March 7, 2023 • 35 mins
"And I discovered that as a journalist if you don't have a pitch or a story to share with the big boss on Monday morning, you didn't have a job. What's important for entrepreneurs to realize is that journalists aren't just helping you with your business, you are helping them keep their job. Because if you don't pitch your story, they don't have anything to tell their boss on a Monday morning." - Adela Hussain
That's one of my favorite pieces of insight from my discussion with Adela, founder of Startups & Co and my guest this week on the show. The first thing that Adela teaches her students in her course, Pitch to Press, is that you as an entrepreneur are keeping journalists/podcasters, etc in their jobs - they need your stories and expertise!
The second thing she teaches her students is that when they're pitching to anyone, they have to lead with the story and not their ego. Mention what you've noticed or learned from their work and why your specific topic would be of interest to their readers/listeners.
Tune in for the full scoop of how to pitch your business to press! Connect with Adela on her website and Instagram.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:02):
Welcome to the Small Business Big mindset podcast,
where we dive into tacticalstrategies to grow your business
and make an impact on thisworld. A huge part of success is
keeping your mindset and visionon track. So this is a major
part of our process. And thispodcast, let's do this
(00:24):
welcome to the Small BusinessBig mindset podcast this week we
have Adela Hussain, founder ofstartups and Co. She is a master
of helping you pitch yourbusiness to people that don't
know you yet. Welcome at Dallas.
So excited to have you on theshow.
Thank you so much, Erin. It's apleasure to be here. Thank you.
I'm like, I need to know all theinformation you're gonna share.
(00:46):
So I'm like selfishly booked,you know, you're gonna help out
so many so many listeners today.
So let's jump right. And so tellus a little bit about yourself.
So your background and how yougot started? Oh, I love this
question. So I started off incorporate. So as a management
consultant, here in London,I only have you seen the movie
up in the air. Aaron, have youseen that George Clooney movie?
(01:10):
i It does ring a bell. But Idon't think I've seen the whole
thing. So tell me. So it's aboutGeorge Clooney and this
character where he goes aroundthe world firing people from
their jobs, like going todepartments like failing
departments. And that was mylife for seven years. Although I
didn't actually do the firing. Iwas a consultant who would come
in with a wheelie suitcase and ablack suit. And people would
(01:31):
dive into their cubicles and goWinter is coming, you know, and
the department was was failing.
And I would be there to identifythe processes that you would
keep going when the section ofthe department that no longer
needs to exist, which wouldinevitably lead to people being
fired. Soyeah, I started off in what was
called outsourcing in thetechnology sector, and then
ended up saying, like, I'm tiredof cutting costs, I want to be
(01:54):
in parts of companies that arebuilding things. So I ended up
in strategy consulting, where,you know, I'd help an airline
buy another airline, and itwould be like a merger, or an
acquisition, it was much moreexciting. And then I got
headhunted to work at Sky, whichwas huge, you know, amazing. I
mean, it's such an incrediblemedia company. And when I
(02:15):
joined, they just got theEuropean rights for Game of
Thrones. So I was like, soexcited to be working for this
huge media company acrossEurope. And I was in charge of
running a new department, wherea new company actually where
they were rolling out fiber inthe ground, which was a bit
techie, for telco. But yeah, Iwas doing that. And then I had
(02:37):
my business idea of to build afashion tech company. And I've
always wanted to be my ownentrepreneur, I think after
doing corporate consulting for,you know, 1718 years by that
point, I was just tired ofhelping other people grow their
own businesses.
(02:59):
And companies, I wanted to runmy own company. And I come from
a family of entrepreneurs. Sofor me, it was it was in my
blood. And I had a businessidea. I saw something that was
happening in the US withfashion. And I said, You know
what, I'm going to do it here inthe UK and roll it out to
Europe. And that's how I endedup in the world of
entrepreneurship. So yeah, Istarted rolling out my business,
(03:24):
my fashion company. And onething I was very good at in that
business, was getting it visiblefrom day one. So I hired
publicists to help me launch myproduct. And then I realized
that the journalists I wasworking with, actually preferred
hearing from me as a founder. SoI ended up firing publicists and
pitching my business myself tothe media. And I landed 14
(03:48):
publications in 12 months,including Harvard Business
Review. And it was very tinybusiness. I had, like, you know,
five staff, but it was just verysmall. And we were actually
working from my living room andall the stock was in my loft. It
was very grassroots, you know,but you just media made such a
huge impact. So yeah, it's aninteresting trajectory. Well,
(04:09):
and it's huge. So now, that'swhat you do, right? You help
other companiesget be visible and get into
these, these impactfulpublications. So I want to
really dive into that, becauseso many of us, myself included,
need help in that area, right.
It's like how my gosh, like, howdo you? How do you get these
(04:30):
guys to, to see you and I and Ihave heard people say, they're
looking for you. They need, youknow, companies to write about,
they need new ideas, you know,to to really flush out in these
articles, and they're trying tofind people so you're like,
Well, I'm right here. So it'slike, yeah, what do you you
know, how do you kind of helppeople get seen like when you're
(04:52):
working with people, like arethere like a few key things that
you kind of guide people on towork on it first, or how do you
work on it? Yeah,I love this great question. So
one of the so typically, when Ifirst start working with
entrepreneurs and my groupprogram pitch to press, they
often come in with the sort ofmindset that they're ambitious,
they want to grow theirbusiness. But there is that
(05:15):
slight hesitancy of Am I readyfor media yet, you know, am I
big enough yet. Andinterestingly, I always tell
them that in my background, as acorporate, one of the companies
I was transforming was SkySports News, and sky sport,
which is a 24 hour news channelin the sporting world. And I
used to sit there with all thejournalists every Monday is
(05:38):
something called the planningmeeting. And I discovered that
as a journalist, if you don'thave a pitch, or your story to
share with the big boss, on aMonday morning, at eight
o'clock, when that meeting ishappening, you didn't have a
job.
So actually, what's importantfor entrepreneurs to realize is
(06:03):
that journalists aren't justhelping you with your business,
you are helping them keep theirjob.
Because if you don't pitch yourstory, they don't have anything
to tell their boss on a Mondaymorning, that these are the
ideas I have. And these arethings that need to go in the
news channel, or the publicationor the blog, or whatever media
(06:25):
platform it is. So understandingthat you are keeping your
journalist, a journalist intheir job, or even a podcaster
or collaborator or entrepreneur,whoever you're pitching to show
so important to realize thatit's not just about you and your
business, it's about them.
So that's the first thing Iteach my students, and actually,
that often helps them with themindset piece, right? The second
(06:48):
thing I teach my students inpitcher press is whenever you
start pitching to anybody, youhave to lead with the story and
not your ego.
And what that means is don'tstart reaching out to a
journalist and saying, Hey,here's my business, I run this
amazing smoothie company got totry it is incredible. It's going
(07:10):
to change the world. Actually,leaders leader the story and
tell them, you know, I've beenfollowing you know, your your
column, I noticed that you'retalking about sustainability a
lot. Did you know that theavocado using I'm making this
up? By the way, did you knowthat avocados that are coming
(07:32):
out of Mexico is causing a lotof deforestation, and that is so
bad for the planet? Our company,what I do in my business is I
create smoothies fromsustainable, you know, avocados
that are more supportive, kinderto the environment. And I know
that you have been recentlywriting about the food industry,
and you've got a real passionfor sustainability. I saw you at
(07:54):
that, you know, eco warriorsconference last week. And I
think this might be of interest,not just you, but to your
readers. Would you like me totell you more? I've just got a
real I just made that pitch up.
But can you see how that isleading with the value there was
take your identifying to thatjournalist, you know, what were
you think, what their readersare going to enjoy reading, you
(08:15):
know, that they're talking aboutsustainability and environmental
issues and the column beingabsolutely targeted and
personalized in that pitch. So Ialways tell people leader story
and not your ego. Does that makesense? Oh, 100%. And I love that
because you've touched on somany things, right? It's like
you, you started off with like astory that they can kind of
(08:36):
visualize themselves in and takea stance. So they've already
invested in then you're like,oh, and I saw that you attended
this, you know, expo orconference, you know, so then
you're like, oh, okay, so thenyou're connecting with them on a
personal level, and they knowthat you've done their research
because you're right, I getpitched all the time. For
podcast guests and a, I preferit when it's from the person and
(08:58):
not from this like agency thatthey've hired to like, book, you
know, I'm like, Okay, here wego. And then be when they have
actually listened to mypodcasts, I can actually say,
Oh, I listened to the episodeand I learned XYZ or instead of
just saying I love your podcast,podcast, and I'm like, okay, you
know, but they, they, they drawme in because they're like, Oh,
(09:22):
I listen to this episode, or Isaw this, I saw that you posted
this, and I really appreciate itXYZ. You know, then I'm like,
okay, you've got you got myattention, you know, and so
yeah, 100% agree with all ofthat. I love that. You mentioned
that Aaron, from the you know,the receiving end of receiving
impersonal pitches becausethat's exactly what I teach. My
(09:42):
students as I pitch to press isto quote the person's work.
Because as a content creator,whether you're a journalist, a
podcaster, a blogger, aninfluencer, you're putting out
content regularly and the bestcompliment for you
is, and correct me if I'm wronghere. But the biggest compliment
(10:03):
for you is to be acknowledgedthat someone has listened to
your book or someone has readyour article. And you have to
give evidence for that. Right?
So I always tell my students inyour pitch, complement their
work and lead with a quote aswell. Yeah, I mean, you want to
feel like you're gonna tension.
But yeah, and if you want themto feel like you want to feel
(10:23):
like they want to be a part ofwhat you're building, and
there's value there, you don'twant to feel like, Oh, let me
get on this podcast, or let meget this article written about
me to check that box, you know,because then it's just not
valuable for anybody. So guess,yeah, you can tell immediately
when someone is approaching acollaboration in a very
(10:44):
transactional way. And it justdoesn't land really, people
don't like it, they want to beacknowledged, they want to be
heard and seen, you know,especially when today's digital
environment is so crowded.
But unfortunately, I would sayaround 80% 90% of pitches that
go out, are very impersonal. Soif you're doing the right
(11:07):
things, you actually stand outbeautifully. Right, exactly. So
what's next, like what you know,so what else do you kind of
suggest? So you're like, This ishow you approach them. Okay, so
then it's like, oh, my gosh,what if they respond?
Well, that's, that's really,really interesting. Yeah,
(11:27):
because the biggest thing I tellmy students, actually, the
hardest thing for them is to hitsend on a pitch, right?
And if you can hit send on apitch, then you've got over the
mindset issue. Yeah, at thatstage.
Often, what happens is mystudents, they hit send on a
pitch. And then and then theyget a response. And they're
(11:47):
almost shocked that they've gota response. So we had a student
last year, who joined my programin November in the current
cohort, and she had pitched ajournalist, before she joined my
program at Grassi magazine herein the UK, very popular magazine
is perfect for her work. And shepitched that journalist and
didn't hear anything back back,it was like the jazz had gone
(12:09):
into a sort of a black void, youknow, like out in the cosmos and
never heard anything back. Andthen she, she learned from me,
within the first week, shecrafted a pitches the way I
teach it, and then immediatelygot a response. She was just
like, Oh, my God, and it's thesame job. And to me, that was
beautiful control experiment,right? Same journalist, exactly
(12:30):
same work that she's pitching.
So the expertise hasn't changedis the actual how she's pitched
it. So once you hear hear aresponse, the key thing is not
to freeze, don't be a rabbit inthe headlights. So this is where
I support my students, where Ihelp them steer that opportunity
to fruition. So actually followup with a journalist, try and
(12:52):
get a call in the diary, oractually share with them have a
conversation around a story,because they're clearly
interested in the story. Ifthey've responded, that is the
biggest compliment. Yeah, theyget three, four or 5000 pitches
a day, they've responded, thatmeans they want the story. So
already feel confident about it,and then say, right, you know,
and kind of move theconversation on take, you know,
(13:14):
take the bull by the reins, andthen say, right.
Okay, so the journalist hassaid, Yeah, I am actually
interested in writing a storyabout, you know, I've got this
column, as you know, I aminterested in recovering this,
this is can you tell me more, sothen you respond back to that
journalist. And the best way toat that point, especially if
(13:37):
it's kind of a slightly nerdyjournalist who has a column,
journalists love data. So if youcan have Supplementary Data to
backup your points,with your story idea, that for
them is the icing on the cake,say to them, they know it's an
industry issue, or it'ssomething that is a trend, like
there's recent data about it.
(14:00):
And there's data abouteverything, right. So that
proves you know, your staff,that you've done your homework,
and that there's credible dataout there to back up your your
angle for your pitch. So, startthat conversation, feed them
some ideas, some stories, andthen see, you know, if you guide
(14:21):
that conversation, say Would youlike an interview? Should we
book an interview? And closethat conversation with when
would you like to speak?
Don't waffle on about yourbusiness? Remember, it's got to
be all about that story.
That's beautiful. Yes, itbecause it's like, your
messaging should be aboutsupporting them and their
(14:42):
audience and you know, and allof that. And I love that you say
about the data because for sure,like get specific, right?
Because it's like, if you'rejust like, you know, oh, I you
know, we make the best pies inAtlanta, you know, and it's just
like what you know, it's likeit's
So it's like, dive deep. Getthose statistics be very
(15:05):
specific about a drill down deepright as far as what you're
going to talk about. So you candifferentiate yourself, because
I bet you they've had hundredsof other people that they've
probably written about the samesubject, but like, what do you
bring to the table? And how areyou taking a kind of a unique
spin on it? Right? Yes, yeah,exactly. And the key thing is
(15:25):
actually, to be topical. So oneof the things I teach is be
topical. So the key question,you've got to ask yourself, when
you are in that conversation,when that journalist so we'll
take our avocado example, again,is why now, why should they feed
you now? So if it's a journalistwho's got this sustainability,
you know, environmental column,they could be writing about
(15:48):
electric cars, right? Like inthe UK, today, there was an
article about electric cars, theindustry is like slightly
broken, people can't chargetheir electric cars are getting
stranded on the highway. Sothat's a very relevant topic.
Because, you know, if peoplewere just struggling, so when
you pitch your story about your,you know, your avocado
(16:11):
smoothies, you know, that agreat for the planet, why should
they cover that story now.
And that's what you've got tokind of hook your story into
something that is happening inthe world. Yeah, give that lay
that argument down. This isrelevant now. So I'll give you a
beautiful example of it. So oneof my students last year, she in
(16:34):
my program,she's an incredible conflict
expert. So her name is KimColvin, and she's a former
charge divorce lawyer, and shehelps people find peaceful
solutions in conflict. And herwork is just simply incredible.
And I was supporting her, youknow, to get into the media when
coaching her as we do in theprogram. And there's so many
(16:55):
different ways for her to pitch.
But what was interesting, what Ihad noticed was that there was a
lot of family conflict happeningacross the US and UK, like, you
know, celebrity conflicts. Sothe story that was sort of
starting to break out was theHarry and Megan story and the
(17:17):
Phantom conflict in the royalfamily. And then I'd noticed
that Victoria Beckham wasstarting to, there was some
conflict between VictoriaBeckham and her daughter in law,
supposedly Nicole pelts.
But the thing that clinched itfor me was the week that I
suddenly thought, like, this isa time for Kim to go in to the
media, the British media is anexpert, was when the Queen of
(17:38):
Denmark stripped her grandsonsof their royal titles without
informing them.
family conflict, three bigexamples of family conflict. So
immediately when we had in ourprogram, we have a media
roundtable where we bringjournalists in, we pitched that
idea to the journalists, wesaid, there's been three major
Celebrity Family Feud, likeroyal feuds, Family Feud, you
(18:01):
know, there's a trend here ispeople are in conflict and their
families. And that's when thepitch landed. And the journalist
when she wrote the article said,mentioned those three examples
upfront, and said, and then Kimwas brought in as an expert to
talk about here are five waysto, you know, support yourself
during a family conflict.
(18:21):
Do you see what I mean? You hadto use jack on that topic. It
was a current, it wasn'tnecessarily trend. It was just
relevant right now, it wastopical, ya know, that? Oh, my
gosh, that's such a greatexample. And it's like, you want
to grab harness that momentum,right? And so you have to have,
you got to have a ready, man,it's like, you know, once those
(18:42):
things, you know, hit and thenit's too late. If by then you're
like, oh, I should, I shouldhave something about that, you
know, that it's like, you've gotto be prepped, you know, so
that, when that momentumhappens, and you're, you know,
always kind of being aware ofwhat's going on in the world
that relates to your area ofexpertise. And then and then no,
(19:02):
you know, kind of like how, youknow, before the Superbowl, like
those writers, they have a, theyhave an article for each of the
teams, you know, like, whoeverwins, it's like, we're ready,
you know, and so that, you know,you gotta have your stuff
prepped and ready to go. And Ilove how you coach people to, to
have a call to action at theend, you know, of their response
(19:24):
to the, to the journalist,right? Because that conversate
they're busy, right? And thatconversation can just, like kind
of fall to the wayside. Ifyou're not controlling the
narrative and you're not pushingit forward. So, I love that when
you're like, you know, don'tjust go on and on about your
business be like, what's goodfor you, you know, I'm Tuesday
and Wednesday, anytime frames inthere, you know, like, be
(19:45):
specific and really drive ithome. Absolutely. 100% Aaron,
and I think that you touched onsomething beautifully there
around, you know, be prepared,but be prepared means if you
know if you're an expertIn your your area of expertise,
you will already know how yousupport your clients. Right. So
Kim, I'm going to go back andtalk about her again, she knows
(20:08):
her world inside out, she cantalk about conflict all day
long. She's brilliant at it,supporting it.
What she needed at that momentwas just to hook it into the
media. And that actually takes acreative brainstorming, you
know, being able to identify howhow you serve people, how you
(20:29):
can tell that story, across akind of rolling news channel, a
new story that's happening inthe world. And, you know, the
way we do it in Postgres is wehave creative brainstorming
sessions, we're done lists, webring them in, who they're
looking for experts. And we sayto them, you know, each my
experts, my students roll theirsleeves up, and we brainstorm
(20:51):
together. And they're notactually pitching, they're
brainstorming. And there's nopressure in that environment.
And then sudden, we find thatpeople are getting in the media
very quickly, because ajournalist is actually want to
read a sea of cold pictures,they want to find good, credible
experts fast. And when they getto meet them on a zoom workshop,
over two hours, they get a senseof whether they're, you know,
strong experts or not. And I'mpretty qualified people. And
(21:14):
they normally are, but theyaren't good at what they do. But
the key thing is, finding thatangle, that's the thing, you can
find the angle, you've got thejournalist, you've got the
feature. And hopefully, thenyou're you're that go to write
for that journalists, like oncethey have you want, like,
hopefully it's like, oh, I gotjust the person, you know, who
(21:36):
can who can be, you know, our,our source or expert source on
this topic, you know, isn't thatthe dream? Like, you know,
you're just you're on that list,you know, or they're like,
immediately they reach out,they're reaching out to you.
Incredible, isn't funny, youshould mention that. That's
exactly what happened lastThursday. So journalists had
been in our program guested inDecember, and met all the
(21:57):
experts, and we werebrainstorming ideas. We were all
enjoying finding ideas,everyone's business. And then
she reached out to me last weekand said, I'm writing a media
article for the BBC, on Jacinda,harden, quitting as the New
Zealand Prime Minister,because she said in her kind of
resignation speech, I don't haveenough in the time to keep going
(22:19):
on with this role as primeminister. And this journalist
was writing about it. And shesaid, I remembered actually,
actually, what's happening isthe quality experts he had was
just phenomenal. Do you thinkyou've got anyone that could
quote on that story. Andimmediately, I've worked with
everyone in my program, who Ithought was a good fit. And
there were so privacy comes backto original point, not to be
(22:42):
scared of putting forward yourideas. And so after eight weeks,
within two hours, five of themhad sent a pitch to that
journalist. And then some theywere all running, it was it was
actually peak time at lunchtime,Eastern Time. They were all
poor.
running workshops, and thenthere's me rocks doing their
(23:03):
their kind of great game, BBCOne song quotes, you want to get
in quotes, and they're great.
But they you know, but the keypoint is, even though I'm
laughing, because it was like,you know, it's a tangent is
operate, they need stuff bots,because she genuinely did have a
two hour timeline to get to sendit to her editor at the BBC. So
she needed those quotes fast. Soit actually becomes a bit of a
(23:24):
race, like who can get theirquotes in the fastest. And
because these people, thesestudents were experts, they
already knew their stuff, theycould quote on that story. And
to up to two of us and thatstory.
And yeah, it's just two of us.
It was brilliant. That's soawesome. I know. It's it's the
end goal, right? It's like, andwhen you see it coming to
(23:47):
fruition, I mean, how exciting.
And so you mentioned Voxer, Iuse it as well. There, is there
anything else because I'm alwayslooking, helping our listeners
to like be like, Oh, if thisthis could make my life easier,
you know, is there any otherkind of like, tools or processes
that you use that you're like,can do my business without or or
(24:09):
personal life? Either way?
Yeah, and obvious question. So Imean, a little tip, where I
would say, I shall give you acouple of tips. I'm just
thinking, in terms of tools. Ithink lice ways of getting into
the media, if people are wantingto get want to get into media is
Eupenthat you can go to this there's
something called Harrow, Help aReporter Out, where you sign up,
(24:32):
and you get notifications whenreporters are looking for
experts. So they put out anotification through the system
and they say, oh, you know, I'vegot a journalist request. I'm
looking for someone who couldcomment on this story. And so
that can be a really nice, easyway to get into the media very
quickly. The key thing to noteabout that, is that you need to
(24:55):
respond quickly, because whatwhat
What's happened is a journalistdoesn't have any experts in
their network to comment on astory. So they're kind of at the
desperation point by puttingsomething out publicly, you
know, is there someone outthere. And so they want, it's
normally, you know, they will,they'll often get like 1000s and
1000s of responses to that. Andit's only the first person who
(25:17):
just tick the boxes for thatstory. So if you respond very
quickly, then you've got a highchance. And one of my clients
did that. She got into apublication. It's very hard,
actually in the UK, and she's apsychotherapist Kay Jane has
role and she, she responded to ajournalist.
And it was really interestingarticle about how people get
(25:39):
burnt out at the summer whenthey're trying to do too many
things. So there was theoverscheduled. And she responded
to the journal request, and wasfeatured very quickly. And that
was lovely, because then shecould then build a relationship
with the journalist futurefeatures. So you can also use
there's a hashtag on Twittercalled hashtag journey request,
and you can see all thoserequests coming through. That's
(26:01):
a really nice tip for people todo. Yeah, that's super helpful.
I didn't even heard about that.
That's really great. Yeah, okay.
Yeah. And yeah, the other thingyou can do as well, is also if
you know what your expert topicsare, what are the things that
you talk about your business,you can set up a Google alert,
as long as you're quite nichedon what that topic is, you can
(26:23):
set a Google alert for any newstories on that subject. And so
when a new story happens,immediately, you get that Google
alert. And then you can justquickly do some research and
then just start responding tojournalists. And saying, you
know, I saw the story out thereon this subject, and I've got an
(26:46):
idea for you on how you can movethe story on, because you never
want to be pitching for samestory, you want to be looking
for ways to move that story onto where it's actually going
next. Now, that's genius, youknow, kind of be like, Oh, I saw
this. And that's great. Butalso, you know, what about this
tangent, you know, of it, youknow, kind of like, you know,
(27:07):
expanding it? No, I love that.
And then let's talk real quicklyabout
what if they don't respond?
Right. So how often do youfollow up? Is there a specific
cadence that you recommend?
Yeah, I love this question.
Yeah, I mean, I would useit, it depends, really, because
if it's, if it's a very relevantsubject in the media, you want
(27:33):
to be and you're seeing thesenews stories constantly come up.
It's a case of just, you know,following up regularly with that
journalist, but trying to givethem a fresh angle each time.
Because if you're seeing thatthat story is getting out there,
and you're not commenting on it,but it's in your field of
expertise. And then you'reseeing, you know, another slant
(27:54):
and that story and another slot.
And these are sort of repeatedopportunities, then it's a case
that you've identified the rightjournalists, you just need to
build a relationship with them,you're not on their radar. So
tips I say to people is tryingto follow up with a journalist
sort of, if you've pitched astory, and they've not
responded, then but you'vereally identified it, that is
(28:15):
the journalist in your niche,then you know, pitch again, like
pitch a month later pitch twomonths later pitch three months
later, just keep pitching them,your name will keep appearing at
the top of their inbox. And theother thing you can do is I
really love saying thatInstagram is the world's biggest
Rolodex.
It's a free Rolodex. And what Imean by that, you can actually
(28:37):
voice note a journalist, if theyhave a public profile. So clever
strategy, I say to my studentsin picture press, is try multi
layered approach. Becauseactually, if you're not getting
through on the inbox, are thosejournalists on Twitter? Can you
tweet those journalists? Can youvoice it those journalists on
Instagram?
(28:59):
And some of them will listen,some of them won't. But it's
phenomenal when they listen. Andthen you start conversation, you
really stand out as someone whois ready to talk about their
expertise when you actually useyour voice to tell your story or
tell you not your story,necessarily, but a story.
Yeah, actually their attention.
That'syour boys are very powerful.
(29:19):
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And they canhear that you're real human.
It's more personal than email.
So try to follow up regularlywith the same journalist. And
also try multi layered approachthrough voice notice through
tweets, commenting theirstories, you know, on Instagram,
starting, you know, going toevents at their present art,
(29:41):
telling them that you love theirwork, telling them what you're
doing in your business that cansupport their work as a
journalist. Yeah, no, that'sreally really great. Like don't
hone in on the one avenue, youknow, and I love like, you're
not only kind of multithreadingthrough
The, the platforms and theformats but also Yeah, through
(30:03):
like multimedia, you're doing itthrough audio, are you doing it
through written word? You know?
What about video? Do you eversuggest people send journalists
a video of themselves pitchingor mostly just audio? And you
could do that you could do that.
Um, I mean, I've tended to domostly voice notes.
But you could do video if youfeel comfortable on video. So,
(30:25):
you know, one of the things toto ask yourself as an
entrepreneur is, how do you liketo show up, right? Because if
you love showing up on video andyou're passionate on screen,
then your face will light up asyou tell your story idea. So you
want to you want to choose themethod in the way that you best
shine. But you also want to laythat with where you think the
(30:46):
germs is hanging out most? Yep.
And sometimes it's the case thattheir inboxes are so full. They
don't they're not reading alltheir emails. Yeah. How can you
fly over that sea of pitches?
Right? And actually, that's,that's kind of what I've worked
out in pitch to practice. Right?
You know, I help students pitchcoldly and cut, you know, cold
pitches really well. But I alsobring in the journalists so they
can meet the journalist. Andthat helps them fast track.
(31:10):
Yeah. So it's finding thosedifferent ways touch points with
someone to connect with them.
Gosh, I have had so much fun inthis conversation. Where, where
can people find you online?
Oh, thank you, Erin. I've reallyenjoyed it as well. We've kind
of dived into quite a lot. Ilove the avocado. I'm exhausted.
(31:30):
We're just brilliant.
It's better than that one. A oneexample I've used before is pugs
as well. I seem to talk aboutpugs in my course. I don't know
why you think pugs are quitememorable. And people seem to
love when you use a pug as anexample.
(31:51):
Yeah, well, people can connectwith me on social media, at
startups and CO so sta R, T, ups and AMD CO and CO so you can
put that in the show notes thatI'm spelling it out renewable
button startups and CO and tellme connect with me, send me a
voice note, send me a message.
Tell me what you took away fromthis interview, I'd love to hear
(32:13):
your thoughts and tell me whoyou're going to pitch to next,
like use me to be anaccountability, accountability
buddy for you. Because, youknow, telling someone I want to
pitch that and actually doingit, you know, it's, you need
that kind of guidance andsupport. So I'm here for you to
message me on that. And thensecondly, if you want more
information on how you can getyour business into the media,
(32:35):
I've got a lovely resource atpitch depressed.com, which is a
sort of lovely three pagefreebie that teaches you the
step by step how you can getinto the media. So it's a really
nice sort of process flow. I'vehad people download it before,
and there's so many get likefour or five media features,
which is just incredible. AndI've used it myself actually to
(32:57):
pitch into magazines here in theUK. So
it's really lovely when I get anemail saying I downloaded this
resource and it really worked.
Yeah.
That's awesome. Thank you somuch for allowing, you know,
people to partner up with you asa countability. Partner, I'm
gonna do it, I get it pitchmyself. And for that free
(33:18):
resource, we will link to thatin the show notes as well. So we
always call out close out withthe same question. Which is, if
you could only listen to onemusic artists for the rest of
your life, who would it be? Oh,God.
That's a really hard one.
(33:39):
Think the one thatbecause I have different tastes
in music, very different tastesin music. So I love to listen to
a lot of EDM dance music.
But there's got to be time andplace for that. So I would go
just the thing, the music that Inever stopped enjoying listening
to is Ella Fitzgerald. So justold classics. You know, Frank
(34:04):
Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald.
That kind of Saturday morningmaking breakfast in the kitchen?
Making brunch music? Yeah.
Yeah. So yeah, that would be it.
Because I would get bored ofother type styles and music
afterwards. Like I love them.
There's got to be a moment forthem. But that this is sort of
(34:26):
passes France and art to anyfuture and I can never get bored
or so enjoy those. Yeah,exactly. Exactly. Great
question.
We love ever music heads overhere. So he's, and we created a
small business, big mindsetplaylist on Spotify. And so we
add everybody's selectionsthere. So you can kind of be
(34:47):
like, oh, and listen toplaylists or whatever every
other entrepreneurs listeningto.
That's such a great idea. It'sreally fun. So thank you so much
again for chatting with metoday.
I've had the April completeblast chatting with you and I've
learned so much and I know ourlisteners have to so, so
grateful. Thank you so much,Erin, thank you so much for
(35:10):
inviting me. I've absolutelyloved connecting with you and
having this beautifulconversation. And I hope so many
of your listeners get lots ofwins from it. So thank you.
Thanks for tuning in to theSmall Business Big mindset
podcast. To keep the fun going.
Check out our Facebook groupstart and scale an online
business For even more freetrainings and resources from
fellow entrepreneurs. If youhaven't already, head on over to
(35:30):
muscle creative.com and clicksubscribe and join our email
list for weekly updates. And ifyou've enjoyed this podcast
episode, check us out on yourfavorite podcast platform to
follow us and give us a review.
As always be authentic bringinginsane amount of value and keep
crushing it
Welcome to the Small Business Big mindset podcast,
where we dive into tacticalstrategies to grow your business
and make an impact on thisworld. A huge part of success is
keeping your mindset and visionon track. So this is a major
part of our process. And thispodcast, let's do this
(00:24):
welcome to the Small BusinessBig mindset podcast this week we
have Adela Hussain, founder ofstartups and Co. She is a master
of helping you pitch yourbusiness to people that don't
know you yet. Welcome at Dallas.
So excited to have you on theshow.
Thank you so much, Erin. It's apleasure to be here. Thank you.
I'm like, I need to know all theinformation you're gonna share.
(00:46):
So I'm like selfishly booked,you know, you're gonna help out
so many so many listeners today.
So let's jump right. And so tellus a little bit about yourself.
So your background and how yougot started? Oh, I love this
question. So I started off incorporate. So as a management
consultant, here in London,I only have you seen the movie
up in the air. Aaron, have youseen that George Clooney movie?
(01:10):
i It does ring a bell. But Idon't think I've seen the whole
thing. So tell me. So it's aboutGeorge Clooney and this
character where he goes aroundthe world firing people from
their jobs, like going todepartments like failing
departments. And that was mylife for seven years. Although I
didn't actually do the firing. Iwas a consultant who would come
in with a wheelie suitcase and ablack suit. And people would
(01:31):
dive into their cubicles and goWinter is coming, you know, and
the department was was failing.
And I would be there to identifythe processes that you would
keep going when the section ofthe department that no longer
needs to exist, which wouldinevitably lead to people being
fired. Soyeah, I started off in what was
called outsourcing in thetechnology sector, and then
ended up saying, like, I'm tiredof cutting costs, I want to be
(01:54):
in parts of companies that arebuilding things. So I ended up
in strategy consulting, where,you know, I'd help an airline
buy another airline, and itwould be like a merger, or an
acquisition, it was much moreexciting. And then I got
headhunted to work at Sky, whichwas huge, you know, amazing. I
mean, it's such an incrediblemedia company. And when I
(02:15):
joined, they just got theEuropean rights for Game of
Thrones. So I was like, soexcited to be working for this
huge media company acrossEurope. And I was in charge of
running a new department, wherea new company actually where
they were rolling out fiber inthe ground, which was a bit
techie, for telco. But yeah, Iwas doing that. And then I had
(02:37):
my business idea of to build afashion tech company. And I've
always wanted to be my ownentrepreneur, I think after
doing corporate consulting for,you know, 1718 years by that
point, I was just tired ofhelping other people grow their
own businesses.
(02:59):
And companies, I wanted to runmy own company. And I come from
a family of entrepreneurs. Sofor me, it was it was in my
blood. And I had a businessidea. I saw something that was
happening in the US withfashion. And I said, You know
what, I'm going to do it here inthe UK and roll it out to
Europe. And that's how I endedup in the world of
entrepreneurship. So yeah, Istarted rolling out my business,
(03:24):
my fashion company. And onething I was very good at in that
business, was getting it visiblefrom day one. So I hired
publicists to help me launch myproduct. And then I realized
that the journalists I wasworking with, actually preferred
hearing from me as a founder. SoI ended up firing publicists and
pitching my business myself tothe media. And I landed 14
(03:48):
publications in 12 months,including Harvard Business
Review. And it was very tinybusiness. I had, like, you know,
five staff, but it was just verysmall. And we were actually
working from my living room andall the stock was in my loft. It
was very grassroots, you know,but you just media made such a
huge impact. So yeah, it's aninteresting trajectory. Well,
(04:09):
and it's huge. So now, that'swhat you do, right? You help
other companiesget be visible and get into
these, these impactfulpublications. So I want to
really dive into that, becauseso many of us, myself included,
need help in that area, right.
It's like how my gosh, like, howdo you? How do you get these
(04:30):
guys to, to see you and I and Ihave heard people say, they're
looking for you. They need, youknow, companies to write about,
they need new ideas, you know,to to really flush out in these
articles, and they're trying tofind people so you're like,
Well, I'm right here. So it'slike, yeah, what do you you
know, how do you kind of helppeople get seen like when you're
(04:52):
working with people, like arethere like a few key things that
you kind of guide people on towork on it first, or how do you
work on it? Yeah,I love this great question. So
one of the so typically, when Ifirst start working with
entrepreneurs and my groupprogram pitch to press, they
often come in with the sort ofmindset that they're ambitious,
they want to grow theirbusiness. But there is that
(05:15):
slight hesitancy of Am I readyfor media yet, you know, am I
big enough yet. Andinterestingly, I always tell
them that in my background, as acorporate, one of the companies
I was transforming was SkySports News, and sky sport,
which is a 24 hour news channelin the sporting world. And I
used to sit there with all thejournalists every Monday is
(05:38):
something called the planningmeeting. And I discovered that
as a journalist, if you don'thave a pitch, or your story to
share with the big boss, on aMonday morning, at eight
o'clock, when that meeting ishappening, you didn't have a
job.
So actually, what's importantfor entrepreneurs to realize is
(06:03):
that journalists aren't justhelping you with your business,
you are helping them keep theirjob.
Because if you don't pitch yourstory, they don't have anything
to tell their boss on a Mondaymorning, that these are the
ideas I have. And these arethings that need to go in the
news channel, or the publicationor the blog, or whatever media
(06:25):
platform it is. So understandingthat you are keeping your
journalist, a journalist intheir job, or even a podcaster
or collaborator or entrepreneur,whoever you're pitching to show
so important to realize thatit's not just about you and your
business, it's about them.
So that's the first thing Iteach my students, and actually,
that often helps them with themindset piece, right? The second
(06:48):
thing I teach my students inpitcher press is whenever you
start pitching to anybody, youhave to lead with the story and
not your ego.
And what that means is don'tstart reaching out to a
journalist and saying, Hey,here's my business, I run this
amazing smoothie company got totry it is incredible. It's going
(07:10):
to change the world. Actually,leaders leader the story and
tell them, you know, I've beenfollowing you know, your your
column, I noticed that you'retalking about sustainability a
lot. Did you know that theavocado using I'm making this
up? By the way, did you knowthat avocados that are coming
(07:32):
out of Mexico is causing a lotof deforestation, and that is so
bad for the planet? Our company,what I do in my business is I
create smoothies fromsustainable, you know, avocados
that are more supportive, kinderto the environment. And I know
that you have been recentlywriting about the food industry,
and you've got a real passionfor sustainability. I saw you at
(07:54):
that, you know, eco warriorsconference last week. And I
think this might be of interest,not just you, but to your
readers. Would you like me totell you more? I've just got a
real I just made that pitch up.
But can you see how that isleading with the value there was
take your identifying to thatjournalist, you know, what were
you think, what their readersare going to enjoy reading, you
(08:15):
know, that they're talking aboutsustainability and environmental
issues and the column beingabsolutely targeted and
personalized in that pitch. So Ialways tell people leader story
and not your ego. Does that makesense? Oh, 100%. And I love that
because you've touched on somany things, right? It's like
you, you started off with like astory that they can kind of
(08:36):
visualize themselves in and takea stance. So they've already
invested in then you're like,oh, and I saw that you attended
this, you know, expo orconference, you know, so then
you're like, oh, okay, so thenyou're connecting with them on a
personal level, and they knowthat you've done their research
because you're right, I getpitched all the time. For
podcast guests and a, I preferit when it's from the person and
(08:58):
not from this like agency thatthey've hired to like, book, you
know, I'm like, Okay, here wego. And then be when they have
actually listened to mypodcasts, I can actually say,
Oh, I listened to the episodeand I learned XYZ or instead of
just saying I love your podcast,podcast, and I'm like, okay, you
know, but they, they, they drawme in because they're like, Oh,
(09:22):
I listen to this episode, or Isaw this, I saw that you posted
this, and I really appreciate itXYZ. You know, then I'm like,
okay, you've got you got myattention, you know, and so
yeah, 100% agree with all ofthat. I love that. You mentioned
that Aaron, from the you know,the receiving end of receiving
impersonal pitches becausethat's exactly what I teach. My
(09:42):
students as I pitch to press isto quote the person's work.
Because as a content creator,whether you're a journalist, a
podcaster, a blogger, aninfluencer, you're putting out
content regularly and the bestcompliment for you
is, and correct me if I'm wronghere. But the biggest compliment
(10:03):
for you is to be acknowledgedthat someone has listened to
your book or someone has readyour article. And you have to
give evidence for that. Right?
So I always tell my students inyour pitch, complement their
work and lead with a quote aswell. Yeah, I mean, you want to
feel like you're gonna tension.
But yeah, and if you want themto feel like you want to feel
(10:23):
like they want to be a part ofwhat you're building, and
there's value there, you don'twant to feel like, Oh, let me
get on this podcast, or let meget this article written about
me to check that box, you know,because then it's just not
valuable for anybody. So guess,yeah, you can tell immediately
when someone is approaching acollaboration in a very
(10:44):
transactional way. And it justdoesn't land really, people
don't like it, they want to beacknowledged, they want to be
heard and seen, you know,especially when today's digital
environment is so crowded.
But unfortunately, I would sayaround 80% 90% of pitches that
go out, are very impersonal. Soif you're doing the right
(11:07):
things, you actually stand outbeautifully. Right, exactly. So
what's next, like what you know,so what else do you kind of
suggest? So you're like, This ishow you approach them. Okay, so
then it's like, oh, my gosh,what if they respond?
Well, that's, that's really,really interesting. Yeah,
(11:27):
because the biggest thing I tellmy students, actually, the
hardest thing for them is to hitsend on a pitch, right?
And if you can hit send on apitch, then you've got over the
mindset issue. Yeah, at thatstage.
Often, what happens is mystudents, they hit send on a
pitch. And then and then theyget a response. And they're
(11:47):
almost shocked that they've gota response. So we had a student
last year, who joined my programin November in the current
cohort, and she had pitched ajournalist, before she joined my
program at Grassi magazine herein the UK, very popular magazine
is perfect for her work. And shepitched that journalist and
didn't hear anything back back,it was like the jazz had gone
(12:09):
into a sort of a black void, youknow, like out in the cosmos and
never heard anything back. Andthen she, she learned from me,
within the first week, shecrafted a pitches the way I
teach it, and then immediatelygot a response. She was just
like, Oh, my God, and it's thesame job. And to me, that was
beautiful control experiment,right? Same journalist, exactly
(12:30):
same work that she's pitching.
So the expertise hasn't changedis the actual how she's pitched
it. So once you hear hear aresponse, the key thing is not
to freeze, don't be a rabbit inthe headlights. So this is where
I support my students, where Ihelp them steer that opportunity
to fruition. So actually followup with a journalist, try and
(12:52):
get a call in the diary, oractually share with them have a
conversation around a story,because they're clearly
interested in the story. Ifthey've responded, that is the
biggest compliment. Yeah, theyget three, four or 5000 pitches
a day, they've responded, thatmeans they want the story. So
already feel confident about it,and then say, right, you know,
and kind of move theconversation on take, you know,
(13:14):
take the bull by the reins, andthen say, right.
Okay, so the journalist hassaid, Yeah, I am actually
interested in writing a storyabout, you know, I've got this
column, as you know, I aminterested in recovering this,
this is can you tell me more, sothen you respond back to that
journalist. And the best way toat that point, especially if
(13:37):
it's kind of a slightly nerdyjournalist who has a column,
journalists love data. So if youcan have Supplementary Data to
backup your points,with your story idea, that for
them is the icing on the cake,say to them, they know it's an
industry issue, or it'ssomething that is a trend, like
there's recent data about it.
(14:00):
And there's data abouteverything, right. So that
proves you know, your staff,that you've done your homework,
and that there's credible dataout there to back up your your
angle for your pitch. So, startthat conversation, feed them
some ideas, some stories, andthen see, you know, if you guide
(14:21):
that conversation, say Would youlike an interview? Should we
book an interview? And closethat conversation with when
would you like to speak?
Don't waffle on about yourbusiness? Remember, it's got to
be all about that story.
That's beautiful. Yes, itbecause it's like, your
messaging should be aboutsupporting them and their
(14:42):
audience and you know, and allof that. And I love that you say
about the data because for sure,like get specific, right?
Because it's like, if you'rejust like, you know, oh, I you
know, we make the best pies inAtlanta, you know, and it's just
like what you know, it's likeit's
So it's like, dive deep. Getthose statistics be very
(15:05):
specific about a drill down deepright as far as what you're
going to talk about. So you candifferentiate yourself, because
I bet you they've had hundredsof other people that they've
probably written about the samesubject, but like, what do you
bring to the table? And how areyou taking a kind of a unique
spin on it? Right? Yes, yeah,exactly. And the key thing is
(15:25):
actually, to be topical. So oneof the things I teach is be
topical. So the key question,you've got to ask yourself, when
you are in that conversation,when that journalist so we'll
take our avocado example, again,is why now, why should they feed
you now? So if it's a journalistwho's got this sustainability,
you know, environmental column,they could be writing about
(15:48):
electric cars, right? Like inthe UK, today, there was an
article about electric cars, theindustry is like slightly
broken, people can't chargetheir electric cars are getting
stranded on the highway. Sothat's a very relevant topic.
Because, you know, if peoplewere just struggling, so when
you pitch your story about your,you know, your avocado
(16:11):
smoothies, you know, that agreat for the planet, why should
they cover that story now.
And that's what you've got tokind of hook your story into
something that is happening inthe world. Yeah, give that lay
that argument down. This isrelevant now. So I'll give you a
beautiful example of it. So oneof my students last year, she in
(16:34):
my program,she's an incredible conflict
expert. So her name is KimColvin, and she's a former
charge divorce lawyer, and shehelps people find peaceful
solutions in conflict. And herwork is just simply incredible.
And I was supporting her, youknow, to get into the media when
coaching her as we do in theprogram. And there's so many
(16:55):
different ways for her to pitch.
But what was interesting, what Ihad noticed was that there was a
lot of family conflict happeningacross the US and UK, like, you
know, celebrity conflicts. Sothe story that was sort of
starting to break out was theHarry and Megan story and the
(17:17):
Phantom conflict in the royalfamily. And then I'd noticed
that Victoria Beckham wasstarting to, there was some
conflict between VictoriaBeckham and her daughter in law,
supposedly Nicole pelts.
But the thing that clinched itfor me was the week that I
suddenly thought, like, this isa time for Kim to go in to the
media, the British media is anexpert, was when the Queen of
(17:38):
Denmark stripped her grandsonsof their royal titles without
informing them.
family conflict, three bigexamples of family conflict. So
immediately when we had in ourprogram, we have a media
roundtable where we bringjournalists in, we pitched that
idea to the journalists, wesaid, there's been three major
Celebrity Family Feud, likeroyal feuds, Family Feud, you
(18:01):
know, there's a trend here ispeople are in conflict and their
families. And that's when thepitch landed. And the journalist
when she wrote the article said,mentioned those three examples
upfront, and said, and then Kimwas brought in as an expert to
talk about here are five waysto, you know, support yourself
during a family conflict.
(18:21):
Do you see what I mean? You hadto use jack on that topic. It
was a current, it wasn'tnecessarily trend. It was just
relevant right now, it wastopical, ya know, that? Oh, my
gosh, that's such a greatexample. And it's like, you want
to grab harness that momentum,right? And so you have to have,
you got to have a ready, man,it's like, you know, once those
(18:42):
things, you know, hit and thenit's too late. If by then you're
like, oh, I should, I shouldhave something about that, you
know, that it's like, you've gotto be prepped, you know, so
that, when that momentumhappens, and you're, you know,
always kind of being aware ofwhat's going on in the world
that relates to your area ofexpertise. And then and then no,
(19:02):
you know, kind of like how, youknow, before the Superbowl, like
those writers, they have a, theyhave an article for each of the
teams, you know, like, whoeverwins, it's like, we're ready,
you know, and so that, you know,you gotta have your stuff
prepped and ready to go. And Ilove how you coach people to, to
have a call to action at theend, you know, of their response
(19:24):
to the, to the journalist,right? Because that conversate
they're busy, right? And thatconversation can just, like kind
of fall to the wayside. Ifyou're not controlling the
narrative and you're not pushingit forward. So, I love that when
you're like, you know, don'tjust go on and on about your
business be like, what's goodfor you, you know, I'm Tuesday
and Wednesday, anytime frames inthere, you know, like, be
(19:45):
specific and really drive ithome. Absolutely. 100% Aaron,
and I think that you touched onsomething beautifully there
around, you know, be prepared,but be prepared means if you
know if you're an expertIn your your area of expertise,
you will already know how yousupport your clients. Right. So
Kim, I'm going to go back andtalk about her again, she knows
(20:08):
her world inside out, she cantalk about conflict all day
long. She's brilliant at it,supporting it.
What she needed at that momentwas just to hook it into the
media. And that actually takes acreative brainstorming, you
know, being able to identify howhow you serve people, how you
(20:29):
can tell that story, across akind of rolling news channel, a
new story that's happening inthe world. And, you know, the
way we do it in Postgres is wehave creative brainstorming
sessions, we're done lists, webring them in, who they're
looking for experts. And we sayto them, you know, each my
experts, my students roll theirsleeves up, and we brainstorm
(20:51):
together. And they're notactually pitching, they're
brainstorming. And there's nopressure in that environment.
And then sudden, we find thatpeople are getting in the media
very quickly, because ajournalist is actually want to
read a sea of cold pictures,they want to find good, credible
experts fast. And when they getto meet them on a zoom workshop,
over two hours, they get a senseof whether they're, you know,
strong experts or not. And I'mpretty qualified people. And
(21:14):
they normally are, but theyaren't good at what they do. But
the key thing is, finding thatangle, that's the thing, you can
find the angle, you've got thejournalist, you've got the
feature. And hopefully, thenyou're you're that go to write
for that journalists, like oncethey have you want, like,
hopefully it's like, oh, I gotjust the person, you know, who
(21:36):
can who can be, you know, our,our source or expert source on
this topic, you know, isn't thatthe dream? Like, you know,
you're just you're on that list,you know, or they're like,
immediately they reach out,they're reaching out to you.
Incredible, isn't funny, youshould mention that. That's
exactly what happened lastThursday. So journalists had
been in our program guested inDecember, and met all the
(21:57):
experts, and we werebrainstorming ideas. We were all
enjoying finding ideas,everyone's business. And then
she reached out to me last weekand said, I'm writing a media
article for the BBC, on Jacinda,harden, quitting as the New
Zealand Prime Minister,because she said in her kind of
resignation speech, I don't haveenough in the time to keep going
(22:19):
on with this role as primeminister. And this journalist
was writing about it. And shesaid, I remembered actually,
actually, what's happening isthe quality experts he had was
just phenomenal. Do you thinkyou've got anyone that could
quote on that story. Andimmediately, I've worked with
everyone in my program, who Ithought was a good fit. And
there were so privacy comes backto original point, not to be
(22:42):
scared of putting forward yourideas. And so after eight weeks,
within two hours, five of themhad sent a pitch to that
journalist. And then some theywere all running, it was it was
actually peak time at lunchtime,Eastern Time. They were all
poor.
running workshops, and thenthere's me rocks doing their
(23:03):
their kind of great game, BBCOne song quotes, you want to get
in quotes, and they're great.
But they you know, but the keypoint is, even though I'm
laughing, because it was like,you know, it's a tangent is
operate, they need stuff bots,because she genuinely did have a
two hour timeline to get to sendit to her editor at the BBC. So
she needed those quotes fast. Soit actually becomes a bit of a
(23:24):
race, like who can get theirquotes in the fastest. And
because these people, thesestudents were experts, they
already knew their stuff, theycould quote on that story. And
to up to two of us and thatstory.
And yeah, it's just two of us.
It was brilliant. That's soawesome. I know. It's it's the
end goal, right? It's like, andwhen you see it coming to
(23:47):
fruition, I mean, how exciting.
And so you mentioned Voxer, Iuse it as well. There, is there
anything else because I'm alwayslooking, helping our listeners
to like be like, Oh, if thisthis could make my life easier,
you know, is there any otherkind of like, tools or processes
that you use that you're like,can do my business without or or
(24:09):
personal life? Either way?
Yeah, and obvious question. So Imean, a little tip, where I
would say, I shall give you acouple of tips. I'm just
thinking, in terms of tools. Ithink lice ways of getting into
the media, if people are wantingto get want to get into media is
Eupenthat you can go to this there's
something called Harrow, Help aReporter Out, where you sign up,
(24:32):
and you get notifications whenreporters are looking for
experts. So they put out anotification through the system
and they say, oh, you know, I'vegot a journalist request. I'm
looking for someone who couldcomment on this story. And so
that can be a really nice, easyway to get into the media very
quickly. The key thing to noteabout that, is that you need to
(24:55):
respond quickly, because whatwhat
What's happened is a journalistdoesn't have any experts in
their network to comment on astory. So they're kind of at the
desperation point by puttingsomething out publicly, you
know, is there someone outthere. And so they want, it's
normally, you know, they will,they'll often get like 1000s and
1000s of responses to that. Andit's only the first person who
(25:17):
just tick the boxes for thatstory. So if you respond very
quickly, then you've got a highchance. And one of my clients
did that. She got into apublication. It's very hard,
actually in the UK, and she's apsychotherapist Kay Jane has
role and she, she responded to ajournalist.
And it was really interestingarticle about how people get
(25:39):
burnt out at the summer whenthey're trying to do too many
things. So there was theoverscheduled. And she responded
to the journal request, and wasfeatured very quickly. And that
was lovely, because then shecould then build a relationship
with the journalist futurefeatures. So you can also use
there's a hashtag on Twittercalled hashtag journey request,
and you can see all thoserequests coming through. That's
(26:01):
a really nice tip for people todo. Yeah, that's super helpful.
I didn't even heard about that.
That's really great. Yeah, okay.
Yeah. And yeah, the other thingyou can do as well, is also if
you know what your expert topicsare, what are the things that
you talk about your business,you can set up a Google alert,
as long as you're quite nichedon what that topic is, you can
(26:23):
set a Google alert for any newstories on that subject. And so
when a new story happens,immediately, you get that Google
alert. And then you can justquickly do some research and
then just start responding tojournalists. And saying, you
know, I saw the story out thereon this subject, and I've got an
(26:46):
idea for you on how you can movethe story on, because you never
want to be pitching for samestory, you want to be looking
for ways to move that story onto where it's actually going
next. Now, that's genius, youknow, kind of be like, Oh, I saw
this. And that's great. Butalso, you know, what about this
tangent, you know, of it, youknow, kind of like, you know,
(27:07):
expanding it? No, I love that.
And then let's talk real quicklyabout
what if they don't respond?
Right. So how often do youfollow up? Is there a specific
cadence that you recommend?
Yeah, I love this question.
Yeah, I mean, I would useit, it depends, really, because
if it's, if it's a very relevantsubject in the media, you want
(27:33):
to be and you're seeing thesenews stories constantly come up.
It's a case of just, you know,following up regularly with that
journalist, but trying to givethem a fresh angle each time.
Because if you're seeing thatthat story is getting out there,
and you're not commenting on it,but it's in your field of
expertise. And then you'reseeing, you know, another slant
(27:54):
and that story and another slot.
And these are sort of repeatedopportunities, then it's a case
that you've identified the rightjournalists, you just need to
build a relationship with them,you're not on their radar. So
tips I say to people is tryingto follow up with a journalist
sort of, if you've pitched astory, and they've not
responded, then but you'vereally identified it, that is
(28:15):
the journalist in your niche,then you know, pitch again, like
pitch a month later pitch twomonths later pitch three months
later, just keep pitching them,your name will keep appearing at
the top of their inbox. And theother thing you can do is I
really love saying thatInstagram is the world's biggest
Rolodex.
It's a free Rolodex. And what Imean by that, you can actually
(28:37):
voice note a journalist, if theyhave a public profile. So clever
strategy, I say to my studentsin picture press, is try multi
layered approach. Becauseactually, if you're not getting
through on the inbox, are thosejournalists on Twitter? Can you
tweet those journalists? Can youvoice it those journalists on
Instagram?
(28:59):
And some of them will listen,some of them won't. But it's
phenomenal when they listen. Andthen you start conversation, you
really stand out as someone whois ready to talk about their
expertise when you actually useyour voice to tell your story or
tell you not your story,necessarily, but a story.
Yeah, actually their attention.
That'syour boys are very powerful.
(29:19):
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And they canhear that you're real human.
It's more personal than email.
So try to follow up regularlywith the same journalist. And
also try multi layered approachthrough voice notice through
tweets, commenting theirstories, you know, on Instagram,
starting, you know, going toevents at their present art,
(29:41):
telling them that you love theirwork, telling them what you're
doing in your business that cansupport their work as a
journalist. Yeah, no, that'sreally really great. Like don't
hone in on the one avenue, youknow, and I love like, you're
not only kind of multithreadingthrough
The, the platforms and theformats but also Yeah, through
(30:03):
like multimedia, you're doing itthrough audio, are you doing it
through written word? You know?
What about video? Do you eversuggest people send journalists
a video of themselves pitchingor mostly just audio? And you
could do that you could do that.
Um, I mean, I've tended to domostly voice notes.
But you could do video if youfeel comfortable on video. So,
(30:25):
you know, one of the things toto ask yourself as an
entrepreneur is, how do you liketo show up, right? Because if
you love showing up on video andyou're passionate on screen,
then your face will light up asyou tell your story idea. So you
want to you want to choose themethod in the way that you best
shine. But you also want to laythat with where you think the
(30:46):
germs is hanging out most? Yep.
And sometimes it's the case thattheir inboxes are so full. They
don't they're not reading alltheir emails. Yeah. How can you
fly over that sea of pitches?
Right? And actually, that's,that's kind of what I've worked
out in pitch to practice. Right?
You know, I help students pitchcoldly and cut, you know, cold
pitches really well. But I alsobring in the journalists so they
can meet the journalist. Andthat helps them fast track.
(31:10):
Yeah. So it's finding thosedifferent ways touch points with
someone to connect with them.
Gosh, I have had so much fun inthis conversation. Where, where
can people find you online?
Oh, thank you, Erin. I've reallyenjoyed it as well. We've kind
of dived into quite a lot. Ilove the avocado. I'm exhausted.
(31:30):
We're just brilliant.
It's better than that one. A oneexample I've used before is pugs
as well. I seem to talk aboutpugs in my course. I don't know
why you think pugs are quitememorable. And people seem to
love when you use a pug as anexample.
(31:51):
Yeah, well, people can connectwith me on social media, at
startups and CO so sta R, T, ups and AMD CO and CO so you can
put that in the show notes thatI'm spelling it out renewable
button startups and CO and tellme connect with me, send me a
voice note, send me a message.
Tell me what you took away fromthis interview, I'd love to hear
(32:13):
your thoughts and tell me whoyou're going to pitch to next,
like use me to be anaccountability, accountability
buddy for you. Because, youknow, telling someone I want to
pitch that and actually doingit, you know, it's, you need
that kind of guidance andsupport. So I'm here for you to
message me on that. And thensecondly, if you want more
information on how you can getyour business into the media,
(32:35):
I've got a lovely resource atpitch depressed.com, which is a
sort of lovely three pagefreebie that teaches you the
step by step how you can getinto the media. So it's a really
nice sort of process flow. I'vehad people download it before,
and there's so many get likefour or five media features,
which is just incredible. AndI've used it myself actually to
(32:57):
pitch into magazines here in theUK. So
it's really lovely when I get anemail saying I downloaded this
resource and it really worked.
Yeah.
That's awesome. Thank you somuch for allowing, you know,
people to partner up with you asa countability. Partner, I'm
gonna do it, I get it pitchmyself. And for that free
(33:18):
resource, we will link to thatin the show notes as well. So we
always call out close out withthe same question. Which is, if
you could only listen to onemusic artists for the rest of
your life, who would it be? Oh,God.
That's a really hard one.
(33:39):
Think the one thatbecause I have different tastes
in music, very different tastesin music. So I love to listen to
a lot of EDM dance music.
But there's got to be time andplace for that. So I would go
just the thing, the music that Inever stopped enjoying listening
to is Ella Fitzgerald. So justold classics. You know, Frank
(34:04):
Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald.
That kind of Saturday morningmaking breakfast in the kitchen?
Making brunch music? Yeah.
Yeah. So yeah, that would be it.
Because I would get bored ofother type styles and music
afterwards. Like I love them.
There's got to be a moment forthem. But that this is sort of
(34:26):
passes France and art to anyfuture and I can never get bored
or so enjoy those. Yeah,exactly. Exactly. Great
question.
We love ever music heads overhere. So he's, and we created a
small business, big mindsetplaylist on Spotify. And so we
add everybody's selectionsthere. So you can kind of be
(34:47):
like, oh, and listen toplaylists or whatever every
other entrepreneurs listeningto.
That's such a great idea. It'sreally fun. So thank you so much
again for chatting with metoday.
I've had the April completeblast chatting with you and I've
learned so much and I know ourlisteners have to so, so
grateful. Thank you so much,Erin, thank you so much for
(35:10):
inviting me. I've absolutelyloved connecting with you and
having this beautifulconversation. And I hope so many
of your listeners get lots ofwins from it. So thank you.
Thanks for tuning in to theSmall Business Big mindset
podcast. To keep the fun going.
Check out our Facebook groupstart and scale an online
business For even more freetrainings and resources from
fellow entrepreneurs. If youhaven't already, head on over to
(35:30):
muscle creative.com and clicksubscribe and join our email
list for weekly updates. And ifyou've enjoyed this podcast
episode, check us out on yourfavorite podcast platform to
follow us and give us a review.
As always be authentic bringinginsane amount of value and keep
crushing it
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