Become the Celebrity Expert in Your Industry with Kayley Hamilton

Say you're talking about yourself with someone or someone new or an acquaintance and you have those few impressive things about you and your business that make people's ears perk up and their mind does a double take. Maybe you even feel a little cringy bringing them up because they're like humble brags. But I'm here to say, own your humble brag. Own your brag.

Welcome to the Office hours. Welcome to Fast Foundations. If you want to join us virtually, this is where it's at. If you want to join us in person, we have a mastermind and the only way to find out about that is fastfoundations.com and or the next event, which is fastfoundations.com next event, which you have. If you're listening to this on the podcast, you've already missed it, but you can email us and we'll see what we can do. If you're here, if you're chiming in, if you're listening to this, check it out. Fastfundation.com Nextevent if you're live here in the room with us, thank you for coming. Thanks for coming back. As always, we're going to learn something new. We have an amazing guest speaker here for you today that Jim's going to introduce.

Every week we got the same format, we keep it rolling. I'm so excited to welcome our guest speaker for the day, Kaylee Hamilton. She is a two time Emmy award winning producer and reporter and Kaylee is the founder of the Up Level Agency, a PR and media agency that amplifies the voices of thought leaders through through powerful and impressive media exposure. And Kayleigh has rewarded for top entertainment news outlets including Entertainment Tonight, the Insider Weekly magazine and she has been featured in Business Insider herself. She specializes in brand storytelling and securing founders, experts and creators impactful media placements in their top team radio outlets like Forbes, Business Insider, NBC and more. And I met Kaylee through a collective that we're in for agency owners and we had an initial call, Kayleigh, we talked about possibly you supporting me with getting more exposure. So I got to know a little bit more about your process and the way that you like to work. And recently you threw an awesome masterclass about how to build more brand exposure. And you just have this wonderful way of mixing a very soulful feel of how to really bring it into your life with the tactical execution. So I couldn't think of anybody better to bring on. Thank you for being here. The zoom stage is yours.

Oh, thank you so much Jim. That was so kind Jim RT Lauren, thank you so much for having me. I'm so grateful for fast foundations and this platform. And yeah, I'm excited to dive in. So I will share my screen. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for being here. This is my masterclass condensed. I'm going to move fairly quickly just to make sure I hit all the points that I want to hit.

There's a lot of value in here.

So let's go through it. So I'm going to go over how to become the celebrity expert of your industry. I have six steps that I'll go over, so let's get started. And before diving in, I love this quote from Barbara Corcoran. She says the easiest way to steal market share from your competitors is to steal the limelight. And nothing can make you the industry leader faster than being quoted regularly in the press. So this is something, this is what we'll go over today. Step one, we're going to hone your visibility mindset. Step two, I'll show you how to be seen as a thought leader. Step three, we'll find the headline of your story. Step four, we will reach your audience. Step five will secure your stage. And step six, I'll show you how.

To nail your interview.

Before we dive in, a little bit about me. So I grew up in Colorado. I'm in Denver right now. Very shy girl from Colorado. But I had big dreams of Hollywood. I always was always mesmerized by Hollywood celebrities, red carpets. But I never wanted to be an actress or a singer. I wanted to be the one who was interviewing them. I wanted to know them. I wanted to connect with the humans behind these massive stars that the world adored. So I went to college in San Diego and landed an internship at Entertainment Tonight in la. Ended up working there full time for nearly five years, going from like super shy and intimidated. I had to rewrite my shy girl identity and really lean into stepping outside my comfort zone because I knew I wanted to interview celebrities, which is what I ended up doing on some of the biggest red carpets, like the Oscars, Grammys, Emmys, Golden Globes. Won two Emmy awards. And then I became west coast reporter at Us Weekly magazine. Did that for a few years. And then Covid hit 2020. Job stopped, red carpet stopped. Everything changed. That was a life shifting year for me. That's when I went through a breakup. I was turning 30 that year. I just had no idea what my future looked like anymore. And that's when we were all quarantining. We were inside. That's when I turned to media platforms just to find mentors and find inspirational people to help me rewrite what I.

Saw for my future.

And that's when CEOs, experts, thought leaders, people just like you made themselves visible and helped me immensely. And I just felt like they showed up for me in a time when I really needed them. And they gave me mindset tools, they gave me, they told their stories and gave me insight into what it's like to be an entrepreneur. And so that really sparked my idea to start my agency. So today my agency has helped dozens of purpose driven founders and thought leaders be seen on major media platforms. Basically, we help them be seen so they can show up and reach the audiences who need to hear from them. And I just feel like I'm fully in alignment, living in my purpose, helping deserving people get mainstream visibility. And I always joke that CEOs are.

Now my new celebrities.

So I'll just show you an example of one of our clients just to get you in the zone of okay, this could be me. This is possible for me. This is Megan and Nicole, they're sisters, they're the co founders of Zen Chronicity and they're plant medicine experts, they're holistic nutritionists, they're astrologists. So their industries are span over wellness, health, spirituality. And when we started working with them, they had a brand new business, less than a year old, zero media exposure, newer website socials. And within six months we were able to get them featured in this Forbes article. And this feature in Forbes is just, it really elevated their brand, gave massive exposure to their business and was really powerful. And in between those six months they were in women's health, they were featured in Daily Beast, Psychedelic Spotlight, Denver 303 Magazine, where they're from, Bustle, Yahoo, MindBody Green. Just a lot of different platforms for visibility for them. We got them doing podcasts super consistently. So they were getting visible on platforms like these. They flew to LA to do this one in person. When this podcast interview got published, that very same day is when their group program got sold out and they started a wait list for the very first.

Time because of that one podcast interview.

They networked with all of these people. They had some of them on their podcast, so really powerful networking for them. And then even on tv. They were positioned as experts in their industry and they knew what was happening in their industry with the latest news, the latest research. So they were going on news talking.

About the changes in psychedelic medicine.

So all this to say that this could be you. And during this kind of presentation I Want you to think about what those media outlets are that are your dream outlets that you think and know would be totally business and or life altering for you. So before we dive in, just to clarify what earned media exposure is. So rather than you promoting yourself on social media or on your website that's owned media, then there's also paid media. So that's when you're paying to be promoted. So that would be paid advertisements. You're earning promotion on a bigger platform.

Which is earned media.

And it's highly desirable because it gives you a competitive advantage and ultimately it's earned. So that's what makes PR media exposure.

A little bit different.

So let's go through the power of media exposure quickly. It establishes your credibility and authority. Like Marie Forleo, you Google her name, she's everywhere. Really establishes her authority in her industry. Gives you social proof. I'm sure you see these media logo bars on people's websites. It expands your reach and exposure. 68% of adults get news from news websites. 62% of Americans watch local news TV daily while 55% watch national news. 41% of people in the US tune into a podcast every month and 28% do it weekly. So it really expands, expands your reach and exposure beyond just your socials, beyond just your website. It also gives you an edge over your competitors. So say I'm googling Jay Shetty one and googling Jay Shetty two looking for a life coach. Jay Shetty one pops up and I see his website, his social, that looks great. But then Jay Shetty 2 pops up and he's all over the news. Has this amazing Google panel. It's like weighing the options, like which one am I going to go with?

Jay Shetty 2.

It can increase your sales lead gen, you can boost your pricing, start premium pricing when you start getting media exposure and it really does get you noticed. Okay, so let's get into the details. So step one is to hone your visibility mindset. So I just want to debunk some of the common mindset myths about media exposure because I get this pretty consistently and I want people to know that.

It'S not always the case.

So the first one is I'm not interesting enough. So business owners like they can underestimate the uniqueness of their own stories, their expertise, their experiences. But every business has a unique and headline worthy aspect that are compelling to the right audiences. So you're definitely interesting enough for media exposure and people think it's only for big companies. Media outlets are always looking for diverse Stories from businesses of all sizes. So if you have a compelling narrative or an innovation or this doing social impact, these can attract media opportunities as.

Well, regardless of the size of your company.

Another one is I don't have anything newsworthy to share. So you might think that only groundbreaking news or product launches are media worthy, but there are so many aspects that the media care about. So think about things like a unique customer success story or charitable initiatives or industry insights, or maybe you have a compelling journey to success. And I want you to remember that media, they are reporting on a 24 hour news cycle, so they're always churning out content consistently. So they need your story and expertise just as much as you need them. So it's helpful to shift your mindset and take the pressure off of yourself by realizing that you're doing a favor for that media outlet by offering their audience value and giving them content. And then another one is media exposure is just about self promotion. It definitely is not like going back to my story. I just felt like these people offered so much value and really impacted my life. And that's what it's about. It's about sharing your story with the world. It's about sharing your valuable insights. You're educating, you're inspiring audiences and just ultimately contributing positively to industry discussions. There's so many things. So again, just reaching the people who.

Need to hear from you.

Let's get into step two, Being seen as a thought leader. So how to publicly position yourself as a thought leader first is identifying your niche. So I just by this determining your unique area of expertise, like super unique and whatever expertise or insight that is that you contribute to your industry. And this can be both professional topics and personal topics. And you can choose a few that you want to and are also willing to speak about publicly that align with your brand. So something to think about for professional topics are just topics that you believe you're an expert in. And you don't necessarily need a certification or degree or accolade. You just need experience. And then for personal, you want it to be something that paints the picture of who you are and how you.

Want to be known.

So think about your unique niche in your industry professionally and then personally who you are as a person building a strong online presence. I'm sure you're already doing this already, but just it's really helpful when positioning you as a thought leader. You just want to maintain like a professional website. You want to keep your profiles up to date, you want continuity all across your profiles and platforms and you, you just want to be seen as an industry leader across your entire online presence, especially when you start pitching yourself to the media or a PR agency does, because the media will do their due diligence and they'll check you out, they'll research you, they'll make sure you're legit. So just make sure that you are.

Good to go online and you also.

Want to create high quality content. Again, I'm sure you're doing this, but it's just helpful to be producing valuable and informative content because it showcases your knowledge and is building up your credibility as an expert. And something to think about when you're showing up as a thought leader are these questions. Feel free to screenshot, but these really help you stand out when creating content. So ask yourself, number one, do you have a differing opinion or opposing angle or new narrative to what's already being reported on in your industry?

If you do create content around that.

Or if you have predictions for the future of your industry, or if you have insight that isn't being reported, if you're like why is nobody talking about this in the news?

You should be the one to start talking about it.

Or if you have like information or knowledge that you have the positions you.

As an authority in your industry ultimately.

So those are just some good questions to work with when it comes to.

Creating content as a thought leader.

And then networking, collaborating on projects or just being associated with respected figures can enhance your reputation as an expert. Offering free resources and tools positions you as a knowledgeable resource and then just continuously educating yourself. You want to stay up to date with industry trends, innovations, research. That's super helpful. Just continuous learning. Like it ensures that you stay relevant and it ensures that you stay at.

The forefront of your field.

So let's get into step three, finding the headline of your story. So this is how you become headline worthy. It's something I like to call the name drop. So the name drop. Think about this for a second for yourself. So it's like that it factor or that aha thing about you that makes people do a double take. Say you're talking about yourself with someone or someone new or an acquaintance and you have those few impressive things about you and your business that make people's ears perk up and their mind does a double take. Maybe you even feel a little cringy bringing them up because they're like humble brags. But I'm here to say own your humble brag. Own your brag. So think about what that name drop.

Is for you and your business.

Next is to Identify your unique Selling props. So just think about what sets you apart from others in your industry. It could be again your innovative product or if you have a unique approach to problem solving or your background is.

Super unique and noteworthy.

And two things we work with our clients on to find their kind of headline juicy thing about them are achievements and numbers. So for achievements, again this can be both professional or personal. So thinking about like your upbringing, your education, milestones that you've reached, maybe impressive or high profile people that you've worked with or connected to, maybe there's an amazing but true fact about your business or your personal story that you can share that led you to where you are today. Any of these could be interesting things about you that helps you just stand out from your competitors and makes you memorable. And then for numbers, think about things like are you at a unique age for your industry and what you do, do you have impressive sales or revenue numbers that you're willing to share? Maybe you've accomplished something in an impressive timeline. People in the media love hearing about tangible numbers to give like the inside scoop on you and your business. And if you ever look at headlines, there's always numbers in them. So numbers are really helpful. And then highlighting your journey and challenges. So just sharing your personal or professional journey is always really impactful. Emphasizing the challenges that you've faced and overcome and just being really transparent about the hardships of your journey. Whatever you feel comfortable sharing of course, overcoming adversity or setbacks in your life, these stories really make you and they evoke emotion which is what helps establish a memorable and relatable brand. You can leverage timely or trending topics so you can align your expertise with current events or trends to make your story relevant or timely. You can showcase impact and success stories. So just providing like concrete examples of how your work or company is positively impacted, customers, the community, your industry, you can reveal surprising or counterintuitive insights. So just offering unique insights or data that kind of challenges conventional wisdom or.

Offers a fresh perspective on common industry.

Issues and then highlighting social responsibility and sustainability is really big. So if your business emphasizes these things, definitely lean into that and then I'll show you like crafting your headline so one can be evergreen any time of the year or it can be timely. And this is actually the headline that we use when we go out to media to pitch me for media opportunities.

And by headline so subject line of your email.

So for me we write from Hollywood red carpets to be our pro two time Emmy winner Kaylee Hamilton on the power of Your voice earned media and visibility for entrepreneurs. So it's taking from all of the tips generating this like tight powerful headline, making it the subject line of my pitch. And then this is what has come out of some of the podcast interviews that I've done. They always take what we give them, they rework it and then they turn it into a real life headline. Step 4 let's reach your people. So first is to just study your competitors strategies. Just check out what your competitors are. Just other people, other experts in your industry where they're getting media. See what podcasts they're interviewing on, what publications they're being featured in, what TV shows they're being featured on. And this just gives you insight into where your target audience might also be consuming content. And you can do this by searching their name in the Google News tab, search their name in your podcast app search bar. That's also really helpful. You can also set up Google alerts for their names for your name. That's really helpful. Just whenever your name pops up the media, whenever other experts in your industry pop up in the media, you can see where they're being featured and then interviewing existing customers. So just go directly to the people, ask your customers clients, what podcasts they're listening to, what media sources do they trust and this will give you an idea into what kind of media outlets you want to be. Step five securing your stage. So first is to just create a list of media outlets that you want to target. So from the the slide before just start a list. And this could be digital and print outlets, this can be podcast outlets and tv.

Those are the top kind of main three.

And then next are to find contacts and by finding contacts just finding the right email address. And it's pretty simple. This is like a lot of information but for digital articles you can just click on the journalist's name. Usually their email is in their bio, if not it's in their social media bios. For podcasts you can use something called listen notes.com or matchmaker. They have email addresses. Or you can go to the podcast show or podcast host email or social media. And then for TV you can go to the station's website. Sometimes they'll have lists of reporters and producers with their emails.

Or you can search LinkedIn and then.

I'll show you really quickly how to secure media opportunities through an email pitch. So we have a framework that we use at up level agency. It's called Net pr. It holds everything you need, nothing you don't cheesy but it works n is for name drop, slash newsworthy. So your first one to two sentences, and I'll show you an example of this after will want to be either your name drop or something newsworthy. And this is at the top of your email pitch. So you want to lead with the most impressive or unique thing about yourself or laid with news that ties to the angle of your pitch. E stands for expertise. So this is when you'll just explain your expertise and background, giving context to who you are and why you're an expert and good source to speak on the topic that you're pitching. T is for topics. So you'll want to get clear and hone in on three to five topics that you can speak on that relate to your pitch angle. P is for press. This is where you validate your credibility. This is like one sentence. And this is including mentions and links to your recent press. And if you don't have recent press, don't worry. Instead you can mention any accolades you have or credentials or achievements or awards, just anything that validates your credibility on.

The topic that you're pitching.

And then R is for request. It's the final sentence in the pitch, ending with kind of a call to action to the person that you're pitching, asking the media contact if they're interested in speaking with you or interviewing you, et cetera. So I'll show you a little example. Here's the first half of the real pitch. Feel free to screenshot the real pitch that we send out on behalf of me when pitching me for podcast interviews, things like that. So you can see the subject is the headline that we went over. And then the first few sentences are my name drop, just going over, me and my company, my background. We even like bold, the former celebrity reporter, Emmy winner part. So that's the name drop. And then the next section is expertise, a couple of sentences diving into my background, personal expertise, professional expertise. And then the next half is the topics. So we make it really readable as well, really simple to read. So we like to do bullet points, highlight or bold. And for my topics, we do things like breaking into Hollywood is a speaking topic.

I can speak.

Speak about building your voice, the power of visibility, crafting your story for the media, and actionable tips for doing media interviews. So it gives a an overview of topics that maybe a podcast host could pull from. They can be like, oh, I love like the power of visibility 1. Let's do a podcast interview about that. And then the press part. Just linking to some of my podcasts, some of my articles, and Then the request part section is just bolded quick sentence.

Let us know if you're interested.

So an overview pitch example and also don't be afraid to follow up. Especially journalists, they get so many requests, so many people flooding their inbox. So definitely don't be afraid to follow.

Up with them via email.

And then I'll wrap this up with Step six It's just nailing your interview. So how to give a powerful, compelling and memorable interview first is to research the media outlet. Just understanding the media outlet's audience tone, recent coverage to tailor your responses appropriately when you're doing your interview. It's also really helpful to know the interviewer just to familiarize yourself with their style, with their past work, establish a.

Connection with them during the interview.

Craft key messages it's really helpful to identify two to three key points that you want to convey during your interview your interview and just to continuously go back to those practice of course. So just rehearsing potential questions and answers beforehand, either with a media coach or.

Like conducting mock interviews with someone from your team.

Be genuine and authentic. Just connect emotionally with your story and avoid sounding rehearsed. Authenticity resonates with audiences. It builds trust. And this comes back to you doing an interview, coming from a place of service rather than a place of publicity and just like trying to be seen. And if you go deeper you can really speak directly to the audiences that.

You'Re hoping to impact and really hone that authenticity.

Five is to stay calm and composed. Easier said than done. Nervousness is normal, but taking deep breaths, maintaining a calm demeanor during your interview.

Speaking confidently and clearly.

Something that really helps me is box breathing before going into interviews. So breathing in for four, holding for.

Four, breathing out for four, holding for four is super helpful. Like calms the nervous system and then.

Also just remembering that anxious slash nervous energy is the exact same energy as excited energy. One just comes from a place of like fear, the other comes from a place of abundance of gratitude. So just shifting your mindset before going into interviews will help you to stay. Six is using clear and simple language, so just avoid jargon or technical language because that may confuse audiences. Seven is to tell engaging stories. So just having like relevant anecdotes or case studies ready to use to illustrate your points during the interview, being mindful of your non verbal cues as well. And this will come with practice which is maintaining good eye contact with the interviewer, smiling, using open body language, things like that. Number nine is staying positive and respectful. So you just want to maintain a positive tone and avoid Criticizing competitors or other industry players and just being respectful and professional throughout. And then the Last one, number 10 is to not oversell or over promote. And this might sound counterintuitive because this is pr. And yes, while it's essential to highlight your expertise, you want to avoid coming across as overly promotional. Again going back to focusing on providing value to to the audience. And by default your company and your business will get that promotion. Especially at the end. You want to be prepared to have that final call to action at the end of your interview. Usually hosts reporters will ask you to tell the audience like where to buy, where they can buy your products and services, where to connect with you on social. So again that is by default already.

Promoting you and your business.

And that's everything. I know I went through that fast. That was a lot of information. We went through lots of good stuff. And before we go, I just want to re emphasize the power of media exposure. We've seen clients, as you saw, go from zero to Forbes in six months. They get invitations to speak at top industry events. One client got a five figure brand deal from one podcast interview. They've increased their social media following. They've sold out programs from one podcast interview. They become friends with leading industry podcast hosts, reporters, other top experts in their field. So that's like the magic ROI of pr. You just never know who's watching or paying attention and who can come out of the woodworks and offer you something amazing. Oh, and then I also have this visibility starter kit. It's, it's 28 bucks. It contains seven tools that we at up level agency use to secure our clients hope high profile press interview. So it has things like a media list organizer, pitch tracker, media training, interviews. So I really go in depth if.

You want to train before doing your.

First podcast interview or something like that and then real winning pitches. So I also have it there like the exact pitches that we sent to Forbes that landed our clients.

Forbes features, things like that.

And that is everything. Thank you so much. Fast foundations.

Grateful for you guys.

Kayleigh, thank you so much. Appreciate it. That was great. And I know you got through a lot on that, but it sounds like that kit that you have expands more on these different sections and gives a little bit more of an interactive way of doing it. Is that right?

Yeah. The kit, you can use it as tools for inside your business. If you want to start pitching yourself to the media and you're not ready to maybe outsource it yet. It has the tools to put together your media list, track the pitches it has a lot of great tools and some of them we do use for our clients, like the video media trainings. So we have our clients watch those.

Before going into like their TV interview, things like that.

Awesome. That's great. We'll be sure to throw it in the show notes for the podcast. But what we'd like to do right now is just a little session called Rapid Fire Takeaways, which is just our opportunity to share something back with you that we all took away from it. Everybody share your name, where you're calling in from, and one really great thing that you took away from this, something that you're thinking about, something that you took in or something that you want to take action on. And we just run around the room here. So let's start with Aldo.

Hey, guys, this is Aldo Apiuli. I'm a CPA based out of Phoenix. My takeaway, I know lots of information for sure, but definitely it's a method to the madness. It's just not sending out an email. There is a lot more involved than that.

Thank you, Aldo. Sarah.

Yep.

Sarah Hubrx over in Ohio. I'm a fractional learning architect and I honestly just loved how simple this is. It all just, it seems with that template, it's questionable why we aren't all doing it, just how simple that all sounded. I love that it's been turned into a very easy to do. If you just sit down and collect all your resume items, it seems like we should be able to do it. That no nonsense approach is greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Sarah. Zach.

And so Zach, I'm up in Montana right now and I'm a wellness coach. And Kaylee, I just love it when people give easy action items that are impactful. Just like Sarah said, that stencil that you provided and the six steps that you laid out is just so easy to put into action. And not everyone is good at boiling down, as you said, so much information into easy and actionable items like that. Really, the whole thing that you gave us today was just great and, and definitely took a picture of the stencil. And we'll be looking into the toolkit.

That you shared with us.

Amazing.

Thanks so much, Zach.

Thanks, Zach. Adrian.

Hey, Adrian here from Austin, Texas. In my business, I help athletes build businesses. And so I really like the framework that you gave for pitching. It's an easy plug and play for some of our clients, some of the work that we do in our business. So I really appreciate that. Thank you.

Yeah, wonderful.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Amy. And I'm a digital marketing agency based out of Flagstaff, Arizona. And thank you so much for all your information. Kaylee. I love the tidbit that you said in the beginning about like honing it out on your niche and then thinking about almost like controversial topics that exist in your niche or things that you might have a different opinion on. I see that a lot with Norm is when they can like really become an expert.

So I just love that.

Thank you so much, Amy. I appreciate it.

I can go last too. Just thank you so much for being here, Kayleigh. And that was awesome. I specifically love the Net PR kind of framework. I love frameworks like that where it's just like basically plug and play. And as someone who sent a bunch of pitches and Lauren and I have been sending a ton of pitches recently, just having something to fall back on when you have writer's block and you're not sure like what to say and how to keep the email short and to the point. And that stuff is, I think, so valuable. And just what you do, I think is really valuable in general, especially giving away a lot of stuff for free or almost free. It looks like your checklist is free, basically free. I don't know if that's just for us or if that's for everyone, but it's, it's so cool that most PR agencies, and I'm sure you have a one on one and a high level service, but it's. There's so many secrets behind a wall and the more you can open that up and make it open source, I think is going to get you a lot more clients.

Thanks rt. I appreciate it. Yeah, I love sharing all the information and being on the other side of things too. As a journalist, it's interesting seeing both sides and knowing what media wants, what PR clients want. And I love sharing this information.

It's like the more the merrier.

But I appreciate your kind words and I really appreciate you having me. Thank you everyone.

Hey, this is Jim Carter. Thank you for joining the Fast Foundations podcast. We're excited to try this new format. We're grateful you were here to be part of it with us. If you missed the live event, you can join us every Wednesday. Sign up@fastfoundations.com office hours and we'll see you next week.