Trish Browning – The Queen behind the scenes

BY SELINA McCALLUM

You may not see her, and it’s not because she’s small, but it’s because she’s in the office busy picking up phone calls and speaking to people looking to put an advertisement in the Toronto Caribbean Newspaper.

You will definitely hear her laugh and giggle from down the hall. She is the true definition of service with a smile. Trish Browning is the Sales Manager for the Toronto Caribbean Newspaper. She handles all of the advertising that is seen on all the pages.

At the age of 16, Browning was already receiving indirect training in customer service.

“At 16, I started waitressing and then I went into being a customer service representative at Honda,” said Browning. “After Honda, I moved into doing the online sales for Carib 101.”

At that age, Trish understood she had to be relatable, she had to understand what a customer needed and how to properly serve them.

Although Trish is in sales, she studied accounting and marketing when she went to college.

Trish is married to the President of the Toronto Caribbean Newspaper, Grant Browning. The two have been a dynamic duo for eight years working and producing the paper together with the help of friends and family. They have two young children, a girl and a boy, who have watched their parents from birth build the paper into what it is today.

“I met Grant at one of my part-time jobs that I was working at. Grant was also working as he had a relationship with the owner of the business. Grant saw me there,” said Trish.

Grant Browning had already started the business Carib101, which at the time was online advertising and marketing. Trish speaks on being in a new relationship and also growing a business together at the same time.

“The good news is that as a new couple we found our groove. We were able, I think based on our personality and I think as a new couple it allowed us to converse more, talk more, and it was just easy building the business,” said Trish. “We were both learning and growing, so it wasn’t very challenging.”

Through working on the online business for several years, Trish saw firsthand how people started to change and react differently to online advertising.

“People were becoming more educated and more active on the internet, I would say that would be the change. When we started thirteen years ago, trying to sell the concept of promoting your business online wasn’t easy. The owners for the clubs and the restaurants were old school. It was hard to convince them that what we were doing, was going to be the next thing,” said Trish.

One thing about Trish is that she was definitely meant to be in the sales industry. She knows how to market and sell you any product, but the difference between her and any other salesperson is that she keeps your best interest in mind and in her heart.

She will let you know which ad is the best one suited for you, not the most expensive one. Every single day, Trish is helping people grow their business and gain attention from thousands of people around the Greater Toronto Area.

“You have to have integrity selling advertising,” said Trish. “It’s very easy to lie to people because they don’t know. You have to have integrity and sustain a pure relationship with your clients. If there’s a conflict, I try to resolve it and I try to do everything that I can do to make them feel comfortable and give them what it is that they need.”

Trish says that the biggest reward is when the person returns to have their advertisement in the paper again.

“When people say, “I’m ready to do this again,” that is the biggest compliment ever because then I know that I’ve done everything that I said I was going to do and you feel comfortable coming back,” said Trish.

When the Brownings printed the first ever Toronto Caribbean Newspaper, Trish was happy, but she also started to think of the future.

“I was like ‘Okay so I sold enough advertising to cover the cost of this’, but it was a very scary time because it’s a big commitment and I’d never done it before. I just knew that I now had to sell a certain number of advertisements every two weeks and do it on time because we’ve now made a commitment. Yes, we were happy, but I was absolutely scared as well,” said Trish.

Trish is a woman empowered because she puts others before herself. She’s a loving and devoted wife, a warm and caring mother, and an intelligent and hardworking Sales Manager.

She has done much work in the community, volunteering with the Caribbean Children’s Foundation and uplifting other people in the community through her constant support and dedication to seeing the people around her grow.

Trish says her best accomplishment is being able to enhance positivity in the community.

“I love that the paper focuses on the good things that are happening in our community. We cover stories and put ads in the paper that otherwise may not get the coverage they deserve just because it’s a heartfelt story. That is what I am most proud of,” said Trish.