of tales of Brian (anagram of brain) the conductor and his orchestra (as a whole the orchestra is a metaphor for the body and every orchestra player/instrument is a body part / organ, relevant cell etc that communicates with the brain). The main premise is to educate readers on the general relationship between different parts of the body and the role each have with the brain and vice versa, and how outside influences can affect each one and thus the overall orchestra eg lack of sleep affecting memory and mood, or asking the brain and body to do too much can fatigue the brain and affect hormones etc, as well as the good stuff too such as how playing outdoors helps hormones of calmness, the importance of getting enough sleep and hugging and laughing increasing serotonin and so on.

It will also look to explain brain injuries, mental health and other illnesses so prevalent in society and with so little understanding, such as dementia and Alzheimer’s in a more innocent childlike way to give children and adults a better understanding of such conditions as it is increasingly likely they themselves may face directly or indirectly with their peers, parents and grandparents.

Giving human characteristics and personalities to body parts so that readers can relate with fun tales and end each tale with a piece of music they create together. There is a series idea that can be used here with potential for animation too – using different issues whether it be about actions we take or don’t, environment such as noise and how these affect our brain and body.

Podcast of my own/in conjunction with an health expert...interviewing relevant experts on the subject matter at hand eg gut health, brain health, dementia and so on and well known persons with invisible disabilities on the impact on their life and how they manage, as well as discuss issues they face in society and every day life that prevents them thriving.

I have developed an app that is about connecting individuals that is currently being considered for investment by two big investment fund players – one is an ex-Dragon from Dragon’s Den and the other, a well-known airline owner. They are showing interest not only because of the app itself but also because of my story and the investment for them is that of helping a disabled person start a business. I would potentially be able to utilise the publicity of the book on the back of these potential investments/launch of the app or at least will be known publicly for the app which would help with the publicity of the book.