Episode 29: How to Get Onto Business Insider and Pitch Your Small Business with Entrepreneurship Reporter Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins
Have you ever wondered what happens to all the emails that you’re sending to journalists? Are they actually reading them? How do you follow up?
These are all questions we’re answering in this episode with Entrepreneurship Reporter Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins. We talk a lot over here on the Small Business PR podcast about how to pitch to journalists and publications, but wouldn’t it be helpful to hear from someone on the receiving end of those pitches?
Jennifer is here to answer all the questions you’ve ever wanted to ask a journalist. Find out what subject lines stand out in a sea of emails, what makes a story interesting to a journalist, and whether following up is actually annoying or not.
Jennifer is a senior reporter on Insider's Entrepreneurship team, primarily covering how to launch and scale a new business. She focuses on what brand new entrepreneurs and side hustlers should do in the first years of starting up and digs into what platforms and tools they can use, how to get funding, set their branding apart, and market to the right audience through social media. She received her Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Emerson College and is currently based in New York City.
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
What Business Insider covers
How to stand out as a small business
The importance of being familiar with current events
The power of tangible deliverables
Using data, surveys, and predictions in your pitch
Familiarizing yourself with the journalist and publication you are pitching to
Being able to articulate how your business is relevant
How much you should be following up
How to write a good subject line
Valuing the journalism that you consume
If you want to better understand the inner workings of the journalism industry and the journalists you are pitching to, this episode is the place to start.
I hope you walk away from this episode with a renewed enthusiasm for pitching your story.
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:
Follow @jennifer.ortakales on Instagram
Additional Resources:
Join the Small Biz PR Pros FB group
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Transcript
SBPR Episode 29 Final.mp3
[00:00:00] Have you ever wondered what happens to all of the emails that you're sending to journalists? Are they actually reading them? And how do you follow up? In this episode, I interview a journalist from Business Insider, and we do a deep dive on all of the questions you have ever wanted to ask. So if pitching is something you want to do this year, this episode, my friend, is not to be missed. 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. Because let's be honest, we simply cannot make the impact we're here to make by hiding behind the scenes. So on this podcast, 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. Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. Have you ever wondered how to get into Business Insider or what a small business reporter looks for? Right. There are so many small businesses out there. How do they decide who to interview? I'm so excited. Today we are going to interview Business Insider, small business reporter Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins. She is the one covering entrepreneurship business and all things for Business Insider. So, Jennifer, thank you so much for being with us today. I'm so excited.
[00:01:30] Thank you so much for having me on.
[00:01:33] So I know you've been with Business Insider for three years and we all love Business Insider. I feel like it's really leading the charge in many ways in terms of media, like online first digital media. Can you talk to us a little bit about how it's different than the other platforms? What does Business Insider cover or don't cover?
[00:01:52] Yeah, so I would say first and foremost, it's really important to know that insider started digital first. So they've never really been they've never been print. They've never kind of had that old school or old fashioned way of reporting. They're always kind of ahead of the game and always looking for how to cover things from a readership first perspective. So what do readers really want to know? What are they interested in? What topics excite them? They're always really, really, I would say reader obsessed, which is great because that's what makes us successful. And so, you know, I think a major part of our coverage is just getting inside, just like our name says, inside businesses in a way that is, you know, really peeling the layers off of what goes on behind the scenes, whether it's your favorite companies that are huge name brands or whether it's small businesses like what I cover, you know, how do business owners start launch fund scale their businesses? What kind of strategies do they use? How did they get from zero sales to a million sales, all of that? So I think it's really focused on kind of getting that insight, making sure we're actually providing something serviceable for readers. We're not just telling a nice story, which, you know, everyone likes to read a nice story or something that's inspiring. Those are great. But we also want to be able to give the reader something to take away from that story. Maybe it is inspiration, but a lot of times it's more about a strategy or something that they can actually use in their daily lives or in their business 100%.
[00:03:35] Thank you so much. And I think that's why Business Insider is doing so well, because it's it's important, it's topical, but it's also very actionable. And that goes back to kind of the pitching method that I teach, which is the CPR method, credibility point of view and relevance. So getting back to the relevance part, you know, founders, we kind of have this narcissistic syndrome where like we think our business is the best, right? Like our business is unique. I'm the only one. So in the, in the sea of uniqueness, right? Because we all think we're unique. What do you actually feel like is unique to you? Because every founder thinks your story is unique.
[00:04:10] Yeah, that's the thing. I think like every founder thinks that their idea is the best, right? And that's good. Like, you know, founders need that, right? That's what gets them investment. That's what pushes them and their passion. But I think it's really what is most interesting to me is what kind of conversations they want to contribute to. So, you know, if you're just about promoting your business, that's kind of it's not enough to stand out because every business owner wants to do that. Right. But if you're willing to tap into what's happening right now, what's relevant to the world, what's the latest news happening? If you're able to really articulate how it relates to you and your business and everything that goes into operating your business, that is what is more interesting to me. You know, it's great if you love your business and you're super passionate about it, you need that to be a successful business owner. But in order to tell a story and also contribute to the greater conversation happening around many different topics in the world, you have to be able to articulate why something is relevant to you and then articulate how you're dealing with it.
[00:05:22] How are you using it as a lesson to learn from? That was so much of like what happened during the pandemic. A lot of business owners, every business owner wanted to talk about how they pivoted. Right. And sure, that's great. Like a new product. Okay, cool. Maybe that's different. But what really matters is can you actually break down the steps you took to do that? Can you actually show me maybe a template that you use to send out emails to customers? Can you actually show me a budget that you used to help plan out your finances during a crisis? So things like that that are a little bit more tangible. I. Our readers are really, really interested in and they love it. That's why our pitch decks do so well. Or whenever we have like a marketing template of Here's how to plan out Instagram posts for a month. Those things are really helpful for people, and those things will continue to do well because they are tangible. It's not just like an inspiring story or you need to buy this product.
[00:06:21] I love what you said about kind of that actionable, like tangible the tangibility because a lot of times founders think their story is inspiring and that's enough. But you want something that's even more than that. How can they apply it to their own lives? Maybe there are some data, maybe there's a survey. So can you talk to me a little bit more about using data, surveys or predictions and how founders can think more creatively? So they're not just using the same marketing spiel and sending you a pitch that's not going to get covered.
[00:06:47] Yeah, definitely. So I would say, first of all, the best step is to familiarize yourself with the reporter and the publication. If you don't read Business Insider on a daily basis, that's okay. You know, there are lots of different publications to read. You definitely should. But just familiarize yourself with how we frame things, how, what kind of stories we cover, and how we kind of differentiate our stories from other publications. So the biggest mistake that you can make when you're pitching a reporter is just being very broad and not specifying to the publication and to the reporter. So the next thing is to really read the stuff that I'm writing, you know, read what a reporter is putting out there, what they're focused on, what topics are interesting to them and what they're covering. To even know if that reporter is a good fit for your pitch. Or maybe you need to reach out to a different reporter. But really trying to tailor as much as you can and then finding a way to really have relevance to what is happening in the world and how can you actually push forward, you know, whatever's happening, whatever, maybe there's a trend going on. So for example, I've covered a lot of livestream shopper businesses, so in livestreaming has kind of been picking up popularity, right? So I'm really interested in how this trend is happening and and how it's sort of unfolding before our eyes. Right. So you can kind of relate to that and say, Oh yeah, I've been using live shopping or I maybe have a marketing strategy.
[00:08:12] I've used to promote my live shopping streams, that kind of thing, like find a way to kind of insert yourself into that trend. Obviously if it's relevant, like don't do it without, without actually being a part of it. But if you can find opportunities where yeah, I, I am one of the many people who quit my job during the pandemic to start a business cool, like find what cohort you kind of fit into or what trends you fit into. And that really all goes down to making sure your reading and on top of what's happening in the business world and entrepreneurship and kind of understanding what's what people are talking about, what's trending and what maybe people are interested in the future. Because that's also another thing that's important to reporters is like we also want to be able to give people information before everything happens. You know, like that's the best thing is being able to identify, oh, this trend is happening before it really even gets moving or gains traction. So if you're identifying something ahead of time or ahead of your peers or ahead of other business owners, that could be really useful information for a reporter to say, okay, cool. You actually are in the middle of all of this. You're on the ground experiencing it in real time. Maybe that would actually be a great story for me to like explore this trend and what people think about it.
[00:09:36] Now. I love that you brought up so many things like predictions and relevance, because for every one of those things I can think of an example of when I wrote a pitch for someone and it got featured. So for example, it's not about reinventing the wheel, it's about how can you insert yourself right into a conversation people are having, but maybe in a new angle. So yesterday I just wrote a pitch for someone who manages pain for people over 60. It's not new. There's a lot of people out there doing that. But the relevance that we were able to tie her story to was that long haul. Covid has a lot of symptoms of joint pain and rheumatoid arthritis, and so people as young as 20 are having joint pain and joint issues. So that was how we were able to apply her pain pain management techniques to something of relevance. So what that would that makes sense. Would that be something that relates back to what you were talking about in terms of tying it into something relevant?
[00:10:24] Yeah, for sure. Like any kind of way that you can relate to a larger trend or topic that is happening. Right. So it might seem like, oh, there are lots of pain management companies out there. Like she's probably doing the same thing as tons of other people out there. But you know, us as reporters, we can't talk to all of those companies. Like the people we will talk to are the ones that we can find, the ones that we either find on Twitter, on Instagram, on any kind of social media platform who we find in our inbox or, you know, reach out to us in some way. It might seem like, you know, as a business owner, you're in this big sea of a ton of other business owners just like you. But if you can kind of relate to something that's very relevant to what's happening in the world, that helps you to kind of stand out in the way that, sure, maybe you are a part of a cohort of many thousands of people. But that in of itself is maybe a story because we want to talk about thousands of people are doing this thing right. And who better to tell that story than this business owner who's been doing it and knows the industry, knows that type of health care. Right.
[00:11:34] Yeah. Thank you for that. And it definitely gives a lot of the smaller players, which is my audience, because they feel like they don't have any agency, they don't have anyone vouching for them. They don't have a famous investor. But you're saying that it's not really about that. It's about pitching and just making sure that you are getting into your inbox because you never know when you're going to be tasked to write that story again, right? Am I right? Do you kind of read the emails and kind of label them and file them away? And it just because you don't respond doesn't mean that there's no chance for them to get featured.
[00:12:03] Right, exactly. Exactly. And I'm actually very organized in my email. I'm sure, you know, probably not all reporters are like this. This is just how I am. But I like color code things, I label things, I filter things. I have a whole system, of course, because I get so many emails, I do have to put a lot of it in the trash. But anything that catches my interest, any subject line that I'm like, Oh, this sounds really interesting. I don't have a story right now I'm working on that maybe fits this, but I'm going to just label it for now, save it in my inbox. And then what ends up happening a lot of the times is I'll be assigned a story from one of my editors or I'll pitch a story and then I need that exact source, or I need someone who has done this particular thing or speaks to this trend. And then I can just search my inbox literally by keywords like, you know, a particular like retail brand or, oh, this person is making, you know, pivoted to using to making mass during the pandemic or this person sells jewelry on Etsy like whatever those particular keywords are. I can just search my inbox to see if I've had anyone reach out already, and that's usually where I'll start. I definitely still do outreach, just kind of cold emailing other business owners, I find, but the best place to start is kind of what you already have.
[00:13:20] Yeah, so I imagine it as kind of a big hat. And if you don't throw your name in the hat, it'll never get an ounce, right? So yeah. So talk to me a little bit more about like do you have a Rolodex of like kind of people who have pitched to you and if you need a quote, then you kind of call them up.
[00:13:36] Mm hmm. Yeah. I would say I even have a Rolodex of people I've covered before where I've told their founding story or their story about their business kind of profiled them or something a while ago, and then we just stayed in touch and then they end up being like, go to people I talk to whenever something comes up. And so an example of that was like this week when the Instagram Facebook outage happened and all these business owners are freaking out. I'd already done a profile on this woman who uses Facebook Live shopping, and that has been a significant part of her business. And so the day that Instagram and Facebook shut down, she didn't really have much to rely on. Like she had to go back to emailing customers instead of DMing them and all of that. And so I just simply sent out an email to her because I had that direct contact. I had that relationship with her from the previous article that we wrote, and she was able to she answered me so quickly. We hopped on a phone call really quick, got her input. Got to hear how it was impacting her business.
[00:14:38] And that was super valuable because sometimes when these things come up, it is so fast. Like the news cycle can be very, very fast paced and stories are changing all the time. Sometimes we'll have one story one week and then kind of cut it because maybe it's not relevant anymore. And then sometimes stories pop up like this outage story where we have to get on it within hours. Within hours we need interviews. Easiest way to get those interviews. Go to my inbox, see who's there, go to my contacts that I've already talked to or maybe even just had conversations with. Know it doesn't even necessarily have to be someone I've written an article about before, but maybe I just know that. Yeah, there was this business owner who reached out to me to tell me about their company, and as much as I thought their company was interesting, I didn't really have a story that fit for it at that time. But because they mentioned that they market a lot on Instagram and Facebook, maybe that would be a great person to reach out to for this particular story.
[00:15:31] Yeah. That's it's so it's so important to see it as a relationship, first of all, and then also that it's kind of an evolving news cycle. So I'll give you an example as well. It's just to go back to your point is I worked with a startup that does like workers benefits. So people who are Uber and Lyft drivers who are not quite employees but not quite contractors. And so, you know, I got I got the startup in touch with The Guardian. And The Guardian did not run the story months later when coronavirus hit. It was a huge story about what's going to happen with workers rights. She literally emailed me back and was like, I need to talk to someone about this as the story is breaking. And I was able to get them on the phone and then she was on the front page of The Guardian. That's 83 million views. So it just goes to show it's all about building a relationship. So so now that you've kind of like, you know, reassured our audience to give them that first, like you can press the send button because remember, everything you want is on the opposite end of the of opposite side of the send button. What about is there like a boundary between, like following up too much or like at one point, does it become just like spam?
[00:16:35] Yeah. I mean, I would say for me personally, because I get so many emails, it is really hard. I can't I can't even follow up with most people who I'm actually kind of interested in, right? Like I might file away that person's email for later, but I don't necessarily have the time to follow up with them and say, Hey, this is cool, thanks so much. I'll get back to you another time when I have a story that fits. Sometimes it literally is just radio silence and then all of a sudden you hear from me like a month later. And so as much as like I hate that because it is like I would love to be able to connect personally with every single business owner, you know, who reaches out. That's just impossible for the pace of my day. And so I would say follow up once, like once is totally fine. I don't mind hearing from you again just because sometimes sometimes things do slip through. And maybe I did actually mark it as something that's relevant for a current project I have going on, but I just haven't gotten it to yet.
[00:17:30] Or I forgot. I totally forgot to respond. So once is always fine because that's kind of like a hey reminder, like a little notification coming in to tell me, you know, did you check this out yet? But I would say after that one follow up, because I get so many emails on a daily basis, then it starts to get a little bit overwhelming. If someone is kind of like consistently following up like again and again because at that point, if you followed up once and you haven't heard from me, I probably have either filed you away for later or unfortunately like throwing the email in the trash because it's not of interest to our audience, you know? So it's kind of like you've got to be it's a game of patience, unfortunately. Like, as much as I'm sure business owners want an answer, it is hard because we just don't have the time to like answer every single person. But yeah, one follow up solid. That's totally fine. Any more than that gets a little bit. I wouldn't say even annoying. Just kind of like it isn't helping. That's not helping.
[00:18:28] Yeah. I mean, I think different reporters have different things. Like I talked to someone who at the Wall Street Journal and they're like, you know, you can follow up like once a week and you know, things like that. So I think it just depends on your your level of organization and how you file your email away. It seems like you're very organized and you actually read through all of your emails. So just because you're not responding doesn't mean you haven't labeled them a highlight of them for later. Another caveat is what about the fact that the news cycle is always changing? Can they follow up again if now they have a relevance to something, something different? Maybe it's holiday shopping, you know, and they pitch something about retail in the summer and all of a sudden it's holiday shopping. Can they follow up with you now with a new point of relevance?
[00:19:08] Mm hmm. Yeah, definitely. So that's the thing I would definitely encourage, you know, if you have another storyline that fits your business, if you have another you know, there's a topic in the news that you can relate to and speak on. Totally follow up. Oftentimes what I'll do and this kind of it always depends, but for things that I'm especially interested in or maybe ongoing conversations, I do mark them as important. So even if I file it away and I archive it and I've labeled it and I kind of, you know, it's read, it's archived, but it's maybe labeled as important that is still going to kind of go back up to the top of my inbox if you follow up on that. So I would say honestly, one of the best things is to continue with the same thread. I know probably some people that seems weird or like unproductive, but for me it's very helpful because that means I've already labeled your email as something that's relevant to me or what I cover. So if you're following up on that same thread, even if it's maybe you pitched me three months ago about like summer shopping and now you want to talk about holiday shopping. That's okay. That's subject line at that point isn't really as important as you kind of like bringing that email up higher in my inbox.
[00:20:24] Yeah, I love that. So in terms of actual taxable things, I'm a sucker for like subject line hacks because. You don't have a good subject line is not going to get read. Can you give us some examples of good subject lines and just like awful subject lines?
[00:20:39] Yeah. I mean, I think some of the best subject lines sound like insider headlines because that is what will grab me. That's what I'm like, oh cool. This already sounds like something our readers are interested in without me having to parse. What does this mean? And the worst ones are ones that are just very broad and general and have absolutely no detail. It's just kind of like this female founder raised X amount of money for her health startup. Right? And it's like, okay, well, there are lots of female founders, there are lots of health startups, there are lots of people fundraising. Why do I care about this particular startup? You know? But at the same time, I do want I want some kind of sense of authority and understanding who this person is. So, you know, and maybe why they're a little bit different or maybe why their position on a topic is something to note or something that might pique my interest. So maybe they have a different perspective than what's common in the business world. Maybe they just using something kind of like just words that are a little bit more active and enticing, like, oh, this this founder hacked Instagram system for reals and her business went viral. Like that kind of tells me, okay, cool. So she had a plan and a strategy that she used for social media marketing, and maybe that's something that would be helpful to our readers, right? So kind of have that a little bit of action or something that's like a result, you know, what did this founder do that resulted in a success or a win or something happening for their business that most likely other people want to achieve that same success and just kind of try to be as descriptive as you can about the founder and the business owner.
[00:22:26] You know, it's it's not going to pique my interest if I just see business owner or or founder or even like like restaurant owner. I like more specificity, at least where they based. You know, maybe it's a particular city I'm interested in. Maybe it's a state that had a law passed recently that was specifically relevant to business owners. So I think just the more detail you can include, the better, because that also gives me an idea of, again, when I'm when I have these stories filed, are these pitches filed away? And I have a story that might match it searching. And in that search box, I might have a keyword that relates to that subject line. Think of those keywords for your subject line that might be helpful for a reporter later on.
[00:23:10] Yeah, 100%. I also talk about this in my masterclass, too, is you don't want the subject line to be like pitch, name of person, name of company. It means an absolutely nothing to you if you don't know them. Yeah. So something like three things I did with my SBA like second, second round like PBP. Money to keep the lights on or something like that is probably a little bit more tangible than like me and my story, you know.
[00:23:34] Yeah. And to even take that a step further, you know, like three things I did with this loan, that's great. But even to make it a little bit more specific, I don't need to know that you did three things, because maybe that's what you talk about in the actual pitch body, but maybe it's like I, I was able to pay my back rent from this loan after my landlord gave me two weeks to get out of the out of the space, you know, things that are a little bit more just more specific, just being more specific with you can go into the body and explain break down all the many things you did with this money you got. But if there's maybe one particular thing that's really interesting or surprising or quite an accomplishment, tout that first kind of lead with what you think is going to be most important, because three things is still a little bit broad. I'm going to be asking as a reporter, well, what three things did you do? And that might not even get my interest enough to like click that and open it.
[00:24:35] I like threes, so, you know, I said three, but definitely I think I agree on the specificity. So you talk about authority and you know, a lot of the people listening, they might not have raised $1,000,000. They might be bootstrapping. So can you talk about how they can establish their authority if they don't have fancy VC money backing them?
[00:24:54] Yeah, definitely. So, yeah, that's one thing. I mean, our small business team, we love covering people who are not VC backed, like we are all about covering bootstrap ours as well because there are lots of boot shoppers out there and that's part of the reason we even initially started this team. So try to think of creative ways to showcase your success and your following. You know, at the end of the day, we are going to be looking for some kind of authority on running a business. We want our readers to be able to trust that you actually have business experience and you've actually gained some success in that business. You know, as much as we would love to give everyone the space to tell their story, we have to really focus on the people who. Tangible results and have something to show for it to show for running their business. So we tend to, especially if we're going to do profiles and features, we do tend to require some kind of revenue or profit sales, some kind of financial showcase of your success. There are some cases where that's not necessary because we might be talking to if it's more about a trend or a topic and it's not necessarily a profile just on your business, we don't necessarily ask for those. But if if you don't have that, you could also maybe focus on your followers on Instagram or how you gained a ton of views on Tik Tok. You know what is maybe the relevant way that people are finding businesses, selling their products, catering to many different generations and what they're looking for. So find those metrics, any kind of metrics you can get from other platforms. Another one is like your clientele list or an email newsletter. You have 7000 subscribers on your email newsletter and here's how I generated that in two months. So anything that kind of gives people a tangible idea of why you're speaking on this topic, why you have the authority to say, Here's what led to my success. That is really helpful.
[00:26:57] Yeah. Thank you so much for validating that because, you know, that's really part of the CPR method is the credibility point of view and relevance relevance being the most important thing because as we said, the news cycle is always changing and it's a great way to follow up with you. Again, I'm so impressed by how organized you are. I'm so glad that you actually have confirmed to us that you do read your emails even though don't respond to all of them. It's definitely giving us the energy that we need to keep to keep pitching. One more thing I want to touch on is Business Insider is a paid platform and it's only $1 to start. But I think the world of media and PR and influencers is really changing. So can you talk to me a little bit about why it's so important that we actually can value like real journalism and pay for the the journalism that we consume, whether it's The New York Times or or Business Insider?
[00:27:46] Yeah, definitely. I mean, at the end of the day, every media company is also a business. So and I think that's kind of where, you know, it really goes full circle. When I'm talking to business owners, they know what it's like to run a business. They know what it's like to, you know, for people to ask, can I get a discount or can I get this for free instead? Or, you know, or even freelancers who are constantly told to lower their rates. You know, every business has to operate on a profitable model. And the way that that translates in media is a huge part of that is subscriptions. You know, advertising is still important. You know, there's still a lot of advertising on traffic or non paywalled content, but so much of media is moving to subscriptions and I think a huge indicator of that even is people starting payment on accounts or all kinds of different platforms that are kind of leveraging that subscription model. It's only becoming more popular and it's only becoming more relevant the way that media is consumed. So I think it kind of is more I would say you kind of have to get on the bandwagon at a certain point.
[00:28:56] You have to come to terms with the fact that, you know, print is is not how most people get their news anymore. As much as I would love to be able to pick up a newspaper or magazine, it just is not the reality of today's media anymore. So it's just so important to know that, like, if you want to hear, if you want to see the stories told that you want to see, if you want quality journalism, if you want things that are actually relevant to you, support those organizations that are doing that. And I think Insider is just such a great example of a company that really, really wants to give readers the most information. Dig underneath the surface of what's really happening. Prepare people for their careers, their businesses, their jobs, whatever it is that they're passionate about, and really provide information that's relevant and like research things, uncover things maybe people don't know. It really is just how media is is turning now. And I think it's really important to kind of face the fact that most media companies are not going to be profitable if they don't have some kind of paywall.
[00:30:05] Yeah. And I think, you know, it separates the legitimate journalism with kind of the paid marketing. But, you know, we worry as consumers, we know when someone is selling us something versus when someone is actually news. And, you know, I depend on you, Jennifer, as a journalist, not an influencer who's getting free merch to give me your eyes in the ears on what's happening. And so I think, you know, journalism is not dead. And yeah, it's really hard and intimidating to pitch to a business insider, but that's why everybody wants to, because you have that authority that like some tech talker, is not going to have. So I think if we. You want to continue that than we do need to support, you know, our writers. One more thing I want to talk about is I'm so about the, you know, helping the underdog, helping people who are bootstrapping, who cannot pay PR agencies ten, 20,000 a month. And, you know, I'm all about reminding them that they can and they probably should pitch so that they can be on a direct level with the journalists. So can you give me an example of, you know, out of all the stories that you've covered, you know, you've covered fancy companies with millions of dollars in funding, but you've also written some really cool stuff highlighting everyday salt of the earth people. So what are some of the stories that you're really proud of that covered the underdog?
[00:31:17] Yeah. And so actually, I want to quickly mention something that came up for me when you were saying just being able to respect and trust journalists. Right. And not versus an influencer. So one more thing I will I will note is that insider is very specific about our editorial policies and it's actually one of probably maybe one of the stricter companies in media. But I think it's a really good thing because we're actually not allowed to accept any kind of merchandise. So a lot of times PR will pitch us like, oh, let us send you some free merch or this product, and we have to decline that because it is that is how important it is to us in our organization to make sure we're being unbiased, that we are that we're not just marketing for someone, that we're actually telling stories that matter to people in a way that is truthful and honest. So just one little thing I wanted to add about that. But yeah, some of the stories that I've told, actually one of my favorites that I told about someone in my neighborhood was back in February. I was kind of interested in this and we were just interested in talking to retailers about what they were experiencing during the pandemic. You know, let's just talk to a bunch of business owners and retailers who are have spent almost a whole year in the pandemic navigating that and what is concerning them, what's on their mind.
[00:32:36] And so I ended up just connecting with them or I found a business near my apartment in Astoria and my husband and I had just like been shopping there. One day we walked in. It was really cool, had a bunch of really like just cute products, cool stuff, kind of like anime and greeting cards and scrunchies and masks and all kinds of things. And so I connected with the owner and told her how like, maybe I could just grab coffee with you and like pick your brain about what is happening in your business world. Right? And then she was like, Yeah. So I actually do a live shopping stream every Monday. Do you want to just come by the store and hang out with me while I do that? And so it was really cool to see something that I'd never even known about. I didn't realize anyone was doing this. I didn't know that there were all these platforms and apps where you can like live stream shop. And so I just spent the day like finding out, learning more about what she does. And so I guess like I think that's what's really fun about small business too, is that you can literally just walk into any business, whether it's on the street or you call them, email them from something online, and you get to hear what they're actually doing to cater to their customers, to engage with them, to create conversations to, you know, business owners are so scrappy.
[00:33:53] Like she she started doing live livestream shopping because she was trying to make due. She was trying to like she had so much rent to pay after the pandemic. All these things happening, trying to get cheap loans wasn't really sure how to get by. And then livestream shopping was kind of the way that she realized she could tap into a niche community of people who are really interested in that. And so that was one of my favorite ones where I just kind of stumbled into it. I had no idea even what Livestream shopping was. And then I talked to her, she shows me and then before I know it, I'm like talking to all these other sellers who do the same thing. And so it was really cool to just kind of, I guess we introduced to something new by a small business owner who was literally right in my neighborhood.
[00:34:38] Yeah, I think a lot of times we feel like there's such an intimidation factor that journalists like know the ins and outs of everything. But you're just people and you get delighted by stories too. So for anyone out there that's listening, like shoot your shot, if anything, if you've taken anything away from this is one support journalism, right? That's that's why everyone you know, there's a high bar to get into a place like Business Insider. You can't just pay them and be don't be afraid to be the underdog and pitch and pitch and pitch because it's not about just covering the the big name brands that everybody knows about. Otherwise there would be no news, there would be no like journalism, integrity. It would just be the same things over and over in.
[00:35:15] Exactly. And that's kind of what when I flip through a magazine today, I I've always loved magazines. I've loved fashion magazines. But the more and more I have, the longer I've gone looking through them and flipping through them over the years, I just see more and more ads and not and I don't mean the actual ads that. Look like ads. I mean, like a whole editorial spread that is supposed to be creative and different. And some editor put together these outfits or is writing the story, but it tends to just feel so consumed by advertising and marketing like, Oh yeah, we actually had to put this one designer like all of their clothes on this one model because they didn't want us mixing labels, mixing designers on this model. So then how does that kind of compromise the creativity of that that photo shoot? Right. Or that that editorial is no longer about, oh, cool things for fall and what kind of sweaters and dresses you should be wearing? It's kind of like, well, Marc Jacobs wanted this particular look or Michael Kors wanted his clothes like only on this model and this look exactly the way that they sent it to us. So it starts to just feel so contrived and kind of unoriginal and uninspiring. Right. And so hopefully supporting journalism, that does not do that. It's also saying that you want something original, you want something to surprise you. You want to be you want to learn something new. You want to be educated and inspired everyday.
[00:36:46] And that comes from the underdog because people are being more and more creative when they are small and scrappy. So on that note, I'm so I got so much from this conversation. Thank you so much for all that you do for reminding us that small business is where innovation happens, you know? So how can people find you? How can people support you and connect with you?
[00:37:07] Yeah. So I mean, I'm on all social media and I love to just get DMS from small business owners saying, Hey, check out my business or I'd love to talk to you. So you know, don't be afraid to reach out to me on social media. Jennifer Dot or Tequila's on Twitter Instagram everywhere you can find me and also just read if you read my articles you'll also find like links to be able to reach out to me email. So just look me up. You can either Google search my name, you'll find the Business Insider page with all of my articles. So if you want to read anything that I've done, just literally search Jennifer articles, Business Insider, and you'll get that page right up. So yeah, I would love to get in touch with more business owners. I'm always interested to hear from people doing things differently here, from what business owners are experiencing and what they're interested in, what topics they're excited about. So yeah, definitely. I would love for everyone to reach out.
[00:38:00] Yeah. So on that note, thank you so much for being here. We look forward to your continued coverage and to learn more about the everyday people who are scrappy but small and mighty. Thank you so much for being on.
[00:38:12] Thanks so much for having me.
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