Shownotes
In this episode, award winning Publicist, Candice Nicole shares expert tips on pitching to media outlets. She dives into the importance of knowing your why and doing your research with actionable tips on how to find media contacts. As a soon to be mommy, she also shares how she's preparing herself and her business for this new intersection and what she's most looking forward to in motherhood.
About Candice
Candice Nicole is an Award-Winning Publicist of 16 years and a proud graduate of an HBCU, Morgan State University. She is the Founder & CEO of Candice Nicole Public Relations, a boutique PR Agency where purpose and intention meet.
She has been recognized by the U.S. Black Chambers, INC as an Emerging Leader in Black Business, named one of the Top 25 African American PR Millennials in The Huff Post, and has appeared in several lists within the PR industry. In addition, she inducted into Who’s Who in Black Charlotte 2023 and made the QCity Metro’s Power List: Black PR Professionals to Know in Charlotte.
In addition, she is the Creator of Respect The Publicist, which is a network for Publicists that also welcomes those who are Journalists, Branding/Marketing/Social Media professionals, and has over 2.5K+ members on Facebook. Candice is also a Podcaster, Author, PR Instructor, and an "outside of the box" thinker and game-changer who is on a mission to inspire & educate.
LINKS & MENTIONS
Email: hello@candicenicolepr.com
Website: http://www.candicenicolepr.com
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/candicenicolepr
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candicenicolepr/
RESOURCES
- The Mom CEO Suite Masterclass Collection https://www.themomceosuite.com/masterclass
- CRM: Dubsado - Get 20% off your 1st month (if paying monthly) or 1st year (if paying annually)
- Livestreaming: Streamyard - Get a $10 credit
- Website Hosting: Showit - Get 1 month free
Connect with Phylicia
FB: Phylicia Pough
IG: @phyliciapough
Connect with The Mom CEO Suite
Website: themomceosuite.com
Instagram: @themomceosuite
Join The Mom CEO Suite Email Community
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Transcripts
You are now tuned in to the mom CEO suite podcast.
Speaker:I'm your host, Felicia, wife, mom and
Speaker:entrepreneur. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my mompreneur
Speaker:journey along with strategies that will help you build your online
Speaker:business operations in a sustainable way. The goal is
Speaker:to help you build a business that fits into your lifestyle as a mom who
Speaker:values putting family first. We will also hear the
Speaker:experiences and expertise of other moms with service
Speaker:based businesses. You'll get a peek into our journeys, so you'll
Speaker:know that you aren't alone. Motherhood gets hard.
Speaker:Entrepreneurship gets hard. But together, we can
Speaker:do hard things. Welcome to The Suite.
Speaker:Hey friends, welcome to another episode. Thank you so much for being here. And
Speaker:we have a guest today, Miss Candace Nicole. She is an
Speaker:award winning publicist of 16 years and a proud
Speaker:graduate of an HBCU, Morgan State
Speaker:University. She is the founder and CEO of Candace
Speaker:Nicole Public Relations, which is a boutique PR
Speaker:agency where purpose and intention
Speaker:Meet. She has been recognized by the U. S. Black Chambers Inc
Speaker:as an emerging leader in black business named one of The top
Speaker:25 African American P. R. Millennials in the HuffPost,
Speaker:and she has appeared in several lists within the P. R. Industry.
Speaker:In addition, she is the creator of respect the publicist, which is a
Speaker:network for publicists. That also welcomes those who are
Speaker:journalists, branding, marketing, social media professionals, and it
Speaker:has over 2. 5 thousand members on Facebook.
Speaker:Candace is also a podcaster, author, PR
Speaker:instructor, and an outside of the box thinker and game
Speaker:changer who is on a mission to inspire. and
Speaker:educate. Love it. Hi, Candice. How are you? Welcome to the suite.
Speaker:Hello. Thank you so much for having me. I was like, I need to update
Speaker:that. It's been 17 years now since being in
Speaker:PR. I feel like I'm dating myself. Um, but I'm happy to
Speaker:be here. Yes, we're so excited. So we've heard a little bit about
Speaker:your professional bio, but just tell us a little bit more about you as a
Speaker:person and just more about the work that you do through your business.
Speaker:Yeah. So me as a person, there's so much going on
Speaker:with me as a Candace. Um, I'm a new
Speaker:wife, got married. So June
Speaker:18th to be specific. and I have a baby on the way, so I'm a
Speaker:mommy to be. it's a boy. His name is Grayson Oliver.
Speaker:So super excited about that. also with me, about my personal
Speaker:life. Absolutely love my family, you know, and my
Speaker:friends of will. Of course. Um, however, a lot of people always
Speaker:see me. you know, talk about my family. I just don't on my family.
Speaker:They are, you know, my, my everything.
Speaker:Know, Candace as a person I love lately, I will say this.
Speaker:I love my quiet time. Um, especially getting ready
Speaker:to. You know, have this little boy the house,
Speaker:a whole human that I'm like, Oh, I, you
Speaker:need to get dressed too. Okay. Oh, and you need to eat. Okay.
Speaker:because I'm just so used to just being solo dolo. Right. you
Speaker:know, and I'm 40 and so it's definitely, uh, a
Speaker:change. Of course I've had responsibilities in my life, but
Speaker:nothing compared to, you know, A whole human, right? Like, you
Speaker:know, about that, like you are responsible for this human. Now, what are you going
Speaker:to, what are you going to do? Um, so that's about me, you know, just,
Speaker:you know, my, my personal side outside of the
Speaker:business, and I don't like that you asked me that because. A lot
Speaker:of the times, um, because my conversations are solely about business,
Speaker:which is totally fine. You sometimes will kind of
Speaker:lose yourself. You forget who you are. Like as a person, I won't say
Speaker:like lose yourself, but you're just so used to like,
Speaker:this is what I do. This is how we execute. I'm very resourceful. Guess I'm
Speaker:resourceful in my personalized life, but that really comes from the
Speaker:business. Right. So I appreciate that question.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely. I do agree. We sometimes get. Lost or wrapped
Speaker:up in our identity as business owners. And it's like, okay,
Speaker:well, what if the business closes? Who, who are you as a person? I
Speaker:love just hearing about people anyway. Um, but
Speaker:congratulations on all the newness that is happening in your
Speaker:life. I still consider myself a newlywed. Uh, our
Speaker:anniversary is August 6th and it'll be two
Speaker:years. Congratulations. So thank you. Yes,
Speaker:Lord. We made it two years. It's a job, even just being
Speaker:very new for myself. I'm like, Oh, you really
Speaker:need to ask the other person. Like, Hey, I have this
Speaker:idea. do you think about this? Where I'm
Speaker:very much. I want it. I'm going to make it happen. This is what it
Speaker:is. Right. yeah, definitely was,. It was a
Speaker:interesting transition going from singleness
Speaker:to, you know, wife and mom kind of at the same time. So.
Speaker:I kind of get where you're at, but since we're talking about that, how are
Speaker:you preparing yourself? You touched on that a little bit, you know, getting your quiet
Speaker:time, but how are you preparing yourself and your business too
Speaker:for motherhood? Yeah, I feel like every
Speaker:day I'm still trying to figure that out because here's the thing.
Speaker:Um, there is no blueprint. Everyone's
Speaker:business is different, it's structured different, all the moving
Speaker:parts. So it's not like you can buy this book that says, you know,
Speaker:if you're a business, and you're going to be gi
Speaker:you know, this is what yo
Speaker:Um, I do think of
Speaker:course with
Speaker:potential clients.
Speaker:U You know, I am expecting.
Speaker:Um, I've already started having conversations with contractors that I've
Speaker:worked before where I may have to bring them on for maybe like, you
Speaker:know, 60 days. Um, in a perfect world, it would be great
Speaker:that I take all of Q4 off. Um,
Speaker:that's just not what it is right now. And also, I just
Speaker:think that will miss the work, right?
Speaker:And like, yeah, but once, and I'm like, no, I get it. Like once he's
Speaker:here, I'm going to be like obsessed with him pretty much.
Speaker:Um, but I still, I don't want to lose that side of me if that
Speaker:makes sense. Right. And that work does make
Speaker:me happy. And I think even like showing up is
Speaker:like, like my son is now here earth
Speaker:side and girl like you're a really a mompreneur
Speaker:now. So just. You know,
Speaker:seeing that that's actually very exciting for me. Certain conversations
Speaker:I can now, you know, have, with individuals, which I've
Speaker:always, you know, longed for, right? Of just that
Speaker:balance of being a wife and a mom. I won't say it's a
Speaker:challenge. It's just, it's just, it's interesting, right? Of
Speaker:just, how does this all work of doing something that I
Speaker:completely love and I know I'm going to have to, you know,
Speaker:step away. And. Have this time
Speaker:and also just the healing process, right. Of, giving
Speaker:birth and, it's just, it's just something new. So
Speaker:day by day, I'm taking it and just trying to figure out,
Speaker:uh, like, you know, onboarding clients and okay, I'll bring this contractor
Speaker:in, I'll introduce them because at this time I'll be stepping away. Cause honestly,
Speaker:by like, these are my last kind of like two months of me,
Speaker:just. able to like really peddle to the metal work.
Speaker:Um, because October,
Speaker:October one, like I could, give birth, right?
Speaker:So I'm like, Oh girl, you literally have like 60
Speaker:days, right? You really need to like head down and everything. So
Speaker:y'all pray for me. Y'all pray for me and any other
Speaker:woman that you know that whether they're a business owner or not, because even
Speaker:if you're not, that's still something that you have to mentally prepare yourself to
Speaker:please pray for us. Um, in this transition that we're about to
Speaker:go through. definitely will be praying.
Speaker:Um, but I love that you said that there's no blueprint because there isn't.
Speaker:And it's like, do what works best for you, how
Speaker:you like to live, what makes sense for you and your family. Like, that's what
Speaker:I always stress when I'm talking, even when I give my advice
Speaker:or my thoughts based on my experience, it's like, okay, this was my experience.
Speaker:this is what I did, but you have to see if that makes sense for
Speaker:you because everything doesn't make sense for everybody. Right. And I don't.
Speaker:I just don't like in this space, this like motherhood and entrepreneurship
Speaker:space where people say, you need to do this this way, or how
Speaker:people have said to you, Oh, when you get that baby, you want to, you're
Speaker:not going to want to work. You don't know that everybody is different.
Speaker:So, you know, I love that you're taking it day by day. You already know
Speaker:there's no blueprint. So I'm super excited for you and definitely
Speaker:will be praying. For like a speedy complication, free
Speaker:delivery and all those things. And you'll have to definitely update us when
Speaker:baby boy is born. Um, what are you most looking forward
Speaker:to though? What am I excited? Most excited about pretending to like
Speaker:giving birth to him. Motherhood. Yes. Um, it is
Speaker:seeing his personality just
Speaker:evolve. I feel like, he is going to be
Speaker:a mover and shaker. I. I look forward to
Speaker:seeing family and friends just be able to love on him because he is
Speaker:just so wildly loved
Speaker:already. Um, especially just, excuse me. And
Speaker:as a, and as I'm going through this, I'm still actively grieving
Speaker:from the passing of my Nana and so
Speaker:finding out 10 days after she transitioned that I was expecting.
Speaker:It was. Very heavy, but very
Speaker:exciting. felt like it gave my family just.
Speaker:Another reason to smile as we were literally still
Speaker:like actively, you know, grieving so that has been just very interesting
Speaker:So I look forward to being able to hold
Speaker:him and look at him and just you know Pour into him because
Speaker:he really has been like this beacon of light since
Speaker:late February of Finding out that you know, he was
Speaker:there at you know at six weeks But Yeah, seeing his
Speaker:personality and also Again, looking forward
Speaker:to how I will navigate
Speaker:motherhood um, being a wife
Speaker:and a business owner. And here's the thing, I know it can exist. I
Speaker:feel like I know a lot of amazing women who navigate it
Speaker:pretty well, even if they're like hanging on by a thread. I'm
Speaker:like, but you're doing it. Just know you're motivating me. Like, so I know
Speaker:it's possible, especially those who are in Comms like me.
Speaker:It's always great to see. So that's what I'm looking forward to.
Speaker:Yeah, it's definitely a beautiful season and
Speaker:journey. And I know you already are, but like soak it all in. I'm so
Speaker:excited for you. Um, Um, so
Speaker:let's get into the P. R. Talk. because I know people want to
Speaker:know all about P. R. It's a hot topic. so can you
Speaker:explain to us actually what is P. R. And how does
Speaker:that differ from marketing?
Speaker:Yes. Okay. Um, I love that you asked that So
Speaker:in simple, you know, terms of where someone will remember
Speaker:PR equals visibility and marketing equals sales.
Speaker:So when people come to, um, come to
Speaker:us, you're having an event, right? And, or let's say you're
Speaker:going on a podcast tour, right? Mom's CEO podcast tour. And
Speaker:you're like, Hey, Candace, you know, I need to hire you. Um, I need
Speaker:to like sell my tickets. My question is going to be, okay, it
Speaker:sounds great. Who are you working with as far as like your marketing efforts?
Speaker:that is dedicated to, to marketing. Like what are the,
Speaker:the, the different initiatives that you're going to be creating that will
Speaker:result in ticket sales? Right? So are
Speaker:you familiar with Mia Ray? Uh, what is it? Glamaholic
Speaker:lifestyle. So she does
Speaker:amazing marketing, right? All of the,
Speaker:the visuals that she has that is part of
Speaker:marketing, like, and at the same time, she is telling a story,
Speaker:but why she is doing, putting this visual together. It's to
Speaker:push you to this sale, right? So when she has these great
Speaker:visuals, she has her, her new purse or the
Speaker:new, you know, wristlet or whatever it is, or you'll see a beach
Speaker:town. You're like, is, is that coming up for sale? See, it's
Speaker:driving you to get excited about making that sale. Right. And
Speaker:so with PR, it's more of the, the
Speaker:storytelling and getting the visibility out. So let's just keep it on her
Speaker:now. Um, I know recently, maybe like two months ago, I think she did
Speaker:like Two interviews, and I've never really seen Mia
Speaker:do interviews before. So I was like, wow, this is great. So
Speaker:obviously she felt that, you know, telling her story would, would
Speaker:be great. that's her talking to a podcast
Speaker:or so journalists online for something digital or even print
Speaker:and speaking about her journey. You know, speaking about how
Speaker:she wrote down years ago, what her goals were of how she lost
Speaker:X amount of dollars. Um, so she had to start from zero to build it
Speaker:back up again. So now she has her own rent house and making
Speaker:eight figures or whatever, you know, she's, she's making and having her
Speaker:drops and just kind of like the, the method to her madness
Speaker:of how she does her drops. Like That's the storytelling part. So that is going
Speaker:to help with the visibility. Now, the unique value you
Speaker:guys is that with her being on this podcast, I'd say,
Speaker:and she's telling her story, I guarantee nine times out of
Speaker:10, it's going to resonate with someone and they're going to say, Oh, I need
Speaker:to check her out. Let me check out these bags. Let me check out all
Speaker:the other things that you know, that she sells. And so that may result
Speaker:in a sale. That's the unique value of PR.
Speaker:that's not exactly what it's for. It's the storytelling and
Speaker:it's for the visibility. The marketing is going to put this
Speaker:campaign together and we're going to drive people so we can make these sales.
Speaker:That's a really great, simple breakdown, you know, PR for
Speaker:storytelling and visibility marketing sales. Easy
Speaker:peasy, simple, right? So before somebody wants
Speaker:to, or somebody decides they want to pitch themselves to the media, are there
Speaker:certain things that they need to have in place like with their business or their
Speaker:brand before they actually do go and pitch?
Speaker:Yes, I would definitely say first and foremost, you need to,
Speaker:um, you need to know your, why, why did you even
Speaker:start your business? You know, what's the mission? Like, who are you serving?
Speaker:So therefore, when you start on this journey, you know, who you're talking to, you
Speaker:know, who you're looking to, to attract, and then also
Speaker:just on the foundation level is, you know, do you have a website
Speaker:some people say, well, I don't have X amount of dollars, you know, for this,
Speaker:or I'm still thinking about just the whole layout of my
Speaker:website. Okay. That's fine. But do you have a landing page
Speaker:somewhere that you can drive people? That is not your social media.
Speaker:Because it's something that you don't own. This may be, you may be at a
Speaker:networking event. This is a one time you're so excited, you're talking to X amount
Speaker:of people and they go look you up on IG and IG is down,
Speaker:but what's not going to be down is uh, it's going to be
Speaker:your website or this link That you provide to them with your landing
Speaker:page. Um, I love to tell people I was in
Speaker:transition of where I really was thinking about what is
Speaker:our website going to look like? And so I said, well. As you're figuring this
Speaker:out Candace, you still need a house for your information.
Speaker:And I would say for almost like a good year and a half, maybe two
Speaker:years, I operated off a landing page. had
Speaker:buttons that people could click and would take them to booking their
Speaker:consultation. I had everything, you know, like laid out of who CMPR
Speaker:was, who we serve and, you know, click here and open up until,
Speaker:you know, where our services were. So there are ways around it. And so
Speaker:I think people don't think about. You need to
Speaker:have, uh, what do people, um, social real estate,
Speaker:It's important to have that because you created this business or even it's a
Speaker:personal brand that you are building and people need to
Speaker:know where to find you. So it's like, you have to do something, you know,
Speaker:a lot of people like, I don't have the money to do this. I don't
Speaker:have the money, uh, mailer light. I think
Speaker:constant contact, maybe MailChimp by now, you can
Speaker:create a landing page. Um, if there's
Speaker:somewhere else that's free that you can create your own website and then what you
Speaker:do guys, because you're like, well, I don't want people to click on this link
Speaker:because it doesn't, you can then take it to bit. ly and
Speaker:then you can customize that link. So it would say bit.
Speaker:ly slash, uh, CNPR. Right. Work
Speaker:with CNPR. And so that is literally what you would put on your business cards.
Speaker:That's what you're gonna, you know, post everywhere else. And once they click it,
Speaker:yes, you know, they'll open up and they'll see like the URL. But you can
Speaker:customize it. So there's a lot of different ways, but people need
Speaker:to, before they're, Going on this journey is
Speaker:number one, know your why, what is your mission? Why are you doing this? Why
Speaker:are you now in a space of wanting to tell your story and understanding the
Speaker:importance of having social real estate? are people going
Speaker:to find you? How are they going to learn more about you? And that's why
Speaker:I definitely do believe anyone that has a business or a personal
Speaker:brand, you need to have, um, a digital footprint. You need to
Speaker:be on social media. That was
Speaker:literally the next thing I was going to ask you. Did you feel like, um,
Speaker:People needed to have a social media presence if they're going to pitch the PR
Speaker:and you answer that question, because there's such a controversy right
Speaker:now about not wanting to be on social media and it being draining and all
Speaker:these things. So, when it comes to the social media piece,.
Speaker:What is the, like the, the bare
Speaker:minimum that somebody should have with their social media for it to
Speaker:be attractive to someone they're pitching to? So I
Speaker:will say this, you definitely need to be on there, I won't say that you
Speaker:always need to be actively posting. If you have at least
Speaker:like, 12 posts on there. You have enough of
Speaker:where someone can go because some people are like I absolutely loathe
Speaker:social media. This is not my thing. at least that there is somewhere
Speaker:that someone can find you on social media, I would say. Of course,
Speaker:I am going to be the one that's going to say you need to be
Speaker:active on there. Um, but I understand for just some people, it is just
Speaker:Not their thing. And they also may not be in position of say
Speaker:hiring somebody who could take that, you know, load off of them.
Speaker:So I would say the bear, um, I would say like
Speaker:twice a week of posting like the bare minimum.
Speaker:But of course, if you can do five, some people say they've started to see
Speaker:a change when they are posting seven days a week,
Speaker:twice a day. You may say, absolutely not. Like that's
Speaker:insane. But for some people, that's how they've seen, like, I went
Speaker:from 3000 followers to 10, 000. Well, someone may say,
Speaker:Oh, well, that's great. Yeah. But you have to take into
Speaker:consideration what, what they did to get to? this, you know, result.
Speaker:So I would say minimum is, you know, twice, twice a
Speaker:week. Okay, that's helpful. So now the person they
Speaker:have, they know their why, they have their story, they have
Speaker:a website or at least a landing page, they have some type of social media
Speaker:presence. So now, what would be the proper
Speaker:way for them to actually start pitching to these media outlets?
Speaker:Yes. So I would say, um, depending upon,
Speaker:of course, you know, your, your business, let's just. I don't know. Let's
Speaker:say, um, the skincare business. Let's say it's the skincare business,
Speaker:right? And, you have your why of why you
Speaker:started. Obviously, you started your skincare business because there was a problem.
Speaker:And you felt that, you know, I keep on looking for
Speaker:XYZ. And, okay, we had a former client, that good, good Shea.
Speaker:She, um, with eczema. And it just
Speaker:so happened the products that she was looking for. It just did not work
Speaker:and she is from Ghana. So she said, well,
Speaker:let me pull the resources from my country. Uh, the shea butter,
Speaker:like the pure, like 100 percent shea butter. And that's
Speaker:how her business was started. That was created because there was a
Speaker:problem. She wanted to, you know, help her skin
Speaker:condition. She couldn't find anything that worked for her. And so
Speaker:she said, well, then I'm just going to, you know, create it.
Speaker:so I'll give you, you know, that, that example, and I'm
Speaker:having pregnancy brain. Um, I just
Speaker:got I see that in your face. my
Speaker:It's okay. Uh, what's the proper way to pitch Thank you.
Speaker:Okay. So that's what I was telling you. I was trying to lay it out.
Speaker:because the proper way to pitch is she knows her why like, she
Speaker:started, it came from, a personal reason, right? It was an issue and this is
Speaker:my solution. So now she feels like. you
Speaker:know, this worked for me. And then I let, some people try it out.
Speaker:You know, people have been sending me testimonials like this really works.
Speaker:And then that's when she may say, okay, I want
Speaker:to be featured, I don't know, in Refinery29
Speaker:or Cosmopolitan, Women's Health Magazine, right?
Speaker:Um, even when it comes to trade publications that talk about,
Speaker:skin conditions, that could be an option too. So I think just depending
Speaker:upon your business is, where's my audience? And also,
Speaker:who's the audience that I'm looking? attract now
Speaker:with trade publications. If she's saying that this product is so good
Speaker:that I would love to connect with, um, dermatologists
Speaker:because maybe they will bring my shea butters and oils into their
Speaker:business. Right. Then definitely. Don't forget those
Speaker:trade publications because those are the people are going to be reading those because it's
Speaker:very specific to their industry. If she's like, I want
Speaker:to reach the, woman of color, let's say, from ages, you
Speaker:know, 25 to 45, then maybe that's essence.
Speaker:And so she's looking up, essence and the beauty segments
Speaker:that they have on the website, or she's actually going to the grocery
Speaker:store and looking at Essence in their, their beauty
Speaker:section and seeing who wrote those articles
Speaker:and then getting on LinkedIn or seeing if she puts it in
Speaker:Google and see if you can find their, you know, their DM. Some
Speaker:people, you guys, and even on Twitter, they actually will give you their email
Speaker:address. just have to do the research, right? A lot of the times it's
Speaker:there, especially on the digital side of it. Sometimes it's to the
Speaker:left hand side of your screen. If you hover over someone's name, it says,
Speaker:you know, written by Candace Nicole, over, you know, the name.
Speaker:And then sometimes if the email is there, it'll show on the left lower side
Speaker:of your screen. Just remember what it is. And there you go. You have your,
Speaker:your contact. Because how you pitch
Speaker:yourself is you want to make sure you're pitching the right person. that's why I
Speaker:was saying this is skincare. So therefore she knows that she needs to
Speaker:find like a beauty editor, a beauty journalist, so then she can
Speaker:pitch. And then of course, you know, be able to craft your
Speaker:story. I would definitely encourage people to
Speaker:read several articles that this person has contributed to this
Speaker:publication and says, okay, this sounds about right. And
Speaker:even with her situation, because the back, the background story is
Speaker:eczema getting on essence and typing an eczema.
Speaker:It's going to bring up everything. And so she may say like,
Speaker:actually, they haven't talked about this in two years. So this is a
Speaker:definitely a good time. And maybe you should, the eczema may.
Speaker:activate a lot in the winter months, this would be
Speaker:definitely the time to start that conversation of how to
Speaker:prepare your, your skin, especially if you're dealing with eczema,
Speaker:because it may react in the winter time right now is
Speaker:starting that conversation. So what I'm basically
Speaker:saying is you have to do your research. So think about
Speaker:just because you come across a contact at the Washington post,
Speaker:They may handle the finance at the Washington Post. The email
Speaker:addresses are all laid out the same, you guys, right? just like different
Speaker:names. So if you come across Sarah Smith, Google Sarah
Speaker:Smith on LinkedIn, or just on Google, you know, at the Washington Post
Speaker:and see if it's the finance person, don't email them.
Speaker:Please don't just because they work there does not mean they're going to forward you
Speaker:over to this person over here. Okay. Um,
Speaker:so you just have to do, you know, the research at the end of the
Speaker:day of how to fit yourself. No, that's, that's good
Speaker:feedback now. So when you were talking, it made me think of something I saw
Speaker:on threads and you can, you can choose not to answer if you don't want
Speaker:to, but I saw someone post like the
Speaker:contact information of.
Speaker:People at these different companies. It was like a list of like
Speaker:50 or something like that, and they just put it out there and
Speaker:they're in the comments. There was, you know, some banter about whether they should
Speaker:have done this or should not have done this. So, as a
Speaker:PR professional, what's your take on that?
Speaker:People just sharing context on social media like that.
Speaker:yeah, I'm definitely against it. I think it's, it's, it's very
Speaker:unprofessional. Um, and especially when
Speaker:it is. Personal emails, like it has
Speaker:the person's name, like Tiffany at Core Water, you know what I
Speaker:mean? Like, y'all don't email that. I don't even know if that exists.
Speaker:Okay. Don't, to be like, Oh my goodness. I love Core Water.
Speaker:Uh, Do not. I don't know if there's a Tiffany that works or anything of
Speaker:the sort. I don't even know what their URL is, but anyhow, their domain is
Speaker:so. Especially when it's that, and you probably saw the same
Speaker:thread that, um, my PR girlfriend, Reagan, saw
Speaker:she brought this up to me. We were just talking about this yesterday,
Speaker:yesterday, um, because she,
Speaker:algorithm is different on threads, you know, everyone. Right. So.
Speaker:Majority of mine, I feel because I started talking about more podcasts on
Speaker:there is a lot of podcast people, but now it's starting to be a mix
Speaker:of like journalists and like PR people. Um, but on
Speaker:hers, she sees a lot of PR stuff first, actually, right?
Speaker:And she was saying, she says, man, I need to start doing some lives
Speaker:because. this misconception of PR on threads is
Speaker:crazy and she says and people are selling these lists I'm like
Speaker:what and she's like, yeah, and I'm like, it's like illegal
Speaker:Like if I was to find my name on this list or hear that my
Speaker:name was on this list. I would be very
Speaker:heated um I am against that
Speaker:1000 percent and I want to encourage you guys
Speaker:is Is You can find this information
Speaker:out by just doing the research now. If you still want to
Speaker:say, and I don't know how much money they're selling these lists for, or it
Speaker:sounds like they just posted it out there, you know, for free. But if you
Speaker:come across anyone that's selling a list, if you still want to do it, you
Speaker:know, that's totally up to you. But here's the thing. I
Speaker:encourage you to question yourself about how serious you
Speaker:are. your business or about your personal brand that you're
Speaker:just always looking for this easy way out y'all. I'm just being so
Speaker:transparent right now. yourself to say, you know what,
Speaker:I'm not going to purchase that list for 47. You
Speaker:know, yeah, it's under 50. That's you say, that's nothing. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker:But I challenge you if you're looking for someone at women's health magazine,
Speaker:men's health, the today show, whatever it may be that you challenge
Speaker:yourself to find them yourself. There's so
Speaker:much, um, in you finding that out.
Speaker:I'll even tell you, if you're looking to be on, you know, local news or
Speaker:even national news, the person that you are looking for is the producer.
Speaker:Sometimes, you know, on Twitter, the, um, the anchors, they
Speaker:have their email address, um, there as well. You can reach out to them, but
Speaker:nine, nine times out of 10, if they get your email and they
Speaker:are, they liked the story, they're going to send it to their producer. So it's
Speaker:really the producer that you guys need to need to find.
Speaker:again, I'm just, I'm against it. Call me old school. but that's
Speaker:how I found my contacts. Even before all these databases popped up and
Speaker:everything. And before you could like schedule emails to go out at
Speaker:a certain time, I was getting up at like 4:30 four o'clock in the
Speaker:morning, calling the assignment desk because the morning producer
Speaker:is going to be there at that time because I want to get my client
Speaker:on the morning news. so I need that, I need that email address. So I
Speaker:need to, I need to call the assignment desk. Because they're, they're
Speaker:going to be on site. You see what I'm saying, you guys. So I encourage
Speaker:you to do the work. That's why I'm such an advocate actually
Speaker:going into, um, into this. Another kind of like subject is, this
Speaker:is why I always speak about learn before you hire.
Speaker:Don't just always look out, you know, the easy way of, I'm just going to
Speaker:buy this and I'm just going to hire this person to do that. And I'm
Speaker:just, what if this list doesn't work anymore?
Speaker:These are old email addresses or whatever, or. if
Speaker:they're just putting it out there for free. I don't know,
Speaker:whatever happens to that, this person is like, well, where did you get my email
Speaker:from? What are you going to say? Threads?
Speaker:Okay. Well, I'm going to block you now. You know, I mean, it's just on,
Speaker:these are certain things to ask yourself, you know, you guys. So
Speaker:yeah, I'm against it. Um, do the work. Do the
Speaker:work. And even you just telling that story about how you used to wake up
Speaker:early to make that phone call. Like, I think social media has made us
Speaker:want the easy way for everything in business. And it's like,
Speaker:before social media, there was so much work,
Speaker:not in like a draining way, but you had to do some work to get.
Speaker:Some headway in your business. And it's like, that has just totally been
Speaker:taken away from social media. So I'm glad that you mentioned that because
Speaker:that kind of stuff is still works and it does pay off. Um,
Speaker:now I did want to ask, so if this person pitches, they send their picture
Speaker:or whatever, and they don't hear back, is there like a cadence where
Speaker:they should follow up or what does that look like? So,
Speaker:um, I do like three follow ups and here's the
Speaker:thing. Just think that this journalist or even the producer
Speaker:they are getting I'll say this. This was maybe about
Speaker:two or three years ago. was speaking to a journalist and she said
Speaker:that on average she receives about like 75 to
Speaker:100 emails a day people pitching her for stories,
Speaker:right? It's not like you send your pitch
Speaker:out on a Monday and if they don't respond
Speaker:by Monday evening, you're like, hi, so and so, I just wanted to follow up.
Speaker:You know, they just may not have gotten to it. And so you need to
Speaker:factor that in as well as, uh, the follow up time.
Speaker:so if you send it out on Monday, I would say maybe like
Speaker:Wednesday or Thursday is, you know, uplift, you know,
Speaker:that email for them. And then of course the following week,
Speaker:maybe the next like Wednesday or Thursday, and if you don't hear from them,
Speaker:that's fine. Here's the thing. Don't take it personal. They
Speaker:still may have not gotten to your email. actually still may
Speaker:have read your email and archived it because maybe
Speaker:in 30 days they're going to reach out to you
Speaker:because this is going to be great for this story. They may have
Speaker:opened the email. just forgot it may be in their
Speaker:spam so they won't find it until x amount of time frame
Speaker:anyways It's so many different things of
Speaker:Where don't let the the first thing that you think about
Speaker:is They're not interested You know, my story brings no
Speaker:value right now. Some of them, it would be nice if
Speaker:they opened it up, happen to open it up and say, okay, thanks. This is
Speaker:a great story, but this is just not a good fit at this time. Takes
Speaker:you seconds, right? To do that. It would be great if they do that, but
Speaker:of course try to get into their their mind. They
Speaker:have a ton of emails. And so some of them actually will open up your
Speaker:email and never respond. You know, and that's
Speaker:just, and that's just what it is, right? There's no guarantee.
Speaker:You can't force anyone to open up your email, let alone them respond to your
Speaker:email. Um, you just have to, um,
Speaker:Keep on the journey, you know, like believe
Speaker:in yourself. I will say this. If you've emailed
Speaker:maybe like 50 people, outlets, and you haven't
Speaker:heard from anyone, then maybe you do need to go back,
Speaker:maybe look for someone to consult with that it's NPR and say,
Speaker:Hey, can you at least, you know, review my, my media pitch, or
Speaker:maybe. You'll have other research that you can tap into where you
Speaker:tweak, you know, your story there, there may be a reason with that. If you
Speaker:haven't heard back from anyone and it's been like? 50 emails that you sent
Speaker:out. That's super insightful. And I know as a publicist,
Speaker:you do this for your clients. Do you also offer
Speaker:like teaching, um, how to pitch? So someone can do this
Speaker:themselves. Tell us more about that. Yes. So, and I'm, I'm going to be
Speaker:bringing back some of those things. Um, as well, because I used to
Speaker:teach on this all the time, uh, title is one of our services ready set
Speaker:pitch, but the webinar was ready set pitch of where I actually told,
Speaker:showed people how to, how to pitch themselves and people have
Speaker:had, you know, great, great success. So I would say if
Speaker:anyone is interested in that now, you're like.
Speaker:this is great, but I do not have the capacity or whatever. Just
Speaker:send me a DM, can schedule a time to talk on, IG
Speaker:at Candace Nicole PR. but really what that is about
Speaker:is I'm teaching you how to
Speaker:formulate your media pitch. thinking about the different angles to
Speaker:suggest to them. and it's because what you don't want to do is have a
Speaker:great story, but then you don't give them. prompts of
Speaker:like, this is my idea for a segment. It's like, you're, you're wanting
Speaker:them to do all the work. This is a great story. And now I have
Speaker:to figure out how I'm going to, you know, present this on the air or
Speaker:whatever, already have some, some ideas in place, even how to
Speaker:find, media contacts, um,
Speaker:different platforms that you can join of where leads will come to you.
Speaker:you just tell them what you want to hear about, or you upload yourself as
Speaker:a source on this website, Quoted is one of them, it's Q
Speaker:W O T E D, you actually upload yourself as a
Speaker:source, and you say, I'm a, I'm a business owner,
Speaker:or if that's not the case, you know, um, I'm an expert in,
Speaker:and civil engineering, software creation, or whatever that may be, if
Speaker:you're a woman, Put that there. Um, if you're a
Speaker:founder of something, if you happen to be, you put that there. So therefore,
Speaker:if someone at us, weekly is looking to speak to,
Speaker:uh, someone who's an expert in civil engineering,
Speaker:query will end up in your inbox. Because you
Speaker:have put that hashtag that you are an
Speaker:expert in civil engineering. Now, it may be a question that you can't
Speaker:like answer or whatever, or maybe something for you. And then you can submit
Speaker:yourself and you may be able to be quoted in us weekly. Um, so I
Speaker:break down like free things, cause that's always a big thing for people who
Speaker:are looking to learn how to pitch themselves
Speaker:is Well, how do I get, you know, these queries, these
Speaker:leads that everyone is talking about? So it is a lot of
Speaker:great, great leads out there. Wow.
Speaker:That's, that's good to know. And um, we'll put information
Speaker:for those webinars that you're going to do in the show description and all those
Speaker:things, but you've really given us a lot of great information for how
Speaker:to pitch yourself. I'm like over here in trees, like, Ooh, maybe I need to
Speaker:look into this for 2025 for myself. So
Speaker:if you have any final tips that you want to wrap up with, you can
Speaker:do that. If not, we can segue into our quick, rapid
Speaker:fire questions. I would say no matter what,
Speaker:always remain a student, um, in your life, in your
Speaker:personal life, in your professional life. We do not know everything. I'm
Speaker:always learning something new. about myself, but then
Speaker:also just within my career. a lot of people like, I
Speaker:don't need to know anything else. I don't, I don't need to take another webinar.
Speaker:I don't need another certificate. And I'm like, the lies you tell,
Speaker:um, because everything is evolving. I mean,
Speaker:AI, there are still people who are against AI. And I'm
Speaker:just like, you really need to like, Get,
Speaker:in, in sync with, with everything.
Speaker:Um, because they're starting to talk about it in spaces where you
Speaker:would never think about, right? And here's the thing, you guys
Speaker:look at it, look at AI as it's, it's, it's a tool, you know, it's
Speaker:something that you can use. Like if you have a You know, a brain fart.
Speaker:If you are just stuck, there is now a tool that you can
Speaker:use that can kind of get things moving and you can tweak it your
Speaker:own self, but I've utilized it before. And I'm like, Oh, thank
Speaker:goodness. Because I just could not think any more after eight
Speaker:hours of thinking of how to respond to this email a certain way.
Speaker:Right. And I'm like, uh, please create an email where I am
Speaker:declining, blah, blah, blah, blah. And if the subject is about,
Speaker:and I'm like, okay, there you go. Copy and paste, boom.
Speaker:It's, it's a tool, you know, so
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:it's so helpful. Like you said, it's a tool though. It's like, let it be
Speaker:your assistant. So, um, definitely we'll
Speaker:put all of your contact information so people can connect with you in the show
Speaker:description. So to wrap up, let's just do a quick rapid fire
Speaker:this or that. Um, so or
Speaker:Tea. Tea. Oh,
Speaker:really? Everybody always says coffee. What's your favorite
Speaker:kind of tea?
Speaker:I would say green, yeah, green tea
Speaker:and, um, green tea, like by itself, like nothing is in
Speaker:there, Yeah.
Speaker:morning person or night owl. uh,
Speaker:night owl. I need to be working on, uh, my early
Speaker:person's out, but I am a night owl. Yes, same
Speaker:here. Um, okay, last one because I know you have connections in both areas,
Speaker:DMV or Queen City?
Speaker:Now see, this is, this is
Speaker:challenging because there's no place
Speaker:like home.
Speaker:Oh man, can I play the fifth? Um, so,
Speaker:uh, okay, okay I'm gonna, I'm gonna,
Speaker:I'm gonna say this. Of where I am right now in this season,
Speaker:it is Charlotte. I have the queen city. I
Speaker:have always described this city as, um, I've had a
Speaker:love affair with it because I've seen so much
Speaker:growth with the business here with myself
Speaker:personally. Um, and even
Speaker:before getting married and, you know, now I'm expecting, I saw
Speaker:so much change, you know, in, in myself,
Speaker:um, the DMV, like I said, it's home. There's, there's no comparison. It's,
Speaker:you know, You're on, what is it, like Constitution Avenue
Speaker:Independence, and you're just like, oh, it's just so nice. And I could just get
Speaker:out and walk around and go to the museums for free. Um,
Speaker:it doesn't exist anywhere else. I remember I'm like, what do you mean I have
Speaker:to pay to get into this museum? It's free back home. Yeah, it's the nation's
Speaker:capital. That's why it is, uh, you guys. But I didn't realize you had to
Speaker:pay to get into, and this is adult age. I never realized you had to,
Speaker:like, pay to get into other museums. I thought it was like
Speaker:free. Um, but as of right now, definitely it would be the
Speaker:Queen City. And it's just because of all the, the
Speaker:new things that have been blooming, you know, in
Speaker:my, in my life. And it's still, it's a great city
Speaker:to be in. Honestly, it really is. And I think definitely to, to
Speaker:raise, raise the family. Yes, I,
Speaker:so I'm in the DMV now. I'm originally from Philly. Living in
Speaker:DMV now, but I was in the Carolinas, like
Speaker:right on the border between, between them when I was pregnant with my daughter,
Speaker:fell in love with it down there. So after my husband retires, he has like
Speaker:two more years in the military. We're going to head back down that way. Like
Speaker:in the next five years, cause it's just, I don't know. It's just something about
Speaker:down there. I'm like, It's so peaceful and it's
Speaker:blooming as well. It's like city and suburbs. So
Speaker:I totally get it. Yep. But, um, Enjoy this
Speaker:conversation. I'm going to be thinking about how I'm going to pitch myself to the
Speaker:media soon. and like I said before, we're going to put all of your
Speaker:information in the show description. thank you for all of the information that you
Speaker:share with us, your perspective, your 17 plus
Speaker:years. of experience. I know people
Speaker:definitely benefit from it and we will see you
Speaker:guys in the next episode. Thank you. Thank you for
Speaker:listening to the Mom CEO Suite Podcast. If you enjoyed
Speaker:this episode, can you do us a favor? Leave a review on
Speaker:iTunes and share with other moms in business like you.
Speaker:Help us spread our message and empower others who are at this intersection
Speaker:of motherhood and entrepreneurship.
