The Spirit of Silicon Valley - Erika Taylor Montgomery

Speaking with TJ Walker, dissecting the communication skills and practices of world class leaders. Many young people enter journalism with dreams of hanging out and covering people like Bill Clinton in intimate conversations and interviews. Or they dream of going into PR and being like Samantha and Sex and the City and hanging out with TV stars. The reality is most people in PR have a more humdrum existence. Well, not our guest today, Erica Taylor Montgomery is the CEO and founder of Three Girls Media. And she's actually done all of those things and more as a reporter. She did in fact cover Bill Clinton on his bid to the White House. She has in fact represented cast members of Will and Grace and other top NBC shows. And she's right there in Silicon Valley working with a lot of top high tech executives as well. Erica, thanks for joining us today.

Thank you so much for having me.

T.J. now you're also the author of the Spirit of Silicon Valley Journeys and Transformations Beyond Technology. These days it seems like people are less enamored with Washington and wanting their kids to be president of the United States. They'd more like their kids to be the next Mark Zuckerberg. How did you go from the world of politics and traditional showbiz to Silicon Valley and what did you learn there?

Well, I went from a career in broadcasting in the San Francisco Bay area to ultimately transition into public relations. And during my public relations career before I started 3 Girls Media, my last job was as a press secretary for the California state Legislature. So my entire career, whether it was broadcasting or public relations, working for myself or other people, has always been related to the media in some way, shape or form. It's just been either as a member of the media or somebody who works to get clients mentioned in the media. So it's been a wonderful journey and I've enjoyed every minute of it.

Well, what's different about working with Silicon Valley? I mean, people now see the TV show on, I guess it's HBO that gets so much attention. It seems as though everyone is loopy and eccentric. You think of the state legislature is people being a little more straight laced? Hollywood has its own peculiar reputation as well. At some level, is getting good press and selling a story all the same or are things truly different now with the advent of social media and 23 year olds becoming billionaires?

Yeah. You know, I have found that no matter what segment you're working with, whether it's high profile actors in Hollywood, whether it's a politician or whether it's executives in Silicon Valley working with the media, for all of those different Groups of people is really the same. You people pitch the media a very similar way. You formulate a story very much the same way. So it may be trying to get coverage for different things, but the methodologies are very, very similar.

What's your most recent success story for a client? That you could give a spotlight. And are there any differences at all? I mean, 20 years ago you couldn't send someone, you couldn't pitch a reporter by a tweet or go on their Facebook page. But you're still writing, you still call people, presumably.

Yeah, you know. Well, when I first started out in public relations, there was no such thing as social media and everything was announced via a press release that would be faxed to the media. So we often think of facts as being obsolete and it pretty much is in 2016. And now reporters want to be contacted either via email or via Twitter or Facebook. So we really had to learn a different way of communicating. And press releases are no longer king either. You know, it's very rare that a reporter wants a full press release these days. Instead they want a brief paragraph on what the potential story is, why they think their audience would care, and how they can get more information about it if they want. So very, very short and sweet and to the point. And I also find that the communication time going back and forth with the media is much, much quicker now in the 21st century than it was back in the 80s and 90s. Certainly a reporter is going to expect a response within minutes if they email you for more information as opposed to a day or more if you're communicating via snail mail or via fax. Phones are not nearly as involved these days as they used to be in the 80s and 90s and early 2000s.

Let me follow up on that, Let me follow up on the phone stuff, if you don't. Speaking of which, I hear one, but certainly among younger journalists and younger people in general, they don't like the phone. If I dare call my 19 year old niece, it's as if I have barged into bathroom uninvited or something. It's almost seen as an insult. But I know personally, sometimes I get a thousand emails a day and zero calls. If someone were to call me to pitch me to be on my show, they'd really have my attention. There'd be such a novelty to it. How much of it is just we assume nobody wants calls or it's faster to send emails. And how much of it is almost all reporters and editors just absolutely don't.

Want any calls in my Experience in this day and age. They absolutely do not want any calls. They hate it. And a lot of them will put in the notes about them that you can find in media databases, you know, absolutely never call me. It's really become more taboo.

That's clear cut.

Yeah.

And then how do you keep from getting caught in spam filters though? I mean, I just know if it's a busy day and I've just gotten the 10th email pitch and it's 5 till 5, it's so easy for me to put that in a file of interview guests in a folder and then I never think about it again. How do you keep from getting lost in the shuffle?

You know, that's a really good question. And I think that there are a couple ways to avoid that. First of all, you should never send attachments in your emails because it's sure to get caught up in some kind of a spam filter. So don't send attachments that are unsolicited. And secondarily, I think you have to be extremely careful about what you put in the subject line. You want to avoid anything that's too salesy or kind of too overly promotional. Instead, you want to be do something that's more on the news side, more like a headline in a newspaper might be or something like that. So subject lines really matter.

The less a reporter has to translate it from marketing speak to a story, the better if it seems like it's just an interesting story right from the beginning.

Absolutely.

Now at Three Girls Media, you specialize in working with small and emerging companies. It's obviously easy to get coverage if you're saying, okay. Mark Zuckerberg once told a press conference today, that's easy. Once a company has gotten to that stage. How do you get the attention of the. I guess the Kara Swishers would be a big one for a lot of your companies. How do you get the attention when there's so many, many startups, a lot of them with massive funding but no real track record, no profits yet, certainly often even no revenues. Sure.

Well, I think you really have to hone in on what is the news. There are a lot of companies who would love to be in the media, but quite honestly, they just don't have a story there. There's nothing that remarkable that they've accomplished yet or that they're producing that's revolutionary or something that's truly out of the box and is going to warrant media coverage. You know, still, a story has to be all about the news. What's exciting about it what is the public or the targeted audience going to find really compelling about it? And sometimes you just have to tell executives that there's nothing compelling here for a story. And it may be very disappointing and sometimes the truth hurts. But it's much better to set a realistic expectation than to string somebody along when they think there's a possibility of a coverage and there really isn't.

And that's what I think of as the real difference between a PR flack, a publicist, and a true PR counselor. A PR counselor can tell you, hey, that's baloney. No one's going to buy it. You're wasting your time pitching it. Let's come up with something more interesting. Absolutely. What's been the most interesting story from any of your clients that you've been able to pitch in the last year?

Well, I am fortunate to work with a really great bunch of clients in some very, very diverse industries. And so you were asking about stories that we've placed recently. One of our clients is the adult retailer Adam and Eve. They were just featured in a huge story in Glamour magazine as well as one in Cosmo magazine. So that's very exciting. It's always great when we can get our clients that really top tier coverage in the big magazines or on big television shows.

Cosmo is still big. I have one sister, it's her very favorite magazine in the world. I have another sister, it's her least favorite magazine magazine in the world. But they both have strong opinions about it. Sure.

Well, obviously it doesn't appeal to everybody, but it's definitely still a big magazine. That's great to get our clients in.

In this day and age, nothing appeals to everybody. And if someone tells you they have something for everybody, chances are it's appealing to nobody. We are in a more niched world. And so how do you walk us through? Because I'm not familiar with the store, but presumably there are other stores and they have some competition. How did you go from just, okay, here's another store that wants a story to getting placements in high profile magazines like that?

Sure. Well, again, it comes down to what's the news or what do we have of value to share? So often magazines like Cosmo and Glamour do things on relationships or sex. And if we can pitch them, say, an interview with a resident expert who works at Adam and Eve, somebody who's licensed in that particular subject matter, and we can get them interviewed by those magazines on a certain topic, then that's always great because not only are they getting expert advice from a Licensed professional that's going to be of value to their readers. But of course then my client gets the media placement as well. So it works out both ways.

Our special guest is Erica Taylor Montgomery. She's the CEO of 3 Girls Media, a prominent PR firm based in Silicon Valley. She's also the author of the Spirit of Silicon Valley Journeys and Transformations Beyond Technology. It's available at Amazon. We have a link to it in the show Notes as well. You're listening to Speaking with TJ Walker, the show that's all about communication and analyzing successful communication techniques used by successful people. You're there in Silicon Valley. Who are the people? They don't have to be clients of yours, although they could. Do you really respect the most for their ability to communicate? Certainly traditionally people would say Steve Jobs, who's no longer with us. John Chambers, recently retired CEO. Who else really stands out to you as a phenomenal communicator?

You know, I think one of the best all time examples is Steve Jobs. And of course he is no longer with us and I've never had the pleasure of working with him during the. But you can see tons of the speeches that he's given on YouTube and there's just something about the way he connects with an audience during a speech or during an interview that is captivating. You know, somebody else sort of a throwback to older times. But I think another great communicator of the 20th century was Winston Churchill. And you can hear a lot of his speeches as well on YouTube. I don't think communicators like Churchill or Jobs come around all that often. Sure, there are plenty of good communicators, but when it really you're talking about great, the top of the top. I think it's rare to find somebody who's got that very unique spark that's truly captivating to the masses.

Of course, one of the fascinating things about Steve Jobs is wasn't an outgoing person. I always hear from clients and I'm sure you hear this too. Oh, I'm not a dynamic speaker because I'm a tech guy or a tech person or I'm an introvert. People have all these excuses as to why they can't communicate and Steve Jobs is a perfect example of it's irrelevant. He was not an outgoing person, he was a technology. He was giving text speeches. But he gave them in a way that made them interesting and memorable. Same with Churchill. Churchill, different industry obviously, but people always love to say, oh, I don't have a face for tv. I'm not Tall and good looking, so I shouldn't be in the spotlight speaking or I have a speech impediment. Well, Churchill had all of those issues. He was short, fat, bald, had a lisp and had had a stutter and yet went on to be considered by many to be the greatest speaker of the 20th century. So interesting examples, not because they were perfect, but because they have many of the flaws that your clients have. My clients have, and yet they still were successful.

Yeah. And you know, I have found that if you are in a position to possibly be a spokesperson for your company or for a client of yours and it's something that you're not confident in, there are a lot of really terrific coaches out there that can train you and really help you improve in, you know, speaking publicly, whether it's an interview or a speech or whatever it may be.

Absolutely. You're preaching to the choir on that one. Very curious. The name of your company, Three Girls Media, it's memorable. It's easy to spell, it's easy to remember the website because it's3girls media.com. but I am curious, it's in some circles controversial to talk about women as girls. Now you're talking about yourself, so people can't be offended. How did you come up with a name and do you get criticism? And I ask this because while I consider myself a feminist and a liberal, I do remember this scarring experience when I was an 18 year old freshman in college at Duke University walking by and I thought of myself as a boy, I didn't really think of myself as a man. And I would say, hello, girls, how are you today? Hello, girls. And one day one of them turned back around after I'd passed and with a very unpleasant scowl on her face and said, it's women, not girls. So I just wanted to get your take on the politics of the name there.

Well, that's interesting. To be honest. I haven't received any negative feedback on it. And there's a story behind the name. So I wanted to create something that, like you said, was memorable. Easy to remember, easy to spell all of those things. And it really occurred to me that in the line of work that I'm in public relations, that what we do is we spread the news about our clients in a variety of ways, but it's really all about getting the news out there. So I started thinking, if you want to spread the news about something and you want to do it really quickly, what is a super efficient way to get it done? Well, all you have to do is Tell Three girls and before you know it, it is out there like wildfire. So hence the name of the company.

Okay, that isn't exactly what I just assumed. It was three people who started the company all at once and it was as simple as that. So interesting take on that fascinating story.

Most people assume that there were three people that started the company. That's a logical explanation. But it was actually just me, myself and I, all alone starting the business. And I'm sure I could have named it Three Women, but frankly, at least in my mind, it's not as catchy as Three Girls. And I've never been that hung up on the feminism thing. I mean, yes, technically I'm a woman and. But I'm not the type to get offended if somebody calls me a girl. I guess it's all in how they do it right on the delivery.

Hey girl, fetch me some coffee. Is a little bit different. And I certainly would refer to you or anyone above I guess the age of 10 that way either I want to know. You started your own business, so you've actually created a small business. One of your upcoming projects is a new book, a step by step guide for small business nonprofits and entrepreneurs. How much of what a small business person does should be focused on creating their story, their publicity, their media? Because I have seen people who start businesses and they're great at getting publicity. They're on tv, they're on Shark Tank, they're all over the place. But they have no business. And they're not, they haven't really figured out a way of making money. And they can always point to, well, you know, Twitter didn't know how to make money, but you just create something and people will come to you and you make it. That works for a very small percentage of high tech companies. But most companies that just have a lot of publicity and no immediate sales, cash flow flounders. What's your advice to people on how they divide up their time and how they use publicity?

Well, I think actually a lot of entrepreneurs and new business owners make a big mistake when it comes to their marketing. A lot of them think, well, we're just going to open our doors or start a website and the business will come. People are just going to flock to us. They'll find us somehow and I'll be rolling. And that is very, very rarely the case. Sure, it's been known to happen, but it's definitely.

Especially if you can get a time machine and go back 20 years when none of your competitors had websites.

Right, right, exactly. But in this day and age, you really have to work at finding your customers and letting them know that you exist. And so I think a significant part of your effort should be spent in not just the running and operations of your business, but including marketing and promotions into those efforts and. And a significant part of your budget, too. I think an entrepreneur or a new business, or even a business who's been established for a while should be spending a minimum of 10% of their budget on some kind of marketing or promotional effort.

I like that number. Of course, so many entrepreneurs think, well, after I get my first billion, or that's later, right now I'll just use that for more servers or more office or overhead or salary or another engineer. It does often seem to take a back seat. Who are some of the entrepreneurs that some Silicon Valley entrepreneurs that some of our audience members may have heard of, who you think really were clever, and they could be clients or not clients, but younger emerging ones who surfaced in the last few years who you think get it right when it comes to, first of all, allocating resources of time and money for marketing and PR and then having a good story and really leveraging it.

You know, I think that there are a few clients that we've either worked with in the past or are working with now that have done a really, really terrific job of getting out there in the press. So one of them, a client not based in Silicon Valley, they're based in Los Angeles, but that's done a terrific job, is Plush Puffs Gourmet marshmallows. And they are hand cut, handmade, gourmet flavored marshmallows that come in 11 different flavors. And they've dedicated a good portion of their annual budget to public relations. And because of that, we've had the resources we've needed to get them in almost every major magazine out there, as well as several different shows on the Food Network and the Cooking Channel, programs like Good Morning America and the Today Show. They have really just been all over the media for several years now because of the willingness to invest in their marketing. And it's done wonders for their business.

So now I'm really curious. How do you create a story about a marshmallow? I thought I knew marshmallows. It's a whole bunch of sugar. It's soft, it melts in your mouth. It's good on us some more. But what's new in marshmallows?

Sure. Well, I think flavored marshmallows that are handmade made are still a novelty, you know? Sure. You can go to your grocery store and pick up a bag of jet puffed of, you know, your plain traditional vanilla marshmallow. But these are marshmallows that are all natural and come in flavors like chocolate chipetta or caramel swirl or luscious lemon. And so, you know, we have found success in creating stories around certain times of the year. So, for example, now we're going into the fall season, the holiday season, and we're talking about using flavored marshmallows in recipes like to create crispy treats for Halloween or to use on certain dishes like sweetened yams for Thanksgiving and things like this. They make great stocking stuffers for the end of year holidays like Christmas and Kwanzaa and things like that. So even just thinking seasonally, you can come up with a lot of great story ideas.

There's nothing better than hitting a member of the media right at the right day when they're trying to plan something for that holiday around the corner and they want to finish it up, put it to bed and go home. I'm glad to know about these marshmallows. You're making my mouth water. I had not probably bought a marshmallow in 30 years until a year ago. And I have a three and a half year old daughter. We have a big outdoor fireplace. And now I find myself roasting marshmallows.

Excellent.

I did accidentally have a lemonade, a pink lemonade marshmallow. And I gotta tell you, when it comes to roasting, not a good idea, but. But a chocolate marshmallow, that's something I could really get my head around. So I'm going to have to make a note to find that as soon as I can. That does sound intriguing.

Plushpuffs.com and you can see all of their varieties there.

We are speaking to Erica Taylor Montgomery, CEO of 3 Girls Media. You can also find her on Twitter. Her handle is Publicity Erica. That's Erica with a K. And you can reach out to her there with your questions or to thank her for being on this program. Now, Erica, you have a background in sort of hard, what we call hard news politics. You worked in the state legislature. I have a background working in the Florida state government. You covered Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign. So I can't let you go without weighing in on the 2016 presidential campaign because it's certainly been extremely different when it comes to how candidates speak, their news coverage, things that would have been gaps in previous years or forgotten instantly. So I want to get your assessment of, I'm not asking you to say who you're for. This isn't a political show. But what are your thoughts on just how radically different campaign coverage has been and how candidates have seemingly been rewarded and punished in a very different way this year? Not to mention how the melding of the media with one particular presidential candidate, with Roger Ailes leaving Fox to go to a candidate as well as the head of broadcast Breitbart News, becoming the campaign manager of one of the candidates. I mean, there's never been anything quite like that. I just wanted your assessment.

Yeah, you know, you're right. They're certainly not in our day and age have been anything like what is happening in 2016 in presidential politics. And frankly, I'm disappointed. You know, when I was covering Bill Clinton's campaign or any of the previous, previous presidential races, it was much more about the issues. And frankly, I think that that's what the American people want more of and that we're not getting a lot of in the 2016 race. It's much less about the issues and much more about the sound bite of the day and how sensational it is or outrageous it is or pointing fingers at each other. And, you know, I'm disappointed by that. And I have a feeling you, having worked in the political realm before, would also be disappointed in that.

Well, there you go. Erica Little Erica, low energy. Erica, of course, you and you. No, I'm just kidding. I'm channeling somebody else. No, I share your sentiments completely. Take us back in time. These days you say Bill Clinton to most people unless they're just absolutely rabid haters of any center or left Democrat. Most people think of him as probably the greatest living public speaker or communicator in the political world. And if you had to look at the last 30 years up there with Reagan, but you were there in his presidential campaign when he wasn't quite. I won't say Mount Rushmore, but at least the Mount Rushmore of Public Speaking hall of Fame. What was he like when you were interviewing and what struck you as great about him? But also, where did you think even he was not great when it came to interviews?

Sure. Well, in terms of being great, I loved how he always came across as very down to earth. And that's not something you really think think of a lot when you think of a presidential candidate. But Bill Clinton certainly came off to me that way as very grounded, very down to earth, very humble in many ways, and not very egotistical or thinking that he was high and mighty or any of those things. So I really admired that about them is that he seemed very grounded and very personable, amiable and just an all around nice guy.

And I'm gonna guess that he remembered your name and called you by name after the first time meeting you?

I wouldn't say after the first time, but after a couple times, yes. And in terms of something that he wasn't good at, you know, that's a really good question. I've never really thought about that per se. I think later in his career, once he actually was elected, he wasn't as forthcoming as he was during the actual election process. I think he was more guarded with what he said and perhaps he had to be more guarded with what he would say. But I think that's something that definitely changed about him once he was elected to office.

Speaking of guarded, give us your assessment of Hillary Clinton's media strategy. I'm of two minds because I'm in general of the belief that politicians, CEOs, executives, should be as accessible as possible to the media. And that if you have a good message and you package your message with sound bites, it's not that every single story will be great, but over time you'll get your message across. And over time your perspective and the quotes on your perspective will get in. The Clinton campaign is very guarded. She rarely takes interviews. And I do sort of feel like there's an exception in her case because it just seems if you are a reporter, there is so much pressure on you to say something negative about the Clintons. No one ever went poor, no one ever sold fewer books by not trashing the Clintons in the media. Because if you're a conservative Fox News or somewhere, of course you have to trash the Clintons. But if you're Maureen Dowd of the so called liberal New York Times, you don't want to be seen as cozying up to the Democrats and the Clintons. So it almost seems as though members of the so called liberal media establishment are even harsher on Hillary Clinton. I just wanted to get your take. Do you think she could be getting a lot better coverage or is it just a poisoned situation regardless?

Well, I think that you're absolutely right that she's certainly more guarded than her opponent is in the election when it comes to the things she says, who she says them to, and and when she decides to make comments or give interviews. And I think that that's a mistake, actually. I think she's very capable of speaking off the cuff without prepared statements or speeches. And I think people would like to see more of that from her. You know, I think it's one of the, that a lot of Trump supporters admire about him is that he is very off the cuff. He speaks, speaks his mind, he says it like he feels it. And that's just the way it is. And you either like it or you don't. And you know, Clinton is really of the opposite camp where everything is very planned out and pre written. And a lot of people say, of course, according to the polls, that they don't find her very trustworthy. And I think if she sort of let down her guard a little bit and spoke more casually off the cuff and gave people more of a sense of who she is as a person, that that might change that perception.

I partially agree with that. But I also think back to times when she has done that. When Diane Sawyer interviewed her a handful of years ago, I thought she was being completely candid, real off the cuff, and said it was really scary leaving the White House. In 2001, they were $10 million in debt. Her husband's law license was about to be revoked. She was about to enter the Senate. But if you have $10 million in debt, $190,000 a year, whatever the Senate salary was, doesn't do that much. She was candid. I mean, I don't know who wouldn't be afraid of their finances if you're $10 million, if you have $10 million of legal debts. And she, she said that they felt dead broke. And there's an example of her being candid, being real, being honest. And her opponents took that phrase, twisted that to suggest that she's this pure evil, cynical person out of touch. Here she is rich. And it was just, to me, it seems that there's nothing she could say that won't be twisted into making her look like she's this evil cardboard cutout.

You know, I agree with that. I think a lot of what she gets twisted. But the same can say for Donald Trump. You know, the Democratic camp is taking a lot of what Trump says and absolutely vilifying him for it, no matter how major or minor it is. So I think it cuts both ways. But I don't think that it serves candidates well, regardless of what you're running for office for, whether it's a local city council seat or whether it's for the presidency, that you should always speak in a scripted manner because surely there are going to be times when reporters ask you questions off the cuff and you need to be able to confidently answer those questions. And if you're used to only speaking off a script. It doesn't give you a lot of practice in doing that.

Well, she's definitely not getting much practice at press conference interviews since she's had so few. Now, did you interview her in the 90s during the campaigns, and if so, what was she like?

No, no, I did not interview her. I always looked at her as more of kind of behind the scenes when it came to the media. She definitely was not in the forefront like her husband was.

Well, you're in the forefront of major PR experts and gurus around the country. We very much appreciate your time. Erica Taylor Montgomery again, the founder of Three Girls Media. You can find out more information by going to our website, 3girls media.com you can also find her on Twitter publicityerica. That's Erica with a K. Her latest book is out the Spirit of Silicon Valley Journeys and Transformations Beyond Technology. It's available on Amazon and we've linked to it in the show notes. Erica, thank you so much for being our guest today. Thanks for listening to Speaking with TJ Walker, where the communication skills and practices of world class leaders are dissected.