We recently connected with Petrona Joseph and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Petrona, thanks for joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.
The biggest risk I’ve ever taken was on myself. For the last seven years, I have worked as a PR consultant on a part-time basis but since November 2021, I am a full-time Publicist with no safety net. I just did it!
I started my agency, and at first – I was afraid of not being able to make payments to my contractors or not being able to pay for my own personal lifestyle. I don’t do much advertising but with word-to-mouth referrals, I am very busy. I do mostly everything myself from creating communication strategies to accounting and billing. I am also expanding slowly as I am now providing French coverage whereas in the past, I did mostly English strategies.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I got into Public Relations by accident. I always wanted to be a corporate lawyer but took a detour and acquired a Linguistics Degree and ended up as a Business Development Manager in the luxury car business. When I decided to leave the luxury car business, I purchased a grocery store. Yes! A grocery store. When I closed the store, I didn’t know what to do, so I started blogging. Blogging led to me being on television – which was really not something I ever expected!
I had a successful run on television, and when it came to an end, I decided that I could consult on Public Relations.
Seven years later, I am still in the industry and loving it!
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
The biggest lesson I had to unlearn was being worthy of success. I grew up in a dysfunctional family and as the Black Sheep, I grew up working hard but struggling with worthiness. That also resulted in me battling as well with imposter syndrome. I am still working on worthiness and feelings of acceptance of my success but have grown to be receptive of it.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
From past experience of owning and losing a grocery store, I don’t believe in borrowing capital. My agency/business is fully funded by myself. I had to make a lot of sacrifices, I am still not driving my dream car or living in my dream home but I am not in debt as I previously was for my grocery store.
Learning how to manage the inflow and cash intake, distribution of payments to contractors, and managing business expenses I am still profitable and learning how to start investing to be able to smart decisions for my future.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://77communications.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iampetronajoseph/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iampetronajoseph/