Lucy Matthews

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“I had been a ‘rabbit caught in the headlights’ but now my business has totally changed.

I have a clear vision of the future and the path that I need to take to reach that future. Trust me, this is a great place to be and life will never be the same again. I joined the EC and I decided that I wanted to change the focus of my PR consultancy business from being just me, paid only for the hours I was doing for particular clients, to being able to help thousands of entrepreneurs and SMEs to see the value and power of PR and use it in their businesses.

“I had created the vehicle for the change; I’d been on all the courses and learned how to market myself and my business but I just couldn’t take that final leap of faith, leaving my comfort zone behind me.

“So, I put myself in the hot seat at our Godalming EC meeting and let my friends and colleagues push me to the edge. We decided I needed to get my Your Marvellous PR Toolkit printed and split into two levels, giving people the chance to work with me to implement everything they were learning from it.

“Then the big moment happened – Phil Wintermantle rang and offered me the chance to be one of only 12 exhibitors at the National Entrepreneur’s Convention in Birmingham. There would be 1,300 of my avatars, all in one place, with Nigel – who knows me well – telling them all about me and how I could help them. I had 24 hours to decide but soon came to the conclusion that I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

“I signed up and and over the coming days I hardly drew breath! The deadline was tight as I had less than a week to get the ads, goody bag contents, exhibition stand graphics, designs, furniture and t-shirts organised, and then only three weeks to finalise the artwork and get my Toolkits and my book, 101 Marvellous Pearls of PR Wisdom printed and delivered in time to get them to the Convention.

“I had never done anything like this for my business so everything was new and completely unknown.

The results were staggering. My sales rocketed. We sold out of Toolkits and shifted another 17 by the following Monday; our stand was swamped and we took 306 contacts for our database. We also came away with 13 retainer client prospects, so I covered the costs of exhibiting and all my set up costs for the Toolkit the within the month.

“The bigger picture is that I am now firmly on my path to becoming the go-to PR resource that I want to be. I signed up with Infusionsoft and recruited staff and spruced up my rather amateurish MailChimp email marketing campaigns, and grew my database, with thanks to my new website (www.marvellouspr.co.uk) and free e-book.

“My social media profile also skyrocketed; and thanks to the power of PR and third party endorsement I received some amazing requests for new business. Now I’m looking at working with top franchises on providing PR support, bringing together and leading a marcomms team into a promotion for a new sports sponsorship website launch, running more workshops and training programmes and continuing to sell my Toolkits to all those people who are seeing the light about the power and value of getting PR into their marketing. And, as if this isn’t enough, I still have a thriving consultancy business where we do PR for our retainer clients.

“Remember, it’s the things in life you don‘t do that you regret and it’s the same in business.”