Sarah Evans: "I took the risk years ago and I haven’t looked back. I’m very, very happy."

Episode details

Sarah Evans, founder of Sevans Strategy and Sevans Digital PR, is a digital PR strategist, consultant, global brand correspondent and keynote speaker, who works with companies worldwide to create and improve their social and digital PR strategies. Her team is able to advise on branding, marketing, advertising, and public relations. Additionally, Sarah has been a digital correspondent for several companies including Paypal, Cox Communications, MGM International, Cisco, SAP, Wal Mart, Shorty Awards and more... Sarah got her start by helping small to midsize businesses build their digital PR efforts. She is currently a member of the Forbes Agency Council. Previously, Sarah worked with a Chicago-area crisis center to raise more than $161,000 in three weeks exclusively via social media, and is honored to be a member of the Guinness Book World Record holding #beatcancer team.   Most passionate about My world is all digital PR. I started my business around 11 years ago and it has gone through a lot of changes and evolutions, highs and lows. It has grown and not grown (when I had my children). However, I feel very lucky to work with the clients whom we work with in the digital lifestyle and technology space. We have customers all over the world, from Israel, and from Russia, and from across the US, and I absolutely love what I do. I view digital PR as much more comprehensive. Of course, we do traditional media relations—getting clients sourced in TV, print, radio, and the like—but we also look at social earned organic and even some social paid components. We help clients create their own content for their websites and we help them get placed in media outlets. We get them the opportunities to get placed in unique outlets, as podcasts, or YouTube influencers, or Instagram influencers. We are looking for all the opportunities that a brand can use to either share their story, connect with the community, or leverage a moment in time. I’m not technically a maker, but I test out things every day. I consider myself a tech enthusiast and a beta tester. Each day, I’m trying out 5 to 10 new products and looking at how they can resonate with consumers, how we can use them from a PR perspective, and how we can integrate them into a publicity plan or connection opportunity. Sarah’s customers Our customers all have sorts of technology angles to their products. What all our customers have in common is that they are all technology leaders or influencers, or they have technology related to their brand. Sarah’s career and story I was a PR major in college, so it’s something that I always knew I wanted to do. When I was very little, I was hosting tea parties and putting on events, inviting everyone, bringing people together. That was really what I wanted to do with my life. My mother was the catalyst for that. We started from: Bringing people together is my mission, so what kind of career can help me do that? I discovered public relations and went through a very traditional career path. I started with corporate public relations, then health care, higher education, and agency work. I didn’t realize that I had an entrepreneurial spirit. However, I took the risk 11 years ago and haven’t looked back. I’m very, very happy. Sarah’s best advice for entrepreneurs My advice is to make some of their own advice. Every day, I’m learning something, so I think the advice I would have given 11 years ago, five years ago, or three months ago would be completely different. The one thing that has remained the same is that you have to have a thirst or hunger for what you do. It’s very easy to get depleted emotionally, or down on yourself. When you get into the tranches, you find out how difficult it is because not everyone shares your passion. Creating a want or need for your product can be quite difficult but it will happen with time. You just need to stay the course and maintain. Know and learn when you have to evolve and change, and fix things