Christchurch couple reinvent their businesses post quake

Undeterred by the loss of two premises, Phyllis and Michael Brown saw the earthquakes as an opportunity to reinvent their businesses and attract a new audience.

The Scots born couple shifted to Christchurch from the West Coast of Scotland in 2006 to run their new business, a unique heritage restoration company formerly known as Yesteryear Brass, which was renamed Threw the Keyhole.

Meanwhile, Phyllis became well-known as resident psychic and spirit life coach through her weekly slot on CTV’s Good Living and Spirit Talk radio show on Plains FM. Her business Spirit Talk ran from the upstairs rooms of the Brown’s Colombo Street premises, which has since been demolished.

Both businesses thrived until the first Christchurch earthquake destroyed over 50,000 items of period hardware and the second quake locked the couple out of their new Madras Street premises in the off-limits ‘red zone’.

Despite the obvious set back, Michael saw an opportunity to refocus on an area he’d never been able to satisfy demand for – classic Victorian showers and showerheads andPhyllis realised she didn’t need to operate from a physical place to conduct her work.

Michael Brown said, “Most of us have spent years on one track and know where we’re going. When the quake bumped us off-track, we didn’t want to spend energy getting back on a track where the destination didn’t exist anymore.

“In providing a national service and exploring the Australian market, we are laying down new tracks to a new destination”.

Last week Michael launched his Canterburybased Heritage Bathware Company www.heritagebathware.co.nz, manufacturing heritage showers and showerheads for outdoor use. Within the first week of launch, Michael had attracted 28 suppliers from the NorthIslandand his products are now attracting interest across the country.

Phyllis is shortly about to re-launch Spirit Talk as a television channel, by taking it into a new dimension and wider audience via U-Stream on the internet

The new Spirit Talk TV Channel will bring a variety of programs featuring live streaming, pre-recorded film footage and the ‘Cosmic Class” Channel will be for members only who can interact on a weekly basis with all of Phyllis’s course work, weekly meditations, Daily inspirations and invitation only live events.

Phyllis Brown said, “Physical space no longer fits in with the evolution of my business. After experiencing the loss of not one, but two premises, it was time for a radical rethink and I came up with the idea of taking my business to a lateral audience via the internet.

“Whilst owning my own business has been an amazing journey and a dream come true, the earthquakes have literally created huge change for everyone, whether we like it or not!

“Michael and I chose to embrace the ‘quakes as an opportunity to review where we were going. We both share the view that the earthquakes had forced us to move on from the physical.

“So, out of the old, comes the new. The internet as a positive way forward and by taking this bold step, we have both attracted new clients from outside of Christchurchand are doing very well, in spite of the huge setbacks we were served”.
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