Shownotes
BUSINESS BUILDING INSIGHTS
- Identify a life mission that you are passionate about to keep yourself in a peak energy state to serve others.
- There will be bad circumstances in business. Our goal is to succeed despite the circumstances.
- Build your business for a season of winter - for the hard times. Make it resilient.
- When you focus on business growth, the majority of your work should be to create awareness. You have to get in front of eyeballs.
- PR (Public Relations) is communicating with audiences. Offer a lot of value and people will be drawn to you.
- Earning high authority in your industry opens you up to more opportunities.
- Having media logos on your site will improve your conversion rate.
- Constantly invest into the bank of your brand and your authority.
- Communicate that you can solve your customer's problem and provide social proof behind what you do.
- Have professional and consistent social media profiles.
RESOURCES MENTIONED
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Gift biz unwrapped episode 249 you go from feeling invisible to
Speaker:being seen and celebrated.
Speaker:Attention gifters,
Speaker:bakers, crafters and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.
Speaker:Whether you have an established business or looking to start one
Speaker:now you are in the right place.
Speaker:This is gift to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources and the support you need to grow your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host gift biz gal,
Speaker:Sue moon Heights.
Speaker:Hi there,
Speaker:it's Sue and thanks For joining me here today.
Speaker:It's been a couple of weeks now since the holidays and
Speaker:things are starting to calm down.
Speaker:All the celebrations and the parties are over the after holiday
Speaker:shopping and returning frenzy is over and all the eating and
Speaker:drinking has leveled off and you know what else is starting
Speaker:to become a memory now,
Speaker:those new year's resolutions,
Speaker:but for me,
Speaker:one of them is part of the master plan.
Speaker:You see,
Speaker:I make a commitment every single year that with the click
Speaker:of my champagne glass at midnight,
Speaker:I get serious again about my whole 30 diet.
Speaker:Not really to lose weight,
Speaker:although that's a great side benefit,
Speaker:but to refresh after what I've just put my body through.
Speaker:Not enough sleep,
Speaker:lots of heavier foods than I would normally eat.
Speaker:Just an overall cleanup to start the year.
Speaker:I can typically go about 20 days or so,
Speaker:really strict like to the book's whole 30 and then after
Speaker:that I'd lighten up into something that I can actually live
Speaker:with throughout the year.
Speaker:Over on the business side,
Speaker:I also do a refresh.
Speaker:I pick a theme word for each year and truth be
Speaker:told this year it's going to be the same one as
Speaker:it was last year.
Speaker:Visibility, I'm giving myself grace about not really attacking this in
Speaker:2019 because to be honest,
Speaker:emotionally, I just couldn't do it as my mom was in
Speaker:her final year.
Speaker:I wanted to be there for her and it was hard
Speaker:sometimes to be present in the way I would have liked
Speaker:doing something where I'd be stretching myself and being more visible.
Speaker:Well, I knew I'd be showing up more acting than really
Speaker:being myself,
Speaker:if that makes sense.
Speaker:So I intentionally put this initiative on hold.
Speaker:Luckily we can do that as business owners,
Speaker:right? My mom has now made her journey and both my
Speaker:businesses actually had a really good year.
Speaker:So now I'm back full force with visibility top of mind
Speaker:that makes my guest today really relevant to me.
Speaker:And regardless of your yearly focus,
Speaker:word should relevant to you too.
Speaker:Here's the simple truth and why visibility is so important.
Speaker:If people don't know you exist,
Speaker:how ever are they going to get to know you,
Speaker:become comfortable and believe in you,
Speaker:which then leads them to buy your products?
Speaker:And guess what?
Speaker:Surprise. Surprise.
Speaker:We are not talking about social media,
Speaker:although it plays a little bit of a backup role to
Speaker:our discussion here.
Speaker:Let's get right into how this form of visibility is so
Speaker:important to your business and can actually make everything you do
Speaker:in 2020 well easier.
Speaker:Today. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Josh Elledge
Speaker:of up my influence.
Speaker:Josh is a us Navy veteran and launched up my influence
Speaker:to help entrepreneurs attract perfect audiences and grow their brands without
Speaker:the crazy costs associated with traditional PR companies.
Speaker:Uh, my influences,
Speaker:purpose is to democratize access to influence.
Speaker:Josh believes he has immoral imperative to help entrepreneurs serve the
Speaker:world with their collective messages while growing their revenue.
Speaker:Oh, my influence was the natural outgrowth of his first startup
Speaker:called saving angels,
Speaker:which has grossed more than $6 million in sales with less
Speaker:than $500 in advertising.
Speaker:That is so amazing.
Speaker:I'm going to repeat that.
Speaker:Grossed more than $6 million in sales with less than $500
Speaker:in advertising.
Speaker:And he did it all through building authority and serving audiences
Speaker:in the media.
Speaker:Josh is a weekly TV consumer expert in Orlando,
Speaker:writes a syndicated newspaper column to 1.1
Speaker:million readers and regularly appears on more than 75 TV stations
Speaker:across the country.
Speaker:All told Josh has appeared in the media more than 2000
Speaker:times. Josh loves living in Orlando,
Speaker:Florida with his wife and three children.
Speaker:Welcome to the gift biz on wrapped podcast.
Speaker:Josh Sue,
Speaker:thank you so much.
Speaker:I am so glad we connected and just by that intro,
Speaker:everyone already understands why you're on the show and everything we're
Speaker:going to be talking about.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:My aim is to replicate what I was able to do
Speaker:for anybody else who's listening.
Speaker:There is absolutely a formula for this.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:well, you know I'm going to dive deep for those goodies,
Speaker:Josh. But before we do that,
Speaker:I have a tradition here on the show and I'd like
Speaker:you to describe yourself by way of a motivational candle.
Speaker:So if you were to envision this candle that really speaks
Speaker:to you,
Speaker:what color would it be and what would be the sane
Speaker:on your candle?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean I think I would go with like I'm
Speaker:a big fan of blue and especially that as it starts
Speaker:to get a little bit of tint of green in there
Speaker:as well,
Speaker:but not too much.
Speaker:And just because I resonate,
Speaker:I really liked that color.
Speaker:It's just very clean.
Speaker:It just feels like streamlined.
Speaker:It's just a very confident color.
Speaker:And so along with that,
Speaker:I think the quote that I've really leaned on more than
Speaker:any other would probably be Abraham Lincoln who said that a
Speaker:man or woman is just as happy as they make up
Speaker:their mind to be.
Speaker:And it's a reminder of,
Speaker:I have a fairly existential personality where I just truly believe
Speaker:that we're far more impactful on our outcomes than we give
Speaker:ourselves credit for.
Speaker:And similarly,
Speaker:I know sometimes it can be really hard and there's some
Speaker:definitely some tough parts of business.
Speaker:It can be really stressful and I still have those from
Speaker:time to time,
Speaker:but I know that I will be my highest good if
Speaker:I choose to kind of,
Speaker:Hey, you don't Tony Robbins,
Speaker:we're talking about,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:live with passion.
Speaker:Just to keep myself in a peak energy state where I
Speaker:can truly serve others as best as possible.
Speaker:Yeah, and I think what that says to me too is
Speaker:you're taking control and ownership of where you exist today and
Speaker:what your future could be.
Speaker:Right. Instead of being the defeatist,
Speaker:all these other things are happening.
Speaker:To me,
Speaker:it actually kind of aligned with your color too because when
Speaker:you say blue,
Speaker:green, I think very corporate kind of professional,
Speaker:not necessarily,
Speaker:I don't mean corporate in a bad way.
Speaker:I mean it in a good way,
Speaker:but professional and in control and systems and all of that,
Speaker:which aligns with also doing that same thing for your life
Speaker:and where you're trying to go,
Speaker:what you're trying to achieve.
Speaker:Yeah, I hear ya.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:I don't want to make light of anyone who has challenges
Speaker:in business.
Speaker:Listen, everyone has challenges in business.
Speaker:It's we get into this full well knowing that there's a
Speaker:lot that rests upon our contribution.
Speaker:What we do,
Speaker:we can blame the economy.
Speaker:You can blame the president,
Speaker:you can blame anybody if you want,
Speaker:and there's certainly bad circumstances that come our way,
Speaker:but our goal is to succeed despite those circumstances.
Speaker:Build your business for a season of winter.
Speaker:Build it for the hard times,
Speaker:make it so resilient,
Speaker:developed so many great systems that make success all but inevitable
Speaker:is really the goal.
Speaker:I think all of us should have,
Speaker:Ooh, making success all but inevitable.
Speaker:I like that.
Speaker:Is that a quote somewhere or did you just say that?
Speaker:I think I just made it up.
Speaker:Okay. Well I think you can.
Speaker:I better patent that.
Speaker:There's a good tweetable,
Speaker:by the way.
Speaker:Exactly. If you want to tag me on Twitter at Josh
Speaker:Elledge, let me know that you heard us on Sue's show
Speaker:and I'd love to retweet that to my audience.
Speaker:Oh, that sounds great.
Speaker:You might see it in an InstaQuote to here connected with
Speaker:the show.
Speaker:You get to that point so well first off and bringing
Speaker:a little bit of seriousness to the show.
Speaker:I guess I really do want to thank you for your
Speaker:service before we even start in the conversation,
Speaker:anybody who serves in any of our branches,
Speaker:I just have so much respect for,
Speaker:so thank you so much for that.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Yes. Thank you.
Speaker:It's my honor.
Speaker:Okay, so share with us where life took you after you
Speaker:got out of the military.
Speaker:When I got out of the military,
Speaker:I went to school for family therapy because I to be
Speaker:a love doctor on the radio.
Speaker:I was actually a journalist in the us Navy,
Speaker:so thankfully I didn't experience any battle or anything like that.
Speaker:I really got to just focus on informing and entertaining my
Speaker:fellow military brothers and sisters.
Speaker:But from there I went to college for a few years,
Speaker:did internet development for corporate America for a few years.
Speaker:It was kind of miserable doing that and recognized I needed
Speaker:to do my own thing and start my own company.
Speaker:So I started one and that failed and then I started
Speaker:another one and that failed and I started a third one
Speaker:that failed.
Speaker:Started a fourth one that failed fifth one that really,
Speaker:really failed badly.
Speaker:Ended up losing a house and declaring bankruptcy as a result
Speaker:of that.
Speaker:And it wasn't until six business did pretty good,
Speaker:but eventually I had to make a hasty exit out of
Speaker:that. But thankfully I had started savings angel,
Speaker:and this was about just over 12 years ago.
Speaker:And when I started it,
Speaker:I had no money,
Speaker:but I had a great idea.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I had figured out how consumers could cut their grocery bill
Speaker:in half and that makes a big difference for someone who's,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and it was really just based out of necessity because we
Speaker:were going through a Dave Ramsey's financial peace university.
Speaker:We got to the part where you need to come up
Speaker:with a spending plan.
Speaker:And I asked my wife,
Speaker:and I just remember this so distinctly,
Speaker:how much do we spend at the grocery store?
Speaker:Like maybe like $400 a month?
Speaker:And she laughed at me and she goes,
Speaker:we spent like $800 I was drinking coffee at the time.
Speaker:I would have spent it on,
Speaker:I say $800 that's a lot of money.
Speaker:That is a ton of money to feed your family.
Speaker:And that's the average is now North of $900 so gosh,
Speaker:there's gotta be a way that we could do this better.
Speaker:And so I just started reading every single expert I could
Speaker:on the subject about how to cut a grocery bill in
Speaker:half. And I found out that there was two ways you
Speaker:could do that.
Speaker:You could either grow all your own food and that is
Speaker:a possibility,
Speaker:but not for me.
Speaker:Cause I was horrible at that and I just knew that
Speaker:as a busy business owner and we had two and three
Speaker:young kids at the time,
Speaker:there was just no way we were really going to be
Speaker:able to do a whole lot of gardening,
Speaker:certainly not farming.
Speaker:So that really wasn't a good option for us.
Speaker:Every time I tried,
Speaker:I'd failed miserably.
Speaker:The other option is that you just get really,
Speaker:really good at stacking discounts and it's a little complicated to
Speaker:do on your own.
Speaker:You really a lot of extreme couponers will keep these binders
Speaker:and do a lot of math.
Speaker:Well, I created a system that would do that automatically.
Speaker:And so all I simply did was built up a system
Speaker:where I would database all the available manufacturer coupons and all
Speaker:the available store sales.
Speaker:And it's just really about timing.
Speaker:So Cheerios,
Speaker:we'll put a $1 coupon off Cheerios and that at the
Speaker:same time there might be a buy one get one at
Speaker:a local store.
Speaker:Well you could take the cost of a box of cereal
Speaker:down from $4 to under a dollar or more.
Speaker:I've gotten cereal for like 20 some cents a box at
Speaker:times if you do it right.
Speaker:And so that makes a huge difference.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:if the average family could pocket an extra three,
Speaker:$400 every single month,
Speaker:I knew that that would make a huge difference in a
Speaker:lot of lives.
Speaker:And so I created it but,
Speaker:and it was a great idea.
Speaker:But you have the best idea in the world if you
Speaker:don't have visibility.
Speaker:So, and we'll talk a lot about this.
Speaker:You can have the best craft in the world,
Speaker:you can have the best product in the world,
Speaker:but honestly,
Speaker:at the end of the day,
Speaker:we're not going to get discovered.
Speaker:That's just not how it works.
Speaker:It's not about creating the most amazing widget or most amazing
Speaker:product ever.
Speaker:That's important.
Speaker:But honestly,
Speaker:the majority of our work needs to be about creating visibility,
Speaker:awareness. We have to get in front of eyeballs.
Speaker:That's the only way that we can really truly grow a
Speaker:business if we're focusing on growth.
Speaker:And so with savings angel,
Speaker:I just reached out to everybody that had an audience and
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:look, I'd love to pay your ads,
Speaker:but I don't have a budget for that.
Speaker:Could I instead maybe do a segment and just focus on
Speaker:delivering value?
Speaker:I tell people how to get free groceries every single week.
Speaker:And so a local radio station said,
Speaker:sure, we'll have yawn.
Speaker:And so I did the radio segment and at the time
Speaker:I didn't even have enough money suit to pay my utility
Speaker:bill. And I had made enough in that five minute radio
Speaker:segment. I got home and I had made enough to pay
Speaker:my heating bill that week and I just kind of kept
Speaker:at it.
Speaker:So I just kept showing up and kept doing more and
Speaker:more and more media.
Speaker:I wasn't very good at the beginning.
Speaker:I was horrible in fact,
Speaker:but I just kept doing it over and over again.
Speaker:And so today I've done over 2000 media appearances,
Speaker:now savings angels done over $6 million in revenue.
Speaker:And like you said,
Speaker:we've spent less than $500 in advertising.
Speaker:Just everything we do is just all about giving value to
Speaker:audiences. That's crazy.
Speaker:So I have a couple of questions here for you.
Speaker:And I've heard somewhere that the product is about 10% of
Speaker:the success of the company marketing and getting your message out
Speaker:is the other 90 I believe it.
Speaker:So you're kind of referencing that.
Speaker:So how does savings angel make money?
Speaker:So now for the longest time we were a membership based
Speaker:website. So we would charge consumers $5 a week.
Speaker:And if they just followed our system,
Speaker:then it would be very,
Speaker:very simple for them to pocket three to $400 from the
Speaker:grocery store because we would index,
Speaker:listen, all you gotta do is go to Publix or Meijer
Speaker:or target and you bring in this coupon and you'll be
Speaker:able to get your baby food or your diapers or whatever
Speaker:it is.
Speaker:And we would show them exactly how to get that deal,
Speaker:exactly how the math worked.
Speaker:So they could really just kind of,
Speaker:what I would do is every week I would just say,
Speaker:okay, just show me all the 60% off better deals and
Speaker:I would just load up on that stuff.
Speaker:So that's kind of the idea is you want to,
Speaker:and unfortunately we no longer offer the service.
Speaker:We're just a plain old blog now because I've gotten too
Speaker:busy with other things too,
Speaker:which I'm sure we'll talk about.
Speaker:But businesses evolve and change and adjust.
Speaker:And during the time that savings angel was going,
Speaker:coupon was a big thing.
Speaker:Absolutely. Now it's a lot of natural savings if you come
Speaker:to the store and all different types of things.
Speaker:Right? But I remember seeing television clips and maybe some of
Speaker:these were from you,
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:but where people were check out and they would have this
Speaker:whole big cart full of product and the bill would be
Speaker:under $5 or something so crazy and unbelievable.
Speaker:So I remember those times for sure.
Speaker:But I do have another question and then I want to
Speaker:get into the guts of why we're here.
Speaker:So you were talking in the beginning about you started a
Speaker:business, it didn't work,
Speaker:started another business,
Speaker:it didn't work six businesses in.
Speaker:How was it that you continued to motivate yourself and go
Speaker:forward and just say,
Speaker:I know one of these is going to work versus stopping
Speaker:and saying,
Speaker:okay, I'm going to get a job somewhere.
Speaker:What made you push through?
Speaker:Well, one thing that you'll find that if you're out and
Speaker:you're circulating and you're busy and you're networking and you're just
Speaker:in that environment,
Speaker:you're going to come across other opportunities.
Speaker:One of the bad businesses that failed very miserably was a
Speaker:newspaper, a small town newspaper,
Speaker:which is a horrible business to start.
Speaker:I had created a blog to go along with that as
Speaker:well. And this is back before blogs were really even a
Speaker:thing, but I was afraid of selling.
Speaker:And so that's a problem because if you want to run
Speaker:a successful publishing platform,
Speaker:you gotta have advertisers.
Speaker:And I was afraid to approach advertisers and ask for their
Speaker:money. So again,
Speaker:that's how big problem.
Speaker:Well, I learned that one pretty painfully.
Speaker:But my next business,
Speaker:I was actually working as a freelancer doing sales and marketing
Speaker:and I did that for five years and that was a
Speaker:tough gig.
Speaker:But man did I learn a lot.
Speaker:And I learned a lot about how selling,
Speaker:it's not about selling,
Speaker:it's just about bringing value to someone's life.
Speaker:And you always want to just stack the deck so that
Speaker:you're bringing more value to them than what you ask in
Speaker:return. And I've just always made that a principle of my
Speaker:businesses over the past 12 years now with up my influence,
Speaker:especially we just deliver a ton of value.
well I think this is a great example of a lot
Speaker:of people will be like,
Speaker:Oh, you know,
Speaker:it didn't work.
Speaker:I can't run my own business.
Speaker:I would be a terrible business owner.
Speaker:I've just proved it.
Speaker:My first company didn't work.
Speaker:But you're a great example of learning,
Speaker:adjusting, trying again along the way,
Speaker:picking up more skills and people who are working nine to
Speaker:five, you don't even realize how much you're learning on the
Speaker:job that then you could apply to your business as you
Speaker:move forward.
Speaker:So I wanted to underline that and talk about it a
Speaker:little bit because of the example that you set.
Speaker:So and look at you now.
Speaker:So just shows,
Speaker:keep going.
Speaker:If that's something that's in your heart,
Speaker:you guys keep going and don't stay too long like this
Speaker:would be a good final question before we get into all
Speaker:the PR talk.
Speaker:How did you know it was a point to stop each
Speaker:of those businesses?
Speaker:Because I was losing money.
Speaker:It was really the bottom line.
Speaker:It was like,
Speaker:this is just not sustainable.
Speaker:I'm amassing personal debt just to keep this business afloat and
Speaker:I'm just not seeing a path forward that would be profitable.
Speaker:And so at some times might have been a passion project
Speaker:that I really,
Speaker:really loved.
Speaker:We just have to be willing to let that go and
Speaker:the sales and marketing.
Speaker:I was working with a network of law firms that wasn't
Speaker:really my passion,
Speaker:but I saw that I had an opportunity based on all
Speaker:of the networking and connections and relationships that I had built,
Speaker:so I was able to do and I did okay at
Speaker:that for about five years,
Speaker:but unfortunately that position kind of ended on me,
Speaker:but thankfully I had seen the writing on the wall and
Speaker:had started savings angel about five to six months before that
Speaker:ultimately ended.
Speaker:Beautiful. You know,
Speaker:a lot of people who are listening here also will use
Speaker:this show as a way to understand how they can create
Speaker:a bridge.
Speaker:Let's say they're going close to retirement.
Speaker:They could start a business six months to a year out,
Speaker:very comfortably.
Speaker:Right. And then when they retire,
Speaker:they're not going into,
Speaker:okay, what am I going to do with all my time?
Speaker:They've already got the wheels going and some traction happening to
Speaker:a business that now can be their own cause.
Speaker:Let's face it,
Speaker:at retirement age these days,
Speaker:a lot of us are just getting started and now we
Speaker:can do something that we really love.
Speaker:Oh gosh,
Speaker:yes. Absolutely.
Speaker:Not that you don't always love your job.
Speaker:I was one who did,
Speaker:but anyway.
Speaker:Alright, well let's bridge over and I want to start with
Speaker:what might be an obvious question,
Speaker:but I'm very interested in what your thoughts are on this.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:when I think of PR,
Speaker:I'm thinking of radio,
Speaker:television, print,
Speaker:the traditional things we've always thought about with PR.
Speaker:Yeah. But social media has become such a big thing these
Speaker:days that I think a lot of people have said it's
Speaker:either or.
Speaker:And now it seems like it's all about social media and
Speaker:what's new that's happening on Instagram and now we've got tick-tock
Speaker:and like all of that stuff.
Speaker:Let's talk about that.
Speaker:Like where does PR play a role?
Speaker:Is it either or?
Speaker:What are your opinions on all that?
Speaker:Sure, so PR is public relations and so really it's like
Speaker:communicating to audiences.
Speaker:Many of us think when we say PR,
Speaker:we think media relations,
Speaker:and I look at media today as being a subset of
Speaker:influencers. I think that media are influencers,
Speaker:but then they also have an additional level of authority based
Speaker:on what the media outlet is.
Speaker:So if I appear in the Washington post or in tech
Speaker:crunch or in good housekeeping,
Speaker:you gain a lot of benefit.
Speaker:Most people think that when they do PR,
Speaker:the greatest thing that they're going to get is the visibility,
Speaker:right? They're going to get,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:this influencer talked about me.
Speaker:This visibility is amazing.
Speaker:Or if you get to do a local TV segment,
Speaker:and by the way,
Speaker:I've done over 700 TV segments.
Speaker:It's good visibility.
Speaker:But honestly visibility is only one of six major benefits that
Speaker:you get from doing media,
Speaker:particularly media that carries with it authority and so the first
Speaker:off would be your own individual authority.
Speaker:Authority is a currency today and if you have high authority
Speaker:in your industry,
Speaker:you're respected in your space,
Speaker:you just have more opportunities.
Speaker:Like things are just going to be easier for you.
Speaker:You're going to sell more things.
Speaker:People are going to naturally want to do business.
Speaker:If you do paid advertising,
Speaker:your advertising is just going to work a lot better.
Speaker:Partners are going to want to work with you.
Speaker:Influencers are going to want to work with you,
Speaker:your conversion rate goes up,
Speaker:your sales cycles go down.
Speaker:It's really the currency that we should all be going after
Speaker:today because again,
Speaker:you just don't have to work as hard when you have
Speaker:high authority.
Speaker:Would you equate that also to like social credibility?
Speaker:I mean if someone came to my website and I was
Speaker:showing that I had been in Forbes or entrepreneur or something
Speaker:like that,
Speaker:you're at a different level just by that association.
Speaker:Yeah, that's exactly it.
Speaker:So I am much more likely to do business and we
Speaker:all are like,
Speaker:I've been studying and leading consumer behavior for 12 years now
Speaker:and I can tell you that consumers have never been more
Speaker:skeptical because we've just been bombarded and we continue to be
Speaker:bombarded. The American marketing association estimates that the average American is
Speaker:exposed to up to 10,000
Speaker:brand messages a day.
Speaker:That's significant.
Speaker:We just see brands everywhere.
Speaker:We see offers everywhere and social media,
Speaker:like platforms like Facebook and Instagram and Google,
Speaker:like they're really clamping down because Facebook knows that.
Speaker:And we could talk about this a little bit,
Speaker:but social media is constantly changing and so when we talk
Speaker:about, Oh well all I care about is just talking to
Speaker:people on social media and Facebook's always going to take care
Speaker:of me.
Speaker:They're always going to be there for me and they're always
Speaker:going to provide me a very fair platform to advertise my
Speaker:stuff to audiences.
Speaker:Anybody who knows anything about Facebook advertising is laughing right now
Speaker:because Facebook is under a lot of pressure to provide a
Speaker:good user experience and there are a lot of advertisers that
Speaker:are finding that it costs all lot more to advertise today
Speaker:compared to a few years ago.
Speaker:And so just real quick,
Speaker:I'll rifle through some of the other benefits of doing media,
Speaker:but authority is one,
Speaker:getting the media logos on your site will improve your conversion
Speaker:rate. Bottom line consistently,
Speaker:we will see an eight to 20% improvement when we're working
Speaker:with our clients and members of up my influence.
Speaker:You definitely get a lot of free social media content to
Speaker:share on your social platforms and people really,
Speaker:really liked that.
Speaker:Like we see this all the time.
Speaker:Like if you have a friend that's like,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:I actually got to be on TV this morning.
Speaker:Here they are,
Speaker:here's my candles.
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I can't believe it.
Speaker:Like everyone's going to jump on there and go,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:I'm so excited for you.
Speaker:Like it's a big deal.
Speaker:It really gives a lot of positive affirmation to your existing
Speaker:tribe that they hitched their wagon to the right horse.
Speaker:Like it's gratifying for everybody.
Speaker:It's validation for everybody.
Speaker:You're not bragging about you,
Speaker:you're sharing a win for your community and those who believe
Speaker:like you do or share your passion for your product.
Speaker:So don't ever feel bad about like,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:getting in the media.
Speaker:It's not really bragging if you do it right,
Speaker:but number four would be you get a lot of relationships
Speaker:with influencers when you do this commonly.
Speaker:And when I say influencers,
Speaker:I include media contacts and by the way,
Speaker:it's the easiest way to pitch the media or the easiest
Speaker:audience to pitch is someone that you've already worked with.
Speaker:So if you've already done something together and you have something
Speaker:else where you can be of service to them,
Speaker:then that's going to be very,
Speaker:very good for your chances of getting additional media.
Speaker:Of course,
Speaker:there's the visibility and then I'd say the final benefit would
Speaker:be your SEO.
Speaker:So if people are searching the web,
Speaker:looking for your content,
Speaker:if Google sees that you're commonly talked about on other high
Speaker:domain authority news websites and blogs and influencers are talking about
Speaker:you, you're just going to rise.
Speaker:Like you wouldn't believe in the Google algorithm.
Speaker:Google's getting more and more and more and more and more
Speaker:intelligent and it's not so much about even like those follow
Speaker:links back,
Speaker:it's just is there buzz around what you do and if
Speaker:there is then you're just going to be rewarded for that.
Speaker:Google is just going to show your content to far more
Speaker:people. Right.
Speaker:So let me ask you a question.
Speaker:So of all of the benefits that you've just listed,
Speaker:once you get an article published,
Speaker:let's say,
Speaker:or you're on a show,
Speaker:you still need to take the action of putting those logos
Speaker:on your website,
Speaker:doing the free social media like posts,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:promoting it for yourself,
Speaker:staying in contact with media context.
Speaker:Like there's actions and activities that you have to initiate for
Speaker:your PR to work as well.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:Yeah. And most people really don't do this correctly.
Speaker:And that is is they think they get,
Speaker:okay, well I was on TV,
Speaker:there's my win.
Speaker:And that's like you're only like halfway done when you pitch,
Speaker:create the segment,
Speaker:blah blah blah.
Speaker:You go in and you do it like you're only halfway
Speaker:done with the job because those people who see you like
Speaker:they're just getting to know you for the first time.
Speaker:They're not ready to engage with you at a very high
Speaker:level, but they'll follow you on social cause they're interested,
Speaker:they're curious.
Speaker:But the people who already know,
Speaker:like, and trust you,
Speaker:those are the ones when you get that visibility,
Speaker:that media,
Speaker:that authority,
Speaker:those are the ones that are going to be like,
Speaker:you know what,
Speaker:let me get another order.
Speaker:I'm so glad to see that the outside world validates what
Speaker:I was suspecting early on.
Speaker:Right. So would you say that then getting PR in any
Speaker:shape that it is is an introductory point and also a
Speaker:credibility play to start.
Speaker:And then you have to go from there.
Speaker:And the reason I ask that is I've heard so many
Speaker:people, I was just recently at trade show and I was
Speaker:the moderator of a panel for celebrity chefs.
Speaker:Okay, so I'm talking about Martha Stewart weddings,
Speaker:food network,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:And all of them really were saying that really doesn't,
Speaker:hasn't done that much for my sales.
Speaker:There's not a direct correlation,
Speaker:I guess is what I'm saying.
Speaker:Yes, when you do that visit is because they stop at
Speaker:the visibility.
Speaker:Most people listen.
Speaker:I'll just tell you like again,
Speaker:this is 2000 media parents is talking.
Speaker:I obviously we've made a lot of sales when you accumulate
Speaker:them over and over and over again and you get really
Speaker:good at using that media.
Speaker:Well that's good.
Speaker:That's how you get the sales.
Speaker:Most people are going to be very underwhelmed when they do
Speaker:TV media.
Speaker:They get quoted whatever,
Speaker:and they're going to be actually pretty overwhelmed when they become
Speaker:masterful at sharing that content.
Speaker:So if you're quoted in a blog article,
Speaker:you can take that and you can turn that into like
Speaker:five to 10 pieces of social media content very easily.
Speaker:You could slice and dice it,
Speaker:create screenshots,
Speaker:you could do all kinds of stuff.
Speaker:With that.
Speaker:Repurposing is honestly one of the greatest skills I think we
Speaker:can have in terms of being able to be more places
Speaker:and more platforms in front of more eyeballs.
Speaker:Right. This is so good,
Speaker:Josh, because I know give biz listeners,
Speaker:a lot of you have been on your local television shows,
Speaker:you've been to trade shows and won awards for your product,
Speaker:potentially just a number of different ways that you've had visibility
Speaker:and exposure,
Speaker:but taking it the next step,
Speaker:to your point,
Speaker:Josh, is where most people don't go,
Speaker:so I think a lot of our listeners right now have
Speaker:the content already and they can still use it,
Speaker:right? It doesn't grow old.
Speaker:No. Right.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it's very helpful to get fresh and relevant buzz.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:that's always good.
Speaker:There's a certain feeling you get when you go to a
Speaker:website and they say,
Speaker:well, here's all the media we've gotten,
Speaker:and then you take a look at it and it's like,
Speaker:Oh, okay,
Speaker:well that was like four years ago.
Speaker:Those are your hay days I suppose,
Speaker:but you can continue to share that stuff,
Speaker:but don't rest on your laurels because it really matters that
Speaker:you continue to circulate.
Speaker:So Sue,
Speaker:I spend like 95% of my time in support of up
Speaker:my influence now where we turn entrepreneurs in the media celebrities,
Speaker:and I spend 5% of my time with savings angel,
Speaker:that 5% I still do a lot of media.
Speaker:I've been writing a syndicated newspaper column for 10 and a
Speaker:half years.
Speaker:I do TV.
Speaker:I usually do,
Speaker:I'd say on average maybe like two to five TV segments
Speaker:every single month.
Speaker:I continue to do that even though I really don't make
Speaker:a lot of money on that.
Speaker:I do it because I want to show that I'm relevant.
Speaker:Like I eat my own dog food,
Speaker:I keep fresh.
Speaker:I want to make sure that I am always tuned into
Speaker:the latest,
Speaker:greatest. I love making sure that I'm connecting and talking with
Speaker:journalists and I'm learning what they see and I ask questions
Speaker:because I gotta be in the trenches to make sure that
Speaker:I can advise our clients on that.
Speaker:Right. So a PR strategy should be included in your marketing
Speaker:plan? Always.
Speaker:Yeah. I mean,
Speaker:listen, it's the difference between having a Hunter gatherer mindset and
Speaker:a farming mindset.
Speaker:And so like advertising and going up and setting up a
Speaker:booth or whatever that's hunting,
Speaker:gathering, you go,
Speaker:you sell and you eat for a day or maybe a
Speaker:few days or maybe a few weeks or something like that.
Speaker:But that's about it.
Speaker:If you are constantly investing into the bank of your brand
Speaker:and your authority,
Speaker:then you're going to find that you're just not going to
Speaker:have to work as hard.
Speaker:Things are just naturally going to work out better for you.
Speaker:So a great example of this is I've gone to conferences
Speaker:where I've just been another face in the crowd.
Speaker:I've gone to lots of those.
Speaker:And then I've also gone to conferences where I've been the
Speaker:keynote speaker.
Speaker:It is a completely different experience.
Speaker:Like I get way more opportunities out of being a keynote
Speaker:speaker than I do just showing up and like again,
Speaker:just another face in the crowd.
Speaker:So we want to increase that authority because honestly,
Speaker:it really makes a huge,
Speaker:huge difference.
Speaker:That makes so much sense.
Speaker:What about the differences between the different options like TV,
Speaker:radio, print?
Speaker:Do they serve different purposes or what would you say there?
Speaker:We'll hear Josh's response to this right after we pause for
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Speaker:So there's media you do for authority and then there's media
Speaker:you do for,
Speaker:maybe it's just more visibility,
Speaker:like you're not going to get as much authority out of
Speaker:working with an influencer,
Speaker:but you should still do it because you get great visibility
Speaker:in front of ideally your target audience,
Speaker:and this is another thing too in terms of,
Speaker:well what should I go for?
Speaker:Well, you ideally want to do media that if you want
Speaker:to gain as much value as possible,
Speaker:getting new people into the top of your sales funnel,
Speaker:you want to go where your audience is pre congregated and
Speaker:so who has an audience like you serve that audience,
Speaker:bring them value and then you know,
Speaker:you don't even have to did and I'd recommend you don't
Speaker:do a hard sale.
Speaker:You just bring as much value as you can tell stories
Speaker:and you'll find that that audience will naturally resonate with you
Speaker:if they feel like you've got integrity and you have their
Speaker:best interests at mind.
Speaker:Now in terms of platform,
Speaker:like whether we're talking,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:should you collaborate with a YouTuber,
Speaker:should you be on TV,
Speaker:should you be in radio,
Speaker:should you be in print?
Speaker:I say yes.
Speaker:I say yes to all of the above.
Speaker:I generally will do about anything I can get because I
Speaker:know that the greatest value is to be how I use
Speaker:that. So for me,
Speaker:I do want to pay attention to,
Speaker:well, what is the perceived authority of this outlet?
Speaker:And many times a print or broadcast outlet,
Speaker:although they might not have as many eyeballs,
Speaker:is going to carry more authority.
Speaker:So I want to balance my visibility and authority,
Speaker:always be working on my authority and meanwhile always try to
Speaker:get in front of as many eyeballs as possible with my
Speaker:message. All right,
Speaker:perfect. So let's bring this down to be a little more
Speaker:actionable for some of our listeners.
Speaker:If they've never really thought PR before,
Speaker:and I can guarantee you a lot haven't.
Speaker:They've either had local news stations approach them because they've heard
Speaker:about something that they're doing in the community,
Speaker:so they bring their cameras in.
Speaker:So it was never intentional.
Speaker:It just kind of happened.
Speaker:But most of the time I think all of our efforts
Speaker:have been on social media posting,
Speaker:which was why I asked that question earlier.
Speaker:But if someone's understanding now that I should take a more
Speaker:active role and influence my future,
Speaker:kind of like what you were saying with your quote earlier,
Speaker:what would be the first steps for somebody to take to
Speaker:start getting some visibility?
Speaker:And I'm talking more on a local level now.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:So if you want to be respected by influencers,
Speaker:by media I mean honestly by customers,
Speaker:by everybody is that you have to take your own brand
Speaker:very seriously.
Speaker:And I mean that's kind of part of our up my
Speaker:influence community is it we together really take our brands very
Speaker:seriously and know Sue that we live in a swipe left
Speaker:swipe right world.
Speaker:We are earning consumers and everybody's attention like honestly like four
Speaker:to eight seconds at a time.
Speaker:And the idea is that you want to communicate that you
Speaker:can solve their problem or there's a lot of social proof
Speaker:behind what you do or that you're a professional brand.
Speaker:You're not some fly by night organization.
Speaker:Your quality is excellent.
Speaker:When we meet in person,
Speaker:we have this immense benefit of this kind of this person
Speaker:to person communication,
Speaker:which is very impactful.
Speaker:But most of us do business over the web.
Speaker:And because of that we have what's known as a digital
Speaker:barrier. So the idea is that it's kind of like online
Speaker:dating. It's like if you are going to have a dating
Speaker:profile, do you want a bad profile or do you want
Speaker:a really,
Speaker:really great profile that truly shows who you truly are?
Speaker:We want that.
Speaker:We want a really great profile.
Speaker:We want great pictures,
Speaker:we want great description,
Speaker:we want to show our heart,
Speaker:we want to attract people and so that's what we need
Speaker:to do with our branding.
Speaker:And when I say branding,
Speaker:let's make this very simple.
Speaker:Number one,
Speaker:your social media profiles need to communicate that you're a very
Speaker:popular service or product like people really like what you have
Speaker:to offer and so you'll start by making sure you've got
Speaker:great images.
Speaker:And I,
Speaker:again, I'm talking about your profile,
Speaker:not even what you're sharing,
Speaker:what you're sharing is very important as well.
Speaker:But what people's first impression of you is generally going to
Speaker:be, what's your header image,
Speaker:what's your profile image,
Speaker:what's in your description?
Speaker:And then they might look at stuff like,
Speaker:well how many followers do you have?
Speaker:And that's something that you can work on as well,
Speaker:is really building that up.
Speaker:We work with a lot of author,
Speaker:speaker, coaches without my influence.
Speaker:And so sometimes we get a speaker and they'll say,
Speaker:well, I'm only able to get like X thousands of dollars
Speaker:for a speaking gig.
Speaker:And I look at their social media and I say,
Speaker:well, let me ask you,
Speaker:what's the difference between a speaker who has 400 followers and
Speaker:a speaker that has 40,000
Speaker:followers? And they'll say generally,
Speaker:well, this speaker that has 40,000
Speaker:followers is probably making more money.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:So we need to very actively work on growing followers.
Speaker:And I'll be honest,
Speaker:like I know best practices for this.
Speaker:Generally it's not really in my zone of excellence.
Speaker:There are a lot of people that could talk about growing
Speaker:your social media following and you don't have to stress out
Speaker:about this.
Speaker:If you're just getting started and you don't have that yet,
Speaker:that's okay.
Speaker:But this is something that we want to work toward.
Speaker:My low hanging fruit that I would point out is if
Speaker:I go to your social media profile and it's just unprofessional
Speaker:or you don't have good imagery,
Speaker:you don't have a good headshot of yourself,
Speaker:people depending on your business.
Speaker:Most businesses when we engage,
Speaker:we like to engage with people.
Speaker:Not things are faceless corporations.
Speaker:So I know we want to highlight our goods,
Speaker:but there's a way that you can do that with our
Speaker:branding, your cover image on your social media account where you
Speaker:can show your product and service but also show you because
Speaker:people are can connect with you much more readily than only
Speaker:your product or service.
Speaker:So that should give you some indications on what your social
Speaker:media accounts should probably look like.
Speaker:You're so right and this is something that everybody can do
Speaker:immediately is go look at your social media platforms and just
Speaker:make sure everything is in sync first.
Speaker:You should be consistent across all your platforms obviously and everything
Speaker:that you just said Josh,
Speaker:in terms of personality in there,
Speaker:good images,
Speaker:all of that.
Speaker:The other thing that I would just add to what you're
Speaker:saying is you should be regularly posting so that someone doesn't
Speaker:come to your Facebook page,
Speaker:let's say,
Speaker:and the last post you did was four months ago.
Speaker:We all know that you're not going to get a lot
Speaker:of organic reach,
Speaker:and I'm an advocate now of posting regularly.
Speaker:I normally say two to three times a week on Facebook,
Speaker:not assuming everyone's going to see you and come to buy
Speaker:your stuff.
Speaker:But it's to the point that if someone lands on your
Speaker:page, which is what Josh is talking about,
Speaker:there's something that is fresh and new on a regular basis,
Speaker:because then it looks like you're actively engaged with your business
Speaker:and your brand.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:So in a couple of things you can do is you
Speaker:just have to schedule it and you just say,
Speaker:listen, Monday,
Speaker:Wednesday, Friday,
Speaker:not going to be doing any sales anyway.
Speaker:So from nine to nine 30 on those three days,
Speaker:you gotta be really focused on engaging with your audience,
Speaker:sharing valuable stuff.
Speaker:Don't get caught into the newsfeed,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you gotta be very,
Speaker:very diligent,
Speaker:focused and just say,
Speaker:listen, these three 30 minute blocks are for sharing content only,
Speaker:and you'll do things like participate in Facebook groups and be
Speaker:helpful and things like that.
Speaker:Yes. Just give away your expertise,
Speaker:go answer questions.
Speaker:Just be a nice person in terms of engaging on other
Speaker:communities, but on your own,
Speaker:you got to keep doing it.
Speaker:And I know so a lot of people will get frustrated
Speaker:like, okay,
Speaker:I did that and only three people saw it.
Speaker:That's just the way that it's going to be.
Speaker:Again, Facebook is very much a pay for play platform now
Speaker:and Instagram is absolutely becoming that way as well.
Speaker:So it just is what it is.
Speaker:Yeah. It's not for people to organically see you.
Speaker:It's for the people who come to find you to see
Speaker:that there's activity going on.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:Yup. Yeah.
Speaker:But I also liked your point about going in and being
Speaker:active in other people's groups because you got visibility.
Speaker:Bring value there.
Speaker:Okay, so let's be done with that part.
Speaker:So the brand and social media now,
Speaker:what towards the goal of getting some type of local TV,
Speaker:radio, print spot,
Speaker:what do you do then?
Speaker:Right. And the reason I mentioned that is because again,
Speaker:media is absolutely going to judge you.
Speaker:So if you do reach out and your branding looks horrible,
Speaker:they're gonna ghost you and you're gonna be like,
Speaker:Oh, maybe they didn't like what I said.
Speaker:No, it was probably okay.
Speaker:But they can't risk bad guests.
Speaker:If you want to do TV,
Speaker:it's mandatory that you have video on your website or in
Speaker:your social media and you have to make sure that they
Speaker:see that TV will not book you.
Speaker:Maybe small,
Speaker:small, small market will,
Speaker:but medium and large and certainly national.
Speaker:There's no way,
Speaker:and by the way,
Speaker:I should say like if you live in a market like
Speaker:Chicago or Atlanta or certainly LA,
Speaker:New York,
Speaker:you're going to have to go to a smaller market.
Speaker:Even Orlando,
Speaker:where I live is pretty accessible.
Speaker:I think pretty much anyone can get on air in a
Speaker:market like around that size or under is pretty accessible.
Speaker:Miami gets a little bit tougher for people like we've done
Speaker:thousands and thousands of pitches.
Speaker:We just know what works.
Speaker:So now what should you pitch?
Speaker:Okay, here's my general guideline for this.
Speaker:When you pitch something you don't want a response of,
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:I mean I guess we could do a story on that.
Speaker:We weren't really planning on it.
Speaker:So it's tough when you're creative,
Speaker:right? You're going to have to think a little bit outside
Speaker:the box.
Speaker:Now, the best piece of advice I can give you for
Speaker:designing a pitch is that you learn about news jacking.
Speaker:If you go to my YouTube channel,
Speaker:I did a really great 20 minute video all about the
Speaker:elements of just a perfect news jacking pitch.
Speaker:And what news jacking basically means is that you're looking for
Speaker:things that are trending on social media.
Speaker:You're looking for things that people are already talking about and
Speaker:you need to make the story about that.
Speaker:Not you.
Speaker:People and business owners sometimes don't like to hear this,
Speaker:but honestly,
Speaker:most people just don't really care about what you do.
Speaker:And I know we a great deal about what we do,
Speaker:but it's just the reality.
Speaker:Unless it's something that's like really trending right now and you
Speaker:happen to be a part of that.
Speaker:Like with extreme couponing,
Speaker:it was very,
Speaker:very easy for us to say,
Speaker:Hey, everyone's talking about extreme couponing right now.
Speaker:I've got a new story that's related to that and I
Speaker:trust me,
Speaker:I had some really great,
Speaker:we did a 20 minute segment I did on WGN in
Speaker:Chicago and we did more business in that 20 minutes.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:if you get a really good deal,
Speaker:it can make a big difference.
Speaker:Like we did more business in that 20 minutes than I
Speaker:did the previous month.
Speaker:So it can happen just depending on what you get,
Speaker:but don't get big deal Litas right.
Speaker:Everybody does that where they're,
Speaker:Oh, if I could only get Oprah to talk about me
Speaker:or Ellen or whatever,
Speaker:right. Trust me,
Speaker:they get bombarded with everything.
Speaker:Just earn your way there.
Speaker:That's the way to do it.
Speaker:Do lots of local media where it's easy to get to
Speaker:and again focus on a pitch where the journalist instead of
Speaker:saying, Oh gee,
Speaker:I guess,
Speaker:I mean we were really planning on doing a story or
Speaker:I don't know if we really have time to do that.
Speaker:You don't want to set yourself up for failure like that.
Speaker:Right. Pitch something where it's like,
Speaker:you know what everyone's really,
Speaker:really talking about.
Speaker:Like you just have to be creative and this is one
Speaker:of these things where if you sell candles,
Speaker:you're going to have to watch the news.
Speaker:And if someone like,
Speaker:Oh, who played pepper pots,
Speaker:this is embarrassing.
Speaker:I can't remember.
Speaker:And it Gwenyth Paltrow,
Speaker:like she's a real trendsetter.
Speaker:And so when does Paltrow posts something on Instagram and it
Speaker:gets a lot of traffic and it starts trending a little
Speaker:bit and it has anything to do with your product or
Speaker:service you need to know about that.
Speaker:You need to be the eyes and the ears for your
Speaker:industry. Even if you sell something like,
Speaker:I dunno,
Speaker:like it could be anything.
Speaker:You have to be really,
Speaker:really hyper aware of when influencers or celebrities feature or talk
Speaker:about your industry,
Speaker:your product line,
Speaker:anything like that.
Speaker:And when that happens,
Speaker:you need to jump on it and you need to drop
Speaker:everything you are doing.
Speaker:You need to move very,
Speaker:very quickly and you need to say,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:this is training right now.
Speaker:We'd love to come in and do a story.
Speaker:I can be available tomorrow to do a story on whatever
Speaker:it is.
Speaker:So I could see.
Speaker:I'm just kind of thinking and trying to brainstorm for our
Speaker:listeners, since there are a lot of product makers,
Speaker:seasonality could be something.
Speaker:It could also be a certain scent or a certain flavor,
Speaker:right. That you have that's kind of unusual or different that
Speaker:happens to be trending right now we're recording this in the
Speaker:fall, right before Thanksgiving.
Speaker:The show is going to go live in January,
Speaker:but right now pumpkin spice is all the rage.
Speaker:No. Yeah,
Speaker:of course.
Speaker:That's an easy one.
Speaker:That's a layup as far as the pitch goes.
Speaker:Yeah. So I'm just thinking of different ideas and the way
Speaker:that could work And it works and it absolutely works.
Speaker:Yeah. Remember when bacon and chocolate was like the newest thing?
Speaker:Yeah. Like things like that.
Speaker:Yup. You gotta be clever and you got to think outside
Speaker:the box.
Speaker:And sometimes this is where people struggle with this.
Speaker:And so ask your audience.
Speaker:I'd say be very,
Speaker:very careful about hiring PR people.
Speaker:I'd say it would be better.
Speaker:You want to pay people what they're worth and that sort
Speaker:of thing.
Speaker:But I could just tell you that intro like so I
Speaker:spent $25,000
Speaker:on PR for savings angel and almost had,
Speaker:I mean it had next to nothing to show for it.
Speaker:And that can happen and certainly I don't want that to
Speaker:happen to other people.
Speaker:There's a lot of ways you can crowdsource this and you
Speaker:could just go for a walk and just think or just
Speaker:start doing some keyword searching in Google news or social media.
Speaker:You have to just experiment.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:the best way to do that is just block off 30
Speaker:minutes in your schedule.
Speaker:And say this is brainstorming time and I'm just going to
Speaker:see what people are talking about when it comes to gift
Speaker:giving or whatever it might be.
Speaker:And then you want to just get in on that.
Speaker:So I'm thinking with print you pitch a story and then
Speaker:if it's accepted then you write the article or someone comes
Speaker:in interviews you or something like that.
Speaker:So that,
Speaker:I'm just going to say for time sake now is a
Speaker:little bit more clear cut,
Speaker:but what if you get a chance to have a local
Speaker:television spot and this is a brand new thing for people.
Speaker:What should they expect?
Speaker:Like how do they need to prepare or what should they
Speaker:expect? Either if they're going to the station or someone's coming
Speaker:with cameras on site.
Speaker:Yeah, make it so easy for the reporter.
Speaker:I mean basically just go and write the story for them
Speaker:and the easier you make it for them,
Speaker:the more that they are going to be like,
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Thank you for making my job easy.
Speaker:Being a broadcast journalist,
Speaker:I can just tell you from experience is one of the
Speaker:most difficult jobs in terms of stress.
Speaker:It's generally very low pay.
Speaker:The hours are ridiculous.
Speaker:The expectations if you're in broadcast media are just very,
Speaker:very tough.
Speaker:So anything you can do to make their life easier,
Speaker:they know now that you can be not just a trusted
Speaker:source but a partner in this.
Speaker:So I write out all the questions.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:here's five questions you could ask.
Speaker:Here's bullet points,
Speaker:here's some stats that you can throw in for like the
Speaker:intro or something like that.
Speaker:I mean I basically write everything for them.
Speaker:I make it really,
Speaker:really easy and then just be practiced without sounding too rehearsed.
Speaker:But you just want to practice this and do this over
Speaker:and over again,
Speaker:which is another reason why it's important to start small because
Speaker:you want to refine your messaging.
Speaker:You want to get good at this.
Speaker:There's nothing worse than being on TV and just freezing,
Speaker:which totally happens.
Speaker:So you want to put yourself like the best way to
Speaker:practice this like is honestly is set up cameras.
Speaker:Put a camera in your face,
Speaker:practice on just what it's like to have a bunch of
Speaker:bright lights in your face.
Speaker:A lot of pressure,
Speaker:a lot of people watching you and a lot of people
Speaker:judging you like or you feel like they're judging you because
Speaker:that's what you're going to feel like the first time you
Speaker:do media,
Speaker:the first 10 times you do it,
Speaker:you're not going to be that great.
Speaker:You're just not.
Speaker:And that's okay.
Speaker:Like you'll get better at this.
Speaker:Do as best as you can to try and practice,
Speaker:like do Skype or zoom video interviews,
Speaker:do live streams as many of those as you can and
Speaker:you'll get more comfortable in speaking on the fly,
Speaker:being able to look into the light and obviously on TV
Speaker:you're actually not going to look into the camera and almost
Speaker:every single case you don't do that.
Speaker:That actually is easier than live in my opinion.
Speaker:You kind of forget that you're have games on you and
Speaker:you're talking to whoever's interviewing you.
Speaker:I think that's easier than live where there's nobody even there
Speaker:that you see.
Speaker:You see them by comments,
Speaker:but that's it.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:Don't worry about performing.
Speaker:But what you do want to make sure is that you
Speaker:get very good at communicating the things that you need to
Speaker:communicate. So just like we'd call these talking points,
Speaker:right? And so,
Speaker:and I've done TV where maybe a brand was involved and
Speaker:they were paying me to make sure that I conveyed that
Speaker:certain messaging.
Speaker:And so that one you definitely need to make sure that
Speaker:you're well-practiced in being able to do that because the interview
Speaker:may not go like they can ask you anything they want.
Speaker:So that's another benefit to writing the questions for them is
Speaker:that chances are good.
Speaker:They'll probably ask you those questions.
Speaker:Again, most journalists are overworked.
Speaker:I don't,
Speaker:I want to say lazy.
Speaker:They're not,
Speaker:it's just hard.
Speaker:There's just only so much time and you just have to
Speaker:produce all these segments and you're just given like minutes to
Speaker:do this stuff sometimes.
Speaker:Right. And I think another thing is just to be yourself,
Speaker:don't try to come across as this big professional whoever.
Speaker:Just be yourself as the owner of your business.
Speaker:Cause the worst thing I've seen on TV,
Speaker:and I've also somewhat had this when I've done podcast interviews,
Speaker:is they're so concerned about what they're saying and the impression
Speaker:that they're giving that it's very monotone and just kind of
Speaker:boring. And then if it's video,
Speaker:it's like deer in headlights.
Speaker:You just who you are owning who you are and come
Speaker:with all of that genuine you.
Speaker:Right? Because you want to see the personality as someone who's
Speaker:watching too.
Speaker:Yeah. And so when I say kind of work on your
Speaker:talking points,
Speaker:there's certain messages that you want to make sure to share.
Speaker:Now performance wise,
Speaker:again, your whole goal is to be approachable and likable and
Speaker:that's the sort of thing that will come with time.
Speaker:But to your point,
Speaker:you're right,
Speaker:it's better to relax and be imperfect than it is to
Speaker:be overly polished,
Speaker:being overly polished.
Speaker:It's like it's icky.
Speaker:Right? And so we want to avoid that.
Speaker:No one will trust you either.
Speaker:Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker:We do a lot of like media training where we'll take
Speaker:a look at how someone did on TV and let me
Speaker:tell you like I work with some experts in communication,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:maybe they're expert speakers and we get them on TV.
Speaker:One guy in particular,
Speaker:I spent an hour analyzing a three minute segment and talking
Speaker:about his body language.
Speaker:And when you lean forward like this,
Speaker:there was this male female dynamic that you need to be
Speaker:aware of that it comes across as,
Speaker:there's just all of these sensitivities and just all this,
Speaker:everything, you know,
Speaker:the way you hold your face,
Speaker:the way you pause or don't pause between certain points.
Speaker:It's, I still make lots of mistakes.
Speaker:A lot of times it's hard to be our own coach
Speaker:is why it's really important to then get feedback from people
Speaker:and say,
Speaker:please roast me.
Speaker:Be very honest.
Speaker:What could I have done to improve this?
Speaker:And then just practice that.
Speaker:But also don't let that be a hindrance to getting out
Speaker:there and doing it either.
Speaker:Because again,
Speaker:you're going to be imperfect.
Speaker:It's okay.
Speaker:Right. And you know,
Speaker:they always say there's the thing with podcasting that they say
Speaker:all the time now that is if your very first episodes
Speaker:aren't cringe-worthy,
Speaker:you started way too late.
Speaker:Yes, yes.
Speaker:I totally agree.
Speaker:Totally agree.
Speaker:Go and listen to your favorite podcaster.
Speaker:Go back and listen to their first few podcasts.
Speaker:Like there's a guy that really helped me at the beginning
Speaker:and starting was a Pat Flynn and if you go and
Speaker:listen to his first few podcasts,
Speaker:they are really,
Speaker:That tells people to go and listen to,
Speaker:well, mine aren't that great either,
Speaker:but you guys can go listen if you want,
Speaker:but you only get better by doing is the thing.
Speaker:That's absolutely true.
Speaker:I just don't want people to be like,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:I'll never be able to be that palace so I'm just
Speaker:not going to do it.
Speaker:It just requires doing it a bunch of times.
Speaker:So, and that's okay.
Speaker:And that's why I said,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:your first 10 are probably not going to be that great,
Speaker:but that's it's activity knowledge.
Speaker:So there's learned knowledge,
Speaker:activity, knowledge,
Speaker:modeling, knowledge and teaching knowledge are the four ways that we
Speaker:learned and activity knowledge is easily 10 times more powerful and
Speaker:memorable than you know,
Speaker:doing the thing than just learning it.
Speaker:Like hearing it on a podcast or hearing it on like
Speaker:I can teach you this stuff,
Speaker:but until you apply it,
Speaker:it's all just very academic at this point and you won't
Speaker:know until you do it.
Speaker:Okay. So I want to summarize some action steps and you
Speaker:tell me if I've got them all or if we need
Speaker:to add anything Josh.
Speaker:But I'm thinking for those of you who are listening who
Speaker:are like,
Speaker:okay, so I'm still trying to figure out how I would
Speaker:apply this and do this for myself is the first thing.
Speaker:Check how you're looking online.
Speaker:Make sure that everything is branded consistently,
Speaker:that everything's filled in,
Speaker:that you're presenting the proper image.
Speaker:The second thing is what are you going to pitch?
Speaker:And so I love this news,
Speaker:Jackie, and I'm going to find that YouTube video and connect
Speaker:it up in the show notes for you guys.
Speaker:But what's the story?
Speaker:What's the point?
Speaker:Make it as relevant to current situations as you can cause
Speaker:that will increase your potential of being accepted for either an
Speaker:article or a spot,
Speaker:whatever it's going to be.
Speaker:Then submit questions if you can so that you have a
Speaker:better advantage of knowing exactly what they're going to ask you.
Speaker:Practice a little bit.
Speaker:Hopefully a lot of you guys are doing live already so
Speaker:you're already practicing and you don't even know it and most
Speaker:importantly above all,
Speaker:take action and do it even if you don't feel like
Speaker:you're quite ready.
Speaker:Do it because of all the advantages.
Speaker:I'll go back.
Speaker:You know there's the six benefits that Josh was talking about
Speaker:to doing this.
Speaker:I'm not going to repeat them now,
Speaker:but you can go back and listen to what those are
Speaker:because it definitely can help you and I think the best
Speaker:thing I heard you say Josh,
Speaker:is to do this.
Speaker:We'll make the growth of your business easier and we're all
Speaker:looking for that.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:Just two other things I'd throw into that mix.
Speaker:Number one,
Speaker:spend a little time getting to know who you're reaching out
Speaker:to and definitely above all,
Speaker:do not sell.
Speaker:If you send a pitch and it's all about you and
Speaker:selling your products,
Speaker:you are dead in the water.
Speaker:Journalists just,
Speaker:they cringe at that cause I get bad pitches like that
Speaker:almost every day and 99.99%
Speaker:of them,
Speaker:I just junk them.
Speaker:And that's what unfortunately,
Speaker:that's what everybody does because they're just thinking about,
Speaker:Oh, I would love to sell my products on air.
Speaker:Well, that's not the job of TV.
Speaker:They don't want you selling your products on Eric.
Speaker:That's why they have paid advertisers for,
Speaker:right? Your job is to bring value to that audience.
Speaker:Make an entertaining and enjoyable segment or even a news story.
Speaker:It's to help out with the story.
Speaker:It's not to promote your thing.
Speaker:Now you may be able to promote your thing,
Speaker:but you just gotta be cool about it.
Speaker:It's indirect.
Speaker:Yes. Tell stories about how you help people rather than,
Speaker:or tell stories about how people use your product and have
Speaker:benefited from your product as opposed to starting going through the
Speaker:feature set and pricing.
Speaker:Like don't do that.
Speaker:Okay. Share with us a little bit more about what services
Speaker:you offer without my influence.
Speaker:Well, we believe that every person has a message that can
Speaker:positively impact the world.
Speaker:And so we kind of work on this premise of what
Speaker:if the number one reason that your customers weren't buying from
Speaker:you is you just don't have the social proof,
Speaker:you just not being seen in the media.
Speaker:And so as a result,
Speaker:we fix that and we do that at one fifth the
Speaker:cost of a normal PR firm.
Speaker:And I only share that just to let you know that
Speaker:we're not some pricey PR me because I've blown the money
Speaker:and I know what it's like.
Speaker:We really serve early stage startups,
Speaker:we serve a lot of people.
Speaker:That might be kind of the solopreneur level.
Speaker:And even if you never pay me a dime,
Speaker:you could spend years just going through all the content that
Speaker:we give away for free and I just believe very,
Speaker:very much in that concept of you just give away what
Speaker:other people charge money for and then you're investing in relationships.
Speaker:But everything that I share is all found on up my
Speaker:influence.com and if you want to connect to like my YouTube,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:you just down in the lower left hand corner,
Speaker:we have over a hundred thousand people in our social media
Speaker:communities and you're welcome to join us and would truly be
Speaker:an honor to kind of make 2020 your year where you
Speaker:go from feeling invisible to being seen and celebrated and that's
Speaker:what our community does together.
Speaker:Oh, that sounds super exciting,
Speaker:Josh. I love that.
Speaker:That's a perfect sentence.
Speaker:Where do you see up my influence going in the future?
Speaker:Completely scaling.
Speaker:I mean as we're talking right now,
Speaker:we're going through hyper-growth.
Speaker:We've quadrupled in size since the beginning of 2019 wow.
Speaker:Yeah, 2020 is we have an unlimited number of people coming
Speaker:through the front door.
Speaker:It's now just how do we handle this and how can
Speaker:we make sure that we keep our quality of service.
Speaker:So we do a lot of media placements for our clients.
Speaker:We guarantee results,
Speaker:we don't do longterm contracts.
Speaker:And you just won't see that in the PR world.
Speaker:And then like I said,
Speaker:we're like one fifth the cost of what they charge.
Speaker:So that's why we're kind of,
Speaker:we're having a problem right now with like,
Speaker:Oh we can't onboard this many people.
Speaker:It's a growth problem.
Speaker:That's our biggest challenge.
Speaker:And it's interesting from a business perspective,
Speaker:it brings up unique,
Speaker:it released stress tests your organization.
Speaker:And it is a challenge whether you're going up or down
Speaker:in business.
Speaker:It's a good problem to have,
Speaker:but it's absolutely something that we've been experiencing.
Speaker:Well it's exciting to hear.
Speaker:I mean quadrupling your numbers in one year is huge and
Speaker:it's not like you just started yesterday,
Speaker:so you're not talking from a small number to begin with.
Speaker:Cause I know,
Speaker:I think I met you four or five years ago actually
Speaker:and so whatever number you're quadrupling I know isn't a tiny
Speaker:number so congratulations on that.
Speaker:That is so exciting.
Speaker:Remember, gift biz listeners go over to my influence.
Speaker:There's a lot of free information there,
Speaker:Josh, so much good information.
Speaker:My background is journalism so I come out of the industry,
Speaker:but you've told me some things here that I didn't know
Speaker:before. You've shared such great information with our listeners.
Speaker:I just appreciate you so much being on the show To
Speaker:your wonderful.
Speaker:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker:I love Joshua's phrase about making success all but inevitable and
Speaker:after hearing how and why it's so valuable for your business,
Speaker:I hope you join me in adding visibility as an initiative
Speaker:you will give attention to this year up next week.
Speaker:I'm really excited to introduce you to my guest and her
Speaker:brand new product.
Speaker:She's building a solid brand while working a full time corporate
Speaker:job like many of you are.
Speaker:It can be done and she talks about how I'll see
Speaker:you next week and make sure before you sign off to
Speaker:subscribe to the podcast.
Speaker:That way you won't miss a single episode.
Speaker:They'll be ready and waiting for you when you have listening
Speaker:time. Bye for now.
Speaker:Are you discouraged because your business is not performing as you
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