Episode 30: 4 Golden Rules of Getting PR For Your Business with Gloria Chou
In this episode I’m revealing the 4 golden rules of getting PR for your business. In order to level up and truly master pitching, you need to have a deep understanding of these 4 things.
This Episode also includes:
How to be of service to a journalist
Podcast pitch tips from pro hosts and common pitch mistakes that turn them off
Relationship building and growing your network
Rejection and why it’s the most helpful thing you can experience
Energy required for successful PR
If you’re ready for this year to be the year that you land press and stop hiding behind the scenes, I want you to join our Facebook group. It’s the number one place for small businesses looking to go from unknown to being seen, heard, and valued. It’s the perfect place for you to make connections, find support, and get accountability. Go to www.getfeaturednow.com to join.
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.
Additional Resources:
Join the Small Biz PR Pros FB group
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Transcript
SBPR Episode 30 Final.mp3
[00:00:00] Hey what's up everyone today I want to do a little bit something different and talk about the stumbling blocks that the universe I would like to say the universe is presenting to us to ask us how badly do you want something? Right? I really believe that there's no such thing as failure, that everything is happening for us. That life flows through us. And everything is here to present to us something that's going to teach us something else. And as I become an entrepreneur who is growing my business, and overcoming challenges, as well as witnessing the PR starter pack members overcome their own mindset challenges. These four things keep coming up and I wanted to share with you the four golden rules of PR, which are the four things you need to take consideration that in order to get featured in order to level up, you need to have a deep understanding of. So the first one is the Golden Rule of Reciprocity, right? Unlike an ad where you throw money at the problem or pay money to Facebook ads This is not something that is an instantaneous transactional type of thing. And the people who understand this are the people who can build relationships with journalists, and really 10x their visibility. Right. Do you think that a journalist from the New York Times, or The Wall Street Journal was someone that has amazing credibility? Because again, they can't be bought by you giving them free merchandise? Do you think that they are really looking for someone to just pay them or give them something for free or take them out to a nice dinner? No, right? They have editorial discernment, right? They have education, they have experience and that is why we trust journalists because journalism is not dead. And so what does that mean? It means that we need to understand that we need to be reciprocal and the way that we be of service. We need that just like the journalist is a conduit of information to their audience. We need to have valuable insights and points of view and not just try to sell the journalist or product. And obviously, you know this because you've watched my PR masterclass, and you know that you're not selling to the journalist. But I think a lot of times founders forget this because we're so focused on marketing, and making sure that we are selling all the time. So I encourage you to take a moment and think about the way you're pitching and the way that you are building relationships with people who can't be bought. Are you coming in the spirit of service? Are you spell checking? Are you doing just a little bit research to see if this journalist even covers your industry? If you're pitching for a podcast? Are you writing a review? Are you making it easy for the other person in the email to respond? By pulling putting out putting bullet points and making it easy to read? So it's not just paragraph after paragraph after paragraph and telling them that they need to read your slide deck because they don't have time? for that? So how can you be of service and respect their time and their energy? Right? One of the great hacks that my friend Ellen Yin from cubicle co podcast told me is that you should definitely if you want to get on a podcast is just write a quick review on Apple podcasts. And take a screenshot and literally put it in the pitch email and say, Hey, I just wrote you a review. Here's a screenshot Keep up the great work that will separate you from 99.9% of all other people who pitch and trust me, I know this because now I am getting pitches for this very podcast. And the people who have pitch me with one line that's very generic and say, Hey, I love your podcast. Have you thought about this person be on your podcast, never quite lands well, because I'm not sure that they are aligned with my mission and my values. I'm not sure that they even know the types of people that I like to interview. Right and so that is so important is just do your research and tap into that energy of being a service is going to pay so many dividends for you. And you're worried about it being an instant transaction that energy can be felt by the other person. Right. So that's what I mean by that. Another thing is when you are pitching for a podcast, for example, instead of putting three four or five bullet points about yourself and making it all about you, maybe write about the questions that you can answer that makes it so easy for the podcast host to say Oh awesome. They've already done the work for me. I love question number three. I love question number five. Let's schedule the interview. Right? So it can be very easy. Like for example for me instead of saying I can talk about PR and elevating the stories of you know diverse business owners and how anyone can get featured. I will say here that questions that I can answer number one, how can anyone hack their own PR two, what is the right way to write emails four or three?
What do you put in the subject line when you're when you're reaching out? Right? So that's what I mean by making it easy for them and being of service being conscious of their time and energy and being respectful to know what they cover and what they haven't covered. One of the other faux pas is when you pitch to be on a podcast and they literally just had an episode covering someone like that, probably not going to get a response right. So if I were to pitch to a podcast and they just had another PR person they probably are not ready immediately to interview someone like me. So that's what I mean by be of service. Now number two, is I want you to have a long term view. And I know it's kind of a sage saying it's a marathon, not a sprint and the more I build my business, and my community and the more challenges I have, the more I realized, I need to have a long term view. And actually this year, the the word of this year is patience. Because I never had really any patience and patience is a virtue. And the fact that I don't have a lot of patients has really crippled me in many ways. It has really stopped my business from growing in the way that it has because I was distracted. I didn't take a long term view. Right. And so this year, I'm really focused on having patients and taking that long term view. And so what I mean by a long term view for you is know that it's a relationship with a journalist know that it's a relationship you're building with their audience. And so from a journalistic side, obviously, you want to have respect, right? So go back to rule number one. But also, don't be afraid to follow them on Twitter, on LinkedIn, and just keep tabs on what they're covering. A lot of times a journalist will go down a rabbit hole and they might start covering something multiple times they might have a personal interest in their new topic, in which case it's a perfect time for you to comment on their article on LinkedIn say, hey, I really love that you're doing so much research into this. I love this topic, even if it has nothing to do with you, right? It will give that journalists so much confidence. It will make them feel good that someone is reading their articles, right? That's what I mean by having a relationship. And number two and the relationship with your audience is to have a way to capture their email have a way to continue the conversation after you get on, you know, an outlet. So for example, it could be as simple as sharing a link or it could be Hey, if you DM me the word gift, right to my social media, I will provide you with X, Y and Z. Something I like to do too is when I'm on a podcast I actually tell the podcast host if you DM me the word pitch I will give you my podcasts phishing templates. That's one way. Another way is if even if you're not launched, you can tell people to go to your website when you're on the on the podcast and just have a simple box like a lead capture tool where they can you can get people's emails, and that way you can email them when you're ready to launch. Right you always want to be thinking strategically for the future. Because even though you're not ready yet maybe to have a full blown marketing campaign that is going to come when you're going to need that audience. So it's so good to just start planting the seeds, right? That's what I mean by having the audience take the next step with you. And not just finishing the discussion after the podcast hosts press the stop button. Alright. And last thing I want to say about this point is I want you to remember that your net worth is your network, it's the people and the more I grow my business and the more I see successful leaders grow their business. They understand that this is true is that their net worth is not the dollars that they have is not the assets, the physical, tangible assets. It's the people they surround themselves with. It's the team members that they have. It's the people that they've impacted, and the more I grow my business, the more I realized the same is true for me. So I hope you can also take a long term view and see the journalists the podcast hosts and their audience as a long term asset. Number three is always be evolving, right just like the trees are falling off, our skin cells regenerate everything around us. is constantly in flux. And that is a divine law of nature. And how can you be in harmony with this is by not resisting it and by not trapping yourself into a box of fear and say, oh my god, I'm going to change my business. I'm not shipping with UPS I'm doing with you know with FedEx or I'm not offering this anymore, so I'm not ready to pitch. You're allowed to change. You're allowed to evolve. And if you actually listen to episode three of this podcast Tanisha Simone who is a bootstrapping entrepreneur, who is just crowdfunding for her brick and mortar, physical fitness space, right? She was crowdfunding for a gym during COVID and she got out to 10 plus publications. Using the PR starter pack. She doesn't even have that business anymore. Now she has has an app, a digital app, she's completely pivoted, and those media features they're still on the internet. They're still driving tons of valuable traffic.
It's great for her SEO and credibility and it's making it it's all happening for her. It's not like the journalist is like, Oh, well, now you change your business model we have to retract and take this off. No. If you Google her right now all those stories are still up because guess what the journalist wants to know, not just what you're selling and what you're building but your why. And just like your why when you started your business because probably not just to make a product or do a service. It goes beyond that. The journalist also cares about that and that is more enduring than your actual offerings. What things you have this season is your WHY SO tap into that. Right? Another blessing about the fact that everything is in flux. And the new cycle, therefore is always changing, is that when things are in flux, there's always an opportunity. Right? And I talked about this in a previous episode about the 10 angles that you can pitch right now. One of them is piggybacking on a bigger story happening in the media. The news cycle is always changing. So if you are in ecommerce, it could be something that Amazon or target or Walmart's doing. If you're in healthcare finance, it might be something related to a new health care policy. Right? So the fact that everything is evolving, and the fact that the new cycle is changing, it's an opportunity. It is not a curse, so don't be afraid of it. And yes, you are allowed to change. So for me, like my sole mission is to elevate the voices of marginalized groups who have never been invited to speak, right. I want to redefine what it looks like to be a modern entrepreneur. And that starts with seeing themselves in media. So that's my why and that's probably not going to change for a long time. Now, the vehicle that I deliver, this might be different, but my y is going to be enduring. So don't worry, if you change your business model. Don't worry if you move don't worry if your co founder is no longer co founding with you. It's okay. Take that in except that see it as a blessing. The last one, the divine law that I want to share with you about getting PR is you need to be to have and I know it sounds a little woowoo and spiritual but ever since I had my surgery and health issue this year, it's opened my eyes up to the connectivity of everything that we do, and why it is that certain things happen to certain people. And I realized that there is an energy and law of energy around us. Right and the people who act in a more confident, more self worthy place who know that maybe they're small and they're unknown, but they're about to do something super impactful. They're the ones that get the opportunities. It's because they understand the divine law of energy and vibration, because they're stepping into their truth. And their confidence. And so that way they're opening the floodgates for those opportunities to come to them. Another way to think of it is this is if you are unable to deal with a couple of haters in your DMS Why is the universe going to allow you to have a lot of followers because you can't even deal with the problems that you have at this level? Right? The universe is constantly testing us and if we cannot deal with a simple rejection, or if we're afraid to press that send button, of course, you're not going to be invited to speak on a world stage. Of course, the media Allah is not going to invite you to speak to their millions of of audiences. So this is what I mean. By be to have and at every level, the universe is testing you and your resilience, and you gotta lean into your strength and your why. And every single person that I work with is a bootstrapping everyday salt of the earth person, right? They don't have fancy VC backed money, they don't have any connections to the cool kids and neither did I. That's not how I got started. I never ever worked on a PC. The one thing that kept me going was knowing that I'm here to make an impact and I need to tap into that. And every time I felt scared to reach out to someone on LinkedIn every time I felt scared to put my name and a hat for an award or a speaking opportunity. I just reminded myself that I was worthy even though I felt not so ready, that I was worthy. Right, so lean into that because you are worth it. And even though you might not feel ready and you've don't feel, you know confident yet, just tap into the future you that is the magical room where everything happens. And it's you gotta be just basically taking risks and stepping off that cliff and trusting that net net will follow. That's how you build one step after next after next, right it's not having everything already figured out is trusting in the future. So that's what I mean by B to have. I'll give you another story to kind of illustrate this is when I had my launch this earlier this year. I had 600 people show up to four will for Live PR masterclasses so Around 200 people or two 300 people at a time or 150 Sorry, I'm bad at math. And I had a couple of haters in the actual live chat room where they were writing very distracting things. One of them was like this is bullshit. Don't listen to her pardon my French and it really jolted me for a second. Because I was giving my master class and so you can imagine, while I was looking at my slides, I also saw the comments and I didn't let that you know, push me off my balance. I kind of sat with it for a moment I smiled and I thought about how this was a sign from the universe that I was getting into the next level that I was finally reaching enough people that there were still going to be some haters, right because you can't grow an audience and you can't reach more people without a few haters. So every time I have someone who maybe disagrees with me, or someone who has taking a very strong stance, that's a sign that I am getting to my next level. So ask yourself, what is this here to teach you? What is this rejection here to teach me how can this build my resilience so that I become a fearless entrepreneur, where I'm not afraid to press a certain button over and over and over again because I promise you, the founders who have gotten featured in every single outlet before they had any kind of, you know, VIP or high connections and they just did it on their own. They're really ones who are always leaning into that energy. So last time so the last thing I want to say is be to have the energy of the energy of confidence, the energy of feeling self worthiness, tap into that and that's going to allow you to get those opportunities even though you feel not ready for it but you're deserving of. So on that note, thank you so much for listening to this episode. I want to do something different and just kind of hang out and chat with you and just tell you a little bit about what's on my mind, the more I build my business and the more I see founders in my PR community. It's it's really the mindset piece, right? It's really the mindset piece because I have worked with founders who have $30 million with VC funding. And I work with founders who are like literally making soaps in their garage, and it's not the amount of money or the amount of people that are vouching for them is what they believe what's possible for them matters and what dictates how everything plays out. We have some exciting new updates to the podcast coming up. I cannot wait for you for you to see them. And I am so grateful that you keep showing up week after week. From the bottom of my heart You being here means everything to me. It's why I do this. You are Why wake up in the morning. You are my people. So thank you so much for being here. And if you think somebody else would benefit from listening to this, please subscribe and review. So that that way more founders can also get the information that you're getting. So let's get you featured. Let's lean in to our future self. And remember you are worth it. So go ahead and press that send button.