Episode 153: How Product Owners Can Get Featured Year Round With Kim Behzadi
From helping thousands of product businesses get featured in the hottest gift guides and magazines such as Oprah's favorite things, BuzzFeed, Elle and more, this episode with our PR member and product owner Kim who is a first time founder will give you the strategies and confidence to finally make PR a priority in your business. Listen in as she shares how PR not only helped her grow sales and SEO, but also helped her hire staff, open a brick and mortar store and launch a bookfair with the media wins she got through the methods she learned in our program!
Here’s What We Cover and More:
Kim’s journey from passion project to impactful business
How Kim shattered limiting beliefs about PR and business success
Achieving national media coverage through PR, including major outlets like Fox News, New York Post and Women’s Day
The role of relevance in successful PR pitches
Importance of follow up and building relationships with journalists
Leveraging PR skills to grow other areas of business, including partnerships and community events
Overcoming imposter syndrome and building confidence through PR
Kim’s upcoming goals: national platform launch, holiday season pitches and book fair preparations
By mastering the art of relevance and persistence, you can get featured all year long. Just like Kim, don’t limit yourself to big holidays or trending seasons. Follow up, get creative with your pitches, and stay tuned into what’s happening in the world. Remember: It’s not about selling— it’s about being the story the world wants to hear.
Product Businesses! Download my free HOW TO GET INTO A GIFT GUIDE/PRODUCT ROUND UP roadmap for free HERE to get more sales and traffic to your site this season.
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.gloriachoupr.com/masterclass.
Resources Mentioned:
Join the PR Secrets Masterclass
Join the Small Biz PR Pros Facebook Group
DM the word “PITCH” to us on Instagram to get a pitching freebie https://www.instagram.com/gloriachoupr
Connect with Gloria Chou on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gloriaychou
Join Gloria Chou's PR Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/428633254951941
Follow Kimberly Behzadi on: Read It & Eat Bookshop & Boxes: https://www.readitandeatbox.com/
Connect with her on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kimbehzadi
Additional Resources:
Listen On Your Favorite Podcast Platform
Follow & Review on Apple Podcasts
Are you following my podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to do that today so you don’t miss any future episodes!
I would also appreciate it if you would leave me a review! Reviews help me make sure I am providing the content that you need! Plus, you will be entered to WIN a 1:1 pitch writing session with me where I will help you find your press-worthy angle! Click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review”.
Transcript
00:00:00 Gloria: I'm so excited for today's guest. She is an OG member of our PR Starter Pack Community. She founded her company during COVID with no experience and she has turned this passion project into an impactful business that saves lives by fighting hunger and also working with local organizations and doing something that she loves. Kim's story is one of resilience, is one of seeing possibilities and one of using PR and messaging to lay the foundation for all the other aspects of her business.
00:00:29 Gloria: Now with PR, she has been able to not only get onto 12, 13, 14, huge nationally known media outlets including TV, podcasts, and interviews, but she's also able to expand her footprint because a part of her business is also about giving back. So if you're looking to expand your reach, if you're looking to make a bigger impact, and you're wondering how you can get your message out there, this episode is for you. Now let's dive into it.
00:00:53 Gloria: Now Kim, the reason why I wanted to have you on this is because there are so many small businesses out there who are listening to this show thinking, there's no way that my business can be featured, or this is too niche, or this is too early, or all the things that they limit themselves. And you have shattered all of those beliefs and then some.
00:01:08 Gloria: So tell us a little bit more about the beliefs that you've been able to shatter, the amazing press wins that you've been able to get to elevate your business, your mission, your life and that confidence, how it ripples through all aspects of your business.
00:01:21 Kim: Absolutely. So the first thing to shatter, though, is that imposter syndrome is real, everyone, and it's okay. But it's about pushing through that and understanding that what you're doing is unique and special. So I find that my press wins are those unique targeted lists, which I enjoy. So I've gotten a lot of love from one news outlet known as Book Riot, and it is for the book lover. And I have pitched to them and actually been on repeat on their website without even my knowledge, meaning I didn't have to repitch to be on there.
00:01:53 Kim: I'm still going to do that for this holiday season, but I've gotten a lot of love from them. And that's right where my bookish people are. So beyond the wins from Book Riot, which is very book focused, I've also had some national wins as well on the New York Post, Women's Day, Real Homes, and Fox News. And my Fox News, I was on a list for the best food gifts for every kind of eater. And that was maybe less than six months from when Gloria and I first started to work together. And that's Fox News.
00:02:20 Kim: And I'm a small business. I'm a person of one based in Buffalo, New York, and there I was on the list. I also was in an article in the Associated Press last year as a small business talking about how to deal with holiday shoppers. This was during the pandemic. So a little less about my box, but I got to leverage my expertise as a small business owner. So I've had wins in niche markets that are great for books, national wins. And then in this year in 2023, I had a lot of local wins, which I actually found to be a very different kind of challenge.
00:02:50 Kim: The media and support I got was from launching the Read It and Eat, Book Fair and Market. So I took my culinary adventure of books and food and made it a one day celebration on independent bookstore day, featuring 30 other small businesses, some from the food side, from, some from the book side and other small artisans. And there I was able to talk about the event articulately from learning and the coaching from Gloria.
00:03:12 Kim: So taking some of the things from the press release, what's important for me, but leveraging it back up to cultural relevance. I was talking about Independent Bookstore Day and why it mattered. So a lot of this year has been local news, but I'm really excited to have that because I am still locally connected to my business. So local to my community. So it was nice to also establish local roots as well.
00:03:33 Gloria: Now, what I love about what you've been able to accomplish with PR is you've been able to turn your marketing and sales pitch into a relevant one, which is, let's be honest, what's relevant if it's not news, right? Journalists are not looking for you to be selling to them. They want to know why, is it relevant for them. So relevance is a key part of the CPR method. You've been able to master it. Can you tell us how you've been able to find that relevance, which makes your pitch get noticed and opened by journalists?
00:03:58 Kim: I think finding relevance, I use things like Google Alerts, not only for my own business, but also for those trending keywords, again, that might be specific to what my boxes. But if you have a swimsuit business, maybe you want to set on a Google alert to see what, like a trending swimsuit buzzword might be. So mine are book boxes, blind date with a book, which is a very specific type of food or a book world, excuse me. And then I'm also looking for…
00:04:27 Kim: There's a couple of different outlets that I'm checking on every day, but you can go to TikTok. What is the trending TikTok hashtags right now? Now, some of them might not be relevant to me, like all the dance trends. I won't pretend that those are for me, but it's really important to lift your head up, I think, was one of the phrases we were talking about earlier, Gloria, is that sometimes you can live in a bubble and going back up and looking at what is on the news, what's trending on social media.
00:04:52 Kim: And that could be Instagram, that could be TikTok, whoever your audience is, or Snapchat, or also just setting up basic Google alerts. If you invest the time to build routines, to just pulse, check what's going on in the world, some kind of golden opportunity is going to pop out at you. Maybe even look at what… September, we were recording this. What movies are coming out between now and the end of the year?
00:05:15 Kim: Big, national, nationwide movies like, for example, the Wonka movie, Timothée Chalamet, Wonka, that comes out on Christmas. Is there something Kim can do with her box that ties to candy and chocolate? I don't know. But now the gears are moving. But that's a huge movie. So those are just a couple of different ways that I'm looking for relevancy, but it's partially being hungry and being curious. Well, like what else is out there? What else is, what is the world talking about?
00:05:43 Gloria: That's amazing. Okay, so other than relevance, what are the keys to look for if someone is pitching and they want to get their pitch open by journalists?
00:05:52 Kim: I think the biggest one, instead of a list of many things, the big one is the follow-up and the follow through, because there are definitely times where I have talked to a writer, especially freelance writers. Freelance writers are not always tied down to different outlets, but they're pitching different things to different outlets all the time. And I have had people come back to me and say, hey, I'm not talking about this right now, but I will be talking about this in two months.
00:06:16 Kim: And this is specific, I'd say also anecdotally from my boxes, is that I might start pitching for Mother's Day. Maybe I don't fit with, the Mother's Day article is gonna be about, but there's Father's Day. There's, I think somewhere out, there's probably an official Grandma and Grandpa Day. And then there's the holidays.
00:06:33 Kim: So sometimes, and not sometimes, it's always gonna be about, follow through. And I have found that sometimes, writers still use Twitter, which I guess now is called X, that's gonna take some rewiring in my brain. But I also have some writers that respond in Instagram DM. So it might not just be a follow up on that email, but it might be going the next step, find out where they're active.
00:06:52 Kim: Is it Instagram? Is it X? Is it TikTok, which I have never had success with a journalist on TikTok, but hey, if you have, please let me know your secrets. Even new avenues like Threads. I'm still not sure, the deal is out on what Threads is going to be, but I do have at least in the book space, book people took to Threads, authors, journalists. So sometimes it's really about finding the right timing and the right avenue for communication. And you're only going to find that if you put in the effort to follow up and follow through. And it's okay if you don't hear, if you're not on that list till six months from now.
00:07:28 Kim: That's what happened with Book Riot. I was on one list and then suddenly boom, a couple of months later at the start of the year, they said, best book boxes for those who like sips and reads. And I was like, oh, someone, they still thought of me. So just remember that diligence is important and it's going to feel like you get a lot of no’s. But all you need is the one to get the ball rolling. That's how it felt for me. I got that one Fox News and I was like, whoa, that really happened. And then suddenly, it just kept, you just keep going and you learn what's working.
00:07:57 Gloria: So I love what you said about follow up because I always say that you have to follow up and it's not just about sending emails, it's about following up, being a good steward of the news, maybe turning on your notifications and having that relationship. Yes, it takes work, but it'll be the best work that you do because like you said, you pitched months ago and now you've gotten featured over and over from that one journalist, right? So all about the follow up.
00:08:20 Gloria: Let's go into, I mean, we can have so many episodes just about the mindset of the follow up, which we've actually covered here because I truly believe, and you know this, everything you want is on the other side of the send button. So just send it, just press send. Journalists wanna talk to real people. They don't wanna talk to PR reps. They wanna talk to you. And you're such a living example of why that's true because you just kind of hit them up and as a business owner and you got featured.
00:08:44 Gloria: I wanna talk about how the methods that you're doing in PR from the CPR method, from being in our PR program, from just doing PR, how has it helped you with other aspects of your business that's not just purely visibility and media wins?
00:08:57 Kim: So I'd like to think that all of the pitching skills and the CPR method are tools that I've added to this toolkit. And you take your toolkit with you wherever you go. Just like how a small business owner wears many hats, you have many tools in your arsenal. I'm a small business that only exists in e-commerce, but I would love to grow into a brick and mortar one day. But I'm also always looking for other revenues channels. There's nothing wrong with saying, I'd love other ways to make more money.
00:09:20 Kim: One of those has been partnerships. I have now in the past year been approached by a couple of different local media outlets or organizations that say, hey, we wanna launch a cookbook club for our audience or our community. Could you help us with that? And I'm like, absolutely. This is what Read It and Eat is all about. The culinary adventure, pairing books and food together.
00:09:43 Kim: They don't always have to go to readitandeat.com to make that purchase. I might make something, and this is where it becomes more of a wholesale relationship, but I'm curating cookbook boxes for them. Maybe this is a company that says, I'm just making some examples for everyone at home, but maybe this is an outlet that produces or publishes their own cookbooks, and they wanna figure out how to market those cookbooks in gift sets or in new cookbook clubs, or it's a local restaurant or tea shop that wants to bring more foot traffic.
00:10:12 Kim: So let's pair books and tea together. Building a partnerships with other small businesses is just another way for Read It and Eat to soar and get its name out. It's partially how I think the Read It and Eat, Book Fair and Market was such a success was I was able to articulate what my business mission was, but also why was it relevant to Buffalo, New York? Because Buffalo cares about food.
00:10:36 Kim: Buffalo has a huge small business culture and is very supportive. So here I am pairing in independent bookstores in my community, other small businesses, and going back to, if you think of the CPR method, the cultural relevance, it's a little sad, but we did have the tragic shooting at Tops in May, a year or so back now. And it was in top of mind that there were people looking for food and were hungry. So having a book fair that was books, food, but also that donation component to give back, I would never have been brave enough, Gloria. I'll be so honest with everyone at home. I would never have been brave enough to think, just me, could have hosted a book fair with this capacity.
00:11:17 Kim: We had 1,100 people come in one day. I hired an event team. I never, the amount of the financial risk could be, I'm gonna invest in rent a venue and hire an event team. What if no one comes? But I had enough confidence from pitching, from just believe. You have to shake that imposter syndrome. We talked about it earlier in the episode. You have to believe in what your mission is, but also what is that cultural relevance. And I just, I knew I had something here. And 1,100 people for a first time fair was, I'm proud. But even the event team I hired, they were like, usually you pay us, you made so much on your ticket sales that we owe you a check. You turned a profit for your first ever fair.
00:12:03 Kim: That was not my expectation, Gloria. My mark, I was like, Oh, if I can get half my money back to be great. Like, everyone was happy. I could go on and on, but really, it all goes back to being able to articulate your own business. It comes from that pitching, it comes from that coaching. But not, remember, don't get stuck down there at the bottom. It's not about you. But what is the cultural relevance? I took it to Buffalo. I found a national event, independent bookstore day, and then I found the local relevance, which was Buffalo cares about its people, it cares about its artisans and its bookish people, and it also cares about making sure people don't go hungry. And all of that would not have happened if I hadn't started working with you a year plus ago.
00:12:40 Gloria: Pitching is so hard for small businesses, right? Like, we're not taught the skill, advocating for ourselves and going for the media. And it's just so unnatural. So I really applaud you for the fact that you're going outside of your comfort zone to create an incredible new reality, to elevate your business and your story. So what other lessons or gains did PR teach you that you've been able to take throughout other parts of your life and your business?
00:13:03 Kim: I think the biggest thing PR has actually taught me is shaking off that imposter syndrome. I think there's always a voice in the back of everyone's head. It's what makes us human. But I am small, but mighty. And the other reassuring part of this is I still have a nine to five job, I still have a full-time job, and there are days when work is just a grind, but I go home and I can look at my business and go like, I've accomplished this, I've done, I've created something out of nothing other than passion and an idea. And that's what I hope everyone thinks of when you're pitching is, yes, we have our CPR method and we wanna bring it out and culturally relevant, but at the start, this wouldn't exist without you. Read It and Eat Box wouldn't exist without me.
00:13:46 Kim: And that is something that I take with, it's in my toolkit, and it's just like this moment of pride. I almost equate it to, this is going to sound silly, but running a marathon. Something like less than 1% of the global population runs a marathon. I have no idea what the statistic is for the number of people that run a small business, let alone a woman-owned business. But I am part of a pretty cool and exclusive club and I put myself out there and people are responding, the pitching. Like there's so, you're essentially just creating this new version of yourself in a way from pitching.
00:14:19 Kim: And I think that's a very powerful thing. You can call that a confidence booster. You can call it whatever you want, but for everyone listening, you have taken this huge leap to create something out of nothing. And it's your passion and the PR Starter Pack and pitching, and it has just taught me to walk with confidence. I know it's probably a very rambling, meandering answer, but I hope that the passion comes through for you guys listening, is that I can speak so much more confidently about who I am and even the rises and the falls of running a small business. I would never have dreamt this big if I hadn't learned these skills. Talking about 5X, talking about being on the morning news. Who am I sometimes, but I'm gonna do it. It's gonna happen. I know it can happen is the most important thing.
00:15:03 Goria: Yes! So what are the three big things that you are looking forward to creating by the end of this year? I know you have some exciting things lined up and I know that you've already done so much with PR and created so many opportunities, but tell us what you're looking forward to creating more of.
00:15:16 Kim: The two big or the three big things I'd say is I just launched last week on Uncommon Goods. So I have a national launch on a national platform. I am the first ever book subscription box on Uncommon Goods. So it's live. It's rolling out. I have pitches scheduled to go out at 9:30 on Thursday morning, with my, remember to install your open tracker, everyone to make sure those emails are getting opened.
00:15:42 Kim: So that is live, it's happening right now. And then also pitching for the holiday season. That is, they want those gift lists, they're starting to compile them now. So that is the immediate and now, but I also just received a call yesterday. I applied for an incubator space for a small business space. So 200 square feet, we're talking mini pop-up, but semi-permanent. So there's a chance that Read It and Eat might become the Read It and Eat Culinary Bookstore.
00:16:09 Kim: Still gonna serve those boxes and ship across the U.S., but I really, it's been the long-term goal to also have a brick and mortar space in Buffalo. So I don't know how it'll pan out yet. I just got the call right before we jumped on to talk to each other today. But there's some lots of really great things and it's scary and it's exciting. And also the final thing is April 20th, Read It and Eat Book Fair year two is gonna be here before you know it.
00:16:32 Kim: So in October, my new intern and I, we're gonna be starting to prep already, find some reaching out and pitching to sponsors, pitching out to the local news, like let's, all of this is happening. And also I still have to, you know, handle the holiday madness. So a lot's going on, but I am very, very excited and very grateful.
00:16:50 Gloria: Here's a question that I think is an important one. And if anyone is multi-tasking, I think you want to listen to this. So often I get people saying, well, you know, I wanna grow my business and I just wanna, you know, hire a publicist to do it for me, which is throwing money at the problem. Or you know what, I'll just put money into ads, which is also throwing money at the problem. Or you know, I'll pay an influencer. And this whole notion of having to pay someone to do it or having like a quick fix solution, because let's be honest, if it was easy, everybody would do it.
00:17:18 Gloria: What would you have to say to that? Why did you not go the route that most people go, which is paying an ads agency or just spending tons of money on ads? And why did you decide to do this brave act of advocating for yourself through PR and pitching.
00:17:31 Kim: It's interesting cause I've had this conversation with other small businesses. Kim, why did you focus on PR versus going into dumping tons of money into meta ad spend? First off, I find ad spend extremely overwhelming and it feels like quite literally you're pouring dollars into a bucket and lighting it on fire. But that's just my opinion. To me, PR is not only awareness, but it's that relevancy story. It also involves a lot of benefits of that SEO and back and tracking and driving traffic to your own website. And the way I think about it is Buffalo, New York is not the largest city in the whole world.
00:18:08 Kim: So if I can get out there and get onto these outlets, not only am I spreading awareness, but there's getting, there's more eyeballs. Maybe there's somebody who's out in Boise, who is also passionate about books and food. And in a way I view it like creating community. And I hope that that's what other people can also think of PR. And it's also a skill that, like we mentioned earlier, it's public relations.
00:18:31 Kim: A lot of being a small business owner is relationship building, whether it's partners, whether it's wholesale, whether it's maybe I'm gonna have a brick and mortar, but that relationship part, I don't want that to get lost. I think people might have the misconception it becomes very transactional. It's not, I have rapport now. And actually, like really, I follow one of my reporters on Instagram because she's always reviewing romance books. So I think that was part of it. I wanted to be reconnected with the relationship part of PR. And it's made it such a more optimistic journey than, oh, my God, what was my cost for clicks? My cost for clicks has gone up four cents. Like that part could drive me insane.
00:19:10 Kim: So think about from PR, how it's going to impact other parts of your business, relationships, how you talk about yourself. But also those articles also create that SEO. They create traffic and they create eyeballs in a totally, to me, more authentic way than being served a paid ad 24/7.
00:19:29 Gloria: So, Kim, you've shared with us so many amazing gems. I love having you in our PR Starter Pack. I love seeing you on our monthly coaching calls. But for people who are listening, who are outside of our community, how can they find you and learn more about you?
00:19:41 Kim: Yes, if you are looking for your next culinary adventure and love books and food. You can find us at readitandeatbox.com and across all social media, Instagram, X, formerly known as Twitter, Facebook at Read It & Eat Box and on TikTok we're readitandeat. Feel free if you guys wanna drop me a note in my DMs, I'm still managing it all myself, so I'm great to see you. Or you can fill out the contact form on my website, but I would love to connect with you, big or small, and think of us for the holidays.
00:20:12 Gloria: Thank you so much. I am so proud of your journey. I remember when you joined our program and our community about two years ago and all the amazing accomplishments you've gained since and how you've been not only elevating yourself and your story, but helping other people in our community pitch and get featured and use all of these things that you've learned so that they can get to where they want to go much quicker.
00:20:34 Gloria: Thank you for being a light and for helping us and everyone realize that it is possible as a small business to pitch. It is absolutely possible to be on all of their publications as a small business. Without PR, it is absolutely possible to gain that confidence and know that your story deserves to be seen, heard, and valued by more people. Thank you so much, Kim.
00:20:53 Kim: Absolutely, thank you so much for having me and for also being on the journey and believing in the mission. Hopefully next year I can be like, yeah, Gloria, I was on the morning news for Buffalo talking about something. So we're manifesting that out and thank you so much again for having me.