October 1, 2025 • 35 mins
#019 and Part 9 of Build A Candle Business series.
**This special series is brought to you by ToAuto Wax Melters. Our listeners will get a special deal at checkout when they use this link. **
A one-page press release can change your entire demand curve—if it’s written for real people on deadline. We walk through the exact PR playbook that took our candle brand from a spare-room studio to local TV, national write-ups, and wholesale calls, all without a PR firm or ad spend. The method is simple and repeatable: craft a clear hook, tie it to a timely moment, and give journalists everything they need to publish fast.
We start by breaking down the anatomy of a press release that actually gets opened: a direct, newsworthy headline; a first paragraph that answers who, what, and why it matters; two short founder quotes; and high‑resolution photos in both horizontal and vertical formats. Then we map the outreach strategy. Locally, we target newspaper lifestyle desks, radio producers, and morning TV segments with BCC’d emails labeled “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE,” plus an event-driven angle—think festivals, city traditions, or seasonal spikes. That’s how we landed a same‑day TV feature and a sell‑out weekend, followed by inbound wholesale requests.
From there, we show how to go national by shifting the narrative to cause marketing, identity, and utility. Instead of cold emailing generic inboxes, we find last year’s gift guides and awareness-month roundups, note the bylines, and pitch those writers directly with swap‑ready copy, pricing, and images. We talk about Pride Month features, pet-rescue partnerships, and how a good story travels across outlets like Oprah Daily, Parade, and MSN. Along the way, we share practical guardrails: set Google Alerts to catch pickups, avoid low‑value newswire blasts, and build a cadence of fresh angles every few months so your brand stays press‑worthy.
If you’re ready to replace guesswork with a lean PR system that builds awareness, trust, and sales, this episode is your blueprint. Subscribe, share with a fellow maker, and leave a quick review to tell us what headline you’ll pitch next.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
So you've got your products and you got your
website.
Now, how do you get eyes ontoyour products on your website?
What strategies are we going touse to get people to notice us?
In this episode, I am going towalk through the strategies that
we've used that have beensuccessful for us with our Garza
Beacon candle brand and theexact same strategies that we
are going to use with launchingwithout, which is our new candle
(00:23):
line.
If you have not been followingalong, we are in week nine of
launching an entirely new candlebusiness from the ideation and
creation to sourcing thesupplies and the products to
launching a website, launchingall new social medias and all of
that.
It is completely separate fromthe business Garden Beacon
(00:43):
Candle Company that we startedmyself along with my husband
Chad started just about fouryears ago.
We have now surpassed$1.5million in candle sales there.
And we are going to try to do itall over again with something
completely separate.
Before we get too far into this,I do want to give a big, big
shout out to two auto waxmelters.
They are our wax melter ofchoice and so many other makers
(01:05):
as well.
Everyone inside of the innercircle that we host at Candle
Business Pro, I believe has atwo-auto wax melter.
They are just fantastic.
They're easy to work with, theystay consistent, they're
insulated for being energyefficient and also to make sure
that every time we pour candles,we have the right temperatures.
And they're also affordable.
They are so affordable that wehave multiple of them in our
(01:28):
different stores for differentwaxes.
So we use soy wax, we usecoconut soy wax.
We also use wax for our waxmelts.
And because Tu Auto melters areaffordable, we are able to have
multiple in each of our stores.
So big shout out to them.
They do have an exclusive linkthat they are provided for you.
This is not an affiliate link.
We are not getting a commissionfrom that, but they have been
(01:50):
generous to share a link that isin the show notes below for you
to save an additional percentageoff at checkout.
And that is on top of anypromotions that are already
going.
So check them out in the shownotes below.
So today we're talking about howto write a press release and how
to get more eyes onto yourbrand.
If you find today's episodeuseful, we would love to have
you come and join us inside ofthe inner circle.
(02:11):
We actually have a workshopwhere we go into details.
I actually give you copies ofour press releases that we have
written that we send out withall the links so that you can go
step by step and do thisyourself.
Hopefully, you're going to findtoday's episode super valuable.
And then you'll want to come andjoin us inside the inner circle.
You can find out more about theinner circle at
(02:31):
candlebusinesspro.com or in thenotes below.
Now let's get into this.
All right.
So the biggest thing that I findmost makers struggle with is
once they get over that hump ofmaking candles, and now you've
got a candle that you are happywith, you're proud of.
Now, how do I sell it?
How do I get out into the world?
Now there's many, many ways ofselling candles.
(02:54):
We do a ton of fundraisers.
And that has brought in so muchmoney in the last three and a
half years that we have beenable to donate now over$75,000
to uh not just local, butnational causes that us and our
brand believe in.
And so when you think about thatnumber,$75,000 we have crossed
now in donations.
(03:15):
And we generally give between 25and 40% of the sales.
So when you do the math on that,it's quite a bit of sales
revenue that has come in.
What's great about fundraisersis that you are opening your
brand up to a brand new audienceand you're relying on the
organization that you're raisingmoney for to promote your
products.
So they're using their socialmedias, they're using their
(03:37):
email lists, they're putting upflyers within their
establishment.
If they have a building such asa nonprofit theater, we will
have um partnerships withtheaters that will like live
music theater, symphony type ofplaces, and they would then put
up posters around um to promoteus.
It raises them money, so it's ait's a true win-win.
Uh, but we're not talking aboutfundraisers today.
(03:58):
We are talking about press andhow to get eyes from the public
onto your brand.
So let's talk about traditionalPR.
So traditional PR is stillincredibly effective.
And the way this is going towork is you're going to write up
a press release.
A press release is somethingthat you are going to write and
(04:18):
submit to journalists.
Now, I would always recommendstaying local at first.
So what I would do is I wouldwrite a story about your brand
and submit it to localjournalists.
So what does this look like?
When we first started, we sentout press releases to our local
newspaper, uh to the local TVstations, um, to the radio
(04:41):
stations.
Any um media email address thatI could get my hands on was on
this email.
So I blind carbon copy all ofthese journalists, all the news
stations with this pressrelease.
And this is how we have foundsuccess.
Your title of your subject lineof your email, and then the
title of your press release.
(05:02):
It needs to be somethingcompelling.
So one of them that we used wasuh couple launches candle brand
after leaving corporate world.
So because me and Chad left ournine to five jobs working at
home in the corporate world togo out and start our candle
business.
So that was one of the subjectlines that we used.
Another one was localentrepreneurs bring candles with
(05:23):
a cause to raise money for localnonprofits.
So that was the name of anotherpress release that we have
submitted here locally.
So both of those are compellingheadlines for local press.
Okay.
So when we what we do is wewrite it just a one page, you do
not want this to be too long,but you do want it to have some
(05:44):
substance.
We will write it in like a Worddocument and turn it into a PDF,
right?
But it should all fit on onepage.
You should open up that uh pressrelease.
That first paragraph shouldintroduce who you are, introduce
what your brand is, andintroduce why your brand is
exist, why your brand is goingto disrupt, why you are going to
(06:05):
stick out in a uh in the market,uh, why it they are going to be
able to get their readers orlisteners or watchers when it
comes to the news channels tocontinue to stay following that
story.
Because just like anything else,they want to make sure that
they're writing somethingcompelling that people are going
to be interested in.
And people are generally alwaysinterested in some good that's
(06:27):
happening in their localcommunity.
Right now, um there's a lot ofnegativity on the news in the
newspaper.
The front page of everynewspaper is almost all negative
stuff, whether it's the economy,whether it's politics, whether
it's a world crisis, whatever itmight be, because that's usually
what's catching eyes and it'scaptivating people.
(06:48):
And that's just how the mediaworks.
So we are going to actuallydisrupt that a little bit by
writing something good becausethey want good stories.
Don't get me wrong.
They want good stories to run.
That's why we've always gotten areaction from someone in the
media every time we send out apress release.
All right.
So you are going to talk aboutyour brand, what your brand is,
what you do, why you decided todo it.
(07:11):
We decided to leave ourcorporate jobs and start this
candle business so that we couldhave more family time while also
raising money for a localorganization.
So you need to write somethingthat's compelling.
You need to share, not just, oh,I didn't like buying candles, so
I started making candles.
Like that's not going to createany buzz necessarily.
(07:34):
Have a big headline.
And so think about that.
Think about how you can make abig headline for them.
When you write a press release,what we like to do is give them
every bit of information thatthey're going to need so that
they can actually write anarticle about you in your brand
without having to talk to you,without them having to call you
(07:54):
up and ask you these compellingquestions.
Why did you get started?
What was the purpose?
What's the why of your brand?
What's the mission of yourbrand?
Are there specific values thatyou want to share with the
audience?
All of these types of questionsthat a journalist would ask you
is something that you shouldinclude in this press release.
Because often we'll find that wewill get an article written
(08:17):
based on our press releasewithout us having a conversation
with them.
Um total side note from that, Ihighly recommend that you go out
to um Google and set up GoogleAlerts.
And they're completely free.
Go and just type in GoogleAlerts.
It'll give you the website andset up a Google Alert with your
name's uh with your brand'sname.
So we have Google Alerts forGarzent Peak and Canada Company.
(08:40):
I have alerts for SebastianGarzett for my name.
I want to know when anything isput out there on the internet um
about our brand, about myselfpersonally, anything.
And it's completely free.
And what we have found is all ofa sudden we get uh Yahoo
Finance.
you know, has just written anarticle about us.
Um, and we didn't know that theywere going to do that.
(09:01):
And our our brand was small.
We didn't have, we don't have aton of candle shoppers that are
buying from us that are alsoreading Yahoo Finance that I'm
aware of.
So we wouldn't have known aboutthat unless we had those alerts
set up.
So I highly recommend go out toGoogle, um, set up Google
Alerts.
Uh now it doesn't give you alertevery time something's posted,
say like on Facebook or socialmedia.
(09:21):
It's going to be based on likenews stories and things.
And there are different settingsbased on um like matches of like
how much do you want them to umnotify you?
And if if you're getting a lotof them, you might want them to
do it just once a day.
Um, or you can just have it doneinstantly.
I think ours are still actuallyset up as instantly.
So we know right away we get anemail from Google when they um
(09:44):
find something on the internetwith us on there.
So something to keep in mind umfor you there.
Uh so you write this, you writethis uh press release, gotta be
newsworthy.
Uh, you got to have a hook andyou got to explain why your
brand matters to their audience.
Uh make it a feel-good story.
That's gonna really help youwith doable community.
Uh, and then if you're gonna dofundraisers, uh, talk about
that.
(10:04):
Or if you've already hadcollaborations, or if you've
already, if you've already donea fundraiser, that is an easy
way of helping to give you somecredibility to get um press on
you.
When we write a press releaseand we say, hey, we have
partnered with the humanesociety here.
We have partnered with thisnonprofit uh to raise money.
Uh, you don't have to givenumbers, you don't just share
any of those details.
Often when we're starting out,some of these fundraisers might
(10:26):
not be super successful, butit's a fact that you've already
done it and it's going to createa newsworthy story.
You're going to send this out toall these different places
locally.
So go to your local newspaper.
They're going to have a lot ofemail addresses that you can
find on their website there.
Uh, then go to every newsstation and they'll have a way
for you to contact or uh it'llsay, like, do you have a tip?
(10:49):
Do you have a hot story?
Things like that.
Just grab all those differentemail addresses and just create
a list.
And then whenever you're readyto email this out, you have that
list.
Make sure you do uh BCC blindcarbon copies so that they're
not all seeing who all you sentthat to.
So make sure you're doing thatso you're not annoying anyone
with any of that because there'sgonna be autoresponders and
things that'll gonna get sentback to you, and you don't want
(11:11):
that crossing over to otherpeople that's just gonna annoy
them.
So send those out to people.
You should get some response.
Now, when you write this pressrelease, one page.
Just have one page in that pressrelease, you also want to have a
couple quotes.
So have a quote that it's gonnaseem weird because you're the
one writing the press release,but you want to have a quote in
(11:32):
there.
Um, you know, you can have itsay, you know, in quote, it'll
say, you know, Sebastian Garstonum says of their uh rapid
success, quote, we take a lot ofpride in partnering with local
nonprofits that are doing goodin our community, and we uh
strive to continue growing andpartnering with other nonprofits
(11:55):
um in a win-win situation.
You know, things like that.
You know, that's a bit that's avery, very simple quote there.
But put some quotes into thepress release from yourself, uh,
from your partner, from yourspouse, uh, your coworker,
whoever you might be doing thisbrand with.
Get a couple of quotes therebecause, again, they are they
want quotes, right?
(12:15):
There's always quotes in everynewspaper article that you read.
There's always quotes there fromsomeone they're interviewing or
someone that has something to dowith that story.
And they want to have thosequotes already so that they can
go ahead and write an articlewithout trying to get you for an
interview necessarily if itdoesn't work out.
They can just go ahead and runwith an article.
So make sure you add a couplequotes.
(12:37):
Then outside of the actual pressrelease, so the way we send our
press releases out, I will openup, open up my email, I will
attach the one-page PDF pressrelease that I'm gonna be
emailing them, but I will alsohave that press release as the
actual content of the email.
And the reason for that is nowthe content of the email is just
(12:58):
gonna say for immediate release,and then below there it says,
you know, Garz and Beacon uhexpanded to three stores or Gars
and Beacon lawantas in Holland,Michigan, uh, to raise funds for
organizations through theircandle with a cause um campaign.
You know, whatever it might be.
But it start with, you know,asterisk uh for in all caps for
(13:19):
immediate release, put anasterisk at the end of it, all
in caps for immediate release.
That is the the trademark onevery press release.
It says for immediate release.
That's what it says.
So when they see that, they'regonna know right away this is a
press release.
Okay.
So in the email at the very,very top, for immediate release,
and then you just go right intoit.
Now on the PDF version, you'regonna do it more like on a
(13:41):
letterhead.
So at the very top, you shouldhave your brand's name, contact
information, uh, how to contactyou and all of that.
Um, then on both on the PDF andin the email, I'm making that
totally confusing.
Go through your whole pressrelease, uh, include your quotes
in there and everything, andthen close by, you know,
sincerely your name.
That's it.
Uh, and then also below that,for any media inquiries,
(14:06):
contact, have your name, havethe best contact information for
you.
Okay.
So that's to be on that pressrelease.
Think about the press release,even though it's in it's gonna
be the email generally that youjust sent it from.
Think about in your pressrelease if they were to print it
off, right?
You emailed it to the newsstation, somebody printed it off
and went and put it on ajournalist desk and say, hey,
(14:26):
this might be worth doing astory on.
They don't have the email.
They don't have all that contactinformation that might have been
inside of that email.
Um, so make sure that all ofthat contact information is
inside of your press release.
Keep the press release to onepage and then also include, not
necessarily in the press releaseunless you have this space, but
(14:47):
definitely as an attachmentinside of the email, high
resolution photos.
Now, these high resolutionphotos that you are providing
with them should most likely beof you, you and your products,
you and your workspace.
Um, that's exactly what ourswas.
In fact, I wasn't even in thefirst one.
It was just Chad in front of atable with all of our candles
(15:08):
that we had just shot like inour office, right?
We took, take a photo of thatand you attach that because
they're going to need mostarticles, they are going to have
an image attached to it.
And so you want to tell thestory and through photos.
So make sure that you areattaching photos because, again,
you want to give them everythingthey possibly would need to
(15:28):
write an article about you sothat they don't have to reach
back out to you and say, hey, doyou have an image?
And going back and forth withall that.
I would give them a coupleoptions.
I would give them an option ofyou, give them an option of
your, your brand, your candles,your products.
Uh, and then also uh definitelya combination of them, right?
Give them some options to choosefrom.
Also give them options ofhorizontal and vertical.
(15:49):
Because based on where thisarticle that they're going to
run is going to be ran, if it'sa front page of the newspaper,
front and center, they're goingto need a big horizontal photo.
If it's going to be one of theside column uh articles, they're
going to need a vertical image.
So think about that.
And so be mindful that, youknow, based on uh where it may
(16:09):
run, uh different photo layoutsare going to be good.
Make sure they're high res.
You don't want anything that'spixelated.
Make sure you have a good photofor that.
All right.
So when you send it out to allof them, you're going to send
this out to the small lifestylewriters for the newspapers.
Look at your news station'swebsite.
And generally they're going tohave like a lifestyle section
where it's those live segmentsthat happen now almost every
(16:32):
morning from like 9 a.m.
to like noon, right?
Where there's not any of thoselike soap operas and uh those
daily talk shows happening oncertain stations.
They have just news coverage.
And it's usually just coveringcommunity events, things that
are happening.
It's not like your five o'clockbreaking news.
Um, it's it's more of alifestyle segment.
So make sure you're reaching outto the different people within
(16:54):
uh news.
Um, if you're if you're reachingout to journalists or news
reporters directly, reach out toseveral of them from the same
station.
Totally fine.
Don't just rely on one persontaking your email and possibly
getting it over to someone thatis going to feel compelled to
write about it.
Now, another really great way toget people to do press, and this
(17:16):
has worked really well for us,for getting live news coverage
where they came out and excuseme, it's not live, it's um video
news coverage.
So our very first um media thatwe received was when I sent an
uh message to I think it was CBSNews.
It was WZZM here in um Michigan,uh, channel 13.
I don't I don't even know whataffiliate that is.
(17:38):
Um, and the reason for that wasthe press release that we sent
out, the title of it was similarto local candle brand looks to
tulip time to um increase sales.
Uh it was it was something to dolocal small business.
That's what it was.
It was local small businessexcited for tulip time.
(17:59):
Something very simple.
Tulip time is a festival that wehave here every year.
I'm sure there's a festivalwherever you are.
If you're in southern Indiana,there's a covered bridge
festival.
Uh, depending on where you arein the country, there's always a
big event, right?
Two weeks prior to that event,don't do it too far in advance.
Just a couple weeks prior tothat event, do a press release
(18:19):
tying your brand to that event.
Because as we get closer tothose types of events, that's
all you talk about, right?
We moved here from Indianapolis.
Um, the Indy 500 is, I thinkit's Memorial Day every day.
It's it's it's it's the month ofMay.
They they call it the the theracing month, right?
The month of May is Indy 500month.
That entire month, everythingyou see on the news, uh, that's
(18:42):
not like crime or political orsports.
Everything is just about theIndy 500 and not just like the
actual race itself, but likewhat the effect on the economy
is, what it's doing for smallbusinesses, um, you know, all of
the uh tourism that's going tobe coming, all kinds of stories
just about that one event that'shappening for that entire month.
(19:04):
Here where we live, everyone'sexcited about tulip time that
happens the first two weekendsin May, and they are excited to
talk about that for like two orthree weeks leading up to it.
I mean, if you're in that world,they're talking about a much
larger, but like news coverageis it's gonna be probably you
know two or three weeks prior.
That's when we're gonna send outa uh uh press release to all of
(19:24):
this media, letting them know,giving them a captivating
headline for how we can tie ourbusiness to them.
So this is what we did.
We have a Holland and Bloomcandle, it's two absented.
It is how we tied our brand to alocal event.
And we took photos of it and wesent it out to the media.
They called us up and they cameout the same day and interviewed
(19:48):
us for the news that night,right inside of our candle
space, which our candle space atthe time was actually it was our
bed.
We had moved our bedroom into asmaller office in the house and
used our bedroom at the time asour candle studio.
I share images of that oftenwhenever you see a nice, clean
looking studio.
Um, that's not realistic forlike how we make candles every
(20:10):
day because it's it's very cleanin the image, right?
Usually the stuff I post online,you can tell.
Uh if you're if you follow ourInstagram at Candle Business
Pro, uh you'll see I post youknow stuff every single day uh
from whatever store I'm workingin.
Um but if you see a very clean,sharp image, uh great lighting
coming in, it was a nice sunnyday out, and you can tell that
(20:31):
it's like in a home.
That is what was what at onetime was our bedroom, and we
made it our studio.
We had the news come,interviewed us right then and
there um that day, and they ranit at five o'clock.
But not only that, they keptrunning it over and over and
over again throughout thisperiod of time.
(20:51):
It brought us so many saleslocally, not only just from
people buying, but from storesthat called us or emailed us
wanting to carry our products intheir stores because that we we
created a press release about aproduct that has to do with a
really big event.
And all of these stores in ourtown want to sell products that
(21:15):
have to do with that event,right?
It's it's it's a it's abusiness, it's that's how they
make money during those times ofyear.
So they all wanted to buy ourproducts.
So we were completely out of theoil.
So it's kind of a fun storybecause this is like on a
Tuesday.
Um, by Friday, we're completelyout, and we had a market that
Saturday.
(21:35):
So we and and our oil was tiedup with it was delayed with UPS.
It was a whole long to-do.
We luckily got our order and westayed up till 2 a.m.
Uh making all of these candlesthat we could then have for the
market at 10 a.m.
that that same day.
Now I know people talk aboutcheering times and all that.
(21:57):
That's a conversation for awhole nother topic uh why we
were not concerned about that.
Uh, but we stayed up all nightmaking candles to sell out at
that market.
Um, and it was fantastic.
So it was a great story.
It was our very first, you know,four months in business.
So don't feel like you have tohave a lot of tenureship
underneath your belt before youcan start doing this stuff.
We were doing this at home.
(22:18):
This is before the storefront.
This is before a lot of ourwholesale accounts.
Um, and we were doing pressreleases and getting the news to
come and interview us.
So think local when you arefirst starting out with doing a
press release.
Then start going wide.
We have gotten Garz and BeaconCandle Company featured in Oprah
Daily magazine.
That was like our first bignational uh publication um in
(22:41):
Parade magazine, several YahooFinance um posts about our
brand.
And it's the same strategy thatyou're going to use with local,
but you have to shift thenarrative a little bit, right?
So we're locally, when we'rewriting press releases, we are
talking about how we're doinggood in our community, how we're
(23:01):
a local couple starting thiscandle business and leaping our
nine to fives.
When we want to go national andtry to get bigger audiences to
see something about our brand,we just have to shift it a
little different.
So we were raising money for theTrevor Project, which is a it's
a large national organizationtrying to prevent um suicide
(23:22):
amongst the LGBTQ youth.
Uh, it's a big organization, andit was coming up on Pride Month.
So we did a press release andsent it out to the big
publications.
Um, and Oprah Daily is one thatreached back out and they ran um
a feature on that.
And that got a lot of eyes andtraffic on our brand.
And then the exact same thinghappened with Parade Magazine.
(23:44):
Um, also with MSN articlewriters have been um receptive
to this.
This is how you do it.
You can reach out to theindividual uh newspaper or the
the magazines, but those thatare really large, like we don't
just send an article to OprahDaily Magazine.
That's not going to work becausethis is um so Hearst, uh ATRST
(24:10):
is they own Cosmo, Vogue, L.
All the major, major magazinesare owned under this one uh
brand.
Uh and so you're not gonna wantto reach out to them like you
would your local newspaper, yourlocal news channel, where
they're all in the same officeand they're gonna pass that
press release around to theright person.
You don't want to do that withthese large publications.
(24:31):
What you want to do is research,search for an article that is
similar to what your pressrelease is going to be about.
For instance, if you want to getyour uh candles in in February
and you want to get your candlebrand featured in um Black
History Month for articles thatare written.
(24:54):
And you so you want to findarticles that people are writing
about people from the Blackcommunity that are small
businesses to support.
Or you are tying your brand intouh breast cancer awareness.
And so during breast cancerawareness month, you want to get
your products in front of theaudiences that are reading about
(25:14):
um the awareness um behindbreast cancer and other cancers.
So you go and look for articles.
Um so you just type in uh, youknow, Black History Month uh
small businesses, right?
Or LGBTQ small businesses um inJune.
Um or it's the exact same thingthat you would do come October,
November.
If you want to get your productsfeatured in gift guides, if you
(25:37):
want to be in gift guides, umthat will bring incredible
amount of eyes onto your brand.
If you can get in um like aBuzzFeed uh gift guide, you it's
gonna do something for yourbrand.
It really will.
So keep that in mind.
Um, gift guides are a fantasticway of just blowing the brand um
(25:59):
big.
So just go and find thesearticles.
Just search on Google, search onuh the internet for these
articles.
It says who wrote that article,email that person.
Email the person that wrote thatgift guide for last year.
Because they're gonna do a giftguide again for this year.
And what they're going to do isthey're not even gonna start
(26:19):
from scratch.
They already have an article,they're basically gonna copy
that article and swap it outwith different things.
Okay.
So you're actually making theirlife easier when you say, hey,
hey, hey, here's something thatwould be good for your gift
guide.
I see, you know, you you'reseeing their gift guide from
last year.
You are seeing what they wroteabout, and you are presenting
(26:40):
them with what they can swap itout with this year.
We have done this with like theum the Gay Pride LGBTQ month of
June.
There's all kinds of gift guidesand just stories, right?
Um, out there.
Um, and we will put our brandout there and we will show our
products.
And we've gotten some prettycool um features out of it.
(27:00):
Um, anyone that watches like uhRuPaul's drag race, uh, if you
are a fan of that, you mightabsolutely hate that.
You might unsubscribe to mychannel just for me mentioning
that.
I don't care.
We have been featured throughsome of those participants' uh
Instagrams and things now withour candles and our brand, which
when they share it out to theirthousands and thousands of
followers, brings us morebusiness.
(27:21):
So think about how you can tieyour products into an article.
Are you raising money forsomething?
If you're raising money for yourlocal humane society, which is a
very easy, very, very easyfundraiser to do, uh, we've I
don't think we've ever beenturned down of doing one of
those because people love theiranimals, people love raising
money for good causes.
(27:42):
Um, it's non-controversialraising money for a uh humane
society.
We all know that they areunderstaffed, underfunded.
So partner with uh AnimalShelter, raise money for them,
then reach out to nationalorganizations that are pet, dog,
cat, reptile focused and letthem know what you're doing good
(28:03):
for the community that you're inand see if they won't then do an
article about you, right?
We have our pet palace candlesthat this is a our pet odor
eliminating candle, that weraise money for pet and animal
rescues and organizations withthis.
This is usually like our ourfundraising candle.
We have a line of these.
(28:24):
Um, and so we will send this outand get national publications to
run articles on that.
And so that's how we have reallygrown our brand uh to beyond
just our local base is bygetting national eyes onto our
brand.
And this is all free.
Okay.
So as we're starting a smallbusiness, you're going to get
(28:47):
approached by all kinds ofdifferent authors of, hey, let
me get your brand published inall of these different magazines
or articles and things likethat.
What they're really doing whenthey do that is they're creating
a press release for you andthey're putting it out because
(29:07):
press releases will just kind ofkeep getting shared.
Um, whenever they hit what'scalled the news wire.
When they hit the news wire,it's out there.
So those offers to help you getyour brand out there, they're
not really doing much.
They're just writing an articleand they're putting it on there
so that when you search yourbrand, you're gonna see it out
there on the internet somewhereand you can feel good about it.
(29:29):
That's why it's 99 bucks.
It's not gonna do much to you uhor for you.
And it's also not gonna be oneof these like national
publications.
It's just not going to happenlike that.
You have to pay good, good moneyfor that or do it yourself, just
like what we did.
These writers and journaliststhey love doing a really good
story on a brand that no oneelse has uh kind of reshared,
(29:51):
right?
Like PF Candle, you know, PFCandle, they came on the scene,
they got really big, and thenthey're the the press has just
gone down.
They're they're so fabulousbecause.
Company, they're so really big,but like what journalist wants
to go and do an article on themright now that hasn't already
been done, right?
Um, you can talk about thegrowth of a brand, you can talk
about um their financials andhow they've scaled or how big
(30:13):
they are, uh, or just theproducts themselves.
But once so much press has beendone on it, it's you know, how
many how many times do peoplewant to do it?
So they love our journalistslove having fresh content, and
that's what you are going toprovide for them.
So reach out to these writers ofindividual articles and say,
hey, I saw you did this lastyear.
I'm wondering if you're going todo it again this year.
(30:34):
Um, if so, I would love to beconsidered.
Here's the information about mybrand.
And then you just paste in apress release there.
Uh reference to them so thatthey so when I send out these
emails to these nationalmagazines, I am addressing them
specifically.
I'm not like doing the mass umemails that I would do locally
(30:55):
in our community.
If I'm emailing someone at OprahDaily, I it's because they wrote
an article last year and it'sit's a similar story that they
would be running this year,whether it's a gift guide,
whether it's about a specificmonth of celebration, um,
whatever it is, if they're goingto update the article and do a
new version this year.
So I want to I say, I'llreference and I'll say, hey, I
(31:16):
saw um last year you had thefantastic farmhouse gift guide.
I would love to be consideredfor your farmhouse gift guide if
you planned on doing one againthis year.
Here's my product.
I hear some information about usand our brand.
If you have any questions, letme know.
Again, it would be an honor tobe featured in your updated
article.
Super sweet, just like that.
(31:37):
They're gonna look at it.
If they like it, they'll dosomething with it.
And oftentimes they won't tellyou.
They won't tell you when you'regetting pressed.
Sometimes they will, but notalways.
So just keep that in mind.
It's another reason why it'sgood to have those Google alerts
out there and set.
All right, so really it's aboutyour mindset.
It's about your mindset that,oh, you know, can I get my name
and my brand into this newspaperarticle or onto the evening news
(32:02):
or into a national magazine?
It's all about the mindset.
And you absolutely can.
We were doing this again, waybefore we had a team, way before
we had a store, we were emailingthese people from our couch at
home.
We made a list of all the presswe wanted to uh promote.
And when you send a pressrelease out, do another one in
(32:23):
three months, in six months,whenever it's relevant again,
whenever you have something toshare, do it again.
Don't do it when you come outwith your new collection.
Don't do it when you know youreleased your candle of the
month.
That's not when you do a pressrelease.
That's when you post on socialmedia to um your followers and
your engagement.
You do a press release when youcan tell a story.
(32:43):
Now, if you've already been inbusiness for a while, you don't
have to wait for the next thingto happen.
Go ahead and do a press releaseabout your business.
What's your mission?
What's your values?
What's your why?
Why are you doing um thisscandal business uh to begin
with?
You know, that is what'scaptivating.
Uh, talk about your roots or ifyou just moved to a new
location.
(33:04):
People thought it wasfascinating that we had just
moved to where we live now, um,to the state.
Um, and a year later, we were wewere doing all of this and we
were starting the scandalbusiness and this brand and we
were wanting to open up storesand all of that.
They thought it was fascinatingand it told a lot of good
stories.
So um keep that in mind.
Don't wait until you havesomething super big.
Go ahead and do a press releaseabout where you are now uh and
(33:28):
share that out with people.
Let me know if this works foryou.
Or if you're already doing pressreleases and you're getting some
feedback, if you have some tipsto share amongst the other uh
viewers and listeners, I wouldlove for you to drop those in
the comments below.
Thank you so much for followingalong.
I would love to have you insideof the inner circle.
We actually have a workshop ondoing press releases uh inside
of the inner circle.
(33:48):
So I would love for you to comeand check that out if you want
to join us there.
You can get that link as well inthe show notes or visit us at
channelbusinesspro.com.
Have a great day.
So you've got your products and you got your
website.
Now, how do you get eyes ontoyour products on your website?
What strategies are we going touse to get people to notice us?
In this episode, I am going towalk through the strategies that
we've used that have beensuccessful for us with our Garza
Beacon candle brand and theexact same strategies that we
are going to use with launchingwithout, which is our new candle
(00:23):
line.
If you have not been followingalong, we are in week nine of
launching an entirely new candlebusiness from the ideation and
creation to sourcing thesupplies and the products to
launching a website, launchingall new social medias and all of
that.
It is completely separate fromthe business Garden Beacon
(00:43):
Candle Company that we startedmyself along with my husband
Chad started just about fouryears ago.
We have now surpassed$1.5million in candle sales there.
And we are going to try to do itall over again with something
completely separate.
Before we get too far into this,I do want to give a big, big
shout out to two auto waxmelters.
They are our wax melter ofchoice and so many other makers
(01:05):
as well.
Everyone inside of the innercircle that we host at Candle
Business Pro, I believe has atwo-auto wax melter.
They are just fantastic.
They're easy to work with, theystay consistent, they're
insulated for being energyefficient and also to make sure
that every time we pour candles,we have the right temperatures.
And they're also affordable.
They are so affordable that wehave multiple of them in our
(01:28):
different stores for differentwaxes.
So we use soy wax, we usecoconut soy wax.
We also use wax for our waxmelts.
And because Tu Auto melters areaffordable, we are able to have
multiple in each of our stores.
So big shout out to them.
They do have an exclusive linkthat they are provided for you.
This is not an affiliate link.
We are not getting a commissionfrom that, but they have been
(01:50):
generous to share a link that isin the show notes below for you
to save an additional percentageoff at checkout.
And that is on top of anypromotions that are already
going.
So check them out in the shownotes below.
So today we're talking about howto write a press release and how
to get more eyes onto yourbrand.
If you find today's episodeuseful, we would love to have
you come and join us inside ofthe inner circle.
(02:11):
We actually have a workshopwhere we go into details.
I actually give you copies ofour press releases that we have
written that we send out withall the links so that you can go
step by step and do thisyourself.
Hopefully, you're going to findtoday's episode super valuable.
And then you'll want to come andjoin us inside the inner circle.
You can find out more about theinner circle at
(02:31):
candlebusinesspro.com or in thenotes below.
Now let's get into this.
All right.
So the biggest thing that I findmost makers struggle with is
once they get over that hump ofmaking candles, and now you've
got a candle that you are happywith, you're proud of.
Now, how do I sell it?
How do I get out into the world?
Now there's many, many ways ofselling candles.
(02:54):
We do a ton of fundraisers.
And that has brought in so muchmoney in the last three and a
half years that we have beenable to donate now over$75,000
to uh not just local, butnational causes that us and our
brand believe in.
And so when you think about thatnumber,$75,000 we have crossed
now in donations.
(03:15):
And we generally give between 25and 40% of the sales.
So when you do the math on that,it's quite a bit of sales
revenue that has come in.
What's great about fundraisersis that you are opening your
brand up to a brand new audienceand you're relying on the
organization that you're raisingmoney for to promote your
products.
So they're using their socialmedias, they're using their
(03:37):
email lists, they're putting upflyers within their
establishment.
If they have a building such asa nonprofit theater, we will
have um partnerships withtheaters that will like live
music theater, symphony type ofplaces, and they would then put
up posters around um to promoteus.
It raises them money, so it's ait's a true win-win.
Uh, but we're not talking aboutfundraisers today.
(03:58):
We are talking about press andhow to get eyes from the public
onto your brand.
So let's talk about traditionalPR.
So traditional PR is stillincredibly effective.
And the way this is going towork is you're going to write up
a press release.
A press release is somethingthat you are going to write and
(04:18):
submit to journalists.
Now, I would always recommendstaying local at first.
So what I would do is I wouldwrite a story about your brand
and submit it to localjournalists.
So what does this look like?
When we first started, we sentout press releases to our local
newspaper, uh to the local TVstations, um, to the radio
(04:41):
stations.
Any um media email address thatI could get my hands on was on
this email.
So I blind carbon copy all ofthese journalists, all the news
stations with this pressrelease.
And this is how we have foundsuccess.
Your title of your subject lineof your email, and then the
title of your press release.
(05:02):
It needs to be somethingcompelling.
So one of them that we used wasuh couple launches candle brand
after leaving corporate world.
So because me and Chad left ournine to five jobs working at
home in the corporate world togo out and start our candle
business.
So that was one of the subjectlines that we used.
Another one was localentrepreneurs bring candles with
(05:23):
a cause to raise money for localnonprofits.
So that was the name of anotherpress release that we have
submitted here locally.
So both of those are compellingheadlines for local press.
Okay.
So when we what we do is wewrite it just a one page, you do
not want this to be too long,but you do want it to have some
(05:44):
substance.
We will write it in like a Worddocument and turn it into a PDF,
right?
But it should all fit on onepage.
You should open up that uh pressrelease.
That first paragraph shouldintroduce who you are, introduce
what your brand is, andintroduce why your brand is
exist, why your brand is goingto disrupt, why you are going to
(06:05):
stick out in a uh in the market,uh, why it they are going to be
able to get their readers orlisteners or watchers when it
comes to the news channels tocontinue to stay following that
story.
Because just like anything else,they want to make sure that
they're writing somethingcompelling that people are going
to be interested in.
And people are generally alwaysinterested in some good that's
(06:27):
happening in their localcommunity.
Right now, um there's a lot ofnegativity on the news in the
newspaper.
The front page of everynewspaper is almost all negative
stuff, whether it's the economy,whether it's politics, whether
it's a world crisis, whatever itmight be, because that's usually
what's catching eyes and it'scaptivating people.
(06:48):
And that's just how the mediaworks.
So we are going to actuallydisrupt that a little bit by
writing something good becausethey want good stories.
Don't get me wrong.
They want good stories to run.
That's why we've always gotten areaction from someone in the
media every time we send out apress release.
All right.
So you are going to talk aboutyour brand, what your brand is,
what you do, why you decided todo it.
(07:11):
We decided to leave ourcorporate jobs and start this
candle business so that we couldhave more family time while also
raising money for a localorganization.
So you need to write somethingthat's compelling.
You need to share, not just, oh,I didn't like buying candles, so
I started making candles.
Like that's not going to createany buzz necessarily.
(07:34):
Have a big headline.
And so think about that.
Think about how you can make abig headline for them.
When you write a press release,what we like to do is give them
every bit of information thatthey're going to need so that
they can actually write anarticle about you in your brand
without having to talk to you,without them having to call you
(07:54):
up and ask you these compellingquestions.
Why did you get started?
What was the purpose?
What's the why of your brand?
What's the mission of yourbrand?
Are there specific values thatyou want to share with the
audience?
All of these types of questionsthat a journalist would ask you
is something that you shouldinclude in this press release.
Because often we'll find that wewill get an article written
(08:17):
based on our press releasewithout us having a conversation
with them.
Um total side note from that, Ihighly recommend that you go out
to um Google and set up GoogleAlerts.
And they're completely free.
Go and just type in GoogleAlerts.
It'll give you the website andset up a Google Alert with your
name's uh with your brand'sname.
So we have Google Alerts forGarzent Peak and Canada Company.
(08:40):
I have alerts for SebastianGarzett for my name.
I want to know when anything isput out there on the internet um
about our brand, about myselfpersonally, anything.
And it's completely free.
And what we have found is all ofa sudden we get uh Yahoo
Finance.
you know, has just written anarticle about us.
Um, and we didn't know that theywere going to do that.
(09:01):
And our our brand was small.
We didn't have, we don't have aton of candle shoppers that are
buying from us that are alsoreading Yahoo Finance that I'm
aware of.
So we wouldn't have known aboutthat unless we had those alerts
set up.
So I highly recommend go out toGoogle, um, set up Google
Alerts.
Uh now it doesn't give you alertevery time something's posted,
say like on Facebook or socialmedia.
(09:21):
It's going to be based on likenews stories and things.
And there are different settingsbased on um like matches of like
how much do you want them to umnotify you?
And if if you're getting a lotof them, you might want them to
do it just once a day.
Um, or you can just have it doneinstantly.
I think ours are still actuallyset up as instantly.
So we know right away we get anemail from Google when they um
(09:44):
find something on the internetwith us on there.
So something to keep in mind umfor you there.
Uh so you write this, you writethis uh press release, gotta be
newsworthy.
Uh, you got to have a hook andyou got to explain why your
brand matters to their audience.
Uh make it a feel-good story.
That's gonna really help youwith doable community.
Uh, and then if you're gonna dofundraisers, uh, talk about
that.
(10:04):
Or if you've already hadcollaborations, or if you've
already, if you've already donea fundraiser, that is an easy
way of helping to give you somecredibility to get um press on
you.
When we write a press releaseand we say, hey, we have
partnered with the humanesociety here.
We have partnered with thisnonprofit uh to raise money.
Uh, you don't have to givenumbers, you don't just share
any of those details.
Often when we're starting out,some of these fundraisers might
(10:26):
not be super successful, butit's a fact that you've already
done it and it's going to createa newsworthy story.
You're going to send this out toall these different places
locally.
So go to your local newspaper.
They're going to have a lot ofemail addresses that you can
find on their website there.
Uh, then go to every newsstation and they'll have a way
for you to contact or uh it'llsay, like, do you have a tip?
(10:49):
Do you have a hot story?
Things like that.
Just grab all those differentemail addresses and just create
a list.
And then whenever you're readyto email this out, you have that
list.
Make sure you do uh BCC blindcarbon copies so that they're
not all seeing who all you sentthat to.
So make sure you're doing thatso you're not annoying anyone
with any of that because there'sgonna be autoresponders and
things that'll gonna get sentback to you, and you don't want
(11:11):
that crossing over to otherpeople that's just gonna annoy
them.
So send those out to people.
You should get some response.
Now, when you write this pressrelease, one page.
Just have one page in that pressrelease, you also want to have a
couple quotes.
So have a quote that it's gonnaseem weird because you're the
one writing the press release,but you want to have a quote in
(11:32):
there.
Um, you know, you can have itsay, you know, in quote, it'll
say, you know, Sebastian Garstonum says of their uh rapid
success, quote, we take a lot ofpride in partnering with local
nonprofits that are doing goodin our community, and we uh
strive to continue growing andpartnering with other nonprofits
(11:55):
um in a win-win situation.
You know, things like that.
You know, that's a bit that's avery, very simple quote there.
But put some quotes into thepress release from yourself, uh,
from your partner, from yourspouse, uh, your coworker,
whoever you might be doing thisbrand with.
Get a couple of quotes therebecause, again, they are they
want quotes, right?
(12:15):
There's always quotes in everynewspaper article that you read.
There's always quotes there fromsomeone they're interviewing or
someone that has something to dowith that story.
And they want to have thosequotes already so that they can
go ahead and write an articlewithout trying to get you for an
interview necessarily if itdoesn't work out.
They can just go ahead and runwith an article.
So make sure you add a couplequotes.
(12:37):
Then outside of the actual pressrelease, so the way we send our
press releases out, I will openup, open up my email, I will
attach the one-page PDF pressrelease that I'm gonna be
emailing them, but I will alsohave that press release as the
actual content of the email.
And the reason for that is nowthe content of the email is just
(12:58):
gonna say for immediate release,and then below there it says,
you know, Garz and Beacon uhexpanded to three stores or Gars
and Beacon lawantas in Holland,Michigan, uh, to raise funds for
organizations through theircandle with a cause um campaign.
You know, whatever it might be.
But it start with, you know,asterisk uh for in all caps for
(13:19):
immediate release, put anasterisk at the end of it, all
in caps for immediate release.
That is the the trademark onevery press release.
It says for immediate release.
That's what it says.
So when they see that, they'regonna know right away this is a
press release.
Okay.
So in the email at the very,very top, for immediate release,
and then you just go right intoit.
Now on the PDF version, you'regonna do it more like on a
(13:41):
letterhead.
So at the very top, you shouldhave your brand's name, contact
information, uh, how to contactyou and all of that.
Um, then on both on the PDF andin the email, I'm making that
totally confusing.
Go through your whole pressrelease, uh, include your quotes
in there and everything, andthen close by, you know,
sincerely your name.
That's it.
Uh, and then also below that,for any media inquiries,
(14:06):
contact, have your name, havethe best contact information for
you.
Okay.
So that's to be on that pressrelease.
Think about the press release,even though it's in it's gonna
be the email generally that youjust sent it from.
Think about in your pressrelease if they were to print it
off, right?
You emailed it to the newsstation, somebody printed it off
and went and put it on ajournalist desk and say, hey,
(14:26):
this might be worth doing astory on.
They don't have the email.
They don't have all that contactinformation that might have been
inside of that email.
Um, so make sure that all ofthat contact information is
inside of your press release.
Keep the press release to onepage and then also include, not
necessarily in the press releaseunless you have this space, but
(14:47):
definitely as an attachmentinside of the email, high
resolution photos.
Now, these high resolutionphotos that you are providing
with them should most likely beof you, you and your products,
you and your workspace.
Um, that's exactly what ourswas.
In fact, I wasn't even in thefirst one.
It was just Chad in front of atable with all of our candles
(15:08):
that we had just shot like inour office, right?
We took, take a photo of thatand you attach that because
they're going to need mostarticles, they are going to have
an image attached to it.
And so you want to tell thestory and through photos.
So make sure that you areattaching photos because, again,
you want to give them everythingthey possibly would need to
(15:28):
write an article about you sothat they don't have to reach
back out to you and say, hey, doyou have an image?
And going back and forth withall that.
I would give them a coupleoptions.
I would give them an option ofyou, give them an option of
your, your brand, your candles,your products.
Uh, and then also uh definitelya combination of them, right?
Give them some options to choosefrom.
Also give them options ofhorizontal and vertical.
(15:49):
Because based on where thisarticle that they're going to
run is going to be ran, if it'sa front page of the newspaper,
front and center, they're goingto need a big horizontal photo.
If it's going to be one of theside column uh articles, they're
going to need a vertical image.
So think about that.
And so be mindful that, youknow, based on uh where it may
(16:09):
run, uh different photo layoutsare going to be good.
Make sure they're high res.
You don't want anything that'spixelated.
Make sure you have a good photofor that.
All right.
So when you send it out to allof them, you're going to send
this out to the small lifestylewriters for the newspapers.
Look at your news station'swebsite.
And generally they're going tohave like a lifestyle section
where it's those live segmentsthat happen now almost every
(16:32):
morning from like 9 a.m.
to like noon, right?
Where there's not any of thoselike soap operas and uh those
daily talk shows happening oncertain stations.
They have just news coverage.
And it's usually just coveringcommunity events, things that
are happening.
It's not like your five o'clockbreaking news.
Um, it's it's more of alifestyle segment.
So make sure you're reaching outto the different people within
(16:54):
uh news.
Um, if you're if you're reachingout to journalists or news
reporters directly, reach out toseveral of them from the same
station.
Totally fine.
Don't just rely on one persontaking your email and possibly
getting it over to someone thatis going to feel compelled to
write about it.
Now, another really great way toget people to do press, and this
(17:16):
has worked really well for us,for getting live news coverage
where they came out and excuseme, it's not live, it's um video
news coverage.
So our very first um media thatwe received was when I sent an
uh message to I think it was CBSNews.
It was WZZM here in um Michigan,uh, channel 13.
I don't I don't even know whataffiliate that is.
(17:38):
Um, and the reason for that wasthe press release that we sent
out, the title of it was similarto local candle brand looks to
tulip time to um increase sales.
Uh it was it was something to dolocal small business.
That's what it was.
It was local small businessexcited for tulip time.
(17:59):
Something very simple.
Tulip time is a festival that wehave here every year.
I'm sure there's a festivalwherever you are.
If you're in southern Indiana,there's a covered bridge
festival.
Uh, depending on where you arein the country, there's always a
big event, right?
Two weeks prior to that event,don't do it too far in advance.
Just a couple weeks prior tothat event, do a press release
(18:19):
tying your brand to that event.
Because as we get closer tothose types of events, that's
all you talk about, right?
We moved here from Indianapolis.
Um, the Indy 500 is, I thinkit's Memorial Day every day.
It's it's it's it's the month ofMay.
They they call it the the theracing month, right?
The month of May is Indy 500month.
That entire month, everythingyou see on the news, uh, that's
(18:42):
not like crime or political orsports.
Everything is just about theIndy 500 and not just like the
actual race itself, but likewhat the effect on the economy
is, what it's doing for smallbusinesses, um, you know, all of
the uh tourism that's going tobe coming, all kinds of stories
just about that one event that'shappening for that entire month.
(19:04):
Here where we live, everyone'sexcited about tulip time that
happens the first two weekendsin May, and they are excited to
talk about that for like two orthree weeks leading up to it.
I mean, if you're in that world,they're talking about a much
larger, but like news coverageis it's gonna be probably you
know two or three weeks prior.
That's when we're gonna send outa uh uh press release to all of
(19:24):
this media, letting them know,giving them a captivating
headline for how we can tie ourbusiness to them.
So this is what we did.
We have a Holland and Bloomcandle, it's two absented.
It is how we tied our brand to alocal event.
And we took photos of it and wesent it out to the media.
They called us up and they cameout the same day and interviewed
(19:48):
us for the news that night,right inside of our candle
space, which our candle space atthe time was actually it was our
bed.
We had moved our bedroom into asmaller office in the house and
used our bedroom at the time asour candle studio.
I share images of that oftenwhenever you see a nice, clean
looking studio.
Um, that's not realistic forlike how we make candles every
(20:10):
day because it's it's very cleanin the image, right?
Usually the stuff I post online,you can tell.
Uh if you're if you follow ourInstagram at Candle Business
Pro, uh you'll see I post youknow stuff every single day uh
from whatever store I'm workingin.
Um but if you see a very clean,sharp image, uh great lighting
coming in, it was a nice sunnyday out, and you can tell that
(20:31):
it's like in a home.
That is what was what at onetime was our bedroom, and we
made it our studio.
We had the news come,interviewed us right then and
there um that day, and they ranit at five o'clock.
But not only that, they keptrunning it over and over and
over again throughout thisperiod of time.
(20:51):
It brought us so many saleslocally, not only just from
people buying, but from storesthat called us or emailed us
wanting to carry our products intheir stores because that we we
created a press release about aproduct that has to do with a
really big event.
And all of these stores in ourtown want to sell products that
(21:15):
have to do with that event,right?
It's it's it's a it's abusiness, it's that's how they
make money during those times ofyear.
So they all wanted to buy ourproducts.
So we were completely out of theoil.
So it's kind of a fun storybecause this is like on a
Tuesday.
Um, by Friday, we're completelyout, and we had a market that
Saturday.
(21:35):
So we and and our oil was tiedup with it was delayed with UPS.
It was a whole long to-do.
We luckily got our order and westayed up till 2 a.m.
Uh making all of these candlesthat we could then have for the
market at 10 a.m.
that that same day.
Now I know people talk aboutcheering times and all that.
(21:57):
That's a conversation for awhole nother topic uh why we
were not concerned about that.
Uh, but we stayed up all nightmaking candles to sell out at
that market.
Um, and it was fantastic.
So it was a great story.
It was our very first, you know,four months in business.
So don't feel like you have tohave a lot of tenureship
underneath your belt before youcan start doing this stuff.
We were doing this at home.
(22:18):
This is before the storefront.
This is before a lot of ourwholesale accounts.
Um, and we were doing pressreleases and getting the news to
come and interview us.
So think local when you arefirst starting out with doing a
press release.
Then start going wide.
We have gotten Garz and BeaconCandle Company featured in Oprah
Daily magazine.
That was like our first bignational uh publication um in
(22:41):
Parade magazine, several YahooFinance um posts about our
brand.
And it's the same strategy thatyou're going to use with local,
but you have to shift thenarrative a little bit, right?
So we're locally, when we'rewriting press releases, we are
talking about how we're doinggood in our community, how we're
(23:01):
a local couple starting thiscandle business and leaping our
nine to fives.
When we want to go national andtry to get bigger audiences to
see something about our brand,we just have to shift it a
little different.
So we were raising money for theTrevor Project, which is a it's
a large national organizationtrying to prevent um suicide
(23:22):
amongst the LGBTQ youth.
Uh, it's a big organization, andit was coming up on Pride Month.
So we did a press release andsent it out to the big
publications.
Um, and Oprah Daily is one thatreached back out and they ran um
a feature on that.
And that got a lot of eyes andtraffic on our brand.
And then the exact same thinghappened with Parade Magazine.
(23:44):
Um, also with MSN articlewriters have been um receptive
to this.
This is how you do it.
You can reach out to theindividual uh newspaper or the
the magazines, but those thatare really large, like we don't
just send an article to OprahDaily Magazine.
That's not going to work becausethis is um so Hearst, uh ATRST
(24:10):
is they own Cosmo, Vogue, L.
All the major, major magazinesare owned under this one uh
brand.
Uh and so you're not gonna wantto reach out to them like you
would your local newspaper, yourlocal news channel, where
they're all in the same officeand they're gonna pass that
press release around to theright person.
You don't want to do that withthese large publications.
(24:31):
What you want to do is research,search for an article that is
similar to what your pressrelease is going to be about.
For instance, if you want to getyour uh candles in in February
and you want to get your candlebrand featured in um Black
History Month for articles thatare written.
(24:54):
And you so you want to findarticles that people are writing
about people from the Blackcommunity that are small
businesses to support.
Or you are tying your brand intouh breast cancer awareness.
And so during breast cancerawareness month, you want to get
your products in front of theaudiences that are reading about
(25:14):
um the awareness um behindbreast cancer and other cancers.
So you go and look for articles.
Um so you just type in uh, youknow, Black History Month uh
small businesses, right?
Or LGBTQ small businesses um inJune.
Um or it's the exact same thingthat you would do come October,
November.
If you want to get your productsfeatured in gift guides, if you
(25:37):
want to be in gift guides, umthat will bring incredible
amount of eyes onto your brand.
If you can get in um like aBuzzFeed uh gift guide, you it's
gonna do something for yourbrand.
It really will.
So keep that in mind.
Um, gift guides are a fantasticway of just blowing the brand um
(25:59):
big.
So just go and find thesearticles.
Just search on Google, search onuh the internet for these
articles.
It says who wrote that article,email that person.
Email the person that wrote thatgift guide for last year.
Because they're gonna do a giftguide again for this year.
And what they're going to do isthey're not even gonna start
(26:19):
from scratch.
They already have an article,they're basically gonna copy
that article and swap it outwith different things.
Okay.
So you're actually making theirlife easier when you say, hey,
hey, hey, here's something thatwould be good for your gift
guide.
I see, you know, you you'reseeing their gift guide from
last year.
You are seeing what they wroteabout, and you are presenting
(26:40):
them with what they can swap itout with this year.
We have done this with like theum the Gay Pride LGBTQ month of
June.
There's all kinds of gift guidesand just stories, right?
Um, out there.
Um, and we will put our brandout there and we will show our
products.
And we've gotten some prettycool um features out of it.
(27:00):
Um, anyone that watches like uhRuPaul's drag race, uh, if you
are a fan of that, you mightabsolutely hate that.
You might unsubscribe to mychannel just for me mentioning
that.
I don't care.
We have been featured throughsome of those participants' uh
Instagrams and things now withour candles and our brand, which
when they share it out to theirthousands and thousands of
followers, brings us morebusiness.
(27:21):
So think about how you can tieyour products into an article.
Are you raising money forsomething?
If you're raising money for yourlocal humane society, which is a
very easy, very, very easyfundraiser to do, uh, we've I
don't think we've ever beenturned down of doing one of
those because people love theiranimals, people love raising
money for good causes.
(27:42):
Um, it's non-controversialraising money for a uh humane
society.
We all know that they areunderstaffed, underfunded.
So partner with uh AnimalShelter, raise money for them,
then reach out to nationalorganizations that are pet, dog,
cat, reptile focused and letthem know what you're doing good
(28:03):
for the community that you're inand see if they won't then do an
article about you, right?
We have our pet palace candlesthat this is a our pet odor
eliminating candle, that weraise money for pet and animal
rescues and organizations withthis.
This is usually like our ourfundraising candle.
We have a line of these.
(28:24):
Um, and so we will send this outand get national publications to
run articles on that.
And so that's how we have reallygrown our brand uh to beyond
just our local base is bygetting national eyes onto our
brand.
And this is all free.
Okay.
So as we're starting a smallbusiness, you're going to get
(28:47):
approached by all kinds ofdifferent authors of, hey, let
me get your brand published inall of these different magazines
or articles and things likethat.
What they're really doing whenthey do that is they're creating
a press release for you andthey're putting it out because
(29:07):
press releases will just kind ofkeep getting shared.
Um, whenever they hit what'scalled the news wire.
When they hit the news wire,it's out there.
So those offers to help you getyour brand out there, they're
not really doing much.
They're just writing an articleand they're putting it on there
so that when you search yourbrand, you're gonna see it out
there on the internet somewhereand you can feel good about it.
(29:29):
That's why it's 99 bucks.
It's not gonna do much to you uhor for you.
And it's also not gonna be oneof these like national
publications.
It's just not going to happenlike that.
You have to pay good, good moneyfor that or do it yourself, just
like what we did.
These writers and journaliststhey love doing a really good
story on a brand that no oneelse has uh kind of reshared,
(29:51):
right?
Like PF Candle, you know, PFCandle, they came on the scene,
they got really big, and thenthey're the the press has just
gone down.
They're they're so fabulousbecause.
Company, they're so really big,but like what journalist wants
to go and do an article on themright now that hasn't already
been done, right?
Um, you can talk about thegrowth of a brand, you can talk
about um their financials andhow they've scaled or how big
(30:13):
they are, uh, or just theproducts themselves.
But once so much press has beendone on it, it's you know, how
many how many times do peoplewant to do it?
So they love our journalistslove having fresh content, and
that's what you are going toprovide for them.
So reach out to these writers ofindividual articles and say,
hey, I saw you did this lastyear.
I'm wondering if you're going todo it again this year.
(30:34):
Um, if so, I would love to beconsidered.
Here's the information about mybrand.
And then you just paste in apress release there.
Uh reference to them so thatthey so when I send out these
emails to these nationalmagazines, I am addressing them
specifically.
I'm not like doing the mass umemails that I would do locally
(30:55):
in our community.
If I'm emailing someone at OprahDaily, I it's because they wrote
an article last year and it'sit's a similar story that they
would be running this year,whether it's a gift guide,
whether it's about a specificmonth of celebration, um,
whatever it is, if they're goingto update the article and do a
new version this year.
So I want to I say, I'llreference and I'll say, hey, I
(31:16):
saw um last year you had thefantastic farmhouse gift guide.
I would love to be consideredfor your farmhouse gift guide if
you planned on doing one againthis year.
Here's my product.
I hear some information about usand our brand.
If you have any questions, letme know.
Again, it would be an honor tobe featured in your updated
article.
Super sweet, just like that.
(31:37):
They're gonna look at it.
If they like it, they'll dosomething with it.
And oftentimes they won't tellyou.
They won't tell you when you'regetting pressed.
Sometimes they will, but notalways.
So just keep that in mind.
It's another reason why it'sgood to have those Google alerts
out there and set.
All right, so really it's aboutyour mindset.
It's about your mindset that,oh, you know, can I get my name
and my brand into this newspaperarticle or onto the evening news
(32:02):
or into a national magazine?
It's all about the mindset.
And you absolutely can.
We were doing this again, waybefore we had a team, way before
we had a store, we were emailingthese people from our couch at
home.
We made a list of all the presswe wanted to uh promote.
And when you send a pressrelease out, do another one in
(32:23):
three months, in six months,whenever it's relevant again,
whenever you have something toshare, do it again.
Don't do it when you come outwith your new collection.
Don't do it when you know youreleased your candle of the
month.
That's not when you do a pressrelease.
That's when you post on socialmedia to um your followers and
your engagement.
You do a press release when youcan tell a story.
(32:43):
Now, if you've already been inbusiness for a while, you don't
have to wait for the next thingto happen.
Go ahead and do a press releaseabout your business.
What's your mission?
What's your values?
What's your why?
Why are you doing um thisscandal business uh to begin
with?
You know, that is what'scaptivating.
Uh, talk about your roots or ifyou just moved to a new
location.
(33:04):
People thought it wasfascinating that we had just
moved to where we live now, um,to the state.
Um, and a year later, we were wewere doing all of this and we
were starting the scandalbusiness and this brand and we
were wanting to open up storesand all of that.
They thought it was fascinatingand it told a lot of good
stories.
So um keep that in mind.
Don't wait until you havesomething super big.
Go ahead and do a press releaseabout where you are now uh and
(33:28):
share that out with people.
Let me know if this works foryou.
Or if you're already doing pressreleases and you're getting some
feedback, if you have some tipsto share amongst the other uh
viewers and listeners, I wouldlove for you to drop those in
the comments below.
Thank you so much for followingalong.
I would love to have you insideof the inner circle.
We actually have a workshop ondoing press releases uh inside
of the inner circle.
(33:48):
So I would love for you to comeand check that out if you want
to join us there.
You can get that link as well inthe show notes or visit us at
channelbusinesspro.com.
Have a great day.
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