Unlock the transformative power of PR and learn how to navigate its shifting landscape in our latest conversation with Renee Warren of We Wild Women. Renee brings her PR prowess to the table, explaining that public relations magic isn't just for the industry giants—it's a vital tool for all levels of entrepreneurship. We untangle the importance of establishing a reputation, becoming an industry go-to expert, and the resilience needed in pitching your story. With the media world's constant evolution, our chat reveals key strategies for adapting and thriving, even as traditional publications wane and new opportunities arise.
As we celebrate the 260th episode of Elevate Media Podcast, guest Susie Moore drops in to share the rollercoaster ride of our PR journey and the highs and lows of the podcasting world. The PR landscape, much like our show, is an intricate mix of serendipity and strategy. From pitching to nurturing lasting industry relationships, Susie explores what it takes to grab and hold the media's attention. If you're looking for the sweet spot in timing your media pitches, you'll find some insider tips here that could make all the difference in catching that big break.
We wrap up this episode by diving into actionable PR strategies for the modern entrepreneur. I'll guide you through building your media list—free tools versus paid ones—and when it might be time to invest in your PR outreach. As pay-to-play models become more common, we weigh the ethical implications and how to navigate sponsored content. Plus, get ready to perfect your call to action and learn the storytelling art that will set your brand apart. Whether you're preparing to step into the spotlight or simply want to be ready when opportunity knocks, these insights will prime you for PR success.
Our mission here at Elevate Media is to help purpose-driven entrepreneurs elevate their brands and make an impact through the power of video podcasting.
Disclaimer: Please see the link for our disclaimer policy for all our episodes or videos on the Elevate Media and Elevate Media Podcast YouTube channels. https://elevatemediastudios.com/disclaimer
Unlock the transformative power of PR and learn how to navigate its shifting landscape in our latest conversation with Renee Warren of We Wild Women. Renee brings her PR prowess to the table, explaining that public relations magic isn't just for the industry giants—it's a vital tool for all levels of entrepreneurship. We untangle the importance of establishing a reputation, becoming an industry go-to expert, and the resilience needed in pitching your story. With the media world's constant evolution, our chat reveals key strategies for adapting and thriving, even as traditional publications wane and new opportunities arise.
As we celebrate the 260th episode of Elevate Media Podcast, guest Susie Moore drops in to share the rollercoaster ride of our PR journey and the highs and lows of the podcasting world. The PR landscape, much like our show, is an intricate mix of serendipity and strategy. From pitching to nurturing lasting industry relationships, Susie explores what it takes to grab and hold the media's attention. If you're looking for the sweet spot in timing your media pitches, you'll find some insider tips here that could make all the difference in catching that big break.
We wrap up this episode by diving into actionable PR strategies for the modern entrepreneur. I'll guide you through building your media list—free tools versus paid ones—and when it might be time to invest in your PR outreach. As pay-to-play models become more common, we weigh the ethical implications and how to navigate sponsored content. Plus, get ready to perfect your call to action and learn the storytelling art that will set your brand apart. Whether you're preparing to step into the spotlight or simply want to be ready when opportunity knocks, these insights will prime you for PR success.
Our mission here at Elevate Media is to help purpose-driven entrepreneurs elevate their brands and make an impact through the power of video podcasting.
Disclaimer: Please see the link for our disclaimer policy for all our episodes or videos on the Elevate Media and Elevate Media Podcast YouTube channels. https://elevatemediastudios.com/disclaimer
Speaker 1:
Welcome to the Elevate Media Podcast with your host, chris Anderson. In this show, chris and his guests will share their knowledge and experience on how to go from zero to successful entrepreneur. They have built their businesses from scratch and are now ready to give back to those who are just starting. Let's get ready to learn, grow and elevate our businesses. And now your host, chris Anderson.
Speaker 2:
Welcome back to another recording of the Elevate Media Podcast. I'm Chris Anderson, your host, and if you're like me when you're starting out thinking about PR, you know what is PR. Does it even matter for me? You know, as a solopreneur and you know when I started out and a lot of you thinking the same thing PR for the big dog. You know they have the big budgets and funds to be seen and what does that all entail? So we're going to dive into that today.
Speaker 2:
We have an award winning entrepreneur. She's an angel investor and author speaker. She's a founder of we Wild Women, which is a PR agency that revolutionizes how female led businesses shine in the media spotlight. So she's not just a leader, she's a visionary. She innovates how women can achieve and get even bigger visibility and success in their marketplace. She also is a top-rated podcast host of the podcast Into the Wild and she's a top 1.5% globally listened to show. So when I say that about this show, you will see now that we are in a very great company being able to say that we've had this guest on the show as well, who's doing amazing stuff. So being into the same level is just humbling for us. She interviews successful entrepreneurs all over the country. She's out of Canada, renee Warren. Welcome to the Elevate Media Podcast today.
Speaker 3:
Chris, thanks for having me and correction on that intro we actually made it to the top 1%.
Speaker 2:
Okay, she's beating us. No, that's good, but no, it's just. It's awesome to see you know and be connected with people who are doing amazing things like you're doing and how you're changing lives. So congrats on that new step up in the now top 1%, which is awesome. So, everyone, you're going to experience why here in a second as we dive into this topic of PR and what that looks like here in a second, as we dive into this topic of PR and what that looks like. But, Renee, to kind of start, some of the listeners like when I was starting out, what is PR exactly? We might have an idea in our mind, but what is it?
Speaker 3:
Yeah Well, first of all, it's shifted so much and I can say that it's been interesting watching the journey since 2012 was when I started my first agency and I worked with funded technology startups, and so we did a lot of like announcements and like launches and funding announcements. But I want to say that it used to be much easier to get media coverage back then, and I wouldn't be lying if I said otherwise. Today it's so much harder and there's many reasons why. I'm going to go back to answer your question in a moment. But what's happened in the industry is a lot of the big publications have laid off a lot of their staff writers. The way I describe it, it's kind of like an anthill, you know, when you see these ants that are just busy building their home and then you kind of smush it and then, all of a sudden, the ants kind of run all over the place and they're freaking out. That's kind of what happened in the world of PR, especially during kind of started during the pandemic, when my perspective is that a lot of people started to lose faith in media because we started to see there's something going on here and I just don't believe what's being said. So it shifted how we do it.
Speaker 3:
But what is PR is really about? Setting the standard in your industry. It's about becoming the go-to expert, the sought after thought leader in your industry. You talk about it a lot, you go on stages, you're on social media ad nauseum. Talking about the same thing is what I encourage my clients to do, and then you become that expert so that it's easy for you to pitch the media.
Speaker 3:
But also the media comes to you because you're the person that has all the answers. And so really it's about creating a positive reputation in the mind of your potential customers or current customers and the community, so that you become that trusted source. And while there's sure there's other ways of doing it, you could run ads to a landing page and get people to convert to a sales call, or you can show up on social, which it's highly recommended. Getting mentioned and featured in the media still has. You still win so much more because of it. Now here's the thing is, social media is fleeting, but getting a mention in a top publication or getting on like morning television or on other podcasts has staying power. Podcast is another example of this. Is what? What platform allows you to sit for 30 minutes talking about all the things you're really good at in front of somebody else's warmed up audience.
Speaker 2:
Right.
Speaker 3:
We don't think of it that way, but there's no other platform that allows you to do that. Podcasting authority at the authority builder engine. It's about three things being rare, creating reputation and extending that reach. So really defining how it is that you're different, developing and maintaining that reputation and then extending that reach, and it's kind of like this cycle that goes over and over and over again. Um and so I know that a lot of your listeners may have never done pr before, or if they tried, they failed, they gave up too soon, which is so common.
Speaker 3:
The reality is that anybody, at any stage, has the capability to be able to do their own PR. It's really not difficult. It just becomes kind of mundane and repetitive. Becomes kind of mundane and repetitive and it requires so much creative thinking because you're pitching the angles. You're not just pitching yourself. You're drafting the angles. You're pitching the stories to writers, to podcast hosts, you name it. But I think that it's absolutely the most massive complement to anything you're doing in marketing, and I believe that PR is actually the mother of all marketing. Everything else sits underneath it, and why? Because it is about building relationships.
Speaker 2:
So if someone's going out and they're you know, they're starting their business, their agency, their, their coaching, and they're trying to build these relationships and maybe they don't have a lot of social proof yet, what is a good way to go about quote unquote, pitching as you're building these relationships, how can you kind of bring some ammunition to that to make a show that it's worth those people's time?
Speaker 3:
Well, I say, create that social proof. So we all, we all have something within us. It's called a story. We have our reason why we're doing something we might have like a rags to riches story. There's something that we've done in our lives. I'm hoping that is really um entertaining.
Speaker 3:
So I have a client, elise. She is a Salesforce sales influencer, which is a third time in a row she's been nominated for this. I want to say award, but it's just position and we use that as the hook. But how she started is her story is how she went from earning the same income level for 10 years in sales, going through stress and anxiety, eating disorder, all these things, just to maintain that sales position at the top of her company. And while she was maintaining that position her income never grew and it caused so much strife in her life and her family life to one day she just figured it out. She created this idea about creating quantum leaps, about taking quantum leaps and how mindset is the most important thing in anything that we do. And so she questioned herself why is it that I'm still making the same amount of money after a decade and I see other people winning, and I'm not winning money after a decade, and I see other people winning and I'm not winning yet I'm still the top of the leaderboard.
Speaker 3:
And so she realized that she needed to do this for herself and not make somebody else rich. She took the leap, she created this program. She shifted her mindset and within six weeks she created, so she ended up garnering her annual salary in a month, and then from month to month afterwards, she figured it out, which is a a month, and then from month to month afterwards. So she figured it out, which is a cool story and I obviously articulated better in a pitch. But prior to that she didn't really have all these awards or recognition. So we use that as the hook to pitch media.
Speaker 3:
And then what happens is that when you start getting on bigger podcasts or more media mentions, your story shifts and changes. So even though we've been working together now for six months and we've kind of pitched that story that I just told you multiple times, the fact that you just won again the Salesforce influencer is something now that we can pitch, we use in a follow up. So we pitch somebody you know two weeks ago, four weeks ago. We'll use that in the follow up saying something like hey, chris, since I last emailed you, this cool thing happened with Elise, which is something maybe she'd like to talk about on your podcast and so anybody can do PR. Anybody that doesn't even have the awards or the recognition or they have 200 followers on social media can do it. It's just going to take longer and it's going to be harder.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
But you can't give up, because the people that have 250,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram and they have book deals and they're getting paid to speak on big stages didn't just wake up one day and that was there. I mean, that would be the dream.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
These people started from 200 followers as well.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
And they stayed the course. Perfect example would be my husband, dan Martell. When he started his YouTube channel I don't know how many years ago they were terrible videos, but he showed up every week for I think like eight years. Now he's posted a video and it got better and better and better. And that's what you do. You do this with your podcast episodes as well.
Speaker 1:
Yep.
Speaker 3:
Every single episode of mine that goes live the day it goes live, I listen to it from start to finish and I look for ways that I can improve the questions, improve the way that I show up, maybe look at different guest opportunities, how to promote the show I show up, maybe look at different guests opportunities, how to promote the show. And so I went from hovering in that 1.5, the top 1.5%, forever to finally breaking it to 1%. And why? Because we just kept showing up and tweaking and improving.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
And so the person who is intimidated by the whole PR process because they don't have much of an audience.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
Start working on that now.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I can, yeah, I agree anymore because it's so true. And you know it's funny. When I started my podcast, I tell people it's still there, like the very first episodes, when it wasn't called the Elevate Media Podcast because I had this whole other idea. Like you can go back and see how bad I was.
Speaker 3:
But you had the courage to go out and you're like I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I was like, and you got to start, though, because you'll never get to where, like, I would have never got to where I am now if I didn't start. And you know your husband, dan, he's been doing he like said eight years I'm never going to get to the next level if I never started. So, like, you have to continually grow, innovate and take the chance. You know, send that email, send that message, connect with those individuals Because, like, we're at that point now too, where you know myself trying to be on other podcasts and the guests we bring on are and I try to say this carefully like are a different caliber, not necessarily.
Speaker 3:
They're more elevated.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, they're more elevated yeah, they're longer they've been in their journey longer they've had a little bit more success. Because now we're trying to, you know, just increase the value that we're bringing to our audience, like we're gonna add that uh, next level where we're having to do a little bit more outreach and and connect and having that extended process of you know know, either finding the higher level guests or finding shows for myself to be on, and it is. It's a process just like the sales process. You know, if you're going for bigger clients, bigger deals, like it's, the process is going to be a little bit longer because you have to build that relationship first.
Speaker 3:
And that's it, like I've been podcasting now. On April 27th will be our fourth birthday.
Speaker 2:
Awesome, that's awesome. Congrats.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, and we just dropped episode 260 today with Susie Moore, and there have been moments when I mean even last night, while I couldn't sleep because there's so much going on, I said maybe I can just, you know, throw in the towel, maybe I'll just shut down the podcast, because it takes a lot of time, costs a lot of money and people that don't podcast don't understand what goes on in the background. It's not like you just show up record something and you have a million downloads. There's a lot of work that goes into it. I knew this starting, though I knew this was a long-term, long-tail approach. Lori Harder even says that she was podcasting for four years before she even figured it out, but also in that time she started to become more recognized. She was in tandem, growing her following, growing kind of what it is that she she was focusing on, like she launched a new product. So it's similar like podcasting is similar to pr in that it takes a lot of time and right now even I have clients that I've been working with since like january so we're april, so how many like three months.
Speaker 3:
I'm getting follow-ups now from people I pitched in january and I'm telling you like our pitches are the best. They set industry standards. And here's why because I know a good pitch. You know a good pitch because you probably received a ton for being guests on your show. Yeah, we also have on retainer a notable journalist that has bylines for top publications, so she goes and reviews all of our pitches before we send them for ourselves, for our clients. She said most of the time our pitches are at least a nine out of ten awesome, and so it's not that the content isn't great.
Speaker 3:
Here's what happens with pr is it the right time, the right place, the? Is it the right time, the right place, the right person, the right pitch? There is a hands down, a lot of luck that goes into PR, a lot of luck. And I'll tell you an example. Back in the day we used to have a mattress company that was a client of ours and their dream was to get into the consumer reports season, where they talk about all these mattresses Just get us into Consumer Reports, of which they publish their mattress lineup once a year. Pitched Consumer Reports, and I pitched them on like a Wednesday, okay, and the guy replied he said oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. The deadline for mattresses was yesterday.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
I asked him if they could just squeeze us in. He said no, they can't, but they would have included my client and I didn't know this. It's not like the deadline is necessarily public. It was luck. If I had pitched them 24 hours before they would have been in the magazine. And I have some clients where it took a year to get the media coverage. So they're like Renee, what are you doing? You know we're paying you this money. What's happening, the way that we operate I mean, we can talk about this too in detail, but you get to see every single pitch time stamped who we pitched when we followed up and it takes three, four months for things to actually start coming back to you.
Speaker 3:
So here's another thing is we have a client who's a celebrity dog trainer and there was an opportunity for her to have a quote in chewy, so like a really good blog for dog cats. The problem is that she needed a special I guess credential in order to be considered as an expert in the publication. So she needed to spend $500 and take a weekend course to get this little letter designation at the end of her name, although she's been in the industry for 12 years, has trained over thousands of dogs, trained celebrity dogs and actually trains out of the california dog psychology clinic in california, and so arguably she's more. She has more designations than somebody who takes a weekend course. Sure, and there's no workaround. However, had she had those letters behind her name, she would have been in Chewy, and sometimes we just don't know these things until you actually start pitching the media, until you receive those responses. So all this not to discourage people. I just kind of want to give you an idea and a sense of what it is in the life of PR.
Speaker 3:
Absolutely idea and the sense of what it is reality in the life of pr absolutely, and knowing like right time, place, person pitch is the most important thing. So how do you know it's the right time? Well, there's certain times that you're not to pitch really depending on your product but for, like, consultants and coaches. There's like two weeks in the summertime, usually the end of july into august, and then there's the three-ish weeks around the holidays, like christmas time okay, yeah, those are just like dead times.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, but also know that a lot of these publications they need their content three, four to six months out okay, yeah, makes sense so right now, you know springtime, summer, like we're looking at stuff for the summer, it might be even a little bit too late.
Speaker 2:
Wow yeah.
Speaker 3:
And so this is why you need to do a preloaded marketing year in December, look at your entire year and look at all the things that you're promoting throughout the year and get a three month start on everything.
Speaker 2:
Okay and so with that, so you know, maybe you find, so you can, you know the time, or you're you got the three month gap where you're prepping to to do all these connections, these pitches, finding the right person. You said, and I think that's a really important one. I think sometimes, you know, I found this, you know, just when we're doing like cold calls for for clients cause we do do video production and so we look here locally as well, you know, if you call the number that you find online, a lot of those times you're just getting like customer service and they don't know anything about decision-making. So you have to make sure you're, you know, connecting and LinkedIn is great for this A lot of times for us is finding the right person, whether it be the marketing director, you know, maybe even the content creator for the company and, you know, following your attempts towards them, or even CEO, sometimes, depending on the size of the business.
Speaker 2:
But I think that's crucial too. People sometimes overlook, they just kind of find the support email and they just send it, hoping that it'll get to the right person no, no, you got it enough yeah and this is probably one of the harder parts of pr is the way that we do.
Speaker 3:
It is so without investing in really expensive tools, which I don't encourage anybody to do from the beginning, because there's a free way of doing this is simply write down the top 10 publications that would be more the most meaningful to you to have a feature or mention, and and I'm and I'm talking like realistic if forbes is actually the thing that's going to move the needle for you, then put it on the list. But trade publications, smaller niche publications, can have just as much weight. So write those publications. Then on one day you go in and you search because they all have search bars, is you search keywords that are your keywords and you can see what other writers have written about in the publication. So say, all this Chris Anderson guy talks about PR for small business and he doesn't have a PR agency. Maybe I can pitch him a story.
Speaker 3:
So now you're building out a media list of people that write about your content. Now you have to make sure that they've written about the subject within the last six months to a year. If it's something from five years ago, they've probably moved on. If they haven't published anything and then look for two or three other people that also write about similar topics from that same publication. Do the same thing for those 10 publications and then start your outreach. And typically what you do for podcasting if you want to go on a podcast tour, you make that list, you pitch the show, you follow up two weeks later you don't hear anything back. And you follow up four weeks later.
Speaker 2:
Okay.
Speaker 3:
Now, with the media, it's a little bit different. Now, unless you have something that's really pressing, there's a deadline for this. You can follow up within 24 to 48 hours. If not, if it's just a generic story, then you can follow up within a week or two. Gotcha.
Speaker 2:
Oh, go ahead.
Speaker 3:
No, that's the simplest way to start. There's no fancy tools or things you need to invest in. It's a Google spreadsheet Create your media list, find the people. And there's actually tools. There's an affordable one. It's called Signal Hire. It's a LinkedIn extension. It's the best one that we've found for the money, I think it's like 25 or 30 bucks a month and essentially, when you find the contact, the writer, you go into LinkedIn and find their profile. The Signal Hire button kind of shows up on LinkedIn and you click it and it reveals the contact information.
Speaker 2:
Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I'd say like 90% of the time it's accurate emails.
Speaker 2:
That's awesome. That's a great tool to know about for sure, because you know, like I said, that could be the hardest part Getting to the right person, the gatekeeper, the individual who kind of makes that call. And so with that, I'm curious, do likeing podcasting as an example? I know some shows out there. They charge you know X amount to be a guest on the show and we do, you know, for, for people who reach out to us just to because we want to vet the ones that are serious and it's a very small, I mean, it's like nothing I feed my dog maybe from it um, but like bigger ones that are charging these bigger fees are is that the same?
Speaker 2:
in publications do they charge to have you. Is that a way to, I guess, bypass some of the stuff? Or is that not a way you want to do it?
Speaker 3:
so we're starting to see more and more pay to play in PR because, I mean, the world of PR has shifted so much these publications and platforms need to monetize.
Speaker 2:
Right.
Speaker 3:
It used to be where you'd get the eyeballs and the advertising was enough for them to actually run the show, but that's shifted so much, so now they do sponsored posts. Back in the day, entrepreneurcom you used to apply and you could become a contributor and that was me. This was like back in 2013 is when I started, and I got kicked off because now the only way to contribute is if you invest into their like platform. Same thing with Forbes. Forbes, to become a Forbes counsel, you need to have proven a million dollars of revenue in your business a year, and then you have to pay I don't know whatever it is annually to become a contributor, and you'll see too. There's some pay-to-play models with industry publications. There's a dog magazine that I pitched for my client and they would allow us to contribute an article. Get this. We have to write the whole thing, have it edited based on their submission guidelines and pay $2,500 that's crazy.
Speaker 2:
It's like I was. I was pitched to be like. They reached out to me to be on their podcast and the guy has like a million followers a month. I mean, it's a legit show, at least it looks like from the outside. I haven't done too much research on it. So I was like, oh, that could be a great opportunity there to say, hey, yeah, we thought you'd be great, we'd love for you to apply, you would come out to Colorado and record in person. So there one. Logistically. I was like, oh, okay. So then I had to start measuring the ROI of it, because we're still building some stuff out as far as a course type thing goes. I was like, is it really? The ROI won't be there right now. It doesn't make sense. But it kind of opened my eyes because that's the first time I've ever had someone tell me that I had $5,000 to be on a show.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I see it. I don't say a lot, but more Entrepreneur on Fire does the same thing. It's not like they charge every guest too, because, if you're kind, of in the friend circle or you're someone of influence, you won't be charged, right.
Speaker 3:
But if they don't really know who you are, they want to make sure that you have skin in the game. Sure, 100. And so you invest, like some shows, they'll be like, hey, you need 75 per episode. It covers it, sure, so pay the 75. But if you're ever faced with this opportunity to be on a show or in the media and there's a fee, you do the research and ask the questions about, especially with show like what are the download numbers? What's the completion rate of the show, which is a really important metric a lot of people don't talk about, which is essentially not great, right, so you can ask the question. So if there's a million downloads and it has a high completion rate, then it's a pretty decent show.
Speaker 2:
Right.
Speaker 3:
And you'll likely get good exposure. Listen to some episodes. Look at how they promote the episodes as well, because sometimes it's worth spending the money. Yes, I did Dan's book launch for and we went on the podcast tour and there was, you know, a handful of opportunities to pay to play, and one was I think it was like 10 000 because a person didn't know who dan was at this moment gotcha, and he asked me what did I feel about the opportunity? And I said I think you should do it because this person is so connected and if you can become friends with this person, they'll make intros that nobody else would have access to. Not only did that happen the investment was for one podcast episode, but when they met, he ended up liking him so much that he did like an Instagram live and put it on his newsletter and made all these intros, which is like we couldn't predict that. However, it worked out way better than we could have imagined.
Speaker 2:
Yep, that's awesome and I think, yeah, you have to definitely weigh the pros and cons and, like you said, sometimes just being able to be in proximity with those caliber you know, caliber of people, um is is huge, you know, and it's like, after we got connected, I saw your husband, so I connected with him on Instagram. So now I'm learning from both of you and it's like the, you know, the my, my circle is kind of growing on who I know, I mean know of and I'm learning from um, and that's just kind of the start. And now we've had a conversation and that's it.
Speaker 2:
Start to build relationships from there and you never know where it could go.
Speaker 3:
That's it. Your network is the most important thing.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
Because they make intros. I had a woman on my show, amber Spears. She's amazing, she's an affiliate guru, affiliate marketing guru, and we had met in passing at an event and then we connected on social and then I wanted her on my on my show. So after hanging out for an hour online, she's like Renee, you're great, you really know your stuff. She made a ton of intros and scored me a handful of clients because of it and she didn't want anything of it Like that's. What she's here for is to connect the right people. But if you're not intentionally going out, networking and meeting new people and providing value to other people, you'll just stay at the exact same position forever.
Speaker 2:
Right, yeah, it's like the quote you can get everything you want out of life by helping people get what they want, right, exactly, and just adding value where you can and um. So it's exciting, it's crazy. When you look back at your journey after renee you kind of think the same thing is like where we started and we kind of mentioned it, alluded to it a little bit. It's like who would ever thought we would have got to this point? And then you get to this point. You're like man, it's ups and downs and it's crazy, but what's ahead? If you just stay with it, you're gonna be like interesting when.
Speaker 3:
So my friend chris smith says that you should never want to conquer a mountain, because once you get to the top, it's actually very deflating, because you always think what's next right and not to look at it in a pessimistic perspective, but if you just look at climbing the mountain as a perpetual journey, you have little summits which it's just a constant drive to the top, 100%, and the top is like the end of your life.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, exactly, yeah Right.
Speaker 3:
So you know, it's like these people that have quote made it. They got to this level 10 years ago. They couldn't have possibly imagined being there and today they're there. But they're sitting there at the peak of this little mountain thinking what is next, and there's almost nothing more discouraging than getting to the top and thinking it was going to be a much bigger deal than it really was.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
And asking yourself oh crap, what's next? Like, I've done it, I've achieved this thing. Now what do I do?
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
We have this pressure to actually create a bigger, more audacious goal.
Speaker 2:
Yes, love the journey, not the destination, right Exactly, and just keep continuing to grow with it. And that's the thing is, it's a journey and again, you alluded to it earlier. You know the whole PR thing is a process. It takes time, it takes effort, especially at the beginning, when you're doing a lot of the work, when you can't afford things or you know these expensive tools and programs like what you do and your agency does, so, like you're going to have to, you have to take that journey on your own and learn, so you know, kind of kind of like bring this whole thing to an end cap. If people are thinking about PR, they're thinking about starting to pitch different shows or different news organizations, different TV shows. How do they make sure they're ready? You know it's one thing to pitch them, but then if you actually get those, you know those things that happen. Are you ready for that? What are the things they can be ready for once they get those opportunities?
Speaker 3:
ready. So what I mean by that is that you're putting yourself out there because you want people to take action. It could be listen to your podcast or buy from you. Whatever it is, you want to make sure that, whatever the call to action is, that is ready. So I'll give you an example of a client.
Speaker 3:
She was publishing her book last June Great book Out of the gates. We got a lot of media coverage. However, before we started started, I was like what are you actually selling on the back end of this? And she's like oh, I don't have that figured out yet. I mean, you don't make money from an actual book, right, book sales. You don't make money unless you're selling millions of copies. You make money off the reputation you create from having this book, off the promotion, off the valuable content you share on the inside. That leads you to the back end, which is like a coaching program or a product or of a service, and so the readiness is really about is all that ready? And it's not going to be perfect, like, you don't have to have the most perfect website or funnel, just make sure that if you're saying hey, follow me on Instagram, you're actually active on Instagram or subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Speaker 3:
Make sure you're actually publishing weekly content. Easier said than done, don't drive people to a location that's dead or is totally disconnected from the message. So when that's ready to go, think about your stories. Typically, there's two stories. There's a story of you and why you started your company or doing the thing you're doing. Then there's the actual product or service story. There's nothing else that's significant. Those are your stories and you go deep.
Speaker 3:
You have to ask yourself how are you rare? How are you different? How are you different than the person that's doing it the exact same way as you, right? How are you different than the person that's doing it the exact same way as you, right? So we look at like car companies or restaurants and there are so many of them. Okay, maybe car companies, not, example, the restaurants. Or like clothing brands Right, they just keep popping up. There's new ones. But how are? How are they different? And there are table stakes in the industries. Like you order food, it's got to be good, it has to come out quick, you have to have great customer service. There are table stakes.
Speaker 3:
And then the readiness is how can you show up on podcasts? How can you show up on TV. Typically, what we do is we'll create about 20 to 30 interview questions based on certain themes that the podcast or the media can ask, and what we do is we have our clients go and answer these questions. So we will interview them on Zoom for an hour and they will go through and answer these questions and we'll help correct them. It's like media training we teach the people how to stop saying like ums and ahs or repetitive things. They need to have frameworks and models to discuss, um, and what else do they need for peer readiness is they need to be available.
Speaker 3:
I remember my one client, andrew. We had this tech startup. This was back in 2014. We we always say what's your dream list of media. So he gave us like the top 10.
Speaker 3:
Right away we got them and so he was announcing the funding. He hired us to help him announce his launch and his funding round and the week that we were actively making this announcement, he decided to go on a disconnected vacation and didn't tell anybody. And so while we were getting these wins, techcrunch, betakit, wired were calling us up saying, hey, we want to get on the phone with Andrew and I'm like I don't know where he is, so now it looks kind of stupid on us. So the readiness and the availability when you start pitching podcasts, you probably won't get too many yeses out of the gates and then you'll have some months where you have a lot of recordings and some months where you have nothing, and so your availability is important. Like I will record podcasts at five o'clock in the morning if I'm talking to somebody in Australia, right, and that's just a price you have to pay.
Speaker 3:
Yep Australia right and that's just a price you have to pay. Yep, and I will interview guests on my show at weird times too, even though we have very strict rules about when we can record these episodes, so that doesn't cannibalize my time with the family. However, I realize there are certain conversations that need to be had different times, and that's okay, yep, so availability is huge too. You can't, you don't need to have a fancy media kit, but one thing I do suggest, which makes it's kind of like a good homework.
Speaker 3:
To start, if you go to my website, my personal website, reneewarrencom, forward slash press, it's a press page and on it you have pre-approved media images. You have links to a previous podcast, you have questions to ask me, links to my own podcast and a bunch of other stuff that most people could use if they're going to have me as a guest on their show or for the media, and it's not necessarily a public link. It's not something that people are constantly searching for, I mean I wish. However, it's great when we're pitching, or it's great when we're filling out forms for shows. It's like, hey, here's all the information that you need. What it does, it's a forcing function for you to get organized, to get updated headshots, updated bios, you need a long bio, short bio, all those things.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think those are all great tips and things to think about, because, yeah, you could I mean you could pitch all day but then if you get them when you're not available and you don't have everything set up and ready, it's like, uh, what was what was all that for? Like, what was the time you put into it? If you're not ready behind and I and I love the press kit uh, something I need to work on for me personally um, on the website, uh, because it's just so simple on the website, uh, because it's just so simple and you know, we try to keep it simple for our guests um, on the show, and I think that just is one way to keep it even simpler as having it one location like that. So, um, this has been fantastic, renee, I think it's. It's such a, you know, um, I just remember starting out, pr was just like oh, that's for like again, like for huge businesses.
Speaker 2:
So I think this is really makes it plausible for anybody, uh, just from what you've said and shared with us today. So I appreciate your candidness and openness to do that and and what you're doing out there. So I would love for people to get connected with you, find out more and if they're ready, you know, utilize your guys' services. So where can people? Obviously you know you told about the press and ReneeWarrencom. Is there anywhere else you would like to direct people to go check out and get connected with you?
Speaker 2:
Yeah they can go to WeWildWomencom and they can see there's free resources and our programs there, as well as on social. I'm on Instagram most actively Renee underscore Warren, awesome. So yeah, everyone, if you're interested, definitely get connected with Renee and learn from her and utilize her services, if it's something you're ready for and could benefit from. So again, renee, thanks so much for being on the Elevate Media podcast today.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely.
Speaker 1:
Thank you for listening to the Elevate Media podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. See you in the next episode. Absolutely.