Heli Amare is an Awardee of the Media & Film Category in Ayoo Africa’s 2020 Top Ten D.C Awards.
After working for about five years from her home office, Heli was excited when she started working this year on a contract in Washington, D.C. She was looking forward to being exposed to a new level of growth, then COVID-19 happened. The Sports and Entertainment industry literally shut down during the pandemic, and this was her area of expertise.
Heli Amare is the Founder and Creative Director of Genuine Citizen, a branding and design agency specializing in the Sports and Entertainment industry. Her main source of income had shut down because of a global pandemic. What was she going to do?
“It’s only after you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow, and transform.” ― Roy T. Bennett
A simple search on Google shares that, “A pivot usually occurs when a company makes a fundamental change to their business.”
“I was trying to find ways to gain income and find ways to be proactive in my community.” Heli realized that she needed to pivot her business. She still does some content creation for a few clients, but the main pivot was in a surprising direction; teaching. She launched her very first online course.
Does pivoting sound scary? Here are Heli’s tips:
Do your homework! Find out what people are interested in, and what they want to learn. Then research the best platform for you to teach within your field of expertise. At the time of this interview, Heli had just completed her first course online and it was FREE!
I can hear some of you gasping for air because in this COVID-19 economy, “free” doesn’t make sense, but maybe it does. Heli used the free course as a research tool and got a lot of feedback too. She is now working on the next course for a fee and already has potential clients from the first free course. Genius, right?
Pivoting may sound scary, but in the times that we are in, it is necessary! Did you know that Starbucks, Groupon, Twitter and PayPal are some of the companies that chose to pivot, and it brought them great revenue?
What other tips does Heli have for you?
- “As a business, be sensitive and don’t hard sell. It’s a sensitive time. Not everyone is economically or financially okay right now.”
- “Don’t lose sight of who you are and what your brand represents. Don’t compete. Don’t see what the trend is and recreate what you see. Stay true to your voice and really curate your content.”
