Sonali advises women to take the ups and downs in their stride and to believe in their abilities and capabilities to make it big.
Women need to ignore the noise and believe in their own ability to become successful. This is the advice Sonali Ramaiya, the young founder of Roarrr Media & Public Relations and a highly successful entrepreneur, has for women who aim to pursue their passion and realise their dreams.
“We as women need to be our heroes. We need to build ourselves every day, bit by bit, to realise our dreams and make them big in life. We can make a difference to the world and achieve the unthinkable, provided the determination is there. Self-belief is the mantra to success, irrespective of who you are and what you want to do. Self-belief will make you unshakable and unstoppable. If you believe you can do it, nothing can stop you,” says Sonali, who turned an entrepreneur eight years ago and describes her entrepreneurial journey as a “roller-coaster ride with its thrills of highs and lows.”
Sonali aims to establish Roarrr Media as a 360-degree communications services agency. Her target is to grow to a 25 member organisation by 2025, clocking 70% growth year on year and working with high growth brands.
However, she warns that challenges will be there along the way, and there will be smooth and rough patches throughout the journey.
“When I started my PR firm, I forgot hunger and thirst and got completely immersed in building a successful business. After two years of unending struggles and challenges, I thought of giving up my entrepreneurship dreams and returning to the cosy job life. I could have done that, but for my mother, who reminded me that I had not become an entrepreneur just to quit one day. That moment changed my life, and I have not looked back since. Challenges are still there and are always going to be there, but my outlook towards them has changed,” shares Sonali about her own experience of dealing with struggles.
The successful communications specialist stresses the need for work-life balance, saying her health had suffered in the early days of the firm, and she got distanced from friends and family.
“It took me a couple of years to figure out that managing personal life well is also an important part of entrepreneurship. I have been fortunate to have found mentors who helped me realise how to strike work and life balance. The pandemic, too, played a major role in bringing me close to friends and family. I am also able to devote time to my health. I walk every day, enjoy parties, and expand my network. I also manage to travel quite often without work being disrupted thanks to the strong team I have been able to build,” she says.
Sonali is a firm believer in the power of Public Relations, which she describes as an essential tool to gain publicity, build perception, and gain credibility.
“Businesses need to tell their story to the world to gain an edge over the competition. PR does the storytelling for your brand. In a world where each brand’s growth story revolves largely around content, PR is the essential tool,” she says, adding the emergence of Digital PR has expanded the avenues and horizons for reaching out to the target audience.
