How To Get FREE Media Coverage To Promote Your Business With Christina Nicholson

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This is the no Closer show where you get the latest developments in distressed note investing and learn the secrets of how you can control millions of dollars worth of property for panties on the dollar. Get educated and entertained by someone who has closed thousands of deals and lives to support you in achieving the same. Now here's your host, CEO of We Close Nodes, Scott Carson.

Hi, it's Christina Nicholson and on this episode of the Note Closer Show, I talked to Scott about how you can earn media coverage without spending any money on ads.

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, everybody. Welcome to this episode of the Note Closure Show. As always, Scott Carson jacked up. Today we've got a very special guest, somebody I had a chance to meet in fincon in Orlando a little while ago who's absolutely just loved what she shared there. Now, this lady is a badass. She calls Florida home. She spent a little time in Beaumont and she says that's where she found her cowboy. But she is a mother of three, a TV host, business owner. She lives in Wellington, Florida, but she's the head of Media Maven, which is a PR agency and she created after working as a TV anchor and reporter for more than 10 years. And she is just a phenomenal person. If you're looking to get more PR for your real estate business or your note business or trying to get the word out more what you're doing and you want to appear and stuff. So we are honored to have she's known online. Christina Allday, the amazing Christina Nicholson. What's going on, Christina? How are you doing today?

That was the best show intro I've ever had. Scott, thank you.

If you need to, I'm available for birthdays, bar mitzvahs and anniversaries. Somebody had me. Hey, Scott, can you come get my intro? When I walk in everywhere, I'm like, yeah, sure. I'd be glad to do if I'm at the event, tell our listeners a little bit why you're about and why they need to list deeper, looking to get the word out what they're doing.

Long story short, I'm a former TV reporter and anchor. When I was in that role, I was pitched a lot by publicists, people at PR agencies, marketers, even business owners who just wanted to get more exposure. They wanted that free commercial on TV and nine times out of 10, I deleted their emails just because they were pretty darn bad. So when I was looking for a more flexible schedule, I worked at a PR agency for six months before leaving and starting my own thing. So now I help Small business owners earn exposure in the media without spending money on ads to promote their personal brand, their product or their service in a very organic way.

Now, you shared one thing that just drives you bonkers, not besides just the constant influx into your inbox of stuff. But you mentioned one thing that I found the humorous because I'd made that mistake before. What should be one thing that drives you bonkers that people are paying to do right now that they need to stop immediately when it comes to getting.

Oh my gosh, I feel like there's a few Are you referring to press releases?

Yes, I am.

Okay, okay, perfect. Yes. This is what I started with. Just because this is everybody's go to. It's I need coverage so I need to write and send a press release. And it's like no, you don't like it worked wonders in the 70s, 80s, maybe even the 90s. But right now the last thing anybody wants in their inbox is a long boring press release that is promotional about you or your business or your brand. It's just not news. Like instead they'll send you to the sales department and tell you to buy an ad. So you need to make what you are pitching newsworthy and don't do it in a long boring press release. Like you really just need five sentences to get your point across and to get somebody interested in getting them to hit that reply button to want to know more.

So you also mentioned a couple tips on secrets. Can you go through a few of your best tips? You said right there. Keep it short and direct. What are some of the best ways for folks to be reaching out to news organizations or their local TV shows or stations to try to add some value or anything.

Yeah. So I can give you a couple of secrets. One secret would be before you even pitch the media, connect with the person that you want to connect with on Twitter, on Instagram, wherever they are. Scott, what is your social media of choice?

I like Twitter and LinkedIn so I did exactly as you said. I went outside looking at the articles that I read like on DS News and housing, why? And people are on there and I went and started following them on their social handles and commenting and just paying attention, liking and resharing as well.

Perfect. So then when you go to pitch them to be covered, they are going to recognize you because you are interacting with them on social media. I'm sure there's a lot of people who want to be on your podcast and you probably get a lot of emails from people pitching your podcast. But if you get an Email from somebody and their name sticks out to you because they interact with you on LinkedIn or Twitter, you. You're probably more likely to pay a little extra attention to their pitch in your inbox. And that is why it's so important to be following specific people on social media before you pitch them. Another big mistake that a lot of people do is they will pitch 500 people with the same pitch at the same time. And this is so obvious. When people do this, they still do this. A lot of PR agencies operate this way. They'll just throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and hope something sticks. I think it used to work a little bit better again years ago, but right now, there is just so much competition. Everybody's creating content. There are so many freelancers, there are so many contributors that you really just need to pinpoint, okay, where do I want to be? Who is the writer? Who is the podcast host? Who do I need to contact to make this happen? And you really want to focus on quality over quantity. And that's a big thing that will set you apart is just by get your spreadsheet out, write what podcast you want to be on, who's the podcast host, what is their Twitter handle, and just make it a point every day, every other day, just block out 15, 30 minutes to start connecting with these people. So then in two, three weeks, when you do go to pitch them, you are going to stand out, and you are more likely to get the coverage than somebody else who is just including them in a blasted email.

Now, one of the things that I've done in the past, and I'm just asking, is I saw a trend that was going on. This goes back like 2007, 2008 in some cases, where the world was. The sky was falling, Chicken Live was going crazy. So I went out and grabbed quotes from a couple of my colleagues in the industry on a specific, like the mortgage back then. One was a hedge fund manager. We also found a quote from Warren Buffett that we threw in there. And then I sent like a short article, said, hey, would this be helpful for what's going on? Almost pre wrote the article, I guess you could say. And that helped get picked up in Wall Street Journal and Business Insider on that from a publicist.

Yeah, no, that's amazing. And that sometimes will happen. A lot of times we'll pitch coverage and the writer will come back to us and say, hey, this is great. I would love to do this story. I just don't have the time or the resources. So why don't you just write the story for me and we'll place it in there. So that's why spurts get contributing roles. I had a real estate agent get a contributing role at Inman, one of the biggest real estate websites there is. So getting contributor roles is a great way to earn exposure, and you're earning it on a consistent basis. And then when you take that article that you wrote and you share it on your LinkedIn or your Twitter, then people are going to see you as an expert in the industry. You're really going to stand out for your competition. So you could pitch ideas to the media and have them write the story, or you could write the story yourself and pitch it to be placed. And a lot of times, yes, it's more work on your end and you don't know what the end result will be. But a lot of times it's easier to get coverage that way because you're doing all of the work for them. And it's not just you putting that on your website, but it's you getting it placed elsewhere. So you're getting those new followers and you're getting that authority and credibility. So that is one strategy that we use for some of our clients at Media Maven, and these are our clients that are expert clients who are trying to build their personal brand. That's definitely something that should be considered.

And I know it'll vary a little bit on audience, but when you talk about building a personal brand, what do you see in some of the better ways for contributing factors? Are you talking like TikTok? We talking Pinterest, we talking spending time on LinkedIn so it's more professional. What do you see as being some of the better bang for the buck?

Yeah, it really depends on what your industry is and who your audience is. So like you mentioned Pinterest. If you're a recipe blogger, a hundred percent, Pinterest should be your platform of choice. If you are an educator, you're a coach, say you want to teach people how to start investing in real estate. I would say get on YouTube and start your own podcast. If you work B2B, then LinkedIn is going to be your jam. So it really just depends on where your people are and what they're doing. And I also think when it comes to creating content, yes, a hundred percent, you should be creating it yourself. You should treat your business as a media company. You should be consistently posting blogs, releasing podcasts, posting on social media. I'm not saying do all of these things. I'm saying pick and choose. Because whatever one you choose, you want to be consistent with it. But then you also want to be creating content for other outlets or earning media in other outlets, because that is where you are going to get new people to come and follow you. And that is where you are going to earn that authority and credibility. Because it's one thing to tell everybody, hey, I'm great. Here's my blog. Hey, I'm amazing. Listen to my podcast episode. But it's a completely different thing for somebody else to say, hey, Scott's great. Listen to him on my podcast. Or Scott's amazing. I wrote about him in this article. Because then you are already going to be known, liked, and trusted, because that source is known, liked and trusted. So it's just like an automatic thing. And then if you're selling something, if you're getting people into your funnel, it just makes that sales process so much easier.

That makes it so much better to do that versus quoting yourself in the third person in a lot of cases. Right? Scott's so badass. You know, written by Scott Carson, I would say a friend, somebody I know out of Dallas. She's a realtor, and she actually caught up in the whole January 6th stuff. She actually had to go on probation, Got diddle. Jail time. Oh, no.

She's one of those.

One of those. Don't care who she voted for. But she then sent an email blast, press release out to her entire database written by her and quoted herself in the third person. I'm like, is she smoking crack?

Obviously, for so many reasons.

Didn't even pay for somebody. It was literally written by her. And I had all her. She likes pink. She picked color. I was like, why are you sending this out? We all have our opinions, but you look like you're raving mad when you're talking about all those things because it was all, like, opinionated. And anyway, I was like, I could hear that bomb going off.

Would not recommend on so many levels.

What are some other things that drive you bonkers that you're like, don't do that, don't pay for that. What are some of those things out there that you see?

Yeah. Oh, speaking of don't pay for that. This is something. I don't know if I touched on this at all at fincon, but so many people are getting those scams in your DMs, and you don't know their scams because they sound so good to be true. And you're like, you want them to be true so people will slide into your DMs and they'll tell you that they can guarantee you coverage and all of these amazing media outlets. And first of all, nobody can guarantee you coverage. Like, the only way you will be guaranteed coverage is if you pay for an ad by somebody who works for that media outlet who has the authority to sell ads. Like, for the love of God, please keep that in mind. These people who are sliding into your DMs and guaranteeing you coverage either know somebody who's a contributor at that outlet or they're just going to copy and paste your press release and put it on a news wire. And what happens is that news wire will then release your press release to 300 some media outlets. And yeah, sure, it'll be on all of those websites, but nobody will find it. It will be either like gated content, it will be buried somewhere. And unless you have that long ass URL to get to it, nobody's going to see it. Which means what's the purpose of getting it here? And then if you pay, say the situation is they know a contributor for Inc. Magazine, so they're illegally collecting money under the table to get you an Inc Magazine. Well, what happens if you pay this person and the editor, Inc says I don't like that quote, take it out. Or the story just doesn't get published because shit happens and it doesn't get published or the editor finds out that you paid for inclusion, then everything that writer has ever written is going to be taken down. That has happened before. So do not pay for coverage unless you are certain you are buying an ad from somebody who works at that media outlet. Otherwise it's just like crazy PR scams. And these are so popular. I get them in my inbox, I get them in my DMs and I'm like, do you know what I do for a living? Like, this isn't going to work with me. And so many times I just follow along. I got one today and I was following along with it and I said, just to be clear, are you trying to sell me PR services? Took him a while to respond because I think he was checking out my website after that and he was like, oh no, I'm not trying to sell you PR services. That's what you do and you do it great. Have a good day. Like really?

Dude, it happens all the time. Yeah, I get those all the time. Those are almost as bad as hey, I'll get you 10,000 followers or the blue check.

On social media, it's just garbage, but they think it's true or they'll be like, look at what we did for this person. And no, I don't know if you're telling the truth or something. You could be lying. You probably are lying. Like, you just can't fall for that stuff. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Anybody can say anything on the Internet, right? Like, a lot of these people, they say they're experts, they say they're PR experts, they're marketing experts, whatever. Do your homework. Don't give people money unless they have, again, that credibility and authority to back up what they're saying. See what they've done for people? Have they really done that or are they just get referrals? Look, Google people. It's just wild to me how many people fall for these scams on the Internet just because it sounds good. They really want that, so they'll give their money to this person and then it ends up being a waste.

We've seen that as well too, with people looking to public speaking. There's somebody out there, oh, pay me and you'll speak at Harvard. And it's some, like, conference room off to the side. It's not really Harvard inviting them to speak. It's somebody who rented a room and selling that space to say, hey, you can take a picture in front of the Harvard podium. You know what I mean? Just don't get it.

It's wild to me. And it's like, at the end of the day, does that really move the needle for you? Like a picture of you at a Harvard podium? Come on, people, stop doing shit to look cool on the Internet. Just be cool. And by default. By default, you'll look cool on the Internet.

Right? And let me ask you something. We get students all the time. They're looking to start doing their videos and their podcasts, and they're always scared to be themselves. They're trying to be the next Gary Vee or be somebody else out there. How important is to be yourself, to be original, versus trying to copy?

Yeah, I don't think there's anything wrong with looking at people for inspiration, but I get embarrassed for people and I look at their social and it's so obvious it's not them. It's so cliche to say, don't be somebody else. They're already taken. But it's like, why would you even want to create content and have a YouTube channel and have a podcast if you're not going to be yourself? Like, why do you want to do it anyway? And there's so many people who say, oh, I can't do that. It's saturated. So many other people are doing that. There could be a lot of people doing it. But is anybody doing it the way that you do it? Is anybody speaking to people the way you speak to people? Think of your own behavior. There's a lot of bro marketing. I use this in air quotes. So like when I look at hiring a business coach or somebody to help me with my funnels and I see a guy who does it, but like all of his clients are like posing outside of Lamborghinis with hot chicks and they're making it rain with their money, whatever. Like, those are not my people. People. Let me find somebody who teaches this and does it well, but speaks to women like me. So I just feel like even if you are going into an industry, which, I mean, I feel like at this point every industry is saturated, right? But there are people who are just starting now who are still being successful because they're doing it in their own unique way. So I think it's important to play up your experience, your education, if that's what it is. Like, why are you doing what you're doing? Play that part of it up and that will set you apart. And I honestly feel it's just a matter of practice. Like some people get, they're afraid to start because they're afraid of what other people think or judgments or whatever. Trust. Nobody is going to really care that you're nervous. Nobody's even going to think that you're nervous. They're just not thinking like that. They're going to be watching you and listening you to hear what you have to say. And yeah, there's going to be trolls. Whenever you put yourself out there, that's what you get. But you get used to it. I think it's like a good sign. It really doesn't affect me anymore. Like I was a TV reporter and anchor. You would die if you saw the emails I got and the DMs I got. Like, I have a Google folder full of death threats from believers after I did a story about Justin Bieber getting arrested for drag racing in Miami. Like those Beliebers came for me just because I reported on his arrest. Like it was wild. People are going to say shit even if you're doing something so positive. I had an Instagram post go viral about me like praising my husband for being a stay at home dad. And of course people were still being negative in the comments. Like, it is what it is. People wake up looking to be offended. They will say terrible things to you. You can't care, because if you care, like, you're not going to make it as an entrepreneur, like, you have to brush that stuff off. What strangers say on the Internet does not matter. Keep doing. You do what you want and, like, just focus on that. And then the other stuff will just be like, noise you learn to ignore.

Now you're a little passionate, too, I think, about the whole fake news aspect. You had an amazing TED Talk about how, hey, it's our fault, right? You want to talk a little bit about your TED Talk and what your opinion?

Yeah. Yeah, it is. Okay, so fake news, that obviously became a big term quite a few years ago when a certain person used it a lot when he would see something he didn't, like whether or not it was real or fake. But really, the TED Talk wasn't about that. It wasn't political at all. And the reason I say fake news is your fault is because so many people get on the Internet and if they see something that they agree with, whether or not it's true or false, they just see something they agree with. It could be an opinion, somebody else's opinion. You share it and say it's a fact. There's so many talk shows that people think are news, and it's. No, it's not news. That's a talk show. Those are people sharing their opinions. And they'll be like, oh, no, no, no, I saw this on the news. This is fact. And then they'll share it. And it happens so much. I told a story about how my friend who's a TV reporter was accused of going on a racist rant at a nail salon just because one person who lives across the country said it was her. And everybody retweeted it and shared it. She didn't even look like the woman. She was about 40 years younger than the woman who was on the video doing this. But because one person on the other side of the country shared it, it went viral. And she was a TV reporter. So this could have destroyed her career and her credibility. And she's like, of course she ends up happening to be the, like, nicest person ever. So of all people to happen to, it was her. And it just goes to show that, like, no matter what you put out there, like, you are the media. If you're sharing on social, you are the media. And it doesn't matter how big or small you think you are, it just takes certain people to see it and share it and is what it is. You know what I mean? It could blow up. It could not blow up. It just depends on. But it's also important for people to realize that what you give attention to will live longer. And I use the example of the Kardashians. So many people. If you. Next time you see a post about any of those girls, check out the comment section. You will see nothing but hate. Not one person has given them props. Not one person is saying anything positive. But the comment section is on fire. And I guarantee you, whoever posted that say, it's E News. This is a big one with E. News. People hate it when E. News shares anything about the Kardashians, but they get all the comments. So E. News sees that. I don't care if all your comments are negative. You are giving this topic engagement. We're going to keep on covering it. And that's how it works. When I worked in the news, people would say, why do you cover all this negativity? I don't even watch the news anymore. It's all bad stuff. And I would say we get the ratings every 30 seconds and we can see that when we switch from a negative story to a positive story, people change the channel. People tune in when it's negativity. So don't tell me you don't like the negative news and then turn around and watch it like we can see that stuff. This stuff gets tracked online, too. That's a loaded answer to your question. I didn't even get into some of that in the TED Talk because I only had seven or eight minutes. But you control it. You control what you see. So if you don't like something, you should not comment on it, because when you're commenting on it, you're giving it more life, you're giving it more engagement. And that is going to tell the poster that you want to see more of it because you're engaging with it. So the idea is, is you control and you control what you share. So when fake news is spreading, it's because somebody like you helped it spread.

Now, what if you're like your friend who's on the wrong side of that? Is there something that you would recommend that they do if they're on the wrong side of fake news or.

Yeah, she was. I don't know. I told her, I said, you should totally do a story on this as like a learning lesson of what could happen? I don't know if that happened. I know her station got behind her and stuck up for her. And that situation, when you work at a TV station and you're limited as to what you could do, you kind of need to ask them permission on what to post. The TV industry is just wild like that. But I think there's only so much you can do. You just have to defend yourself. Especially when it's something like that, where it's something that's like, totally untrue. Not even you. There's things where things are taken out of context that you may have said or maybe you misspoke. Live. Some people are afraid to speak out about certain things. What if I say this the wrong way? I think just being transparent about everything and just being open and honest. And if you did say something and it was taken outta context, then. Share the full clip, Share the full quote. Get on a live and explain it and then like take a few steps back. Like just let it play out. Because then a few days later it'll be on to the next. We're going to be canceling somebody new. Like, it may seem like it's the end of the world, but the way the news cycle works, sorry to say, you may be forgotten in two days. Like, the whole thing may be forgotten. So I just think it's important to. That's why it's so important to have your own platform, to have your own website, have your own social media. Like, you control that narrative. So if somebody tries to take something out of context or tries to do the whole fake news thing, you can post in your defense. And 10 years ago you probably weren't able to do something like that.

Yeah. What's your thought? And you may want to share may not about especially like what happened with Kevin Hart in the Emmys where people went back 10, 15 years ago and shared a joke that he heard about it and it really impacted me. But yet that also happened with the fluffy Julio Iglesias. Just recently, the comedian was talking about that in his most recent special too. He says, I've apologized for what I said 15 years. But it was really relevant then. It's not relevant now. I have a different opinion now.

I think it's so different for everybody. Like, we've seen this with like contestants on the Bachelorette. We've like, with everybody. It's like going back into the archives and seeing it was a different time. Not saying it was okay for some of these people to say and do these things then. But I feel like there has been so much more education and so much more acknowledgement on what you can and can't say. Like, I remember even in the movie Bring It On, I don't know if you're a cheerleading fan Scott. But in the movie Bringing On, Bring It On, I remember in the back seat, she was like, asking if a guy was gay, but instead of saying that, she said, do you speak fag or do you speak fag? Something like that. She said it in the movie. And I remember, like, at the time it was like, whatever, but now it's guy think, oh, my God, that's so offensive. I think they even, like, silence it when the movies replay. And you could, like, with the MeToo movement, it was never okay for women to take advantage or for men to take advantage of women in the workplace. That was never okay. Now we're actually listening to women when they say it happens. So I think it's good this is all coming out. I think with comedians, it gets. Things get a little. There's gray area because comedians like you almost pay a comedian to offend you. It's so different with comedians, like, they. They just make jokes on that stuff. So I don't think a comedian in a show saying something should be held to the same standard as somebody in the workplace.

Right.

And he has their own line as to what's going to be crossed. And what I. The only time I believe in cancel culture is if you get called out on something and you double down and you refuse to even try to acknowledge or see the other person's side, then you're just a bad person and we can cancel you. But I think if you're just like, nope, this is it. Yeah, but I think there's so many people who. There's so much ignorance. Like, we're all ignorant to something. None of us can know everything about everything. We're all ignorant to something. And if you're open to learning, so you're not ignorant to that topic where maybe you slipped up, then, no, you should not be canceled. Because even if you have canceled somebody in the past, you are ignorant to something, and you don't want to be canceled over something that you've never not knowing something because you've never been exposed to. And I think, honestly, people will say you're canceled. Like I said, two days later, they forgot. Somebody else has been canceled since then. So you're uncanceled. We can only cancel a few people at a time. I don't know. I just. I just feel like, because social media and whatever you post can spread like wildfire, it can just happen. But I don't think it's something that, like, I don't think you're ever truly canceled. Like, people say, it's just a silly Thing.

Yeah, it's. And it's like I said, everybody's got such a short memory and things come back and there's always two side story. That's the thing I think is most frustrating with what's happening in the world these days, especially in the United States, is people are, I would just say ignorant, almost non willing to listen to the other opinion in such a way, no matter what it is, it's oh, I'm right, you're wrong, or even if you change, you're wrong, I'm right or in digging our heels in the ground.

Frustrating.

Yeah, it totally is out there.

That's why I don't talk to people. Scott, stay over there with your crazy ass opinions and your unwillingness to see any other perspective.

Right. Question popped up here that I wrote down that I wanted to ask you. When you're pitching news outlets or TV shows or stuff like that, you with your background, was there a day, I know that you've got sweet weeks and stuff like that, but is there a time or day where news runs a little slow that you're consistent, you may be able to slide in?

That's a good question. In TV around the holidays, it's always a slow time. Like on Thanksgiving Day, on Christmas Day, like we're still working and a lot of the time we're doing holiday stories. So if you can give us some hard news, any of those days, it's slow hanging fruit for sure. I remember the day after Thanksgiving I was always, I always did my Christmas shopping because I would double dip, I would do my Black Friday story and I would shoot it and I would give it to my photographer and I would say, okay, while you're editing the story, I will be shopping. I will see you back in time for our live shot at 6. Like focusing on holidays is good. Weekend, weekend morning shows for tv, they're always bringing in guests. So if you can think of a cool idea, give you a three minute segment. Weekend morning shows are big and morning shows in general, just because they have so much time, like sometimes they're two hours straight and they repeat the same news in different ways every half hour, every hour. Because do you just go by the people watching? They're getting ready to go to work so they're only going to see it like in half hour segments. So that's why you have to repeat the same thing. So they're always looking for content. So focus around the slow times. But again that means you have to do a lot of the work too. So they may want you to write something, or they may want you to bring some things in you can do to make a journalist job a little easier, the better your chances are of actually getting that coverage.

Now, are you a big fan of Help a Reporter Out, HARO and other places?

I have a love hate relationship with haro. So for those who don't know, HARO stands for Help a Reporter Out. Used to be great. Used to be amazing. You would get three emails a day, morning, noon, and night, and they would be from journalists wanting sources. Like, I'm writing a story about real estate investing, and I'm looking for a real estate investor in Austin, Texas to comment on it now. And that still happens. Like, you can still get great coverage using haro. However, as of a few years ago, it's really gone downhill. And that's just because they let anybody post anything in there. So you could be a blogger in Piedmont, North Dakota, and you could have maybe two people reading your blog and say, hey, I'm doing a Christmas roundup for the best gifts for kids under the age of 10. Send me your gifts and I'll include you in this roundup. So this blogger will just get all kinds of mail, all kinds of free gifts, and then maybe you'll be lucky if she writes a blog post on it. Like, they'll just let anybody post anything. Some people will post things and then you'll reach out and you'll want the coverage. And they will say, okay, great, so this is for an ad, and it will be $500 for inclusion, which you're not supposed to do. But Harrow is not regulated. It's not looked at. It's really just like something that's there that a lot of newbies use. And the competition is crazy. Like, I've used it before. I won't use it where I've been writing articles for something and I need quotes. And I will get hundreds of responses. And most of them are garbage. Most of them are like, here's my book. Read my book. Your book has nothing to do with my query. This is not what I need answers to. But you can get good things there. It's just. I don't want to say it's a needle in the haystack, but just be mindful of what's out there.

That makes sense. Yeah, you got to filter through a lot of stuff these days, and it always seems that way with different organizations. Whether it was Backpage or Craigslist or now we see that with Nextdoor, a lot of junk is on there. It's become the Venting thing for neighbors is to vent about stuff. Grumpy old people.

I know some of them are funny. Some of them are funny, though. We had. Where I live, they put these little stop signs on the road for the golf carts and oh my gosh, people were going crazy on there about the little. They called them little lollipops because they were little stop signs on the sidewalk. How much are we paying for these little lollipops on the sidewalk? If you want some entertainment, go to next door and read what your neighbors are writing.

Yeah, exactly. Question for you. So you got your PR firm, media maven. Can you talk a little bit maybe about your process when you're working with somebody and what you're looking for to help somebody or helping them identify opportunities out there?

Yeah, so it's really the same thing I do with my online course. So I have the media mavens, the PR agency, and then I started the online course to help the small business owner who doesn't budget for a PR agency. So when we start out, we do for the clients. We do. Like an onboarding session takes less than an hour. And what are your goals? Where do you want to be and why? Because you want to make sure you're focusing on the right media outlets or else it's all going to be for a waste. It's a waste. It's not going to turn into profit for you. So where do you want to be and why? Okay, what do we need to get there? You probably need a good personal story. Let's talk about your expertise. And you want to get as specific as you can with talking points. Like, it would be one thing for me to say, hey, Scott, I could come on the note closer show and I could talk about how people can grow their business through marketing. I'm sure you get a million bajillion pitches about people building their business through marketing. And like, you can't envision what that looks like. But instead, if I said I could come on and I could tell you the biggest mistake people make when they pitch the media to get coverage and how they could fix it, like that is so much more specific. You can envision what I'm going to talk about and you're not getting a lot of pitches that say that same thing. So that's really what we want to focus on when we are working with those expert clients. It's different if you have a brick and mortar location. We still want to talk about the owner's achievements and tell their personal story as well. But brick and Mortar location. Okay, are we going to have an event? Are we going to team up with some businesses near you? Do you have any promotions? How can we link your promotions to what's happening? For example, one of my clients is Midas Tire Kingdom mtb, Big O Tires. So when we talk about like Thanksgiving, okay, that's a lot of travel. Here are five things you need to do. And check your car before you hit the road for the Thanksgiving holiday. So things like that, really just thinking of these different story ideas and talking points and you almost have to think of them and do this every three weeks, every month because you want to be super timely and it has to be newsworthy. So you have to give that journalist a reason to do the story now. And that's what makes it newsworthy. Otherwise it's just a promotion. It can't be promotional. It has to be something that makes sense. If you picked up a newspaper like, okay, this is why I'm reading this right now. This is newsworthy for this reason. So that's what we work with clients on. And then with our agency, we do all of the outreach and follow up. And then with the online course, you do the outreach and the follow up and then we just help you by telling you what to do and how to do it.

Nice. What's the link for those folks to check out the online course.

Thank you. You can check out the online course if you go to. I have so many links.

Scott, is it medium? Is it the one that you gave away at the fincon? You gave away some great resources.

I gave away tons of resources. If you go here, I'll just shout out the ones top of mind. If you go to 16places.com, that's it.

Yes, that's the one you're thinking of.

Okay, so if you go to 16places.com, you can get. It's a PDF. It'll give you 16 places to pitch to be a contributor. I tell you what story ideas they're accepting and the exact person to pitch it to. If you go to earn medianow.com you can see it's just like an hour long masterclass that goes into specifics of some of the things I've talked about here. Some of the things I talked about@fincon, that's@earn medianow.com and those two things will get you a pretty good head start. So I would say those two things. Then I have my own podcast where I blabber on about shit like this too. That's at Become a Media Maven.

Love that. I don't know if you can see, but I have big stars right next to those things. I was like, oh, this is great star. Oh good.

Yes. I'm like Santa. I just love giving away all the.

Free stuff, but it's useful stuff to help people take that step. See if they're willing to do then obviously your firm does a great job with some big names, but also helping a lot of folks out there to get the word out. What is as we move into 2023 and you're probably keeping track of a lot of different things, news wise and PR wise. What's one thing people should probably keep an eye out a little bit more for or spend a little bit more time on if they're an entrepreneur or business owner.

I think personal branding is huge even if you're not an entrepreneur, like on LinkedIn. Like if you're looking for a job, like LinkedIn isn't just a place to apply for jobs. That's where you build your personal brand. Like, you post something about your expertise every day and you are leaps and bounds ahead of your competition. So I think it's going to be personal branding is going to be big. People want to know what through your experience, through your eyes. There's a lot of people who talk about real estate investing, but there's a reason people listen to you when you talk about it versus somebody else. Like for example, I have a friend who has an online course teaching people how to invest in short term rentals. And she is a woman and she teaches other women how to do it. That's super niche and there's a reason she does that and there's a reason I'm in her course. Do you know what I mean? Like, I just feel like people need to really play up their personal brand. Don't get imposter syndrome. Don't think you're not ready for this. I included, I did a bootcamp a couple of weeks ago and I included this section on day one where it's like the people who have imposter syndrome, they're always high achievers and the amount of people who have it is insane. And it's, you know so much more than you think because you have the curse of knowledge. Like it's so natural to you. It's so secondhand that you don't think what you know is special. And it is. Think of something you are so ignorant to. Like, for me it's cryptocurrency, it's Bitcoin, it's Meta Web 3. I don't even know how to tell you what I'm ignorant to because like I don't get it at all. Like that 101 version of Stuff is so over my head. Your expertise is like that for somebody else too. So I think the more you put content out there about who you are and what you do, not only are you going to attract more of your people, but you're also going to attract a lot of those media opportunities as well.

Yeah, I think that's one of the best things is sharing what we think is dumb is not always the case for everybody else out there. Your one on one stuff, no buying for dummies. We started our course like that years ago and it's. People understand it. Oh, okay. I know when I'm gonna walk out of this knowing I'm not gonna be a dummy anymore. But it's that basic knowledge is always a great place to start off and then building from there. But I think you said something really good is niche it down too. In a lot of cases, knowing your niche versus being, trying to be broad and serve everybody out there too, that's important too, right? Being niche specific.

Yeah. And I think it'll also help you create your content and then it'll help you get those media opportunities because we're so sick of hearing the general stuff from everybody all day, every day. Like five ways to get started investing in real estate. Okay, you could say that. Or you could say five ways to invest in real estate even if you don't have money saved up. Or to invest in real estate in Austin, Texas. Or to invest in real estate while you're working a full time job. Like whatever it is, get as specific as possible because then I'm going to be more interested because those specifics cater to me in my current situation.

So it's funny you said that. I don't know if you had a chance to see Bobby Rebel, one of the keynotes from the Big Ideas they speak. She used to be a news anchor there.

No, I didn't.

So she actually had me on her podcast and it was the exact same article. Same thing you just said. Five ways invest in real estate without using your own money with no money access.

Funny.

No way.

Oh my gosh, I'm a psychic. I guess I'm not a psychic because.

It already happened, but you raised a relevant point there. It's important to be that specific and share specific insights and they're down to a nugget brought. You know, it's the same thing in podcasts, the same in real estate. If you try to be a jack of all trades. Nobody's going to listen to you. You're not going to be successful, any form of fashion. But knowing your niche and then narrowing it down and then sharing your story I think is one of the biggest things too. Everybody can be. Nobody wants to know. Just another realtor from Keller Williams. We want to know. Like, we got a guy here in Austin who wears the big cowboy hat. He's the short sale expert for Keller Williams. I love that.

That's so funny. Like my sister, she just became a real estate agent in central Ohio. I was like, michelle, you're fun. Like, you need to be the fun real estate agent. And she's like a really good gift giver. It's like she closed on her first house and she was like, oh my gosh, my closing present for my client was the bomb. Listen to what I got them. And he loved it. And he like wants to be her best friend now because of this closing present. I'm like, that needs to be your net. You make the process fine. Because a lot of times, like when people are looking to buy a house or sell a house, it's stressful and it's not fun. Like, you need to be like, I'm the fun one. And you will get a bomb ass present when you close with me.

Think about the movie with Paul Rudd where he was the realtor. Love you, man. Where his buddy took all his photos and put them on all the billboards. I don't know if you remember that.

I don't.

Oh, it's hilarious. Yeah.

Thing with Paul Rudd is fabulous.

Exactly. Out there, Christina, what's the best way for our audience to connect with you, to follow you? What's the best way for them to listen to your sound?

Okay, so all the ways become a media mavens. The podcast 16 places com earn media now and then on social. I am at Christina allday.

Yeah, Christina all day. It's a great way follow her on Twitter and everything out there. Guys, listen to her podcast. So much value there for you, especially if you're starting off new, trying to figure things out. She's great insight and love. If you didn't know from her, she is fun and she will have you laughing a little bit about some of her stories and things like that. But it's so valuable straight shooting out there. And so we love. That's why we had to have you here on the no close show. Christina, you've added value to my business in just the last 60 days since Fincon for sure. So thank you so much.

Thank you for having me. Glad to see you again and so happy to be on the show.

Yeah, awesome. Good stuff there. All right, guys and gals, that is going to wrap it up for this episode of the no Closer show. Take a look at those free resources. We'll have the links below in the description or the show notes there for you, but make sure you follow Christian online and listening to her podcast as well. So go out, take some action, buddy, and we'll see you at the top. Bye, Sam.