At Elite Business Live 2025, one of the standout sessions came from Alison Shadrack, founder of award-winning agency Adia PR. She delivered a masterclass in the art of trust-building through strategic PR. Sharing lessons from her own entrepreneurial journey, Alison brought both energy and expertise to the stage, reminding business leaders that visibility alone isn’t enough. With crowded marketplaces, trust fuels sustainable growth.
From passion project to PR powerhouse
Alison’s journey into business began far from the world of PR. Her first venture was a passion project, importing Italian food into the UK, despite having no industry experience, contacts, or defined customer base. What she did have was determination, a love for the product, and a natural flair for storytelling.
In the days before social media, Alison relied on traditional press coverage to raise awareness and drive traffic to her website. “Without the press, we would have been dead in the water,” she told the audience. That experience lit the spark that led her to launch Adia PR, with a mission to help other small businesses unlock the power of PR to grow their profiles and businesses.
The trust trifecta
Alison framed her session around three core pillars of effective PR: visibility, credibility, and authenticity. It’s this trio, she argued, that determines whether businesses are trusted, remembered, and recommended.
- Visibility means being consistently seen and heard across multiple platforms.
- Credibility is about being recognised as an expert who delivers on their promise.
- Authenticity requires businesses to show up truthfully and transparently in everything from their websites to their customer interactions.
“If you’ve got credibility but no visibility, you’re the world’s best-kept secret,” she warned. “And if you’re authentic but not visible or credible, your impact will be limited.”
What does modern PR look like?
While traditional media relations still play an important role, Alison encouraged attendees to think more broadly about how they build awareness. She outlined a toolkit of PR tactics, most of which are low-cost or free. These are designed to help businesses share their stories in ways that feel authentic and aligned with their strengths.
These included:
- Authoring a book – not for profit, but for positioning.
- Speaking at events or guesting on podcasts – whichever format feels more natural.
- Winning awards – valuable not only for recognition but also for storytelling potential.
- Hosting or attending events – great for relationship building and creating content.
- Maximising social media – to amplify every PR win.
The golden rule, she emphasised, is to meet your audience where they are and to show up consistently.
What journalists actually want
Drawing on her years of experience, Alison debunked the idea that journalists exist to promote businesses. “They’re not there to help you! They’re there to serve their readers,” she said. “But if you give them a timely, relevant, and unique story with a human angle, you’re helping them do their job.”
She outlined five key ingredients for media-friendly stories:
- Timing – Is your story newsworthy now?
- Relevance – Does it resonate with the publication’s audience?
- Uniqueness – What makes it different?
- Human interest – Even in B2B, people matter.
- Credibility – Backed by evidence, not just opinion.
From case studies and expert advice articles to trend analysis and thought leadership, Alison encouraged founders to dig deep into their own experiences and insights to uncover stories the media would genuinely want to publish.
B2B and B2C are two sides of the same PR coin
For product-based businesses, Alison reminded the room that product placements and reviews still offer excellent exposure, especially in consumer titles. However, she cautioned that sending products to journalists doesn’t guarantee coverage, and businesses should be strategic in how they approach gifting.
Meanwhile, service-based businesses can benefit from a range of PR opportunities including:
- Commentary on industry news
- Research-backed insights
- Launch announcements
- Profile interviews that support personal branding
“Personal brand PR is just as important as business PR,” she noted. “Raising your own profile builds trust in your company.”
Making the most of every win
Whether it’s an award shortlisting or a published feature, PR success shouldn’t end when the coverage goes live. Alison urged founders and business leaders to amplify every piece of earned media, using channels and platforms such as social media, sales decks, website news pages, marketing collateral, and conversations with prospects.
“The more you repurpose and share it, the more value it brings,” she said. “PR fuels the trust engine, and trust drives conversion.”
PR without the price tag
When asked about budget constraints, Alison was clear: “You can do plenty with little to no budget. The real cost is your time, and that’s why strategy is so important. Focus your efforts where you’ll have the biggest impact.”
She also stressed the importance of exclusivity when pitching to journalists. Repurposing blog content is fine, but journalists expect originality and relevance tailored to their audience. “Try submitting your content to publications first, then you can summarise and link to it on your own channels later,” she advised.
Do you accept the challenge?
Alison closed her session by encouraging businesses to assess which of the three pillars, visibility, credibility, or authenticity, they need to work on most. She left the audience with a challenge: commit to taking one proactive step to raise awareness, build authority, or share their story more effectively.
For those wanting to go that one step further, she offered access to her free guide: “Get Famous in 15 Minutes” a checklist of simple but powerful PR activities to help founders increase their visibility and credibility with purpose.
At a time when trust is the ultimate competitive advantage, Alison Shadrack’s message couldn’t have been clearer: strategic PR isn’t about vanity, it’s about building the kind of business that people believe in.
