Interview with Lysbeth Fox, founder of Fox Communications

We chat to female founder and powerhouse that is Lysbeth Fox, the founder of Fox Communications, a luxury travel and lifestlye PR agency. We learn some valuable lessons from Lysbeth about starting your own business, being a single mother at work, gender bias in financing for female entrepreneurs and the amazing philanthropic work Fox have done for empowerment charity, WE.

Why did you originally start Fox Communications?

With a career that has spanned over 20 years, I’ve worked with a wide range of companies, from small agencies to the big corporates. I’ve worked both in-house and on the agency side, set up PR companies for other people and specialist divisions that enabled the business to grow organically. 

I wanted to put all of this knowledge from every side of the PR spectrum into an agency that was ultimately under my leadership. Whilst working for other people offered a stability and certain comfort, I felt restricted in some areas of business and PR. I wanted to be able to inspire and empower my staff to create a business that we are all incredibly proud of and excited at the thought of coming in to work every day.

How would you describe Fox Communications in three words?

Never standing still. 

Where do you get your inspiration from, both for Fox Comms and on a personal level?

This might sound cliched, but my father and grandfather. My grandfather was a German refugee and came to England during the war. He had nothing but the clothes on his back when he came to the UK. My father started out as a chicken farmer and together they built a very successful business that was bought out in the late 80’s. They inspire me to work hard and believe that through adversity you can still succeed.

What have been the most challenging things about starting your own business?

It has to be the juggle. I am a single mother and a business owner. I started the business when my daughter had just turned 2 years old, she’s about to be 12. I have tried to be there for her as well as the business, failing gloriously both at times and succeeding at others. It’s not about having it all, but being good enough for both. I see the benefits intertwined of both, at the start I probably would have worked all hours if it were not for her and the age she was, on the other side running a business shows my daughter that there is no glass ceiling, she can achieve whatever she aspires to.  I am immensely proud of how both are turning out, but they are similarly timed going into teenagerhood so let me come back to you on that one. 

What has been your career highlight to date?

That’s such a hard one to answer – there have been so many. My ultimate highlight is probably owning and running my own company. The clients we represent are amazing and some of the best in their field, and our team is second to none – inspiring, creative and professional, yet extremely fun to be around. I’ve visited some incredible places in my career, too. A couple of years ago we launched three Nobu Hotels in Ibiza, Marbella and London, and I ended up on a yacht with Chef Nobu and Robert De Niro in Ibiza…that was an experience.  More recently, I’m most proud of some pro-bono work we’ve done for the youth empowerment charity, WE. My team did an amazing job, getting over six million impressions within 24 hours globally. What I loved about it was, it took them out of their comfort zone, from this luxury lifestyle and travel arena into event organisation, and they did it with aplomb.

If you had to invite three women (dead or alive) to dinner, who would they be and why?

Marilyn Monroe – did JFK really kill her? So many more unanswered questions. Mother Theresa, just to be in her presence and absorb her kindred spirit. And lastly, my mum, because she’s one helluva dinner guest and bon viveur. 

What kind of pressures do you face as a female entrepreneur? And also as a single-parent and entrepreneur?

Running a business isn’t easy. Setting up is the easy part, driving it to success is where the hard work sits. 25% of all start-ups fail in their first year and 50% don’t even make it past year 5.  2021 will be Fox Communications’ 10-year anniversary. I know many women entrepreneurs and have worked for many in the past who ran successful companies, so in terms of women succeeding as business owners, I don’t think that the playing field has changed remarkably. What I do think has evolved is how women are perceived when setting up a business. In the past and even now, women are offered less money in loans for their start up. In fact, typically women will have half as much capital as men. Something I find even more shocking is that women-only funding teams were given £32 million in investment, while male only teams received more than £5 billion–from the British Business Bank. So, there is still work to be done. But for now we have discourse, the conversation has started and I hope that in time, soon, this will change for the future female entrepreneur.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected you as a travel PR and Fox Communications? What does the future of travel look like?

I think the future of travel looks extremely rosy. When the vaccine is widely distributed, everyone will rediscover their wonder lust for travel, but what I sincerely hope is that they’ve learnt the preciousness of this earth and that they will take this care and knowledge into their future travels from now on. We’ve seen how by stopping the earth has been able to recover. Now we must tread with environmentally sustainable practises in mind, less but longer holidays to reduce carbon, visiting towns for the societal aspect not just fly & flop and ensuring our helpful tourist money is going directly to helping communities. 

Although our business and clients were dramatically affected by COVID-19 we were luckier than some as we specialise in the luxury arena and offer a variety of communications services such as crisis management which came into its own at the start of the pandemic. When the pandemic started, our media outreach switched to hands on 24hr crisis management, then during the global lockdown we helped our clients with their brand strategy, providing content for guest outreach, digital that includes everything from their website copy to guest relation letters, social media outreach–making sure our hotels were in touch with their guests and using our luxury knowledge and consumer insights so we can ensure they come across in a relevant and authentic manner.

I chaired a luxury travel panel in February this year and I asked four travel industry insiders what their buzzwords were for the next ten years – the common theme was sustainability. Mine is ‘carbon negative’. I think we’ll all come out of this wanting to know that we are doing good through travel, giving back to the local community, offsetting our flights, stopping impacting our world negatively, reconnecting with loved ones, and making positive change as we go forward.

What does travel mean to you?

When I’m travelling, I look for a trip that can encourage me to be present throughout. It needs to offer engaging experiences, which means I’m not thinking about what’s going on at home, or at work, or in the world. I need to feel completely there, and to have an enriching and bonding experience with the people I’m travelling with.

What are the future plans for Fox for the rest of the year and 2021?

Building upon our knowledge of the luxury consumer and being able to use these insights to benefit our client’s communication and penetration of this audience are key for us. I can’t wait to be back in our wonderful office in Covent Garden, growing our international company in New York and now Italy, whilst driving excellence on behalf of our clients. But most of all it is keeping the team inspired and motivated, so they produce incredible results for our clients, who we are lucky enough to represent for years on end.