User:Tracyplayle/sandbox

Tracy Playle was born in Harlow in Essex and spent the first 18 years of her life there, studying first at Brays Grove School and then at Harlow College. Her parents and family owned a trophy and engraving business there so most of her time, when not at school or in the swimming pool (she was a competitive swimmer until I was 19) was spent in the family shop. She left Essex in 1998 for the Midlands, where she has been ever since.

Tracy studied at the University of Warwick and, thanks to many many hours with her head stuck in a book, graduated with a first in 2001. From there she headed off the Keele University to study for my MA in American Literature and Culture before returning to Warwick to start a PhD in 2002, under the belief that she wanted to be an academic. That, as you can tell, didn’t happen, as she was somewhat distracted by falling in love with working in communications instead, and so her love affair with education communications and marketing began.

In 2007 Tracy started her own company, Pickle Jar Communications, and she hasn’t looked back since. She struggles some times with the notion of being a consultant, and particularly what some people might call a ‘social media consultant’ (though she prefers ‘communications consultant’ as she does much more than just social media). This is purely because the word is often perceived to be a dirty word, and social media consultants are the lowest of the low. That’s because so many of them are complete frauds giving the others a bad name. Ethical practice, providing sound, strategic advice to clients and never ever ripping anyone off underpins everything she does. She loves her job.

Tracy still lives in the Midlands now with her two house rabbits, Scotch and Macy. However, her job takes her around the UK and the rest of the world, running workshops, visiting clients and speaking at conferences, so she rarely stay put for long. It’s a good thing she adores traveling so much and prides herself on being able to sleep in just about any hotel room!