Episode 76: 3 Biggest Mental Roadblocks You Need to Clear as a Small Business
Your small business’ success begins with your mindset.
It does not solely rest with any technology, marketing gimmick, or PR agency.
Rather, the success you desire with your business depends on the strength of your beliefs and your willingness to take the necessary actions.
For many small business founders, however, that may be easier said than done.
That’s because from time to time, you’ll encounter some mental hurdles that may stop you from getting the recognition you deserve and providing value to people.
To achieve that, the best move you can make today is to clear your mind from these three biggest mental roadblocks as a small business.
Simply put, you must understand the power of compounding in PR, know how to communicate your message, and grow your network.
This right mindset has been key in helping business owners in our Small Business PR community leap from zero to becoming everyday small business heroes.
And you can just be like them by shifting your mindset to what really matters most when doing PR as a small business founder!
In this episode, we’ll break down the three biggest mental roadblocks you need to clear and discuss the unconventional yet proven strategies to open your mind to greater possibilities through PR.
“What you're doing here with PR is setting a higher standard for how you communicate. Knowing how to message is probably the most important thing that a founder can do. It will allow you to quantum leap through many years of your journey by just knowing how to message and capture people's attention. It serves as the foundation for the rest of your business activities.”
-Gloria Chou
Clear away the three biggest mental roadblocks you may have as a small business founder by immersing yourself in this episode. It’s time to shift to an abundant mindset, so you can finally be seen, heard, and valued.
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
The real reason why compounding matters in PR
The most important mindset that a small business founder should have
Realizing the most important skills in PR
Why PR must be about broadening your network
Cultivating your skills, relationships, and mindset for your business
If you want to land your first feature for free without any connections, I want to invite you to watch my PR Secrets Masterclass where I reveal the exact methods thousands of bootstrapping small businesses use to hack their own PR and go from unknown to being a credible and sought-after industry expert. Register now at www.gloriachou.com/masterclass.
Resources Mentioned:
Join Gloria Chou's PR Community: Small Biz Pros: By Gloria Chou
Small Business PR Podcast: Episode # 2- The CPR Method
Small Business PR Podcast: Episode # 38- How to Pitch Business Services
Small Business PR Podcast: Episode # 67- 3 Ways PR and Visibility are Changing
Additional Resources:
Join the Small Biz PR Pros FB group
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Here’s a glance at this episode…
[00:33] The one thing I realized that is a common thread is it's really not about PR at the end of the day. It's about mindset. It's about what these founders who are at every stage of their journey, but mostly in the very beginning stages, what they believe, is possible.
[01:52] This process is a journey. It's really cumulative. Just because you didn't get a yes right now doesn't mean that's not going to compound. And if you do get a yes, that's going to keep compounding.
[07:28] Do not think of PR as “Oh, this is another thing to add onto my plate.” I know we're all so busy. But think about it. Are you doing a low ROI task that you can delegate? Or are you creating assets in your business that is a $10,000 an hour skill?
[10:22] You need to know that the whole point of what we're doing is not about just getting featured. It is really about broadening your network.
[13:15] If you don't start now, you are depriving yourself of the runway of the time of the momentum that you could have created. So remember, there's no one judging you except for yourself.
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Gloria Chou 0:00
So after helping thousands of small businesses hack their own PR and do the sacred work, which is pitching ourselves, right, when we've been told for decades that we can't do our own PR, we need to rely on someone's relationships. We've proven them wrong. But the one thing I realized that is a common thread is it's really not about PR at the end of the day. It's about mindset. It's about what these founders who are at every stage of their journey, but mostly in the very beginning stages, what they believe is possible from all of the lessons learned and all of the wins that people have shared. The one thing that they always say is that this work has allowed them to grow as a person to recognize your full potential. And through that journey is really about a shift in perspective. So I wanted to cover the three mindsets that you have to have in order to succeed, I will dare to say not only in PR, but also in your business, but I'm going to focus in on knowing how to get featured.
Gloria Chou 0:50
Hey, friends, I'm Gloria Chou, small business PR expert, award winning pitch writer and your unofficial hype woman. Nothing makes me happier than seeing people get the recognition they deserve. And that starts with feeling more confident to go bigger with your message. So on this podcast,f I will share with you the untraditional, yet proven strategies for PR marketing and creating more opportunity in your business. If you are ready to take control of your narrative and be your most unapologetic and confident self, you're in the right place. This is the Small Business PR podcast.
Gloria Chou 1:20
So the first mindset you must have if you are going to win this PR game by either doing it yourself or having an assistant do it for you and not doing it the way where you're paying an agency $10,000 a month and not really having ROI. The first one is this is you need to know that it's all cumulative. What do I mean by that? A lot of times people think there's like a beginning and an end date to when they should do their PR, right? They're thinking, Okay, well, I'm launching or I don't have enough supplies, or it's better for this season. Well, I really think it's a skill that you're cultivating. So this process is a journey, it's really cumulative. And just because you didn't get a yes right now doesn't mean that's not going to compound. And if you do get a yes, guess what, that's going to keep compounding too because most of these journalists now, especially with layoffs, they are freelance writers, which means that they will likely write for multiple outlets. So don't ignore them, just because they might see me write for a smaller outlet, you never know when they might be assigned to write for a bigger outlet. That is actually one of the things in a recent episode that I talked about the three ways PR is changing this year is because of the budget cuts and the layoffs, there will just be more freelancers, and everyone will be contract writing for many different outlets. So that one relationship, you don't know where it's gonna take you right. So just see it as cumulative. As compounding the things that you do today will pay off, you're planting the seeds, you're getting an ROI, whether it's energetically or through skills, or through that relationship, or maybe this person, you know, recommends you to another person or you never know, I just know that this journey for the people who really went at this and get their business featured over and over and over again, they take this long term view that it is cumulative that everything compounds, there's no time that's wasted the time that you spend looking through your pitch draft, I mean that is literally such a valuable skill because you are honing in on such an important thing which is knowing how to write right. So know that is accumulative know that it that nothing is wasted. Even if you spend time and you feel frustrated, and you feel like it is a waste of time. It's not a waste of time, because you're testing and you're learning how to do it better next time, right? You're learning how to be a good steward of the news, you're learning how to monitor news trends, you're looking at tools, you're seeing what other founders are doing. And that's why we have these monthly calls now with our members is because it's it's a combination of me coaching them, but also them seeing what other people are pitching. And they might not be in a same industry vertical, but seeing how other people pitch and the ideas that they will have. There are so many light bulbs that always go off and the chat is always going off in these calls. So I promise you, you need to know that this is cumulative and that nothing is wasted. Even though you might feel like a failure. You are not. Okay, that's it, the opportunities grow. I'll give you an example of multiple examples of our PR Starter Pack members. So Dr. Ross Radusky. He is a dermatologist. You can listen to him on the podcast. That's episode 38. He talks about how he is pitching all year round, even for Halloween stories. And you might think why would Halloween stories be interesting or relevant to a dermatologist. And that's because he finds an angle he always finds an angle and gets featured and he got featured in an article and then healthcare magazine about how the candy that we're consuming during that time is wreaking havoc on our skin right? So don't limit yourself to anything. Dr. Greta, who is a golfer golf educator, she started PR in her 50s Right. It's never too late to start. We have so many people who are starting later in life and they realize that this all compounds so it's never too early. This is the time to do it. And you will see all the oceans of opportunity to open up for you in ways that you haven't even thought of. I promise you.
Gloria Chou 4:56
The second one. The second mindset you must have to succeed in PR is this. It's probably the most important one, which is: this is not a $10 an hour task that you can hire off of Fiverr, right $15 an hour tasks like making reels or designing a Canva template or writing a customer service email. That is something you can delegate very easily. And I delegate that. What you're doing here with PR, I call it PR, but it really is setting a higher standard for how you communicate. Knowing how to message is probably the most important thing that a founder can do. It will allow you to quantum leap through many years of your journey by just knowing how to message and capture people's attention. I don't mean viral TikTok videos. Because, again, not everyone's on TikTok and I'm not sure that that platform will continue to be in existence. I mean, we can see what's happening with social media and Twitter. What I mean is setting a high bar for the way you communicate the way you message with clarity with relevance, knowing what to put in the message, knowing what to take out, that will capture anyone, I don't care if it's written, if it's audio, if it's verbal, if it's through captions. It serves as the foundation for the rest of your business activities, not just marketing. So think about it this way. You are, by doing this work, by doing the work and using the CPR method and knowing how to message and knowing how to cold pitch. You're working on mindset. You're doing the briefing, but you're also unlocking the highest potential of your ability to communicate. You're unlocking the highest level of your ability to communicate. This is a skill, a $10,000 an hour skill that will help you in email, writing, blogs, newsletters, knowing how to pitch for panels, I've had so many founders use the CPR method to even get their products into wholesalers or pitching to even get into an accelerator. The applications are endless. The CPR method, and by the way, if you haven't listened to the CPR method, please do. This is the foundation for everything that I teach. It's my proprietary pitching framework. C stands for credibility, P stands for point of view, R stands for relevance. And that is on episode number two. So gloriachoupr.com to listen. The CPR method is a basis for you to be able to communicate and unlock opportunities in all areas of your life. I have used it for getting onto podcast, people have used it to get onto panels to get into that higher ups, DM inbox, where usually, you will be staring at a blank screen and not knowing what to write. The CPR method allows you to unlock endless opportunities. So that's why do not think of it as PR. Do not think of it as "Oh, this is another thing to add onto my plate." I know we're all so busy. But think about: are you doing a low ROI task that you can delegate? Or are you creating assets in your business that is a $10,000 an hour skill? That is what we're doing. Knowing how to message, knowing how to speak on a pen and panel, knowing how to build a strategic partnership with someone with a good cold pitch, knowing how to get on a podcast. That's going to unlock your ability to get on to hundreds of podcasts. That is a $10,000 an hour skill. I don't care what anyone says. This is building a long-term ROI for your business, for yourself. It's gonna give you organic leads. Traffic is going to allow you to stop playing the algorithm game. It's going to allow you to not feel afraid if Facebook decides to ban you tomorrow. We had someone actually in the PR Starter Pack who spent $500,000 on Facebook Ads throughout her career. She's a real estate agent. One day she went to login. Poof, her account was banned. There was no human help. She tried to message people even chasing now people who worked at Facebook Meta on LinkedIn. And they wouldn't answer her. So they kept running her credit card. That's right. Facebook kept running her credit card on file for $7,000 because she couldn't get into her account to stop the account to stop it. And even when she took it up with her bank, Facebook still won. So she's out of $7,000. And she still can't get back into her account. So I don't want this to be you. I'm not saying that it's wrong to do Instagram and Facebook and all those things, but you don't own that. So the moment that they decide to change your algorithm or something happens the plug it gets unplugged. The carpet is pulled out from underneath you and you have to start from zero. No thank you. We worked way too hard for this. So PR gives you SEO, I always say getting onto one podcast is six pieces of SEO friendly content. That is video that you can make into clips for YouTube, for Twitter, for TikTok, for Instagram, for Pinterest. You can repurpose quotes. It can be show notes that you turn into blogs, captions, newsletters. I mean, that's really what I do with my podcast right from this one episode. I want to create 13 pieces of content. And when I go into other people's shows and I pitch using the CPR method, they produce amazing assets that give me backlinks to my website. I'm searchable and it's all compounding. So that's really, what I mean is, as a business owner, always ask yourself: are you doing a low ROI task where where it could either be taken away from you, right like social media? Or if it's something that can be delegated, like making graphics or video editing, or are you spending time doing the high ROI tasks at all? Only you, as a CEO can do public speaking, cultivating relationships, speaking on a podcast. That is all in the realm of what we're doing here at GCPR. So that's number two.
Gloria Chou 10:10
The third mindset you must have in order to succeed in PR and getting your brand visible, and really unlocking the next level of your potential not having to keep paying for click is this. You need to know that the whole point of what we're doing is not about just getting featured. It's not about that, okay, about a feature check. It is really about broadening your network. So, you know, point number two I talked about, it's about growing skills for life, while PR also broadens your network, because your net worth is your network, and the ability to plant seeds and cultivate relationships with people in the media, who are able to spread your message to millions of people, that is an absolute priceless skill. I'd rather do that all day, and maybe get a couple of rejections, but I just need that one editor at the outlet to say, Yes, I will. I know that once I get on the phone with them, they will know that I'm a credible person that I can, you know, speak on things. And I'm gonna be that source for that editor when they need another voice for another story. So there's not it's not a one and done once you're vetted. And you've been featured in the media, it just keeps going like a snowball effect. It means that you are vetted, you're credible, you're not weird, you have a great speaking voice, and you get back to them on time. So why wouldn't they want to go back to you right? Content, the content machine is 24/7. The news cycle is 24/7. So there are so many opportunities for you to be featured. But traditionally, we've been told that you need to be in a certain tier of business. And that is so not true. What we need is to get new voices out there. Not just this, but not just the big fancy fortune 500 companies. We need people like you who are bootstrapping the people in our community who are founders of color who are immigrants, people whose stories are fresh and authentic. That's what we need in journalism to keep it credible. So that's what I mean is there's no time like today to get started on PR. And if you are already doing PR, I hope that this episode has given you even more inspiration and motivation. When you're going through your emails and looking at pitching and maybe not having people respond. But just this is your cheer to keep going. This is your reminder that you're on the right track. Right now what you are doing is planting seeds for a garden that will grow. We don't know if it's going to grow today, tomorrow next year, but it will grow it 100% will grow because that one relationship will lead to the next release the next. But you my friend have to see it like that. You have to be an opportunity seeker and ask that journalist Well, if this is not the right story for you, do you know like what you're working on? How can we co-create right? Just asking a simple question like that. That is you opening you opening the avenues for opportunity instead of being like, 'Oh, well, this person hates me. Okay, bye.' So constantly ask yourself, are you planting? Are you cultivating? Are you seeing things in an abundant mindset? Or are you just waiting to be rejected? Because if you look for ways where you don't belong, like Brene Brown says, you will always find it. But it's your shift in perspective. And knowing that you have a notion of opportunities available to you as a small business. That is the foundation for everything. It's all about energy.
Gloria Chou 13:15
So thank you so much for being on another episode. I really hope that it gave you some inspiration today to think about how we can leverage our time because we're all so busy. And I know that the success of your business and the success of your life is not based on how many things you do but how you strategically decide what to do and what not to do and in what order. And if you can roll up your sleeves and really do the work of learning how to pitch and learning how to write your 100 shitty drafts because we all have have, we all need to write 100 shitty drafts at least to get to that one. I've pitched thousands of times, cold calling phone slammed in my face to get to where I am now. If you don't start now you are depriving yourself of the runway of the time, of the momentum that you could have created. So remember, there's no one judging you except for yourself. Time is passing no matter what. Are you going to start planting the seeds to start to cultivate that relationship, to start to build that $10,000 an hour skill? If it was easy, everyone would do it right. If it was easy, everyone, everyone do it. But I'm trying to get you to see things in a way that's going to give you long term ROI. You can buy a Facebook ad today, tomorrow, if it gets banned, then you're done. If you have unlimited runway, it's just only going to burn cash. It's really not sustainable. How can we, as businesses, really show up in a way where we are making brave strategic maybe uncomfortable decisions, but we are doing something for the longevity of our life and our business. And every single person in the PR Starter Pack, I can see this transformation that is not just like 'oh hey, you know that they would drop in the Facebook group.' I got a feature here. You know Kim, who who started her cute little subscription box for a book and like a like a cookie or a cracker. She now has 14 organic features since joining us less than six months ago and she's on her her third podcast. And her whole thing is, it's really about seeing things as an opportunity. Now she's pitching for publishers. She's getting people to partner with her. She's giving back to local food banks. She is devising her business in a way where there are always opportunities and bridges. And it's not just her looking at ways where she doesn't fit the bill. That's where I want you to be. And hopefully, the CPR method, this community has allowed you to feel like you are seen and that you're not alone in this scary struggle. It's hard to rewrite the narrative of decades of conditioning that we can't do this ourselves. That's how people have profited off of a billion-dollar industry. But we don't have to choose to always accept that narrative. We don't have to choose that someone else always knows how to do it better, that someone else has something better to say, because no one knows your story like you. Nobody does. No one cares to tell your story the way like you do. So my community, everything that I do is to enable you to have the tools the support the validation just to take that first step so that you can keep pressing send because everything you want is on the other side of the send button. I get so excited talking, I get my tongue tied. But this really, really is sacred work to me. Thank you so much. And I look forward to joining you in the Facebook group. And also check out our proven PR Starter Pack where you can meet me every month and other members and get the community and support you need to have an incredible year.
Gloria Chou 16:22
Hey, small business hero. Did you know that you can get featured for free on outlets like Forbes, The New York Times, Marie Claire, Pop Sugar and so many more, even if you're not yet launched, or if you don't have any connection? That's right. That's why I invite you to watch my PR Secrets masterclass, where I reveal the exact methods 1000s of bootstrapping small businesses use to hack their own PR and go from unknown to being a credible and sought after industry expert. Now if you want to land your first press feature, get them a podcast, secure a VIP speaking gig or just reach out to that very intimidating editor. This class will show you exactly how to do it. Register now at gloriachoupr.com/masterclass. That's Gloria Chou c-h-o-u pr.com/masterclass. So you can get featured in 30 days without spending a penny on ads or agencies. Best of all, this is completely free. So get in there and let's get you featured.