Today we’d like to introduce you to Ali Slutsky.
Hi Ali, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, you could tell our readers some of your backstory.
My introduction to the hospitality industry occurred during high school, where I gained practical experience by working as a server in various restaurants. This exposure fueled my passion for the culinary arts and the cultural significance of food, which remained an enduring interest throughout my teenage years and college. My admiration for the hospitality and travel sectors led me to pursue diverse roles, including back-of-house hotel positions, during my college years. In 2007, upon relocating to Austin, I was hired as the Food & Beverage Director assistant at a prominent downtown hotel.
Subsequently, I ventured into hospitality agencies, where I spent approximately five years honing my skills and expertise. In 2012, with a wealth of experience and a vision for a distinctive approach to hospitality PR, I decided to establish my agency. Since its inception, our agency has exhibited remarkable growth, culminating in establishing a second office in Richmond, VA. Moreover, we have expanded our range of services to cater to the industry’s evolving demands.
While public relations remains a pivotal aspect of our client work, our portfolio has evolved to encompass comprehensive social media services, encompassing everything from management to content creation, influencer marketing, brand partnerships, and more. Although hospitality continues to serve as the foundation of our clientele, we have extended our reach to include travel and tourism, lifestyle, and CPG brands, thereby diversifying our expertise and market presence.
Would it have been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
After being in business for 11 years, I would write a novel on challenges along the way. Most recently and significantly was the impact COVID-19 had on my business. As a hospitality adjacent industry, we lost contracts overnight. Getting through 2020 took a lot of creativity and complex decision-making, and that went on through 2021. I began dissolving my business partnership with my co-founder in April last year. While challenging, it allowed me and Resplendent to evaluate where we wanted to go in the next ten years. All these challenges have been opportunities to recalibrate and review where I want the business to be and where I see myself in the future.
Thanks for sharing that. So, you could tell us a bit more about your business.
Resplendent was established in 2012 as a hospitality PR agency. We specialize in hospitality, travel and tourism, lifestyle, and CPG clients. Our core services include public relations, social media management, content creation, influencer marketing, and community relations. We are regional experts with national reach. We are a boutique agency, and with that, you get a hands-on level of service, a service that hospitality folks will recognize. While we are a boutique agency, we offer an enterprise-level service that can fit mom-and-pop shops or larger brands. The edge of a boutique agency is that we get our clients on a business level. We are not a huge shop where each client is just a number; we understand how our work must be reflected in revenue and sales numbers to make sense. I often work with and talk to either the business owners themselves or a key member of leadership who is rated on performance figures. Understanding those conversations with my clients gives us an edge over large agencies or freelancers needing more experience in running and growing a business.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you, and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
I learned a lot of lessons during Covid. Considering there was an entire shutdown, getting creative with how we can help our clients was first and foremost. As a fellow business owner, I took the time to help my clients clean up or review any internal PR items; reading handbooks and other documents that staff saw was a value I could provide my clients during that time. Internal PR can often be as important as bringing customers into your business. Since the hospitality industry was hurting, an industry I love so much, we offered free consultations to local businesses selling to-go food and beverage for the first time. We helped them understand how to notify their customers through marketing and social media that they were open. So taking a step back and helping my community was a lesson learned and a fruitful one.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://resplendent.agency/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/resplendagram/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/resplendentagency
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/resplendent-agency/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ali-slutsky/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@resplendentagency
Image Credits
Headshot credit to Paige Newton and other photos to Mackenzie Smith Kelley
