Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alyssa Evans. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alyssa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

So I’ll first start with The Atlanta Book Club. The Atlanta Book Club is not your average book club. Yes we read, but we also go to beautiful restaurants in Atlanta to chat about our monthly books, host social events, group walks, volunteering, and more. The emphasis of this club is less on the reading, but more-so about creating spaces for relationships to be built and to create a positive impact in Atlanta.

The beginning of The Atlanta Book Club started out of the awareness that there was a whole community of people who loved to read and liked talking about books, but were not coming together for some reason. I discovered this after months of sharing book reviews on my personal Instagram and found that there were so many people engaging with them and asking for more.

I was looking at the current landscape of book clubs and felt there was a need to have a more social focus, where there was more intentionality with creating relationships. Where it was less serious, but really a time for people to talk but it was a comfortable, welcoming environment. So with our meetups you can pretty much guarantee a lot of laughing, good food, and of course some book talk.

I also started a marketing consulting agency, Grounded. Grounded is a marketing agency that helps businesses build or improve their marketing at any stage. We help with branding, social media, email, event & field marketing. We even help business owners with the ideation stage of developing a company, like the company name, logo, and developing the look and feel of the brand. And then of course, we help more established companies revamp their marketing strategy so that they can create engaging content that builds relationships that also converts to sales.

Grounded was started after I got laid from my marketing corporate job. I got to a point where I was tired of waiting for someone else to give me an opportunity so I thought I could create my own. Consulting was something I wanted to do for a while, but never felt like it was the right time. I’m also so grateful that I had friends and family that pushed me to start.

Alyssa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve had an entrepreneurial spirit from a young age, starting my first business Elocin Boutique at fourteen years old. Elocin Boutique is an online curated secondhand clothing store that I started on Poshmark and then developed across many platforms, including having my own website and social media. I continued this all the way through college as well, and it got to the point where I was making around $10,000 a year as a college student, without putting in much effort which was wild. Then I ended up going into corporate, working full time as a marketing coordinator for a large beauty company. The Atlanta Book Club started November 2023, now with over 180 members. And then Grounded Marketing Consulting, the latest company I’ve started, allows me to take all that I have learned from building my own businesses and working for corporate and using that to help other businesses be successful.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One lesson I had to unlearn is just because something was always done a certain way, does not mean that it’s the correct way. That’s one thing I learned in corporate. I saw that there were certain processes that were put in place a long time ago, but no one took a second to question why it’s done this way and if it’s actually working. We would just accept it as the way it’s done, but then later realize if we took a second, we could have been doing our work a lot more efficiently or even figured out a method that was more financially successful for the business.

How did you build your audience on social media?

For one to build a social media presence, start with a vision. Write down the types of people you are trying to reach. Is it women? Do they like working out? Are they fashion conscious? Really get specific here. Then decide what the point is for your content? Are you trying to sell something? Inform them of incoming events? All the above? Knowing this helps you decide how you want to show up on social media and create expectations for your followers that will keep them wanting to come back. Also another thing you want to think through is what makes your business different. That is also something you would want to emphasize in your content. That should be intertwined in your brand story in developing why people should care about what you are doing.
In creating The Atlanta Book Club I did just this. I started with a vision of what I envisioned the club was going to be and how I wanted to showcase what made it different. One thing in particular, is I try to make sure that I capture the high energy that our meetups have because typically I find that book clubs can be serious. Therefore, our content will have a lot of clips of us laughing and having a good time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.instagram.com/begroundedmarketing/?next=%2F
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theatlantabookclub/?next=%2F
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyssa-evans-3b1337169/