In a world where brand voices compete for attention, Sophie Attwood has mastered the art of quiet influence. As an award-winning global communications expert specialising in the health, beauty, and wellness industries, Sophie has built her reputation on authenticity, integrity, and purpose. Her visionary approach to storytelling has helped shape the narrative of countless leading brands — transforming their reputations, amplifying their presence, and setting new standards for excellence across the industry. We sat down with Sophie to explore her journey, the power of authentic communication, and how she continues to redefine what it means to build a brand with heart, honesty, and impact.
As women in leadership, we’re often expected to balance empathy with authority. You’ve built a reputation around integrity and authentic storytelling in PR, how do you personally set boundaries that protect both your values and your business growth, especially when the pressure to compromise is high?
When I started SA Communications, I promised myself that growth would never come at the cost of integrity and that promise still guides every decision today as we work on a global scale. We’ve had many clients approach us to work with us and I’ve had to say no to what would, on paper, be a lot of money – but they’d have also impacted us and what we stand for in ways more costly than any retained fee. I’m also very transparent with clients and my team about what we stand for and where I see PR and communications fitting. We won’t chase headlines that compromise values or push narratives that don’t feel authentic to their brand – and that’s often very difficult to do when some brands are trained to chase ROI. Protecting your values is protecting your business. In business reputation is your currency, and once it’s spent, you unfortunately can’t buy it back very easily.
Many industries you’ve worked in from wellness to beauty to healthcare are consumer-led by women but still often controlled at the top by men. How do you see the role of female-led communications in shifting that narrative and giving women stronger ownership of their industries?
Female-led communications have the power to completely reframe how industries see and speak to women. If you look back to right at the beginning of advertising, women have been the audience but not the authors of the story. However, when women lead the storytelling, it stops being about vanity and starts being about value. We bring empathy, intuition, and lived experience into boardroom strategies and that human understanding will always create stronger brands and deeper consumer trust. I’ve seen first-hand that when women are the voices behind the message, industries begin to look and feel entirely different.
You’ve been featured on Management Today’s 35 Women Under 35 alongside powerhouses like Stella McCartney. While that recognition is incredible, how do you personally redefine success for yourself beyond accolades, and what should women in business consider as their own metrics of achievement?
That moment was incredibly special but success has never been measured by the awards and accolades. I can tell you a few things that mean more to me – creating an agency culture that people genuinely love to be part of, helping brands tell stories that change how consumers think and feel, changing legislation with clients and doing things that genuinely make a positive mark on history – they’re the things you look back on. I suppose in life, it’s the same – you don’t take the tangible things with you at the end, but you can leave a legacy and a positive feeling when people remember you – that’s my goal anyway in both life and business.
For women in business, I’d say focus on alignment, being a good person, and doing something that genuinely makes you happy. We spend so much of our lives working, it should fill you up, not drain you. If your work brings you joy, challenges you in the right ways, and stays true to your values, then you’ve already achieved a version of success that no title or trophy can match.
Reputation management isn’t only for brands — women in business also have to manage the story of who they are as leaders. What advice would you give to female founders on communicating through failure or setbacks so that their brand presence grows stronger instead of being diminished?
You wouldn’t experience winning if you hadn’t experienced failure and we all have to experience it at some point.
I think the most powerful thing you can do is own your story. Communicate with honesty and intention. Don’t rush to ‘spin’ it or find an angle… take some time to reflect, learn, and share what it taught you from a personal standpoint.
Silence can often say more than a statement so when you do speak, make it meaningful. Vulnerability builds trust, and trust builds longevity to allow you to rebuild from there.
With your experience in elevating global household names, what qualities do you look for in emerging female founders or brands that tell you they’re ready to be taken seriously on a bigger stage? And how can women listening position themselves to attract the kind of strategic partnerships you create?
I look for founders who know not just what they do, but why they do it. The brands that stand out are the ones with a defined mission not just a marketing plan and a step by step plan and a dream of going viral. I refer to this in my book as a brand’s heartbeat – and it’s so important that brands find it. Without that heartbeat, a brand can look really beautiful on the outside but feel totally hollow within.
