MBA961 Why You Are Not Getting Enough Press

Hey O. Welcome to the $100 MBA show, the business podcast that knows how much your business means to you. That's why we deliver daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the Hundred Dollar MBA, a complete business training and community online over at 100 MBA. In today's episode you will learn why you're not getting enough press. There's nothing worse than feeling like you're being ignored. Some of us, especially when we're starting out, we feel like we're doing great work. We're creating something that's pretty cool, but no one's picking it up. No one's actually writing about us in different publications or even blogs. Why is this not happening? Why aren't writers and journalists reaching out to you to write about what you're doing? Well, I want to share with you three reasons why you're not getting enough press, or maybe why you're not getting any press at all. Now, I've learned these three things the hard way and I don't want you to experience the same thing. So I want to kind of have you sidestep all these issues and give you the best chance to get published, to get noticed, to get mentioned on big time publications. We've been fortunate enough to be published in Forbes, in Fast Company, in Inc. In Entrepreneur, in Household Names, publications we all know. But it wasn't always that way. I'm going to show you how to correct your wrongs in today's episode. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. This episode is brought to you by Pitney Bowes. No matter what you send or how often Pitney Bowes has your sending solution, print postage from your office and take advantage of special discounts such as saving $0.03 per letter and up to 39% off USPS shipping rates. Plans start as low as $5 per month. Visit pb.commba to learn more and sign up for a free trial. That's pb.com MBA terms apply. See site for details. Getting the press to recognize you and to write about you is really essential when you're trying to grow a global brand. It really can help you get traction because it gives you an endorsement. It tells other people that some serious publications think you're legit. It's probably one of the biggest testimonials you can get. This is why a lot of people, when you visit their website, they tell you they've been featured on Forbes or Inc. Or Entrepreneur, because it carries a lot of weight. But how do you make sure the press knows about you? How do you make sure you're not ignored, no matter what publication is popular in your marketplace? I'm going to share with you three reasons why you're not getting enough press. You need to avoid these three things as much as possible. I'm going to show you how. And the how is really important because if you don't have a game plan, it's really easy to slip into these things and kind of just not do the right things. Let me get started and explain, number one, the number one reason why you're not getting enough press. And this is going to sound like tough love, but you're just not doing something significant enough. Great work gets recognized, it gets talked about. And writers and journalists are hungry for interesting topics, for interesting stories. So are you actually creating something significant? And if you are creating significant work, you're doing something significant. Are you communicating that on your website, on your social media profiles? Is it apparent that you're doing groundbreaking work? You see, it's important to understand that not everything you create, everything you do is going to be noteworthy. It's going to be worth writing about. You know, we create a lot of courses and a lot of programs and a lot of products that our customers love, but it didn't really get a lot of press coverage because in the big scheme of things, in the scheme of the whole world or what's out there, it's not really newsworthy, even though for our audience, they loved it. But for example, one of the things that we really created, this podcast, the $100 MBA show, was really a game changer in our industry because we were the first lesson based business podcast. And we weren't bad. We're actually pretty good. And when we launched, a lot of people thought this was a refreshing format and they still do now. Even though when we launched and we had success on itunes and we did really well in the first, you know, year or so, it took a while for us to get noticed. Sometimes you need to do something for a bit of time. People might think you're new, but you've been doing it for months or even years. So stay consistent if you're doing something great. And great work always gets recognized sooner or later. So ask yourself, are you really proud of what you're putting out there? Are you putting something out there that's significant, that's unique in your marketplace? Are you giving journalists something to write about? Maybe it's just your approach to things. Maybe it's the way you market. Maybe your marketing style is really refreshing. The point is that do you differentiate yourself from the pack? Are you creating things worth writing about? And I didn't get that. I just didn't get that in the beginning. And I realized, wow, I'm creating some good stuff, but I'm not really getting recognized because it's not really coming across as something different or new or revolutionary. You know, I could say my podcast is a business show on itunes. It's called the Hundred Dollars MBA Show. But I also could say the Hundred Dollars MBA show delivers daily ten minute business lessons in podcast format. You know, every day we deliver a new lesson that's a different angle. That's wow. Usually podcasts are interviews or discussions, a lesson that sounds pretty cool when you mark yourself that way. When you communicate to people who you are in a different way, you get recognized. People have that light bulb moment and say, oh, I get it now, why this show is different or this product is different or this brand is different. So that's number one. Number two, your relationship with the press is just like any other relationship. It's got to go both ways. You have to have a relationship. You can't just expect people to show up to your door. You should be reading the publications that you want to get in. You should know the authors, the contributors to the different websites, whether it's Inc. Or Fast Company or the Greatest, which is a great website. I actually used to play basketball with the founder Derek, back in the day in New York. Awesome guy. Here's the point. You should get to know these people, follow them on Twitter, read their articles, maybe even just comment their articles and give your opinion. At the very least, they're going to look you up when you follow them. They're going to find out who's this person. They're going to look you up as well. If you comment on their blog posts, if you share their blog posts, obviously you're going to do this, genuinely give your genuine opinion. You're not going to be stalking them, obviously. But the point is that you want to build a relationship with the people in the press. They have to get to know you. And once you get to know one, two or three people in the press, you get the ball rolling. They understand who you are and they have you top of mind. They might write about you or include you in a roundup post. And the thing about journalists is that they help each other out. They'll recommend you to other writers that need help or need a Topic or need a reference or need a quote. And once you start getting to know these people, you can start to actually approach them with an idea. Now, I'm not saying to hard pitch them, but you can say, hey, I notice you write articles about these topics and I have an idea for a topic and here are my opinions on this topic. And here are some quotes actually that I wrote for you that might be used in this article. And here are some references you want to make their life easier. You obviously can't write the whole article for them because they're gonna have to rewrite it anyway. But if you give them the information, the context, you flesh out the idea, they'll appreciate it. Be like, okay, this got some meat. I can actually use this. I can write something around these quotes, these ideas and these references. And of course you can let them know, no pressure. I just wanted to kind of reach out and help out. And by doing your research and finding out if there are any gaps in what he's written or she's written in the past, then it shows that you actually are dedicated and you're not just pitching them. Alright? Third reason why you're not getting enough press. And this one's really simple, but a lot of people neglect this and it's that your SEO on your website is absolutely horrible. If your SEO is not in check, you need to make sure it is. There's a problem if I can't google your business name and get information about your business on the first page. That's a problem. If the first search results are party picks off Facebook or your Instagram feed, that's an issue. You need to be on top of your SEO. So when people actually want to research you, find out about you, and they do a Google search, what you want them to see is top of the list. Make sure your website SEO is serving you Google yourself right now. Your name, your business, even what you do. So if you're into business coaching, you write business coaching. Your first name. You got to show up now. If you need any help with search engine optimization, I highly recommend you check out Brian Dean's blog, backlinko.com he's going to help you with the basics so you can be able to make sure your SEO is enough so you're not embarrassing yourself so people can actually find you easily. If somebody wants to write an article about you, somebody refers you. If you reach out to somebody, say, hey, this is my name. Somebody introduces you, they remember your name, they Google you, they Google your business, they can't find you on the first page or two, they, they're not going to really try that hard. They're going to be like, okay, forget it. This person's not significant enough. If your SEO is weak, it makes you look weak. So up your website's SEO game big time. It could be simple fixes like installing Yoast, which is a plugin for WordPress, where you can really optimize your SEO easily with it could be just having a really solid optimized about page. Or maybe you don't have a website at all. That's an issue. The last thing you need is somebody not being able to Google you guys. I got more on today's topic, but before that, I gotta give love to today's sponsor. Support for today's show comes from Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams is your hub for teamwork in Office365. We run a remote team here at the $100 MBA and it can get really hectic with different players around the world. Communication can get jumbled and it can be a real mess. There's so much to look after. Wouldn't it be great if you just had one place to look? Microsoft Teams is a single workplace where you can work, share and connect with the people in your work life. Teams brings together chats, meetings, files and apps all in one place. And you could take Teamwork where you work with apps for mobile and desktop. So whether you're sprinting towards a deadline or sharing your next big idea, Teams can help you and your team achieve even, even more. Microsoft Teams in Office 365. Visit office.com teams to learn more. All right, the top three reasons why you're not getting enough press is one, you're not doing significant work or you're not actually marketing yourself in a way that communicates the significance of your work. Two, you're not making an effort to have a relationship with people that write, journalists, people in the press. And number three, your SEO is off game. It's not good. When people search you, they can't find you. When they search your genre, your marketplace, your niche, and they don't see your business or your website up there, that's an issue. Alright, that wraps up today's lesson. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, let us know in an ITUNES rating and review, we would love to hear from you. We read every single review. We like to hear what you love about the show, what your favorite episodes are, and of course you enter our weekly random draw we call Free Free Ride Friday. Every Friday, we choose somebody who's left us a rating and review and reward them or thank them with a free ride to one of our courses. This month we're giving away Easy Course, which is a 30 day course on how to build your online course and launch it. It's a $500 course we're giving away for free as a gift to you to say thanks for leaving us a rating and review. Alright, that's it for me today guys. But before I go, I want to leave you with this. If you're just getting started, do not worry so much about getting press coverage. Really focus on creating something significant, something great, something noteworthy. If you don't have something that's worth writing about, that's a problem. So just focus on creating a great product, great service for your audience. Speaking of products, tomorrow we're going to be speaking all about low priced products versus high priced products. When you're creating a product or service, you need to make that choice. Am I going to actually create a low priced product? Something that's easy, easy to kind of get into with a low price ticket or a high priced product? Are you going to be a Netflix, a low price product or an Apple product which is a premium product, which is high priced? We get into all that in tomorrow's episode, so make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss it. All right, I'll check you then. Until then, take care. Of sam.