159: How to Think Like a Journalist and Make Your PR Pitch Land with Kristi Piehl

Making news for your bad news is easy, but getting in the news for your good news, not so simple. Welcome to a podcast that helps communicators create the right message at the right time and deliver it in the right place. Today's episode is all about the proactive PR pitch. As you know, you have to cut through a lot of noise to land a good story in the press or to be known as a leading authority and to make the news. So on this episode on the podcast, how to Become Famous in a Good Way. Now, many communicators working on behalf of a client or their leadership sometimes struggle with how to break through all the news noise and the social media and the viral noise to land their story. Now, media relations, in my experience, is one of the most challenging aspects of PR pitching. And following up with journalists to land your story can be trying, especially if you're missing the mark. The key to pitching a journalist is to think like a journalist. And my guest on the podcast this week is former journalist Christy Peel. She is the founder and CEO of Media Minefield. She's also the host of the Flip youp Script podcast and she's a PR and media expert. And let her share with you now how to think like a journalist to make your PR pitch land. Christy, hello. I'm excited to talk to you about this topic of pr, but also your background. Welcome to the podcast.

Thank you for having me, Molly. It's a pleasure. We're combining my two favorite professional things, journalism and pr.

They are my two favorite professional things as well. Christy, I don't know. I'm going to ask you an investigative question since that was your background. Do you happen to know where I'm from?

I do not. Should I know?

No, you should not know. But if I were to, you know, talk to you like this and if we were to focus on television. I am from the Twin Cities and I see. Yeah, sure. And I see from your bio that you worked at KSTP for a number of years. The ABC Hubbard Broadcasting owned television station. I used to work at wcco, you betcha. And whenever I see kstp, I think of the anchor who I had a long term crush on, though he was before your time. But his name was Mark Sepelsa. I don't know if you remember him.

Oh, I know Mark Sepelsa. Yes.

Oh, you do know Mark Sepelsa. I mean, I know who he is.

Because I grew up here.

Right, okay. Cause you grew up there. Yeah. So when I worked in media, we had media softball teams and we would play against him. And I was just like Gaga. He was my anchor. But I thought I would just anchor our conversation by letting you know that I'm a fellow Minnesotan, though I no longer live there. But that is the perspective that you and I are going to talk about today is you are a former reporter now, really, I'm going to call you a media maven. I mean, you've created this PR firm in the Twin Cities. So today you're going to talk to us about, you know, thinking like a journalist and making that PR pitch. But let's talk about the moment where you had to flip your script. So tell us a little bit about your bias.

Sure. I had a 12 year career in television news. I worked at five different TV stations in the Midwest. I was living my dream. Thought it was the last, the only career I would ever have. My goal was always, I'm from a small town in Minnesota. I always wanted to get back to the Twin Cities. My, my contract at KSTP was ending at the end. It was early 2009 was when my contract was ending. We were renegotiating it. Everything was going great. I had just won some awards. It was fantastic. I was doing some stuff for Good Morning America, and all of a sudden I got to the office with. I got a call on my way to work, actually, and it was, I think there's layoffs happening today. It's like, what's happening? And so I walk in and I didn't even put my stuff on my desk. And I, you know, come with me. And I was like, all right, I know where this is going. So my entire department, the investigative department with some other folks, we were all laid off. And it was the best thing that happened to my career. Even though the beginning of the hardest season of my life.

What year was this?

So I. December 2008 is when the layoffs happened. And my career, you know, it was the last recession.

Yes, I was going to say it's the last recession. 2008, it's still owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, correct?

Yes, it is Pioneers.

And I remember it's always. They had those quirky contracts, quirky, you know, relationships with talent. I mean, I remember that. But certainly a defining moment for you. That must have been a very crush day for you. But what, how did you flip your script immediately? What did you think I have to do next?

I had to focus on my family and get really clear on what I wanted to do next. I knew immediately that it was the best thing. They gave me a gift. And if I, I hope I have the opportunity to be in a room with one of them because I. I'm so grateful that they released me and gave me the freedom to really figure out what I'm on this planet to do. And it is to help people tell their stories. And I did that in one way in news. And now I'm on the PR side. So I spent a year and a half, Molly, really soul searching. And I got to this clear point which some of your listeners are not going to like, which is I feel like traditional PR is pretty broken and when it comes to the media relations side because I interfaced with so many PR professionals and as a journalist. So I got to this place where I want to help people. I believe in the power of news and storytelling and I believe that the traditional approach is flawed. That's the point I came to after 18 months. I took a class at my church which was how do you help people with your passion? And the business was born there. They asked me a question in week three and I have all the materials and it was, what do you know so well you could teach someone? And I wrote on this sheet news and bing. I knew the name of the company would be Media Minefield. I knew what our purpose would be and that's where the business began.

You had that divine intervention moment. You mentioned that the PR industry was fundamentally broken in many cases. And I would say that many people on PR feel the same about the news industry. And part of it certainly is just the transition from traditional news, which was my day back in the Twin Cities. I was certainly as a time of very traditional news before the Internet. But now that we're in this digital age, news gathering has changed so much. So naturally the PR side has changed as well. Your business media mine field is successful. I mean, you have a number of trainers in there, a number, just a number of resources. So we're going to talk to you about which I love, this idea of thinking like a journalist to make that PR pitch land. So we're discussing proactive PR right now, even though you handle reactive PR crisis management. Correct. So let's talk about three ideas or three takeaways for anyone who needs to think like a journalist. What would you tell them?

One of our differentiators, we hire former journalists. On the media side we have creative part of the business, we have a social media side. But on the media side, we hire former journalists because they are so valuable and one of the things that they do so well is they work at the speed of. And anyone who has been in A news environment knows that you can come in, in the morning and have a fantastic idea for a story and you can be even three quarters of the way done. You could even have that thing ready to put on the air and something can happen and you have to be ready to shift and pivot. And fundamentally, oftentimes PR plans, media plans, they're lovely and they're beautiful. But we even saw in the last year and a half, the world shifts. And when the world shifts, the best plans sometimes need to be put on the shelf or just changed because things can come off as tone deaf or you're missing the best opportunity of the day. So to interface with journalists mean you need to think like a journalist, which is to be ready to operate at the speed of news.

So when someone needs to act at the speed of news, what does that actually mean to a client? What are your, what are your employees, your staff, if they're working with a client or what are you telling them? What is the speed of news?

So when we think about our clients, we tell them to always be ready for press. That means that they have to be prepared because they could get a phone call at 3 o' clock and cameras, if it's television, could be there at 4 o'.

Clock.

So they need to be ready. It's everything from. And we have media training. One of the from little things like in the summer, if you're going to wear a T shirt to work, that's fine. Have a tie if you want to, if it's appropriate for you to be on camera in a tie and just to be ready to be know what your message is. Because the time to prepare for a news interview is not the three minutes before it happens. So it's just that mindset that things happen. And we may call you and this happens regularly from our clients who are small, to our clients running billion dollar businesses. You might get a phone call and I might need you to pause your whole schedule and you need to say yes.

All right, moving on to the second point, which still ties into this environment that we're in. So we're talking about the rapid response that we need, but Also what has 2020 done to the newsroom specifically? Covid19 how has that altered news gathering?

Boy, if anyone would have said five years ago or when you and I were working actively in news that we would be doing it from our homes, that would have been shocking. So news gathering is happening in a virtual environment, just like the opportunity for people to do interviews. So what's happened is that instead Of a reporter having. It's much like now broadcast, professional reporters are operating like print reporters have, which means that they're not. The jurisdiction of where they live and where they cover matters less. It means that our clients who are running really big businesses, who didn't have time to run downtown to do a local news interview, now have that opportunity because they don't have to leave their offices, they don't have to leave their homes. So the concept that the news. I would argue, and people can argue with me, that the quality of news has increased because the level of people willing to weigh in on topics is just better.

Christy, I could not agree with you more. And it's interesting you said that there is an opportunity now for more people to be on the news. For my contacts. I have contacts who work at the national networks and they were telling me that it's never going back to how it was. The idea of the virtual interview is here for good in small part just because of the budget. Because it's just with all these budget cuts, as you experienced, it's now more cost efficient to do an interview over zoom, correct?

100%. Which means that every person who wants to be getting some level of press, part of their coaching has to be what does their computer setup look like, what is their lighting, what is their background? You can wear shorts, that's fine. But what do you make sure you have. If you're a woman and you would like to wear lipstick, have some nearby. So it's the. It's a different situation than driving to the studio, having someone do your hair and makeup, you know, that day is mostly gone for most people.

Christy, you brought up a good point. Like lipstick. I'm the same way. I always have a lipstick with me because of virtual. Is there anything that men have to have for virtual to think of in something, anything to make them appear better.

On camera besides powder and good lighting? But you know what? I've had more men ask me lately, Molly, that they never used to ask, is what about my beard? Is my beard okay?

Really? Well, what are they asking? Is it, is it what? Appropriate?

Oh, just in general, because before, if you were gonna, you know, three days in advance, you knew you were driving down to a station or flying to New York for a news interview. You know, you have the time to think about, I'm shaving, I am whatever to my beard. But now a lot more men have facial hair or even just a two or three day growth. Is that appropriate? Is that formal enough? And yes, absolutely.

Okay, that's okay. That's what I was wondering. At first I thought, was it a hygiene question? But now it makes sense. More men wear beards and they're wondering how does that change their appearance or the perception of them? Oh, that's interesting, Christy. That's so interesting. All right, what is the third piece of thinking like a journalist when it comes to pr?

It really is about that pitch and understanding how to write the pitch. It's understanding even just the time frame of the journalist. So PR professionals need to understand who they're pitching and what the life cycle of that pitch is. And you have to get into the mind of a journalist. Most journalists have meetings when they're deciding what their content is going to be. Most journalists aren't going to open your beautiful 30 page media kit that you've attached to your pitch. Most journalists are moving quite quick and if they need more information, they'll ask you for it. But it's important to under don't pitch your health story to the beauty editor. Don't send out the same pitch to 50 people. Be really targeted and strategic because if a journalist is going to pick up your pitch, they are getting hundreds and hundreds of pitches. It better stand out and it better be quality. And whoever you're pitching better be ready to do that news interview. Because there is nothing a journalist hates more than like, great pitch. I take it to my, you know, my news decision maker. They say, yes, I call and say, can we do the interview? Oh, turns out they're out of town on vacation. They'll be back next week. Well, I don't want it next week, I need it today. Why are you pitching me? So don't make the journalist mad. Give the journalist everything that they need to make their life easier. Because today's modern journalist is putting a story out, whatever channel they're on. And they're doing their own social and they're doing Twitter and they're putting web copy. It's a lot of work. So make it easy for them, help them.

Christy, you bring up a time factor a lot. I think that is such a factor now in news gathering and working with reporters, but also in your business media minefield. You have a position here. It's this positive online presence. Tell me about the concept of taking control of your personal brand and how that relates to this proactive public relations piece.

Yes, I'm glad you asked about it because we have a protected trademarked process for earned media, the new side of it called newsability. And then about four years ago, we created positive online presence or because you'll get the Minnesota joke pop, because that's what we call soda here. Right?

Right.

Nice. Yep. So it's called positive online presence, or pop. We trademarked that as well. And it's really the process to get an executive or a leader on social media in a proactive fashion. Because if someone is going to Google a potential client, a potential employee, if they're going to Google you, oftentimes social media comes up first, and executives and leaders just don't have the time to think of that channel and the power and the value in that channel and a way for them to tell their story. So positive online presence is all about taking advantage of the social opportunities. When no one is vetting what you're putting out there, no journalist is saying, hey, you can't say that, or, we have to get the other side. Now, be honest, be authentic, but leverage it.

Christie, this is where you and I share the same sensibility here, and I see the unique tie in how this dovetails to your business. When leadership has a positive online presence, or pop. When they have it. Yeah, I still have it. Right. But when they have it, not only can they leverage it from a business point of view and marketing and sales, you know, whatever it is, but they can leverage it from a public relations, news relations, media relations point of view. Reporters can find them. Reporters can vet them easier if they see them on a LinkedIn or they see them as part of a YouTube video. I think that's a. That's a great resource that you're offering your clients there, merging the two together. All right, Kristi. Yeah, go ahead.

One brief thing. Something that is new, a new trend that we've seen in the last couple of years. We will. Reporters will tell us that they want to book guests, especially at a national level with a certain number of followers. So even an executive, an executive who could be interviewed for something, if they have no social media presence, they're going to have a more difficult time getting press, getting booked at a national level than someone who has an active Twitter account. A lot of journalists are there, but it's really important to. To understand how a journalist is looking for someone that can also help their brand and their station and their outlet, and that's someone with a following.

Christy, that mindset is certainly part of a business strategy for influencers. Are you telling me that newsrooms, especially national newsrooms, are looking for spokespeople with a social following?

It's true. We've had people been. Be our clients turned down because they weren't active. Enough on social. And I'm talking about CEOs, executives, leaders. Because if you are weighing two leaders who can weigh in on similar things and one has 10,000 followers and one has no presence, news as a business, too, they're going to take the person with an active social media presence.

All right, I need to extend another question right here. What about the leader who has the buy in? They understand that social media is important, but they're off running a business. They don't have time to sit online and create a TikTok account and. And use hashtag TikTok made me buy this. But they understand the importance. Is it still credible just to be on there even if they don't have 10,000 followers? Is it just showing that they have a. That they've embraced the idea of it? Is that enough?

I think it depends on the journalist and I think it depends on the outlet. I think everyone has a different perspective. It also, honestly, Molly, is a place for someone to be vetted because if. If a national outlet is going to say that this is our expert, and turns out this person has said some horrible things on social media, they are not going to be interviewed and some other things are going to happen to their brand. So it also is a way for them, frankly, to protect who they're bringing up and who they're saying. I'm going to put my national credibility next to this person. It's a way to vet them as well.

Oh, Christie, I love that whole concept. And that is an ideology that leadership should embrace right now. People in leadership positions should embrace. Oh, thank you so much for sharing that. At the end of every podcast, I like to share an indestructible tip, though I think you already shared it, so now you need to come up with another one. But it's a tip it's that leave behind for the listener. If there's anything. If you had one moment to impart one piece of advice to a client or someone, especially about navigating this digital age that we're in, what would it be?

For me, it's all about thinking about talking in sound bites. You have to talk in sound bites. You have to know your message. And this is the new part in the last few years. And think about how it translates to social. The most amazing press opportunity without any kind of thought of moving that to social and making it live longer is not really that great of an opportunity because it will die, it will age out, and it will age quickly. So for me, it's know the message, the story, and this Big and figure out how it translates to social.

Oh, Christy, I, I feel like I want to go into business with media Minefield. You and I think alike on all of these things. It's so good to hear someone else reiterate that. Oh my gosh, you were a wonderful guest. Thank you so much. How could someone find out about you online?

Sure. I'm no surprise. I'm active on social media. So all of the platforms peel spelled kind of weird, so that's the only. But you can find me. I have a podcast, flip your script. Podcast is about how people have turned their lives from difficult circumstances. Struggle based, inspired by what happened with my career. But it covers a lot of different guests. Some are famous, some aren't. And I'm all over social media Minefield. We have a website. We're on social too. We're not hard to find. We're easy to find.

I was listening to your podcast and you, I think it was your last guest who dropped out of college and then he ended up working at Harvard. And a line that made me spit my coffee out, literally as I listened to it, is when he started. And he, I think dropped out of college. He and his wife had a baby in high school and he was trying to find jobs and he had a job giving enemas, I believe. And the line that made me spit out my drink, as I said was, I said to myself, there must be something better out there. Like, do you think.

Who knew that was a job driving around and giving people enemas? And then in my office, like they're, you know, we have a team of folks that are. Helped produce the podcast. Three of those women, they're, they're in their 20s and 30s and they didn't know what an enema was.

An enema was.

So they're googling it and then they're walking around the office like, do you know what an enema is? Do you know what it. Oh, it was quite the day here. That was a great episode. She's amazing.

It was a great episode. Oh my gosh. Well, Christy, you were a great guest as well. Thank you so much for imparting that advice. It's really about how to navigate the digital age and start thinking like a journalist. Excellent advice, Christy. Thank you so much.

Thank you. I love talking to like minded professionals.

Out there and fellow Minnesotans. Hello.

You betcha.

All right, thanks. My thanks to my guest, Christy Peel. For more information about Christy, you can find her at media-minefield.com and on Twitter at Christy Peel. I hope you follow me on Twitter Molly McPherson and if you thought this episode was helpful for you, please share it with a colleague or another person who PRs for a living. That's all for this week on the podcast. Thanks for listening. Bye for now.