Dom sits down and talks to Lauren-Klair Soar all about working as a woman in wrestling media and reflects on some of the challenges of working in the industry. Lauren talks about her career in PR and her journey into the PR world and where it all began.
“I didn’t really follow the traditional method of progressing into a career, I did all sorts of things, I used to manage a night club, I was a dance instructor, I did all sorts and I ended up moving into recruitment and used that as a steppingstone to go into PR. My first client was Clear Vision, which most wrestling fans will know was the first home distribution company to handle WWE’s home entertainment.
“I just fell into wrestling, it wasn’t something that came from fandom, I watched it with my brother when I was a kid, I loved watching it with him, but I’ll be honest I didn’t come in as a massive fan. My last project with Clear Vision for WWE was the launch of the 10th Anniversary Wrestling With Shadows which is Bret Hart’s documentary.
“In more recent years, I’d say about five years ago, is when we brought on the social media stuff, and it just built from there. I worked freelancing in 2015 after working in agency and a few other jobs and the IMPACT stuff on the side. It was just a progression thing and I recommend to anybody who wants to build their career like that if they’re not going down the traditional routes, is to use everything as a steppingstone, don’t think that if you don’t jump into your dream job straight away that you’re a failure, because you’re not, it takes time. You can do whatever you want, whenever you want to do it, you don’t have to follow the traditional path.”
Lauren gives some advice and tips to young people and what key skills they would need to progress and succeed in this type of career and how to overcome any self-image/confidence issues they may face: “Don’t take the sparkle out your eyes about it, but be realistic, do your research and that’s where networking comes in, get to know people. Within the last couple of years people are going in with wider eyes and not expecting it to be all shiny and brand new.”
When working in PR and with performers it’s important to have a connection with who you’re working with, Lauren highlights how important this is.
“I’ve made best friends for life through Impact and wrestling, and I’ve also made really good work friends through wrestling. With different interviews we do, we connect with people we’ve never actually met before. I can give some examples, Steve Maclin, dead professional, on time, obviously he’s an ex-military man, he was very on it. Jordynn Grace, she’s the same, very professional and we were chatting and then we both got onto a topic that we were very passionate about.”
Lauren expresses the ‘art of conversation’ in her career and how important it is to use conversation to make those connections and to do some research and preparation before an interview/first meeting.
“For me, it comes naturally but that’s because I’ve been doing it for so long. There’s two ways you can do it, you can dig and do your research, if you’re doing a job like we do you tend to know about them anyway. If you feel like someone is going to be a little more difficult then you can do a little bit of research on them and even note down some topics or some questions. People should definitely be confident enough to open up that question and use something they like.”
What kind of things do you want to see from a young journalist? What things do they need, and what things do you not want to see?
“From journalism, I would expect someone who wants to interview Impact talent to be a wrestling fan, or to at least be someone to be very knowledgeable in the topic, that isn’t as important in PR but from a journalism perspective, you need to know what you’re talking about. You need to know the history and have that research capability and the preparation capability. The first thing would be to make yourself stand out from the crowd and make sure that it is something that you are passionate about. There’s no point in writing stories and interviewing people that you’re not interested in, make your passion known and be professional.”
There are still a lot of issues for young women in the industry and for women working with and in wrestling, Lauren speaks about her own struggles in the industry and how to overcome them: “Talk to and find a mentor you can work alongside, whether you are a girl, guy, non-binary or otherwise, find somebody that you can feel like you can learn from, the majority of people will give you, their time.”
Finishing up, Lauren talks about how she has changed and developed as a person in her personal life and professional work life: “Looking back at when I first started working in wrestling back in 2011,2012, so ten years ago, I wasn’t a completely different person I still had the same morals and values, but life changes you. The pandemic as well as everything else puts your life in to perspective, we’re very lucky to have Impact, it’s a great team we’re working with, and it helps you learn what’s important in life. Impact is very much my focus in wrestling and it’s something very special to be apart of. No matter how hard or annoying things are, turn it into a positive and use it to build your character to move forward.
“Don’t think that if it takes time that you’re not successful, sometimes getting out of bed in a morning is a success I’m so glad that we live in a world where that is recognised in most cases. If you get to the end of your day and think I’ve done nothing today, look back on your day and pick out the little things. I used to work myself into the ground and give myself a really hard time because of my personal history, I had to navigate my way through life and that’s why I’m in education now at this time in my life. Every day find your successes, block negative energy. Being realistic at what you’re looking at helps you feel successful, going on Instagram and seeing all these people looking perfect, it’s not real, everybody’s journey is different. Be true to the person you are, and everything will fall into place, everything will be okay, it will be okay.”
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Interview: Dom Smith / Words: Katie Lovatt
Listen to the full chat below:
