10 Ways to Get Press for Your Brand with Kristin Marquet

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Hello and welcome to Shedding the Bitch Radio, where you can discuss, debate, and get advice on how to discover and shed the bitches of fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negative mindsets so you can realize your dreams and life purpose and create and accelerate the riches you want in life. Join us here live every Tuesday at noon Eastern and dialogue with us at 818-572-2910. You can also chat with us at BlogTalkRadio.com. Talk radio, Shedding the Bitch, or share your stories on our website at sheddingthebitch.com. Whatever the bitch is that's holding you back from living your life to the fullest, it's not worth giving up the riches in life that you deserve. So call in now and let Bernadette Boas know what's holding you back.

818-572-2910. Good day, good day, good day everyone. It is such a pleasure to be here to talk with you today, at least live. I You probably noticed over the last couple of weeks we had had our show prerecorded because I'm just getting back from my Gilligan's Island trip. I've told you about in the past. I kind of ran off to a remote island in Canada that had no electricity and no connectivity, and I disconnected for a couple of weeks. I brought my little doggie Coco with me, and we just frolicked in the water. I actually pulled my ass muscle trying to water ski. Heads up, all you 55, 56-year-olds out there, water ski, but stretch before you even attempt it, because I'd like to think my body is strong and capable, but my buttock said no, it's not. So I have a little bit of a sciatica, pulled muscle, butt, whatever you want to call it, issue going on. So I'm home and at the same time when you don't have connectivity, it's a beautiful thing. It's a bad thing when all of a sudden you have some major roof leak issues due to the torrential rains we'd had here for a couple of weeks. And then also our, my, the house AC went out. Now that might not be a problem if I actually, since I was actually out of town. But I actually rent my home and those poor residents, those poor renters, had some things to deal with. So, uh, so I'm back, and you might hear some folks, um, outside because I do have roofing people here, I have AC people here, um, and, uh, so Coco might get a little feisty, but that's okay, that's all right, all is good. And sadly though, I will say, um, even talking with my AC guy who has bent over backwards to, uh, be here, uh, the issue, it happened Saturday, and he's been here like 2 or 3 times trying to fix the issue, and he just told me that, uh, amongst all, you know, uh, on top of all this, uh, his mother just passed away yesterday. So we can all say a little prayer for AAA Electric, uh, because I love them. I've been working with them for years. Looking to, uh, hear that while he's still trying to take care of his clients. Now that's customer service for you. But anyway, all is well. I'm glad to be back. And then I do wanna do our usual shout out and prayer. Mother Nature continues to wreak her wrath. And so all of those in the Northeast, which is where all of my family is, as well those dealing with fires anywhere around the world, prayers and angels are flying your way from everybody within the Shed in the Bitch community. And our hearts go out. And please reach out should you need anything. Because that's what we're here for. All right, you might have heard some laughter in the background. No, that was not Deborah. Deborah is not on today.

Boo-hoo-hoo.

But our guest, and I'm so excited to have this conversation with her because it's something that you all, when you run into me, whether it's in my coaching sessions or my training programs or my speaking engagements, you ask me, you know, how do you always get, you know, get in front of people? And how not literally, but even from a publicity, from a PR, from a social media, you're everywhere. And thank God for people like Deborah, and in this case for Kristin, because no business does it alone, no individual, a celebrity, whomever, we don't do it alone. We need a lot of help from the experts. So we're going to be talking about the power of PR, public relations, how to leverage publicity an expert. Now I want you to be paying attention to what— talk about because you're going to get exactly what you need if you have any desire to bring awareness and attention and a wow factor to you individually or maybe it's your business. So you— we're going to talk about how to find the right media contacts, what's considered newsworthy Even myself, I have a media company, and even from a radio guest perspective, you wonder if they ever do any research on you because they'll come to me with subjects and topics and opportunities that have nothing to do with you, our Shed in the Bitch community. So we want to make sure you're right and you're targeting the right people because none of us have the time or the effort or the money to spend targeting the wrong people. Then we're going to talk about how to draft a press release. Love this subject. So that's going to be fun. Media follow-up etiquette, and follow-up is the key word. Got to have etiquette in there. Many people lack etiquette. Many people lack even more the follow-up. And how to leverage the power of PR. So you know our drill, and for our guests and those that are listening for the first time, What we do is we pose a rich question to you, something to think about on this subject that can kind of ground you for the conversation. And most likely our guests will answer that question or support you in that question, and sometimes maybe not. We only have an hour. So what we would want you to do is I'll make sure you have all the contact information of our guests. You'll be able to reach out through our Facebook, Twitter page, Shedding the Bits. You can get to me numerous ways, as you all know. So your rich question, is going to be, what is the one goal, just one, let's not get overwhelmed, but what is the one goal you have for yourself or your business? Now once you ground yourself in that question, you're going to be able to hear all the wonderful tips and advice that our guest has for you and again, if you're looking for something different, something more, then you can always reach out to her. The Rich Tags, if you're on Facebook or Twitter, even LinkedIn, you can use Rich Tags Publicity #BrandAwareness and hashtag, of course, #ShedTheBitch. So when we get back, I'm going to introduce you to our lively, fun, and very, very resourceful expert on publicity, and then we'll dive into this conversation. And I will be right back.

You are listening to Shedding the Bitch Radio with Bernadette Boas. We are inspiring individuals around the globe to discover, confront, confront and shed their bitches of fear, insecurity, and negativity so they can create the riches in their career, business, and life they deserve. Be sure to check out Bernadette Boas' book, Shedding the Corporate Bitch: Shifting from Bitch to Rich in Life and Business, available on Amazon and sheddingthebitch.com. We also want to thank our sponsors, TSR Consulting, who offers a broad range of tax services for small to corporate-sized clients. Go to TSRConsulting.com to learn more. And Parker House Virtual Services, who provides virtual assistance and social media support for small to medium-sized businesses. Email Deborah Parker at deborahparker78@gmail.com for more information. To become a sponsor or advertiser on our program, email us at mediarelations@sheddingthebitch.com. Shedding the Bitch Radio airs every Tuesday at noon Eastern time. Be sure to go to blogtalkradio.com/sheddingthebitchradio and follow the program for all of the updates and announcements of our guests and show topics. Now let's return to Bernadette and Shedding the Bitch Radio.

Welcome back everyone. We're talking PR. How can you leverage publicity? To become an expert. And our guest, Kristin Marquette, is the creative director of Creative Development Agency. As the creative director, she has forged successful partnerships with wellness and fitness expert Taylor Kennedy, celebrity fashion designer and correspondent Envy Nic Barrios— I hope I pronounced that right— French accessory designer Mona Rosset, and many more. She has generated media placements in the Wall Street Journal, the Today Show, Seventeen, Glamour, and Elle magazines, Refinery29.com, and countless other outlets. She is passionate about learning. Kristin has advanced studies in data and marketing analytics. She attended MIT, Boston University, and New York University and holds degrees in literature and marketing. She's also contributed to Forbes.com, Inc.com, HuffingtonPost.com, Entrepreneur.com, and NewYorkDailyNews.com. In July of 2018, she co-authored with celebrity entrepreneur Michelle Lewis the book Publicity Jumpstart: 10 Ways to Get Your Brand in the Press, and recently joined the Young Entrepreneur Council. Wow, Kris, and you are one busy woman. How are you?

Yes, I'm good, I'm good. Just, uh, trying to stay cool in this oppressive New York City summer. Um, but yeah, thank you so much for having me.

Absolutely. Love, love, love this topic. Love this, um, overall kind of value that can be gained, uh, for our listeners. So, but before we get into kind of the specifics. Tell us a little bit about yourself, about your story, and why this area of work is so important to you.

It's interesting. So when I graduated from college a million years ago, I was thinking about going to law school. So, you know, I had taken the LSAT and I was getting ready to apply to, you know, like the top 5 law schools in the Northeast, and because I'm actually from New Jersey and have lived in New York, went to school in Boston, so, you know, I'm an East Coast gal, and my whole family is on the East Coast as well. So, when I had graduated from college, like I said, I was looking to apply to law school and enter the law, and so in the meantime, I was looking for a job in the legal field, but I didn't want to be a legal secretary or a paralegal, so it was just that— it was kind of serendipitous because I actually ended up landing ended up getting a job as a PR manager for an international law firm. So, I was able to get exposure to the communication side as well as the legal side. After being there for a year, I absolutely decided that this was not for me. I do not want to go to law school, thank goodness. I married a lawyer, so you know how that would have been. Two lawyers living in one house? No, I don't think so. So, after a year of working in the legal field, I ended up working for a Big Four management consulting firm as a PR and communications director. Then during the financial crisis, my entire office, actually the entire Northeast, all of our offices were shut down. So, at that point, I was kind of left to my own devices and I said, "Okay, well, you know what? I have a background in, you know, marketing and PR. I could either go find a job Or I can start my own consultancy. So, at that point, trying to find a job at the level in which I was used to working was very, very competitive. It was very difficult. So, I said, "You know what? I have 3 freelance clients. Let's see what I can make of this thing." Within 6 months, I scaled up to a full-service agency with 30 clients, had a bunch of people on my team that I was working with. I did that for years and years. Then in 2017, I had— I mean, throughout the years I had so many entrepreneurs, particularly creative female entrepreneurs that wanted to hire a PR firm or wanted to learn the publicity process, but they didn't have the funds to spend to hire a PR firm. Because let's admit it, a reputable PR firm, You're going to be paying at least $5,000 a month, at least. Upwards of $10,000, $15,000 to get the attention that you need to grow. That's how FemFounder came about. I offer very high-level, one-to-one PR coaching and consulting through there. We also— FemFounder is essentially an online resource. That gives female entrepreneurs pretty much like all of the information that they need to start their own campaigns on their own without buying courses and books and hiring a freelancer or consultant or anything. Interestingly enough, that's actually how I met my co-author, Michelle Anderson Lewis, was through launching— you know, FemFounder, and she and I have become very close, and that's why we decided to write the book. And, you know, we were fortunate enough to have people support us, and, you know, we hit number 1 on Amazon in all of our categories, all of our stated categories. So it's been, yeah, it's been an amazing ride, and, you know, I'm just really excited to share a very abbreviated version of all my PR knowledge with your audience.

Right. Well, that's awesome. Yes, she mentioned the book. Well, first off, she mentioned her website, Femm, as in F-E-M-M, FemmFounder.com or .co, .co, so go check that out. Then her book, again with Michelle Lewis, is Publicity Jumpstart: 10 Ways to Get Your Brand In the Press. And if you're struggling to actually find those clients, you know, that you actually love, to keep your pipeline full and actually get the income ebb and flow that you want, then you definitely want to check out her work, uh, femfounder.co, as well as her book, Publicity Jumpstart: 10 Ways to Get Your Brand in the Press. So look that up. And again, she was number 1, so it is— it will be very easy to find it. All right, so around this subject, someone has a company. Well, let's break it down to where we're thinking about there's individuals that want to, you know, kind of get publicity for themselves, um, and then there's, you know, companies that want awareness and publicity for their businesses. So what should they be thinking about even before they get started? What do they need to be putting in place or planning for?

Well, first of all, you need to make sure before you start any PR campaign, you want to make sure that you have your brand solidified. You want to make sure that you have your messaging tight, you have your website developed, and the other thing is you want to make sure that you have an active social media presence. Because when you pitch a journalist, and I'm sure, you know, Bernadette, you can attest to this being a media professional, Before you book somebody or before you request more information about an entrepreneur or a company, you want to see what their background is. You want to see what their online footprint is all about. You know, so you're going to check out their social media portals. You're going to want to make sure that they're active. You don't have to have a huge following. You just want to make sure that you have your messaging consistent and tight and that you have a cohesive aesthetically pleasing brand. So that's where it starts with. I hate to say it, but we live in a very visual world. And in order to be taken seriously by the media, that's the first place that you have to start. The second thing is, once you have your website and your social media portals, you have your headshots, you have everything, all those assets ready to go, Then you want to start thinking about what makes you newsworthy. What can you offer to the media to help make their jobs easier? How are you going to inform, educate, entertain, persuade their audiences? You want to think about essentially, yeah, what makes you different from all of the other competitors out there, and why a journalist at Forbes Forbes or the New York Times or the Today Show— producer at the Today Show should cover you over your competition.

Right. Well, before we, before we get into that, let me just ask you to go back to that one statement that you made about readiness. And this actually— somebody came to me with exactly the scenario you had painted earlier. So ensure that our audience also learns that it's not just a, you know, just a website. If they want to become an expert, which is one of the main one of the main things that we're talking about, right, is to get publicity or to build yourself as an expert. Does that also mean, and we don't, it's not, this is not a website conversation at all, but I just want to make sure our listeners have the understanding. Does it mean that they can have an aesthetic website, they can, it can be up to date, it could be very aligned to what it is they do and what their message is. Do they need to be providing— you know, like a regular blog, video, training bits and pieces? Because I get a lot of people who say, "I just don't have the time or energies because I'm so busy with client work, yet at the same time I do want to be an expert." Yes, absolutely.

So that's actually a great question, and for sure you definitely want to share your knowledge to become a thought leader in some type of medium, whether it's through video, whether it's through blogging, whether it's through a podcast. But yeah, you definitely want to— I generally recommend for my clients that tell me that they don't have the time to blog or to do videos, I usually tell them to just start off with one blog post a month. While they build their email list and their thought leadership. And if you have an iPhone, you don't even have to type it out. You can just dictate the text in some type of notebook app or something, and then send it to somebody to transcribe on Fiverr for like $5, and you have a blog post. Or if you are so inclined to transcribe it yourself, you can do that too. But I mean, there really is no excuse with all the technology and all the tools that we have available to us today that we can't get our knowledge out in the digital ecosphere.

Right, right. And because the press and the media are going to go right to those sources to just kind of validate your expertise credibility.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Okay.

Okay.

Cool.

All right. So then we moved on to the fact that you can have all those things, but at the same time you may not have anything that's newsworthy. Well, let's rephrase that. You want to ensure that you have something newsworthy, you know, something that's going to be relevant to media. So what makes something newsworthy?

Great question. There are a lot of different ways to slice up your business and pitch it. One would be a new product launch. If you are a new service launch, if you are a coach or a service provider, an agency owner, if you're entering a new space, if you're opening a new store, something that a new hire, let's see, something that's controversial, something that if you win an award, if you are putting on some type of event, then you can— if none of those things are happening in your world, then you can look to see what's trending in the national news and see how you can piggyback off something, some major headline, or if you have a seasonal business, some type of— if you can tie your business to the season. For instance, we're in summer right now if you're a personal trainer. You only have 2 weeks left of summer, but you can say, "Okay, well, you know what? There are 2 weeks left of summer. You can still spend Labor Day weekend on the beach with your beach body." So there are a lot of different ways that you can really make your business unique that isn't really full of fluff.

Right, right, right. That you can actually take a piece of news and turn it into something that has tangible, actionable, valuable pieces of content that a media resource, whether that— and when you're talking, let's make sure we clear this up too. So when we're talking this publicity at press and media, we're also talking about all forms of it. We're talking about whether it's a radio show, a television show, something in print, online, or physical, correct?

Absolutely. Absolutely. And yeah, it could even— publicity could even trickle down to influencer marketing. And we can chat about that later on. The lines are so blurred between social media and blogging. Public relations. But yeah, for the purpose of this portion of the conversation, yes, broadcast, meaning radio, podcast, television, digital, or print.

Right.

Okay. All right. So we've talked about, you know, what makes something newsworthy. What is it— where does the person come into play? So you have a piece of content, you have an expertise, in something, but then, you know, media also wants to know that you are— and in radio I run into this a lot— they want to know that you're actually newsworthy yourself, but also there's an— I don't want to call it an appearance because it's not whether or not, you know, how you look, but it is how you engage and how you will be good in that conversation. And am I making sense?

Yeah, absolutely. And there is a lot of plausibility to what you are saying, particularly with broadcast media. I know that when I am booking, for instance, and then I will kind of clear up your question, but I will answer your question. But I know that for instance, if I am booking a client on the Today Show, those producers require that potential guest or my client to have in between 5 and 8 smaller television clips, because they want to see exactly how the person engages, what their etiquette is, what they look like, how the delivery is going to be, and how their sound bites sound, right? And the same thing goes for radio. And usually if I have a client that is interested in getting into broadcast, media, so again, podcast, television, radio, we'll make sure that they have some type of video footage, whether it's from a speaking engagement, whether it's a mock interview, whether it's previous television coverage for television. If it's audio and we're pitching an NPR or something like Entrepreneur on Fire, then we'll make sure that we have some audio clips. For the producer to review before booking the client. And, you know, you can have that very simply available, you know, on your website. We can kind of talk about that, you know, in a minute. But, uh, right, right.

So, so someone is or unique because of what?

You know what, again, it really is about illustrating your expertise and, you know, saying why you are the clear and obvious choice on this topic, whether it's PR or digital marketing or Instagram marketing or whatever, some type of health coaching, you know, paleo health coaching, whatever it is. But yet, in order to make yourself attractive, to digital and print media, essentially you want to illustrate your expertise whether it is through blogs or videos. And also you want to make sure that you articulate that in your bio, in your media bio. You want to hit on all the points that you can talk about, and again, what makes you the clear and obvious choice. Today because let's admit it, everybody today says that they're an expert and you and I both know that most, more often than not, people are not. You know, they're just—

Right, right.

Wannapreneurs, is that how you pronounce it?

Yeah, wannabe.

Or wannabe experts.

Wannabe experts. Well, and I think that's a valid point because, you know, the one thing about emails and apps and, texting and, you know, and the way people pitch. Seeing it in words is, um, can be very deceiving. And like I said, from a radio perspective, um, I've had several guests— thankfully not many— but I've had several guests that I love the subject, I love their pitch, and yet I didn't do the due diligence to really understand, um, how engaging they will be on an hour-long or at least 45-minute-long conversation, radio, where it's really difficult to— if you're not accustomed to it, it's difficult to have that engagement. And, you know, unfortunately they fell short of what it is that they really wanted to accomplish and how they wanted to be presented because they weren't— you know, it was training, but at the same time it was also a comfort level. So to all of you out there, That is why there's people like Kristin Marquette of FemFounder.co, because you want to be sure that, you know, you honor all those riches we talk about and you're putting your best foot forward, and every one of those opportunities that you're getting is 100+ percent of what it is that you wanted to deliver on. And so be sure to go to FemFounder.co and check out all of her resources, all of her— she has a PR Academy like she had mentioned. You could certainly go to Amazon and check out her book, Publicity Jumpstart: 10 Ways to Get Your Brand in the Press, and co-authored with Michelle Lewis. All right, let me just check here. I want to make sure I get this one question taken care of as well. So we've talked about newsworthiness. We've talked about almost like what can or should they be doing, and we've talked about becoming an expert. Now, have you found, is there a difference between positioning yourself and becoming an authority online, is there uniqueness to social media than there is to, for instance, writing a blog article or being a public speaker or even doing an interview? Do you coach your clients in different strategies based on the medium that they're using?

Absolutely, because each forum is so different. The way that you convey your expertise in an article on Forbes.com is going to be very different from the way that you talk about it at an industry conference or if you're on television. So absolutely, from the beginning of the campaign, the inception of the campaign, We define exactly what each medium, where they want to get featured, what the messaging platform is going to be, and exactly how we're going to approach each one of those. I could spend hours and hours talking about the differentiation between all of them. But the simple way to put it is the way that you end up pitching yourself To become a guest contributor to Inc. or Entrepreneur is going to be very different from the way that you pitch yourself to become a panelist or moderator or keynote speaker at a conference versus pitching yourself for television versus pitching yourself for radio or a podcast.

Right. Okay. So we want to talk about that. So we're going to take a quick break, and then we do want to talk about that as briefly— not as briefly. Appropriately as we can, as relevant as we can, and, you know, in a compressed time frame. But I think that that would be a great little tidbit, you know, to show that differentiation. Would you agree?

Oh, absolutely, because I don't think that many PR experts really do talk about it.

Right, I would agree with you there. Absolutely. All right, then we're going to take this break and we'll be right back with our guest Kristen Marquette of Creative Director of— I'm sorry, of Creative Development Agency. Please go to femfounder.co for more information. We'll be right back.

You are listening to Shedding the Bitch Radio with Bernadette Boas. We are inspiring individuals around the globe to discover, confront, and shed their bitches of fear, insecurity, and negativity so they can create the riches in their career, business, business and life they deserve. Be sure to check out Bernadette Boas' book, Shedding the Corporate Bitch: Shifting from Bitch to Rich in Life and Business, available on Amazon and sheddingthebitch.com. We also want to thank our sponsors, TSR Consulting, who offers a broad range of tax services for small to corporate-sized clients. Go to TSRConsulting.com to learn more. And Parker House Virtual Services, Services, who provides virtual assistance and social media support for small to medium-sized businesses. Email Deborah Parker at deborahparker78@gmail.com for more information. To become a sponsor or advertiser on our program, email us at mediarelations@sheddingthebitch.com. Shedding the Bitch Radio airs every Tuesday at noon Eastern time. Be sure to go to blogtalkradio.com/sheddingthebitchradio and follow the program for all of the updates and announcements of our guests and show topics. Now let's return to Bernadette and Shedding the Bitch Radio.

Welcome back everyone. We are talking publicity and how you can get the— and leverage the publicity you need to become an expert. And we're talking with Chris Kristin Marquette of the Creative Development Agency. FemFounder.co is where you want to go and check out her work and how she can support you in your efforts to get the publicity, get the media attention, and get the wow that you want for yourself and/or your business. So before we went on break, we were talking, we were getting into the pitch. How to pitch and how to present yourself to get that piece of media attention that you're looking for. And Kristin had mentioned that it's different of how you pitch, you know, because you want to present yourself as an expert maybe for a conference versus a radio or television piece or something online. So Kristin, I'll let you take the lead. How would you break it down and what are one or two tips advice that you would provide in each of those areas for our listeners?

Great question. Okay. So I want to start off by talking a little bit about guest writing or guest contributing because that's such a huge area that I get questions about. My clients, particularly through FemFounder, they always want to submit articles to Inc. and Entrepreneur and Forbes and The Huffington Post. And really what it comes down to is you want to, if you are going to be pitching yourself for a byline or to become a regular contributor to one of these websites or print media publications, you essentially want to pitch a larger topic idea. And I think that the pitches that usually do the best are how-to posts, or maybe why posts, or posts that are listicles, because those publications want your articles to be digestible, easy to read, and easy to share. And it should be, I would say, limited to 2 paragraphs, and you want to include your bio. And it's really that simple. You also want to make sure that you reach out to the right editor, and you can find that person simply through LinkedIn, the online masthead, or Twitter. You know, that's generally— well, when I started in the industry, before, you know, I had access to a media database, that's exactly what I did. And, you know, all of those platforms are updated relatively frequently, so, you know, I want to say 80% of the time you're going to be pitching the right person. So hope that makes sense.

Yeah, that does. So, but let's be clear, let me ask you to clarify something. Uh, so the 2 paragraphs, that made sense. Give them an idea of how long or short their bio should be, because I get everything from a page and a half to like a couple of set— to a couple of sentences. What is the appropriate bio?

200 words or fewer. The shorter the better. Because as you know, Bernadette, as media professional, you literally have like 3 seconds to look over a pitch. So if you have to sit there and read a bio that's 750 words, nobody is going to read that, right? Right.

Right.

So I would say 200 words, the shorter the better. I generally try to keep mine like in between 100 and 200. But yeah, the tighter, the more succinct, The more concise you can make it, the better off you're going to be.

Yep, yep. And then you mentioned the media databases. Now this was a big thing a couple of years ago, but so now with LinkedIn, you know, becoming such a juggernaut that it is, and you can get and find these people much easier than the— I don't know if it's an old school, so that's the question I have. Is it old school for people to have to pay a lot of money to get their hands on a media database?

No, I wouldn't say that it's old school. I would just say it's just not an appropriate allocation of resources, especially, you know, if you're a startup. I mean, if you're generating, you know, a quarter of a million dollars a year or more, then I would say then you can start to look at that, you know, and have that conversation. But, you know, I would say, you know, most small businesses that are just starting out, they can't afford to spend $10,000 for the year for access to CisionPoint or Agility PR or something along those lines. So just take the time, take the 5 or 10 minutes to research the appropriate editor. Put them into a spreadsheet with their title, their email address, their name, and make sure that you spell their name correctly, especially when you pitch them. And then you can actually even include a section that has your status notes in terms of when you pitch them, you know, what angle you pitch them, when you were going to follow up and all that, but yeah.

Yeah, okay.

As I digress, sorry.

That's okay, no, that was— I digressed on you, so that's perfectly fine. All right, then going back to the different kind of pitches, what— where would we go next?

Okay, so bylines because I mean everybody I would say, most people that I've worked with throughout the years, they want to get featured in, they want to become a contributor like I said to one of those top 4 publications. Now, if you are interested in pitching yourself for podcasts, you know, it's going to be a little bit different, and I'm sure, again, you can attest to this, Bernadette. You're going to want to essentially make sure that you have it— you know, you want to open your pitch with who you are, your areas of expertise. You're going to want to include 5 to 7 bullet points or talking points more based on exactly how you can engage or entertain or educate their audience. And then again, you're going to want to include a short bio. And your bio would be kind of similar to what you would submit for a byline, but you would actually make it focused a little bit more on you and what your area is— expertise are and all the places that you've been featured, if you've been featured anywhere.

Cool, perfect. All right, is there another area? I think you mentioned like corporate for panels, or—

Yes. Okay, so panel, panel speaking is a little bit different, uh, because I would say 90% of the time those, you know, the conference coordinator or the, the, the booker that's in charge of recruiting speakers They are going to want to see your entire speaker's kit which includes your bio, all of the things that you can talk about except for instead of those 5 to 7 different talking points, I would say you want to include at least 10. And the other thing is you are going to want to include all the places that you have been featured, how large your audience is, whether you're going to share any video footage that you have within your newsletter, on your social media portals. And essentially, the other thing is you're going to want to make sure that you lay it out in a really beautifully designed package like a media kit. Right. And we actually go over all those steps in the book. And I actually have a free media kit template on femfounder.co, which a lot of people actually use as a template for their, their speaker's kit as well.

All right, you guys, you heard it. Femfounder.co. She is one heck of a resource for you and provides you these things complimentary. And of course you can engage her, but at the same time, there's no reason that if you do want publicity for yourself or your business You just need to learn and you just need to get yourself informed as to what it is that companies, businesses, media resources or sources are looking for. Awesome. All right. Now, we touched on this. Is there any other thing that we didn't touch on when it comes to how do those entrepreneurs or even corporate professionals who are also trying to get visibility for themselves, find the right contacts.

Is—

was there anything beyond the databases and the LinkedIn? Is there any other information that they need to have when it comes to finding the right contacts?

Well, yeah, you want to make sure that you— whomever you do end up pitching, you want to make sure that you read their column. You want to make sure that you understand the beats that they cover, the style that they write in, and the tone of the publication. I can't tell you how many times—

Amen.

—as being a media professional and a contributor to all these different publications that I actually get pitched from people that they are trying to pitch me a new health and wellness program. I'm sitting here thinking, I'm going, I cover like female entrepreneurs, that's my beat, you know, innovation, AI, you know. And if these people would have taken, you know, 3 seconds to look at the, the different, um, areas in which I write, you know, they, they probably wouldn't have pitched me, and they would have been able to figure out who the right person is to contact. So it's really important to do your due diligence and know who you're pitching, right? Absolutely, absolutely.

Okay, so that is obviously one, uh, lane, so to speak, of, of work and activity and opportunity that someone has. But they can also engage with and kind of partner with, so to speak, with social media influencers. First, define what— for those that might not understand what that means— what social media influencer means, and then What do they need to do to get kind of LinkedIn with them?

Okay, well, a social media influencer is somebody that has influence on a social media platform. It's that simple. So it's somebody that— I mean, they don't necessarily have to have a huge following, but it's somebody that has a very loyal and engaged following and could actually persuade their followers to engage in something. A certain type of behavior, whether it's a sale or a download or something along those lines. Today, I would say most influencers are most notable on Instagram. They seem to have the most cachet when it comes to influence. Now, here's the thing. Depending on the influencer and depending on what you have to offer, I'm going to say 85% of the time, the influencer is going to charge a sponsorship fee for you to endorse your product or give you a shout out. So if you are looking to get a shout out or get your product or something featured in an Instagram post or even on a blog, yeah, like 80-85% of the time you are going to have to pay for it.

So they don't do it.

So yeah, it's kind of more pay for play, right? Right.

And what if you had a huge following and you're willing to kind of cross-promote them? Do they care about that? It depends, you know.

I mean, yeah, it really depends. So if an influencer has 10,000 engaged followers on Instagram and you have 5,000, it's probably not going to happen. But if you have 15,000 and that person has 10, yes. There's a pretty good chance you're going to be able to get coverage from them.

Right. And why? I mean, it sounds very apparent as to why someone in our audience might want to use and connect with social media influencers. But what is the real value and the benefit to them?

Well, they usually have— they are usually more influential than magazine editors. Just case in point, New York Fashion Week. I can't tell you how many influencers are granted front seats within the seating chart over magazine editors. They have more influence and they can drive sales more, more so than magazines. And 10 years ago, I mean, nobody ever thought that influencers would have that type of power, that type of buying power. You know, 10 years ago nobody would have ever thought that this would have became like a real job, and it, it is now, right? It is a job.

It is a job. Um, absolutely. Now, so, but there also is, apart from that, but isn't there a degree of— it's just, it's almost like that whole concept of, um, surround yourself with people that will, you know, that are— you're aligned with, that have, you know, have the same morals and values and whatnot of you, but also can mentor and, you know, teach. Of course, it's not going to be to that extent, but at the same time, you're surrounding yourself and being in a circle of the type of people that you want to attract and you want your followers and fans to be part of. You know, is there something more than just the fact that they can help you, you know, position and build brand awareness for your business or for yourself?

Yeah, I mean, I think it really depends on the business and exactly who, what influencer or blogger or person within that sphere has to offer. I mean, that really is— there really is no one-size-fits-all answer to that question.

Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure. I just thought it just came across my mind going, well, there has to be more than just— but yet at the same time, social media influencers, if it is just a way for you to get your brand or your product or service out there and have someone help you because they have that influence, that's a beautiful thing too. Alright, I don't want to leave this out. I don't want to leave this question out. How can an entrepreneur leverage their press? Because there are things to listen for is that media follow-up etiquette. And leveraging the press for even greater opportunities. What would you say about that?

Yeah, well, first of all, I mean, you want to let everybody know that you've been featured in Oprah or Forbes or Inc., Entrepreneur. Put it all over your website. Put it all over your marketing materials. Let your email list know. Put it on your social media channels. It's really important to let everybody know that you've been featured here and there. And then once people start to see it, or other media professionals see that you've been featured here, here, and here, that opens up the dialogue with other media professionals for more opportunities to book bigger interviews. Case in point, last year— I just like to use this as an example— last year I had an article come out on PR for Entrepreneur.com, and some journalist saw it at Business Week, and I ended up doing an interview on Bloomberg Business Week. Nice. It's just really important that you let everybody know you want to add those logos to your website. You want to say, "As featured in here or there." The more places that you get featured, The more bragging rights you get, the more credible you're going to come across. Right.

And do you run across those clients that you need to kind of coax along because they don't want to boast, they don't want to brag, they don't want to come off as if they're some big shot, arrogant, whatever the case might be, and you just have to say, "Look, but that's what you have to do." Yeah, absolutely.

I tell them, "You just bite the bullet and just do it because nobody's going to brag about you." like the way that, you know, you will. It's true. I mean, if you don't believe in yourself and you don't believe in your own sales pitch and your own publicity and credibility, then why should anybody else? Right. You need to be your first promoter. There's a classy way to do it by just letting people know that you are gracious and honored to be featured in all these different— grateful and honored to be featured in all these different places. You know, you don't want to be a shameless promoter like the Kardashians. You know, you want to have some class and grace when you're doing it. Right, right, right.

And you know, that kind of comes full circle to the fact that we talk— so we're talking here about— sounds very business-oriented, very specific tactical techniques and tips and whatnot, everybody, at the same time it always comes back to what are those bitches that are holding you back that you need to shed and what are those riches, those achievements, those appearances that you have that you should be honoring and positioning and putting out there not only for yourself but also to allow other people to realize and kind of celebrate your achievements and your successes. So you can't be afraid to be your own PR person because like Kristin said, if you don't do it, no one else is going to do it. Although I will caveat that with, but you can then engage Kristin Marquette of the Creative Development Agency to help you and to kind of hold your hand and bring you along and allow you to see just what kind of benefit and opportunities that you will receive if you would just continue to honor those riches and, and allow yourself to be that expert and authority that you are. Um, any last-minute tips or pieces of advice for our listeners, Kristin? This has been—

yeah, you know, don't, don't be afraid to promote yourself. Don't be afraid to reach out to the media. I can't tell you how many times I've had coaching clients say, "Oh my goodness, I don't want to. I'm so afraid. What if they tell me I'm stupid? What if I don't get a response?" You know what? It's all part of the process. Just bite the bullet and do it because if you don't, you're never going to. You're just going to keep on procrastinating. Just have the confidence and the self-belief that you need. To build the credibility that you need to build your business.

And that you deserve because you have that credibility, you just need to honor it for yourself. And I don't know about you, Kristin, but I've actually had media sources thank me for reaching out to them because I happened to hit them right on the great day or I just was filling a gap that they were struggling to fill. So yes, the lack of responses can be frustrating, but you just need to move on from that and you just need to keep going. Because trust me, you can tell from all the content that, that's out there in the world, they need you, they want you, and they want you to be reaching out to them. And if you need support in doing that, then that's what Kristin Marquette is for, of the Creative Development Agency. And then go to femfounder.co and learn all about our resources and how you can engage with her. As well. Be sure to go to Amazon and check out Publicity Jumpstart: 10 Ways to Get Your Brand in the Press. If it was number 1, that means there was a lot of value, a great deal of value in that content that they provided. So, Chris, I want to thank you so much for being part of the program. This has been a great conversation.

Thank you so much for having me. This was so much fun, and I'm so happy that we you know, had the opportunity to chat.

Yes, yes, I was looking forward to it the minute I came across what you were doing. So please stay in touch and we'll probably have you back here again in order to kind of continue the conversation and ensure that our listeners are honoring their riches and getting the publicity for their business or themselves that they deserve. So thank you, Kristin. Awesome, thank you so much. You're welcome, welcome. All right everyone, next week we're going to be talking to Andrea Hall. This is going to be a really cool conversation. First of all, I love horses, but at the same time, you probably all know how horses can heal and what a companion— apart from dogs like I have sitting on my lap— but what a companion a horse can be. So she works to help you get the help you need healing through horse therapy. So that's going to be a fantastic conversation. And then of course we get into the first Tuesday of the month. Can you believe it? It's September! And when Kristen mentioned that summer is nearing the end, I almost like wanted to cry, but it's reality. But our first Tuesday is Ask Bernadette, so get those questions, stories, or challenges, post them to Facebook, Twitter, email me, LinkedIn with me. I get most of them through LinkedIn, but be sure you're getting the questions and the support that you need in order to Shift from Bitch to Rich. Thank you to our guest, Kristen. Thank you to all of you for listening, whether it's live or downloaded, and be sure to subscribe to Shedding the Bitch Radio on BlogTalk and always go to iTunes in order to download our podcast as well. So thank you everyone for a beautiful, beautiful time with you, and I will talk with you right back here next Tuesday at noon Eastern time. Thanks everybody.

Thank you for listening to Shedding the Bitch Radio with Bernadette Boas. Join Bernadette every Tuesday at noon Eastern as she helps you shift your bitches to riches. And the dialogue is always going on at sheddingthebitch.com. See you next week.