Alison Shadrack Brown had reached success in her PR business. In the 6.5 years, she'd been running Adia PR, they’d grown to a team of four staff and had predictable recurring revenue with long-term clients. So when COVID hit, and her long-term customers suddenly had to step back, Adia’s income dropped 50% overnight.

 

Based in the UK, Alison was able to furlough two of her staff, and continue to pay the other two but to sustain them and get her staff out of furlough, they needed to find new revenue streams quickly. When the idea of the Trusted Buyers Club was first broached by Roger and the team, Alison was initially hesitant.

 

“I liked the idea, but it required investing money to make money and I had no guarantees that it going to work. I was interested to meet people from all across the world, and have not had time to fully engage with the Genius U community before apart from my monthly mentoring sessions with Roger James Hamilton. It felt like it was a good time to get involved.”

 

Building Community

In the Trusted Buyers Club, Alison was able to start making new relationships with people who were not only doing business in the time of COVID but were thriving. She quickly realised there was a new market opening up for her business, by working with people who were ready to do business now.

 

She turned her efforts to two things:

• Building relationships within the Trusted Buyers Club. The micro-community created was a place filled with people working hard to adapt their business and were looking for ways to promote their new offerings.
   
• Create online products to offer to the Trusted Buyers Club community. Her Media Marketing Blueprint 12-week done with you programme was something she’d been planning to offer for a long time and now she had the opportunity and motivation to do so.
   

Based on feedback from Trusted Buyers Club members, Alison offered two additional new products: a Social Media Content Creation and Management package and a Discovery Call to Create Your Business Fame, both designed to help the community to build brand awareness and get their message heard.

 

Meeting Success

It was a success. Alison has received sales from all three products in TBC and as a result, Alison has tripled her original investment. Outside of TBC, she has managed to return Adia PR to its pre-lockdown monthly revenue levels, again by finding new clients. Proving her business would thrive if she had the right message with the right solution behind it.

 

Alison realised that unlike many other businesses who now needed to pivot, Adia PR did not. They have always worked with disruptive entrepreneurs, thought-leaders and experts in their field, so instead, they had to focus on adapting to the changing world of business around them.

 

Talk to the businesses and experts who did have something new to share with the world (or their part of it) and help them with their promotion and publicity campaigns - be it in the press or on social media. A change in viewpoint rather than a change in direction. One of those new clients happens to be the Genius Group and that is indirectly thanks to Alison joining the Trusted Buyers Club.

 

Now armed with a host of new online products, access to a global community and a wider range of clients, Alison is confident in continuing to move forward and grow no matter the economic climate.

 

Her advice for others?

 

“Business is out there. If you look for it and get out there, you will find it, but it won’t come looking for you. By being proactive with your PR, people will get to hear about you, learn what you’re doing, and be encouraged to engage with you in some way. Also, build out the best solution for what your ideal customers want and need now, and you will find the business. Yes, some businesses will recover, but others will not, so don’t rely on your old customers returning.“

 

Learn to adapt to the world you have at any given moment and then you will always succeed.

 

Challenges Faced
- Lost 50% of business due to COVID
- New revenue streams needed quickly

 

Solutions Found
- Two staff furloughed
- Joined The Trusted Buyers Club
- Established new relationships
- Created 3 online products

 

Results Produced
- Sold all 3 products online
- Tripled original investment
- Genius Group as a Client

 

Alison Contact
- Genius U: https://www.geniusu.com/users/1237241
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonshadrack/
- Adia PR: https://www.adiapr.co.uk/