Heather left her agency job in June 2015 and built her PR firm from her mom's basement, working minimum-wage shifts at Lifetime Fitness to pay bills. She hit a million dollars in revenue during the pandemic while living in a 23-foot Airstream, focusing on web traffic, media impressions, and video testimonials over traditional gatekeepers.
Chapters
And then the pandemic hit and Covid happened and I was living full time in a 23 foot Airstream with my husband. So it's everything as there are so many independent websites that are privately owned that you can write for. Right. Like legacy media will always be here. But there's been a lot of consolidation.
Because what I have found, the easiest way to get traditional media attention is to have a huge following. And I think back to Gary Vaynerchuk. I mean, he got so much media attention.
It was consistency, it was pitching the media every single week. It was looking at trending topics, it was building out awareness days. So it's everything from tracking web traffic, media impressions, consumer demand, building community size, driving product off the shelves. Those are probably like the most important metrics we look at. And that's part of the reason why we're building the infrastructure around me. Because what am I best at is that I'm world class at PR and getting people in media. And my favorite days are studying and getting better and perfecting my craft.
You're not even allowed to walk across the street anymore. That's seen as dangerous. Your parents want to minimize every single risk. Well, being an entrepreneur is inherently risky. Heather. We have a popular culture that idolizes the idea of being able to work from home, make a seven figure income, not have a boss, have plenty of money, live where you want to live, have a family, have a real life, have kids, have a spouse. A lot of people talk about that. Not many people do it. Yes, there are people who don't have a boss. They're unemployed. Yes, there are people who make a lot of money, seven figure income. But most of the ones I know who are doing that are slaves to a Wall street job and they never see their family. You're doing it all. How did you do it?
Oh my gosh. It's not easy and it's messy for sure. But I first got my start as a publicist. I worked at an advertising agency doing PR. Okay. And I've been doing PR for almost 13 years. So I'm one that is obsessed with the craft of getting people in the media. I was at the agency for three and a half years. Everything we were doing for our brands was very archaic, meaning we would have brands pay our agency a lot of money to manage social media. But then I did not understand how do I, as a 20 something year old have more followers than these big brands who are paying our, you know, our agency a lot of money? You know, you add that typically you're Right. Like, you know, when you work for an ad agency, it's 20 hour days, it's toxic. Right. It's around the clock. And I wanted to find a different way. So June 15, 2015, I quit. I moved home to my mom's basement. I got a minimum wage job at Lifetime Fitness. It's a gym, an incredible gym. I slowly started building my PR agency and I literally worked at the gym while building my agency. And I literally worked at the gym and built my agency for three years. I didn't leave the gym until I was, you know, probably at like three to five thousand a month. Right. And then the year of the pandemic was our first million dollar year. And what happened is, well, I went, I moved to San Diego for a press tour and I stayed. I was about 25. I ended up living in San Diego. San Diego is great for business.
If you wouldn't mind doing that. Because I do want to point out, having checked out your website, I do. We're going to show this later. I love the fact that you're showing video to testimonials from actual clients. It's something I stress to people for years. And what I found is those of you my age, 10 years younger than I am, 20 years younger than I am, you need to leave the room now. But Heather, what I found is people under 35 still think video is some crazy exotic thing where you have to hire a Hollywood production crew and it's therefore impossible. And they never put video testimonials from their clients on. I love the fact that you did that. Now, Heather, you're not an old timer like I am. I started working at Ketchum public relations in 1985. But 13 years is still a long time. There's been a tremendous change in the PR landscape. I mean, 13 years ago, I don't know any author who wouldn't have, you know, cut off their arm to get on Oprah Winfrey or to get on the Today show.
Yeah.
Because boom, that major. Well, today there is no Oprah show, at least on broadcast tv. And most authors I know would say, given a choice between going on the Today show or having their own YouTube channel that's got 20,000 regular followers, they'd much rather have their own YouTube show or they'd much rather be on a podcast that is the most respected podcast in their niche. So you've seen tremendous change in the industry in your 13 years. What's been the biggest change that you see? And, and I also want to know, where do you think things are going in the next five years.
Sure. So, so much has evolved over the years. If we look at big media companies, there's an editorial department and an E Commerce department. So if you're a product based brand and you want to feature in men's health, eight of the 10 features typically have an affiliate link. But there's definitely been a change to move over to metrics. So. So media members are looking at what's trending. Right. What's the search volume for this story? And they're utilizing that as part of their metrics. So that's really the first difference.
Let's dig deeper on that because I want to make sure I'm understanding carefully. Let's say I were your client and I said, hey, I've got my new online public speaking course.
