How To Get Massive Exposure and Media Coverage with CoachDeb Cole & Brad Costanzo

Hi, I'm Brad Costanzo from Bacon Wrapped Business. Sizzling hot business advice guaranteed to make you fat profits. Look, if you own a business or you could benefit from massive exposure and credibility creating media coverage, you're going to want to pay close attention to my guest today, Debra Cole. Look, these days most media appears to be consumed online, from social networks to YouTube and of course, podcasts. But TV still packs the most powerful punch when it comes to creating crazy credibility, exposure and even trust with clients and customers alike. That's why today's guest is perfect. To reveal the insider secrets to what works in today's competitive and very noisy world, helping you get noticed by those who matter to your business. Debra Cole is a social media pioneer and trailblazer. She's been the host of a national television show, wrote the first book on Twitter and on social media marketing. A woman of many talents, she previously founded and exited a successful software company without writing a single line of code, all while living on the beautiful north shore of Hawaii. Deb, often known as Coach Deb to her followers and clients, now runs a consulting company which takes her all over the world. She's lived everywhere from New York City to Hawaii and even Spain. But now she enjoys living on the beach here in America's finest city. That's right, San Diego. Now, Deb is about to reveal some of the insider secrets about getting on television, something she knows quite a bit about. She's starred in her own award winning television show. She's appeared in several films, commercials, and worked behind the scenes on several Hollywood sets. More importantly, she's also directed and produced shows for other celebrity brands who see her as their secret weapon. So if you own a business that could benefit from massive exposure, whether you want to be a on TV as a guest or you want to start your own show, she's about to guide you through the steps to owning the media and making yourself irresistible to the most influential people in it. Let's go ahead and welcome Deb Cole. So, Deb, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Brad.

You know, it's great to have you here because as somebody in media myself, but as also somebody who benefits from media, both my own businesses, that of my clients, I realize how important it can be, both new media, the online stuff, but also television, which I've been on your national television show. So thank you very much for that.

Yes, you were a great host, you were a great guest, by the way.

Thank you.

One of my favorites.

Thank you.

And I don't say that to everyone. I've had Some practice, just the handsome ones.

Flattery will get you everywhere.

I've learned that. Yes.

So, Deb, I've been always fascinated by the strategies that people use to get attention in the media. And one of the areas that I know very little about is really mass exposure on television. I know a little bit more about how to do it in the digital marketing world. But I really wanted to have you on the show today to share some of your expertise, because you have done, it seems like a lot of things across the entire media space. Right?

I'm older than I look.

Yes.

At least I hope.

21 years old.

No, that's not pushing it.

There's amazing things. That being said, I'd love to hear about a little. Before we jump into the actual heart of how to do it, give us an idea of the story, the journey that's taking you here. How did you get started? How did you discover media and social media, and where did it all begin for you?

I think the first thing I did is I hired someone to really get into it, because when I started my company, I knew I needed to get media exposure. And at the time, Twitter didn't exist.

What company was that?

That's how old I am. RPM Success Group. Okay, that was the name of the first company that I started.

What was RPM Success Group doing?

So it was a consulting company that was primarily to help business owners, entrepreneurs, the small business owner, the mom and pop, give them marketing strategies that would work either on a shoestring budget or really maximizing their budget so it would go further. So that's why when I first started and looked at social media for a marketing perspective, like, this is the best thing for a small business owner, because you can leverage your exposure so much and way more than TV or commercial. Because I noticed if you did a commercial, you were there once, right? On tv. But if you did social media, it was that one video you did. But it lasted a day, again and again, again, people could keep watching it. So once YouTube came on the scene, it was the most exciting thing for me.

Right, so you started off to get exposure for RPM Success Group.

Correct.

So tell me about some of the stuff you started to do early on.

So I first started writing for the newspaper, writing for the local newspaper. And I remember I took a class about getting media exposure. And they're like, don't try to get on Oprah right away. Right. Start with your local news. Start with your local newspaper, your magazines, because then, first of all, you get practice. So that when you do get on Oprah, You've pract. You don't, you know, you don't get nervous, Right. And you. You can flub up on local channels way easier without as much embarrassment as if you get on Oprah. So I started small and I started local. So it was local newspaper, and I literally started writing a weekly column for the Star Bulletin in Hawaii, and it was about social media marketing. Okay. So it started again as marketing, and right as I was writing, the shift was taking place to social media. When was it? And I started writing about that. Jeez. That was a. So 2001 is when I moved to Hawaii. So we're thinking 2002. Yeah, about 2002 is when I started writing for the newspaper. I did that for many years in the business section in Honolulu Bulletin. Yeah. Every Sunday.

Was social media even a term used back then?

No, no. And actually, it's funny that you mentioned that because it was called new media. Right. Because it was old media or traditional media. And then there was new media, which was Twitter, MySpace, actually, I'm that old. Okay, this is all pretty cool. We were all talking about Tom the other day, our first friend on MySpace. So it was MySpace, it was Friendster, it was friend feed. There were all these different things that started that new media world. And now when I've mentioned that before, because the first book talked about new media, I don't even think it had social media in it.

Right.

And I said something about, oh, yeah, you know, new media channels and this dude, when I say dude, like 21 year old, he's like, what's that? And I'm like, new media? What do you mean? What is that? No idea. Because he grew up with it being called social media. So that's. That to me is fascinating because now people today have just grown up with social media, have never even thought of it as new. It is just media.

Right.

Which is exciting.

And that's one of the things I've noticed is that new media, social media, it is becoming just all media. I remember hearing somebody mention that anymore, even with social media, it's not. Social media is not something on top of the Internet. Social media is the Internet. It's where people go first.

But.

But there's also tremendous ways to tie in mass media exposure, such as like television, radio, et cetera, which is like, often called old media to new media and to use them overlapping. And you seem to have done quite a good job of integrating the two. Right.

Thank you. Yeah. Yes, definitely. As I feel even though I was a new media champion or now social media Champion. I still. I didn't poo poo. And that's. Yeah. A word I like to use. I didn't pooh pooh traditional tv, radio, because it's still had millions of people and it still had the exposure. Right. So when we talk about syndication with podcasts, what we used to describe it is, okay, it's syndication. Just like Oprah has a show that she films in Chicago, but she's seen all over America and now the world. Right. And that's syndication. So podcasts, we just are able to syndicate our own shows, which is really cool. But you want to always incorporate everything because there's still millions of people that are already there that click up, pick up a remote. Right. And click through their tv. So if you already have the medium, if you already have the station, you just want to get in on those stations.

Yes.

Yeah. And one of the things that you asked a little bit earlier that I want to answer is something about getting started. And I had learned that when I was living in Hawaii, that there were cable stations that needed content. They just needed content. I was like, I have content. I mean, you have a ton of content. And there's TV stations that need that content. They have sponsors and. And they want to get the commercials out there. That's how they're getting paid. But they need you to supply the content. So there's plenty of channels out there. You just have to go and pitch to these places that need content.

So I'm gonna make a note in my imaginary notebook here to follow back up with that in just a moment, because I think that you just hit on something very, very powerful. And I wanna circle back to this, but your journey throughout this. So you started doing new media and different. Getting types of exposure. But as I mentioned, you've got TV show, you've been in Hollywood, you've been in all these. Give me a quick background on some of the. Some of the things you're most proud of or some of the things that are the most fun and interesting ways that you've used media or been involved with that.

So I would say one of the most embarrassing things, but yet things I'm proud of is I was embarrassing. I was on a reality show. Most people don't know this. So you're exposing the secrets of Coach Deb.

Was it the Bachelorette?

No, no, it was actually a makeover show. And it was. When the makeover shows. Do you remember Ty Pennington from Home Dep. And it was a takeoff of those different types of. So it was their Home makeover. And then it was your makeover for yourself. Right. And there were these doctors, and there were two doctors in Hawaii that I think I met them through a bni, like a networking organization. I don't remember how we met. I just remember them coming to me and asking if I wanted to essentially be an executive producer, which is all. An executive producer is someone who foots the bill. Right. Like you put up funding for a project. So a lot of films, a lot of documentaries, you have executive producer. All that person does typically is write the checks. Write the checks, yeah. And then sometimes again, as an executive producer, you can have creative input. So I was basically brought in to have creative input to put a little funds to pay for the project. Right. Because it was expensive, especially back then. Cameras were much more expensive than even our iPhones today, and less powerful, by the way. And they wanted me to be the coach on the show. And the good thing about that is I was able to have essentially some director input into it. So we got to pick the talent. We got to pick the people that were going to get the makeover. We called it Dream makeover instead of Extreme because we wanted to be different than Extreme Home Makeover or Extreme Makeover. And we really wanted to get to the heart of people and really look at. Okay, yeah, you changed the outward appearance, but what about the inside? And that's where they brought me in as a coach, basically a life coach. And the clips are. I mean, I have no bangs. I have hair down past my waist, and I'm talking to her. I don't. Like. I've shown pictures of that, and people are like, is that your sister? Is that your cousin? Right. I'm like, who's prettier? So, yeah, so I did that, and I'm proud of it because I had some producer input into it and the spirit of it and actually won an award. So I was really. I was excited about that.

Congratulations. Yeah, so I love that because. So somebody who has been in media now for three years, and it is new media, because my show is all on iTunes and YouTube, et cetera. But I have no experience with that, so I'm making it up as I go.

Right, right.

Can you tell?

And that's good. That's really good. First of all, that you're doing it and you're winging it as you go, because that's what we all did when new media first came out.

Right? But what I think a lot of people ignore, because they ignore old and traditional media, and they just want to jump in and do it all brand new for themselves. But traditional media has been around for so long that a lot of the practices are really great practices for grabbing people's attention, whether it's the producers or the talent or the audience. And that's one of the insights that you bring to the table that not a lot of people do, is you understand how the two kind of converge. And what do you think? What do you think that some of the. Some of the best pieces of wisdom or advice that you've learned from traditional media and how it. How it translates to what is going on today and how to use that, whether it's for myself and a podcast or if I have a YouTube show, how can I use some of the best of traditional media?

So I think. And when I started hosting my own TV show, I started watching more tv because I was a cord cutter. Sure, right. I cut the cord to tv, no cable. And then I got this gig where I was hosting a national TV show, and it was gonna be on cable. I'm like, I don't even get my own show. So I started watching it, and I would watch things like Oprah and Ellen and Jimmy Fallon and different talk shows that I wanted to either emulate or get ideas from. And what I think I've learned along the way, the difference right when I got into traditional media tv, is that it's always a higher production value. So with podcasting, it's typically you doing everything. You're the cameraman, you're the lighting guy, you do everything. Whereas when you walk on set for a TV show, there's a lighting guy, there's a writer for you. Like, Jimmy Fallon has a multitude of writers. And that's what I don't think a lot of podcasters, or even anyone in new media realize, like, they don't. The star, like Jimmy Fallon, he's the star. He doesn't typically write it. Right. And all of them. And that's also Oprah, she had a team of writers, a team of producers. I actually worked with one of our producers, and it was just one of. It's not like she has one. So I found that was. What was interesting is with tv, there's a bigger budget. So that's why these guys are so entertaining, because all those sketches that they do are all done for them. They just sit in front of the camera and they look pretty handsome and they perform. So your talent.

So you just mentioned something that we had talked about offline, which was how you worked with one of. Was it Oprah's Producers.

Yes.

Tell me about that.

So that's how I first got started when I wanted to get on media and I wanted to just dominate on media and all channels. Right. And I hired. So I decided, well, how do you accelerate your success? You hire the best, you hire the pros, you hire the insiders, get the tips. Right. Even in business. When I first started consulting, I hired Jay Abraham to consult me on starting a business. And it just totally accelerated my learning curve. Right.

Instead of a big fan of hiring the best as the mentors. Yes.

Otherwise you're learning as you go and you make a lot of mistakes.

So you hired one of Oprah's producers.

So. So she gave me some insider secrets. So hold on.

She got some splaining to do. She asked me to do some accents.

Yes, yes, you do accent.

So how did you find one of Oprah's producers? Take me through that.

Because I think it was a conference I went to and she was presenting on how to get media attention. And I decided I'm hyped. So I went up to her after the event. I think I took her to lunch. And that's another secret too. A lot of people don't realize. And I had said this once when I was presenting on stage, I went to an event and the next day I'm eating alone at lunch. I'm like, why am I eating alone? I just, you know, I'm a speaker. There's all these people have all these questions and they're asking me on Twitter and yet they're so afraid when you go in person because they think you're busy and they think you're important, which of course you are, you're very busy and all of that. But you're also very approachable when you're going to these events. That's why we go to them. And I said from stage, I'm like, I can't believe I ate alone for lunch. And needless to say, right after that there were like 12 people at the table. We got like the big round table at lunch. Because then people realized they had permission to approach the speaker. So that's a tip right there is if you go to any event, not only ask the speakers that you like, figure out who's gonna speak ahead of time that you wanna work with and ask them ahead of time.

Yes, right.

Like schedule, take them out to dinner. Especially if this is a multi day event like Traffic and conversion, that's a great event to figure out who's going to be there and then ask them ahead of time. So they don't get bombarded.

Exactly.

So took her out to lunch and.

Yeah, you took her to lunch and then. So this was not something that she was out there publicizing that she's for hire, but you just asked her for the offer and she said okay.

Yeah, exactly.

Was it a hefty penny?

It was not cheap. It was not cheap. And it hurt. Okay, so it hurt me putting that investment, but I knew it would take me 10 years to learn what she would teach me in a month.

Plus, if it hurts, you're gonna pay attention to it.

Yes.

Right. You're not gonna just slip it off. I mean, because people really do value what they pay for. And the more you pay for, the more you value it. And I've seen that both with myself, with my clients, et cetera. Right, so what were some of the big things that she taught you early on that you've applied throughout the years?

So biggest thing was start small, start local, and get practice, become the expert, and then dominate everything. So my whole goal was to get on tv, but in the meantime, take advantage of all the other. So it was magazine, so Entrepreneur magazine. I started writing a regular column for them, and I was one of their first social media columns when Entrepreneur.com first started out. And, like, they were what I love about entrepreneurs. They were the ones who got it right in the get go. Right. They understood that. Yes, they had a physical magazine, but if they go online, they reach way more people and their stories last. Right. And now they're doing it again with their videos. Right. They go Facebook Live. Have you seen them? Yes. So now entrepreneur, or again, entrepreneur.com, right, they go Facebook Live and you get to join them and you get to interact with them. And that's what I love most about new media, that television doesn't typically do. Now my show, I try to be interactive with them and I tell them to tweet me. And the director's like, what's this tweet me stuff? I'm like, trust me, it's a thing. Right?

This was back then, right?

Back then. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So she basically accelerated my learning curve, and she also stepped up my goals. And the goal was not. Even though I was immersed in social media, my goal was still to do all media, which was newspaper, magazine, television. What else is there other than television? Movies. Oh, and we did some documentary movies as well and some films. So I wanted to just dominate all of it and then really learn some behind the scenes. So that's been fun too, is once you do some Hollywood sets. You meet the editors. You meet people who. So that's the other thing is I started. I met this one editor and I was on Paramount Studios and. And I am sitting there watching him edit for a sitcom. It's a 30 minute sitcom. And he gave me the budget for their editing. How much do you think it would be to edit a 30 minute sitcom?

I can't imagine. But I have to think it's enormous.

Yes, enormous would be $1 million per episode just to edit for 30 minutes. So there's color correcting, there's sound, and then there's additional color correcting and sound. It was like he literally gave me seven different layers and seven different places that the place would go out to. So, you know some of the Marvel movies that you see. And at the end. So I just saw Thor. And at the end of Thor, you see all of these effects. Effects. And there's different companies and there's literally two dozen under this one. And then there's something else. And then more effects. I think there's more credits to effects in Thor. Right, right. And it's the same thing.

That'S so fascinating. It makes me realize how much I actually don't know about this entire world of media. But I'm learning and learning by doing and learning by talking to experts such as yourself. So you hired Oprah's producer, you got in there and obviously you're an overnight success.

Of course, that's how it all works in business. Right. You become an overnight success because you follow the rules of the gurus. No, absolutely not. It took a while. And when I say a while, it means several years. Now, I immediately got media exposure. Right. So I immediately got on local news stations. I got the magazine, the newspaper. So I was getting local exposure very quickly. Right. So applying that. But having my own TV show absolutely took several years. And I started as a guest. So I didn't just go right in and say, I'm gonna start my own TV show. Cause I really had a lot to learn. Like, I'm glad I didn't do that. And it's funny because when podcasting first came out, I started a podcast, but there were maybe 100 people out there. It was just silly.

Back in the early days.

Back in the very early days. So I stopped it. Cause there's just not enough listenership. And that's when I was like, I'm going on radio and TV because there's millions there now. There's millions on itunes. Right. So podcasting is great. And I would Tell my Clients, get on YouTube. Get your podcast out there. And as soon as they would get videos out there on YouTube, they would get picked up. So they were using keywords and they were getting picked up again by local stations. So my goal was get on local news stations. Right. Get a lot of experience as a guest, and then host my own show. So I became a guest for all these different places, and then I wanted to become a regular guest. Yes. So.

So speaking of becoming a guest.

Yes.

First of all, what are some of the better ways to become a guest on, like, the news stations or shows like that? Because, I mean, it sounds pretty daunting. What are. What works?

Yeah. And I think I was scared of it at first. So there's two things I was scared of that immediately got squashed. It was just like, my fears were unfounded. And one of them was someone's gonna ask me a really hard question, and I'm not going to know or I'm going to get nervous. I think one of my other biggest fears is I would not know what to say. So, first of all, none of that is true. The reporters are there to provide entertainment for their viewers. They're not there really to make you look bad.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. Unless it's like hardball. Right. It's something that's not what we're going after now. If you are. If you're in politics, yeah, okay, maybe. But in business, they're looking for content. They're looking for interesting stories or interesting characters to show because they want viewers. Right. And the more interesting, the more crazy stories they show, the more people watch their show.

So how do you get your pitch.

In front of them? So there are different places. And actually, Haro HELPO REPORTER it's one of the first services I signed up for, just contributing articles. And that gave me practice in writing interesting articles. And then a lot of it is networking. It's who you know. You hire a PR company, they will get you gigs. Right. And what I learned very early on is to write really interesting talking points because you could get your story or your pitch in front of them, but they get so many. And now as a host, I'm like, no, no, Right. That's boring. How do I make that interesting? So do their job for them. That was the first tip I learned, is you, first of all, be interesting. Be entertaining. If you're kind of crazy and outlandish, you got blue hair. If you look weird, that's automatically gonna set you apart.

Dye your hair blue.

So that's one of my first Cs, right? I actually gave that tip to one of my clients recently, and I didn't tell her to dye it. I was just. Just get a blue wig, you know? And she did. So she. I love clients that will stretch it, right, and push themselves because it's getting yourself out of the comfort zone. But remember, on tv, when we watch it, it's characters, it's interesting, right?

It's entertained.

So be engaging, be an interesting character. Don't just sit there and go, I want to talk about my business. Because that's freaking boring, right? Have a story. And then the more you can tie into current events, if you have anything that could tie into a current event for news. Absolutely. Yeah.

Because if it's topical, it makes it so much easier to get your foot in the door with that and to slide on in.

And then another secret is give the reporter what you want to talk about. So if you want them to highlight something really cool about your business or a story, you give them talking points that will ask either specific questions. And one thing I learned now, not everyone will do this because some people will look at it, they throw it away, they don't adhere to it. But the ones who do, that's what I do. Yeah, the ones that do. And again, once you become a regular guest, you start seeing what their style is and you know, how to give the anchor, the journalist, the reporter what they want. Right? And what I learned as one of the secrets is, oh, my gosh, if I just write the talking points out, like some of the talking points were for me to say. And they read my talking points, I was like, that was what I was going to say, right? And they said it. And then I. So light bulb moment. Oh, I can just do that. And the next time I was on that journalist show, I wrote the talking point of what I wanted them to say. And that fed me what I led into, like the story I shared. And then I didn't write the story I was gonna share because then I knew that person would do that. But it was really good for just feeding them the story that you wanted.

To talk about, right? Now, you mentioned a minute ago about becoming a regular guest too. Cause it's one thing to get shown one time, but obviously the more you can be on there, the better. So explain how you become a regular.

But you want the secret on how to become a regular.

It's not called bacon raft business for nothing. Bacon wrapped goodies.

The fat profits there. Okay? So this is another funny story that people will think, oh, it's complicated or it's really involved. And again, like, some of the steps getting there. But the way I got to be a regular guest.