May 20, 2024 • 38 mins
Unlock the transformative power of PR and learn how to navigate its shifting landscape in our latest conversation with Renee Warren of We Wild Women. Renee brings her PR prowess to the table, explaining that public relations magic isn't just for the industry giants—it's a vital tool for all levels of entrepreneurship. We untangle the importance of establishing a reputation, becoming an industry go-to expert, and the resilience needed in pitching your story. With the media world's constant evolution, our chat reveals key strategies for adapting and thriving, even as traditional publications wane and new opportunities arise.
As we celebrate the 260th episode of Elevate Media Podcast, guest Susie Moore drops in to share the rollercoaster ride of our PR journey and the highs and lows of the podcasting world. The PR landscape, much like our show, is an intricate mix of serendipity and strategy. From pitching to nurturing lasting industry relationships, Susie explores what it takes to grab and hold the media's attention. If you're looking for the sweet spot in timing your media pitches, you'll find some insider tips here that could make all the difference in catching that big break.
We wrap up this episode by diving into actionable PR strategies for the modern entrepreneur. I'll guide you through building your media list—free tools versus paid ones—and when it might be time to invest in your PR outreach. As pay-to-play models become more common, we weigh the ethical implications and how to navigate sponsored content. Plus, get ready to perfect your call to action and learn the storytelling art that will set your brand apart. Whether you're preparing to step into the spotlight or simply want to be ready when opportunity knocks, these insights will prime you for PR success.
This episode is NOT sponsored. Some product links are affiliate links, meaning we'll receive a small commission if you buy something.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Elevate Media Podcast with your
host, chris Anderson.
In this show, chris and hisguests will share their
knowledge and experience on howto go from zero to successful
entrepreneur.
They have built theirbusinesses from scratch and are
now ready to give back to thosewho are just starting.
Let's get ready to learn, growand elevate our businesses.
And now your host, chrisAnderson.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome back to another recording of the Elevate
Media Podcast.
I'm Chris Anderson, your host,and if you're like me when
you're starting out thinkingabout PR, you know what is PR.
Does it even matter for me?
You know, as a solopreneur andyou know when I started out and
a lot of you thinking the samething PR for the big dog.
You know they have the bigbudgets and funds to be seen and
(00:46):
what does that all entail?
So we're going to dive intothat today.
We have an award winningentrepreneur.
She's an angel investor andauthor speaker.
She's a founder of we WildWomen, which is a PR agency that
revolutionizes how female ledbusinesses shine in the media
spotlight.
So she's not just a leader,she's a visionary.
(01:09):
She innovates how women canachieve and get even bigger
visibility and success in theirmarketplace.
She also is a top-rated podcasthost of the podcast Into the
Wild and she's a top 1.5%globally listened to show.
So when I say that about thisshow, you will see now that we
(01:30):
are in a very great companybeing able to say that we've had
this guest on the show as well,who's doing amazing stuff.
So being into the same level isjust humbling for us.
She interviews successfulentrepreneurs all over the
country.
She's out of Canada, reneeWarren.
(01:50):
Welcome to the Elevate MediaPodcast today.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Chris, thanks for having me and correction on that
intro we actually made it tothe top 1%.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Okay, she's beating us.
No, that's good, but no, it'sjust.
It's awesome to see you knowand be connected with people who
are doing amazing things likeyou're doing and how you're
changing lives.
So congrats on that new step upin the now top 1%, which is
awesome.
So, everyone, you're going toexperience why here in a second
(02:20):
as we dive into this topic of PRand what that looks like here
in a second, as we dive intothis topic of PR and what that
looks like.
But, Renee, to kind of start,some of the listeners like when
I was starting out, what is PRexactly?
We might have an idea in ourmind, but what is it?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Yeah Well, first of all, it's shifted so much and I
can say that it's beeninteresting watching the journey
since 2012 was when I startedmy first agency and I worked
with funded technology startups,and so we did a lot of like
announcements and like launchesand funding announcements.
(02:57):
But I want to say that it usedto be much easier to get media
coverage back then, and Iwouldn't be lying if I said
otherwise.
Today it's so much harder andthere's many reasons why.
I'm going to go back to answeryour question in a moment.
But what's happened in theindustry is a lot of the big
publications have laid off a lotof their staff writers.
(03:18):
The way I describe it, it'skind of like an anthill, you
know, when you see these antsthat are just busy building
their home and then you kind ofsmush it and then, all of a
sudden, the ants kind of run allover the place and they're
freaking out.
That's kind of what happened inthe world of PR, especially
during kind of started duringthe pandemic, when my
(03:39):
perspective is that a lot ofpeople started to lose faith in
media because we started to seethere's something going on here
and I just don't believe what'sbeing said.
So it shifted how we do it.
But what is PR is really about?
Setting the standard in yourindustry.
It's about becoming the go-toexpert, the sought after thought
(04:02):
leader in your industry.
You talk about it a lot, you goon stages, you're on social
media ad nauseum.
Talking about the same thing iswhat I encourage my clients to
do, and then you become thatexpert so that it's easy for you
to pitch the media.
But also the media comes to youbecause you're the person that
has all the answers.
And so really it's aboutcreating a positive reputation
(04:27):
in the mind of your potentialcustomers or current customers
and the community, so that youbecome that trusted source.
And while there's sure there'sother ways of doing it, you
could run ads to a landing pageand get people to convert to a
sales call, or you can show upon social, which it's highly
recommended.
Getting mentioned and featuredin the media still has.
(04:51):
You still win so much morebecause of it.
Now here's the thing is, socialmedia is fleeting, but getting
a mention in a top publicationor getting on like morning
television or on other podcastshas staying power.
Podcast is another example ofthis.
Is what?
What platform allows you to sitfor 30 minutes talking about
(05:16):
all the things you're reallygood at in front of somebody
else's warmed up audience.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
We don't think of it that way, but there's no other
platform that allows you to dothat.
Podcasting authority at theauthority builder engine.
It's about three things beingrare, creating reputation and
(05:50):
extending that reach.
So really defining how it isthat you're different,
developing and maintaining thatreputation and then extending
that reach, and it's kind oflike this cycle that goes over
and over and over again.
Um and so I know that a lot ofyour listeners may have never
done pr before, or if they tried, they failed, they gave up too
soon, which is so common.
The reality is that anybody, atany stage, has the capability to
(06:14):
be able to do their own PR.
It's really not difficult.
It just becomes kind of mundaneand repetitive.
Becomes kind of mundane andrepetitive and it requires so
much creative thinking becauseyou're pitching the angles.
You're not just pitchingyourself.
You're drafting the angles.
You're pitching the stories towriters, to podcast hosts, you
(06:41):
name it.
But I think that it'sabsolutely the most massive
complement to anything you'redoing in marketing, and I
believe that PR is actually themother of all marketing.
Everything else sits underneathit, and why?
Because it is about buildingrelationships.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
So if someone's going out and they're you know,
they're starting their business,their agency, their, their
coaching, and they're trying tobuild these relationships and
maybe they don't have a lot ofsocial proof yet, what is a good
way to go about quote unquote,pitching as you're building
(07:16):
these relationships, how can youkind of bring some ammunition
to that to make a show that it'sworth those people's time?
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Well, I say, create that social proof.
So we all, we all havesomething within us.
It's called a story.
We have our reason why we'redoing something we might have
like a rags to riches story.
There's something that we'vedone in our lives.
I'm hoping that is really umentertaining.
So I have a client, elise.
She is a Salesforce salesinfluencer, which is a third
(07:49):
time in a row she's beennominated for this.
I want to say award, but it'sjust position and we use that as
the hook.
But how she started is herstory is how she went from
earning the same income levelfor 10 years in sales, going
through stress and anxiety,eating disorder, all these
things, just to maintain thatsales position at the top of her
(08:12):
company.
And while she was maintainingthat position her income never
grew and it caused so muchstrife in her life and her
family life to one day she justfigured it out.
She created this idea aboutcreating quantum leaps, about
taking quantum leaps and howmindset is the most important
(08:33):
thing in anything that we do.
And so she questioned herselfwhy is it that I'm still making
the same amount of money after adecade and I see other people
winning, and I'm not winningmoney after a decade, and I see
other people winning and I'm notwinning yet I'm still the top
of the leaderboard.
And so she realized that sheneeded to do this for herself
and not make somebody else rich.
She took the leap, she createdthis program.
(08:55):
She shifted her mindset andwithin six weeks she created, so
she ended up garnering herannual salary in a month, and
then from month to monthafterwards, she figured it out,
which is a a month, and thenfrom month to month afterwards.
So she figured it out, which isa cool story and I obviously
articulated better in a pitch.
But prior to that she didn'treally have all these awards or
recognition.
So we use that as the hook topitch media.
(09:17):
And then what happens is thatwhen you start getting on bigger
podcasts or more media mentions, your story shifts and changes.
So even though we've beenworking together now for six
months and we've kind of pitchedthat story that I just told you
multiple times, the fact thatyou just won again the
Salesforce influencer issomething now that we can pitch,
(09:37):
we use in a follow up.
So we pitch somebody you knowtwo weeks ago, four weeks ago.
We'll use that in the follow upsaying something like hey,
chris, since I last emailed you,this cool thing happened with
Elise, which is something maybeshe'd like to talk about on your
podcast and so anybody can doPR.
Anybody that doesn't even havethe awards or the recognition or
(09:59):
they have 200 followers onsocial media can do it.
It's just going to take longerand it's going to be harder.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
But you can't give up , because the people that have
250,000 followers on TikTok andInstagram and they have book
deals and they're getting paidto speak on big stages didn't
just wake up one day and thatwas there.
I mean, that would be the dream.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
These people started from 200 followers as well.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
And they stayed the course.
Perfect example would be myhusband, dan Martell.
When he started his YouTubechannel I don't know how many
years ago they were terriblevideos, but he showed up every
week for I think like eightyears.
Now he's posted a video and itgot better and better and better
.
And that's what you do.
You do this with your podcastepisodes as well.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Every single episode of mine that goes live the day
it goes live, I listen to itfrom start to finish and I look
for ways that I can improve thequestions, improve the way that
I show up, maybe look atdifferent guest opportunities,
how to promote the show I showup, maybe look at different
guests opportunities, how topromote the show.
And so I went from hovering inthat 1.5, the top 1.5%, forever
(11:14):
to finally breaking it to 1%.
And why?
Because we just kept showing upand tweaking and improving.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
And so the person who is intimidated by the whole PR
process because they don't havemuch of an audience.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Start working on that now.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Yeah, I can, yeah, I agree anymore because it's so
true.
And you know it's funny.
When I started my podcast, Itell people it's still there,
like the very first episodes,when it wasn't called the
Elevate Media Podcast because Ihad this whole other idea.
Like you can go back and seehow bad I was.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
But you had the courage to go out and you're
like I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, I was like, and you got to start, though,
because you'll never get towhere, like, I would have never
got to where I am now if Ididn't start.
And you know your husband, dan,he's been doing he like said
eight years I'm never going toget to the next level if I never
(12:11):
started.
So, like, you have tocontinually grow, innovate and
take the chance.
You know, send that email, sendthat message, connect with
those individuals Because, like,we're at that point now too,
where you know myself trying tobe on other podcasts and the
guests we bring on are and I tryto say this carefully like are
a different caliber, notnecessarily.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
They're more elevated .
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Yeah, they're more elevated yeah, they're longer
they've been in their journeylonger they've had a little bit
more success.
Because now we're trying to,you know, just increase the
value that we're bringing to ouraudience, like we're gonna add
that uh, next level where we'rehaving to do a little bit more
outreach and and connect andhaving that extended process of
(12:44):
you know know, either findingthe higher level guests or
finding shows for myself to beon, and it is.
It's a process just like thesales process.
You know, if you're going forbigger clients, bigger deals,
like it's, the process is goingto be a little bit longer
because you have to build thatrelationship first.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
And that's it, like I've been podcasting now.
On April 27th will be ourfourth birthday.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Awesome, that's awesome.
Congrats.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Yeah, and we just dropped episode 260 today with
Susie Moore, and there have beenmoments when I mean even last
night, while I couldn't sleepbecause there's so much going on
, I said maybe I can just, youknow, throw in the towel, maybe
I'll just shut down the podcast,because it takes a lot of time,
costs a lot of money and peoplethat don't podcast don't
(13:34):
understand what goes on in thebackground.
It's not like you just show uprecord something and you have a
million downloads.
There's a lot of work that goesinto it.
I knew this starting, though Iknew this was a long-term,
long-tail approach.
Lori Harder even says that shewas podcasting for four years
before she even figured it out,but also in that time she
(13:55):
started to become morerecognized.
She was in tandem, growing herfollowing, growing kind of what
it is that she she was focusingon, like she launched a new
product.
So it's similar like podcastingis similar to pr in that it
takes a lot of time and rightnow even I have clients that
(14:17):
I've been working with sincelike january so we're april, so
how many like three months.
I'm getting follow-ups now frompeople I pitched in january and
I'm telling you like our pitchesare the best.
They set industry standards.
And here's why because I know agood pitch.
You know a good pitch becauseyou probably received a ton for
(14:37):
being guests on your show.
Yeah, we also have on retainera notable journalist that has
bylines for top publications, soshe goes and reviews all of our
pitches before we send them forourselves, for our clients.
She said most of the time ourpitches are at least a nine out
of ten awesome, and so it's notthat the content isn't great.
(14:59):
Here's what happens with pr isit the right time, the right
place, the?
Is it the right time, the rightplace, the right person, the
right pitch?
There is a hands down, a lot ofluck that goes into PR, a lot
of luck.
And I'll tell you an example.
Back in the day we used to havea mattress company that was a
client of ours and their dreamwas to get into the consumer
(15:20):
reports season, where they talkabout all these mattresses Just
get us into Consumer Reports, ofwhich they publish their
mattress lineup once a year.
Pitched Consumer Reports, and Ipitched them on like a
Wednesday, okay, and the guyreplied he said oh my gosh, I'm
so sorry.
The deadline for mattresses wasyesterday.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I asked him if they could just squeeze us in.
He said no, they can't, butthey would have included my
client and I didn't know this.
It's not like the deadline isnecessarily public.
It was luck.
If I had pitched them 24 hoursbefore they would have been in
the magazine.
And I have some clients whereit took a year to get the media
(16:02):
coverage.
So they're like Renee, what areyou doing?
You know we're paying you thismoney.
What's happening, the way thatwe operate I mean, we can talk
about this too in detail, butyou get to see every single
pitch time stamped who wepitched when we followed up and
it takes three, four months forthings to actually start coming
(16:23):
back to you.
So here's another thing is wehave a client who's a celebrity
dog trainer and there was anopportunity for her to have a
quote in chewy, so like a reallygood blog for dog cats.
The problem is that she neededa special I guess credential in
order to be considered as anexpert in the publication.
(16:47):
So she needed to spend $500 andtake a weekend course to get
this little letter designationat the end of her name, although
she's been in the industry for12 years, has trained over
thousands of dogs, trainedcelebrity dogs and actually
trains out of the california dogpsychology clinic in california
, and so arguably she's more.
(17:11):
She has more designations thansomebody who takes a weekend
course.
Sure, and there's no workaround.
However, had she had thoseletters behind her name, she
would have been in Chewy, andsometimes we just don't know
these things until you actuallystart pitching the media, until
you receive those responses.
So all this not to discouragepeople.
(17:33):
I just kind of want to give youan idea and a sense of what it
is in the life of PR.
Absolutely idea and the sense ofwhat it is reality in the life
of pr absolutely, and knowinglike right time, place, person
pitch is the most importantthing.
So how do you know it's theright time?
Well, there's certain timesthat you're not to pitch really
depending on your product butfor, like, consultants and
coaches.
There's like two weeks in thesummertime, usually the end of
(17:55):
july into august, and thenthere's the three-ish weeks
around the holidays, likechristmas time okay, yeah, those
are just like dead times.
Yeah, but also know that a lotof these publications they need
their content three, four to sixmonths out okay, yeah, makes
sense so right now, you knowspringtime, summer, like we're
(18:19):
looking at stuff for the summer,it might be even a little bit
too late.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Wow yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
And so this is why you need to do a preloaded
marketing year in December, lookat your entire year and look at
all the things that you'repromoting throughout the year
and get a three month start oneverything.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Okay and so with that , so you know, maybe you find,
so you can, you know the time,or you're you got the three
month gap where you're preppingto to do all these connections,
these pitches, finding the rightperson.
You said, and I think that's areally important one.
I think sometimes, you know, Ifound this, you know, just when
(18:55):
we're doing like cold calls forfor clients cause we do do video
production and so we look herelocally as well, you know, if
you call the number that youfind online, a lot of those
times you're just getting likecustomer service and they don't
know anything aboutdecision-making.
So you have to make sure you're, you know, connecting and
(19:16):
LinkedIn is great for this A lotof times for us is finding the
right person, whether it be themarketing director, you know,
maybe even the content creatorfor the company and, you know,
following your attempts towardsthem, or even CEO, sometimes,
depending on the size of thebusiness.
But I think that's crucial too.
People sometimes overlook, theyjust kind of find the support
(19:37):
email and they just send it,hoping that it'll get to the
right person no, no, you got itenough yeah and this is probably
one of the harder parts of pris the way that we do.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
It is so without investing in really expensive
tools, which I don't encourageanybody to do from the beginning
, because there's a free way ofdoing this is simply write down
the top 10 publications thatwould be more the most
meaningful to you to have afeature or mention, and and I'm
and I'm talking like realisticif forbes is actually the thing
(20:09):
that's going to move the needlefor you, then put it on the list
.
But trade publications, smallerniche publications, can have
just as much weight.
So write those publications.
Then on one day you go in andyou search because they all have
search bars, is you searchkeywords that are your keywords
and you can see what otherwriters have written about in
the publication.
So say, all this Chris Andersonguy talks about PR for small
(20:33):
business and he doesn't have aPR agency.
Maybe I can pitch him a story.
So now you're building out amedia list of people that write
about your content.
Now you have to make sure thatthey've written about the
subject within the last sixmonths to a year.
If it's something from fiveyears ago, they've probably
moved on.
If they haven't publishedanything and then look for two
(20:56):
or three other people that alsowrite about similar topics from
that same publication.
Do the same thing for those 10publications and then start your
outreach.
And typically what you do forpodcasting if you want to go on
a podcast tour, you make thatlist, you pitch the show, you
follow up two weeks later youdon't hear anything back.
(21:18):
And you follow up four weekslater.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Now, with the media, it's a little bit different.
Now, unless you have somethingthat's really pressing, there's
a deadline for this.
You can follow up within 24 to48 hours.
If not, if it's just a genericstory, then you can follow up
within a week or two.
Gotcha.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Oh, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
No, that's the simplest way to start.
There's no fancy tools orthings you need to invest in.
It's a Google spreadsheetCreate your media list, find the
people.
And there's actually tools.
There's an affordable one.
It's called Signal Hire.
It's a LinkedIn extension.
(21:59):
It's the best one that we'vefound for the money, I think
it's like 25 or 30 bucks a monthand essentially, when you find
the contact, the writer, you gointo LinkedIn and find their
profile.
The Signal Hire button kind ofshows up on LinkedIn and you
click it and it reveals thecontact information.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Yeah, I'd say like 90% of the time it's accurate
emails.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
That's awesome.
That's a great tool to knowabout for sure, because you know
, like I said, that could be thehardest part Getting to the
right person, the gatekeeper,the individual who kind of makes
that call.
And so with that, I'm curious,do likeing podcasting as an
example?
I know some shows out there.
(22:44):
They charge you know X amountto be a guest on the show and we
do, you know, for, for peoplewho reach out to us just to
because we want to vet the onesthat are serious and it's a very
small, I mean, it's likenothing I feed my dog maybe from
it um, but like bigger onesthat are charging these bigger
fees are is that the same?
(23:07):
in publications do they chargeto have you.
Is that a way to, I guess,bypass some of the stuff?
Or is that not a way you wantto do it?
Speaker 3 (23:15):
so we're starting to see more and more pay to play in
PR because, I mean, the worldof PR has shifted so much these
publications and platforms needto monetize.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Right.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
It used to be where you'd get the eyeballs and the
advertising was enough for themto actually run the show, but
that's shifted so much, so nowthey do sponsored posts.
Back in the day,entrepreneurcom you used to
apply and you could become acontributor and that was me.
This was like back in 2013 iswhen I started, and I got kicked
(23:49):
off because now the only way tocontribute is if you invest
into their like platform.
Same thing with Forbes.
Forbes, to become a Forbescounsel, you need to have proven
a million dollars of revenue inyour business a year, and then
you have to pay I don't knowwhatever it is annually to
become a contributor, and you'llsee too.
(24:10):
There's some pay-to-play modelswith industry publications.
There's a dog magazine that Ipitched for my client and they
would allow us to contribute anarticle.
Get this.
We have to write the wholething, have it edited based on
their submission guidelines andpay $2,500 that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
It's like I was.
I was pitched to be like.
They reached out to me to be ontheir podcast and the guy has
like a million followers a month.
I mean, it's a legit show, atleast it looks like from the
outside.
I haven't done too muchresearch on it.
So I was like, oh, that couldbe a great opportunity there to
say, hey, yeah, we thought you'dbe great, we'd love for you to
apply, you would come out toColorado and record in person.
So there one.
(24:57):
Logistically.
I was like, oh, okay.
So then I had to startmeasuring the ROI of it, because
we're still building some stuffout as far as a course type
thing goes.
I was like, is it really?
The ROI won't be there rightnow.
It doesn't make sense.
But it kind of opened my eyesbecause that's the first time
I've ever had someone tell methat I had $5,000 to be on a
(25:19):
show.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Yeah, I see it.
I don't say a lot, but moreEntrepreneur on Fire does the
same thing.
It's not like they charge everyguest too, because, if you're
kind, of in the friend circle oryou're someone of influence,
you won't be charged, right.
(25:41):
But if they don't really knowwho you are, they want to make
sure that you have skin in thegame.
Sure, 100.
And so you invest, like someshows, they'll be like, hey, you
need 75 per episode.
It covers it, sure, so pay the75.
But if you're ever faced withthis opportunity to be on a show
or in the media and there's afee, you do the research and ask
the questions about, especiallywith show like what are the
download numbers?
(26:01):
What's the completion rate ofthe show, which is a really
important metric a lot of peopledon't talk about, which is
essentially not great, right, soyou can ask the question.
So if there's a milliondownloads and it has a high
(26:24):
completion rate, then it's apretty decent show.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Right.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
And you'll likely get good exposure.
Listen to some episodes.
Look at how they promote theepisodes as well, because
sometimes it's worth spendingthe money.
Yes, I did Dan's book launchfor and we went on the podcast
tour and there was, you know, ahandful of opportunities to pay
to play, and one was I think itwas like 10 000 because a person
(26:52):
didn't know who dan was at thismoment gotcha, and he asked me
what did I feel about theopportunity?
And I said I think you shoulddo it because this person is so
connected and if you can becomefriends with this person,
they'll make intros that nobodyelse would have access to.
Not only did that happen theinvestment was for one podcast
(27:13):
episode, but when they met, heended up liking him so much that
he did like an Instagram liveand put it on his newsletter and
made all these intros, which islike we couldn't predict that.
However, it worked out waybetter than we could have
imagined.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Yep, that's awesome and I think, yeah, you have to
definitely weigh the pros andcons and, like you said,
sometimes just being able to bein proximity with those caliber
you know, caliber of people, umis is huge, you know, and it's
like, after we got connected, Isaw your husband, so I connected
with him on Instagram.
(27:47):
So now I'm learning from bothof you and it's like the, you
know, the my, my circle is kindof growing on who I know, I mean
know of and I'm learning fromum, and that's just kind of the
start.
And now we've had aconversation and that's it.
Start to build relationshipsfrom there and you never know
where it could go.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
That's it.
Your network is the mostimportant thing.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Because they make intros.
I had a woman on my show, amberSpears.
She's amazing, she's anaffiliate guru, affiliate
marketing guru, and we had metin passing at an event and then
we connected on social and thenI wanted her on my on my show.
So after hanging out for anhour online, she's like Renee,
you're great, you really knowyour stuff.
(28:30):
She made a ton of intros andscored me a handful of clients
because of it and she didn'twant anything of it Like that's.
What she's here for is toconnect the right people.
But if you're not intentionallygoing out, networking and
meeting new people and providingvalue to other people, you'll
just stay at the exact sameposition forever.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Right, yeah, it's like the quote you can get
everything you want out of lifeby helping people get what they
want, right, exactly, and justadding value where you can and
um.
So it's exciting, it's crazy.
When you look back at yourjourney after renee you kind of
think the same thing is likewhere we started and we kind of
mentioned it, alluded to it alittle bit.
It's like who would everthought we would have got to
(29:12):
this point?
And then you get to this point.
You're like man, it's ups anddowns and it's crazy, but what's
ahead?
If you just stay with it,you're gonna be like interesting
when.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
So my friend chris smith says that you should never
want to conquer a mountain,because once you get to the top,
it's actually very deflating,because you always think what's
next right and not to look at itin a pessimistic perspective,
but if you just look at climbingthe mountain as a perpetual
journey, you have little summitswhich it's just a constant
(29:47):
drive to the top, 100%, and thetop is like the end of your life
.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Yeah, exactly, yeah Right.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
So you know, it's like these people that have
quote made it.
They got to this level 10 yearsago.
They couldn't have possiblyimagined being there and today
they're there.
But they're sitting there atthe peak of this little mountain
thinking what is next, andthere's almost nothing more
discouraging than getting to thetop and thinking it was going
(30:17):
to be a much bigger deal than itreally was.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
And asking yourself oh crap, what's next?
Like, I've done it, I'veachieved this thing.
Now what do I do?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
We have this pressure to actually create a bigger,
more audacious goal.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yes, love the journey , not the destination, right
Exactly, and just keepcontinuing to grow with it.
And that's the thing is, it's ajourney and again, you alluded
to it earlier.
You know the whole PR thing isa process.
It takes time, it takes effort,especially at the beginning,
when you're doing a lot of thework, when you can't afford
(30:52):
things or you know theseexpensive tools and programs
like what you do and your agencydoes, so, like you're going to
have to, you have to take thatjourney on your own and learn,
so you know, kind of kind oflike bring this whole thing to
an end cap.
If people are thinking about PR, they're thinking about
starting to pitch differentshows or different news
(31:14):
organizations, different TVshows.
How do they make sure they'reready?
You know it's one thing topitch them, but then if you
actually get those, you knowthose things that happen.
Are you ready for that?
What are the things they can beready for once they get those
opportunities?
Speaker 3 (31:41):
ready.
So what I mean by that is thatyou're putting yourself out
there because you want people totake action.
It could be listen to yourpodcast or buy from you.
Whatever it is, you want tomake sure that, whatever the
call to action is, that is ready.
So I'll give you an example ofa client.
She was publishing her book lastJune Great book Out of the
gates.
We got a lot of media coverage.
However, before we startedstarted, I was like what are you
(32:02):
actually selling on the backend of this?
And she's like oh, I don't havethat figured out yet.
I mean, you don't make moneyfrom an actual book, right, book
sales.
You don't make money unlessyou're selling millions of
copies.
You make money off thereputation you create from
having this book, off thepromotion, off the valuable
(32:22):
content you share on the inside.
That leads you to the back end,which is like a coaching
program or a product or of aservice, and so the readiness is
really about is all that ready?
And it's not going to beperfect, like, you don't have to
have the most perfect websiteor funnel, just make sure that
if you're saying hey, follow meon Instagram, you're actually
active on Instagram or subscribeto my YouTube channel.
(32:45):
Make sure you're actuallypublishing weekly content.
Easier said than done, don'tdrive people to a location
that's dead or is totallydisconnected from the message.
So when that's ready to go,think about your stories.
Typically, there's two stories.
There's a story of you and whyyou started your company or
doing the thing you're doing.
Then there's the actual productor service story.
(33:07):
There's nothing else that'ssignificant.
Those are your stories and yougo deep.
You have to ask yourself how areyou rare?
How are you different?
How are you different than theperson that's doing it the exact
same way as you, right?
How are you different than theperson that's doing it the exact
same way as you, right?
So we look at like carcompanies or restaurants and
there are so many of them.
Okay, maybe car companies, not,example, the restaurants.
(33:30):
Or like clothing brands Right,they just keep popping up.
There's new ones.
But how are?
How are they different?
And there are table stakes inthe industries.
Like you order food, it's gotto be good, it has to come out
quick, you have to have greatcustomer service.
There are table stakes.
And then the readiness is howcan you show up on podcasts?
(33:51):
How can you show up on TV.
Typically, what we do is we'llcreate about 20 to 30 interview
questions based on certainthemes that the podcast or the
media can ask, and what we do iswe have our clients go and
answer these questions.
So we will interview them onZoom for an hour and they will
(34:12):
go through and answer thesequestions and we'll help correct
them.
It's like media training weteach the people how to stop
saying like ums and ahs orrepetitive things.
They need to have frameworksand models to discuss, um, and
what else do they need for peerreadiness is they need to be
available.
(34:33):
I remember my one client, andrew.
We had this tech startup.
This was back in 2014.
We we always say what's yourdream list of media.
So he gave us like the top 10.
Right away we got them and so hewas announcing the funding.
He hired us to help himannounce his launch and his
funding round and the week thatwe were actively making this
(34:56):
announcement, he decided to goon a disconnected vacation and
didn't tell anybody.
And so while we were gettingthese wins, techcrunch, betakit,
wired were calling us up saying, hey, we want to get on the
phone with Andrew and I'm like Idon't know where he is, so now
it looks kind of stupid on us.
So the readiness and theavailability when you start
(35:18):
pitching podcasts, you probablywon't get too many yeses out of
the gates and then you'll havesome months where you have a lot
of recordings and some monthswhere you have nothing, and so
your availability is important.
Like I will record podcasts atfive o'clock in the morning if
I'm talking to somebody inAustralia, right, and that's
just a price you have to pay.
(35:40):
Yep Australia right and that'sjust a price you have to pay.
Yep, and I will interviewguests on my show at weird times
too, even though we have verystrict rules about when we can
record these episodes, so thatdoesn't cannibalize my time with
the family.
However, I realize there arecertain conversations that need
to be had different times, andthat's okay, yep, so
availability is huge too.
You can't, you don't need tohave a fancy media kit, but one
(36:02):
thing I do suggest, which makesit's kind of like a good
homework.
To start, if you go to mywebsite, my personal website,
reneewarrencom, forward slashpress, it's a press page and on
it you have pre-approved mediaimages.
You have links to a previouspodcast, you have questions to
(36:22):
ask me, links to my own podcastand a bunch of other stuff that
most people could use if they'regoing to have me as a guest on
their show or for the media, andit's not necessarily a public
link.
It's not something that peopleare constantly searching for, I
mean I wish.
However, it's great when we'repitching, or it's great when
we're filling out forms forshows.
(36:43):
It's like, hey, here's all theinformation that you need.
What it does, it's a forcingfunction for you to get
organized, to get updatedheadshots, updated bios, you
need a long bio, short bio, allthose things.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Yeah, I think those are all great tips and things to
think about, because, yeah, youcould I mean you could pitch
all day but then if you get themwhen you're not available and
you don't have everything set upand ready, it's like, uh, what
was what was all that for?
Like, what was the time you putinto it?
If you're not ready behind andI and I love the press kit uh,
something I need to work on forme personally um, on the website
(37:17):
, uh, because it's just sosimple on the website, uh,
because it's just so simple andyou know, we try to keep it
simple for our guests um, on theshow, and I think that just is
one way to keep it even simpleras having it one location like
that.
So, um, this has been fantastic, renee, I think it's.
It's such a, you know, um, Ijust remember starting out, pr
(37:39):
was just like oh, that's forlike again, like for huge
businesses.
So I think this is really makesit plausible for anybody, uh,
just from what you've said andshared with us today.
So I appreciate your candidnessand openness to do that and and
what you're doing out there.
So I would love for people toget connected with you, find out
more and if they're ready, youknow, utilize your guys'
services.
(37:59):
So where can people?
Obviously you know you toldabout the press and
ReneeWarrencom.
Is there anywhere else youwould like to direct people to
go check out and get connectedwith you?
(38:19):
Yeah they can go toWeWildWomencom and they can see
there's free resources and ourprograms there, as well as on
social.
I'm on Instagram most activelyRenee underscore Warren, awesome
.
So yeah, everyone, if you'reinterested, definitely get
connected with Renee and learnfrom her and utilize her
services, if it's somethingyou're ready for and could
benefit from.
So again, renee, thanks so muchfor being on the Elevate Media
podcast today.
Speaker 3 (38:35):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Thank you for listening to the Elevate Media
podcast.
Don't forget to subscribe andleave a review.
See you in the next episode.
Absolutely.
Welcome to the Elevate Media Podcast with your
host, chris Anderson.
In this show, chris and hisguests will share their
knowledge and experience on howto go from zero to successful
entrepreneur.
They have built theirbusinesses from scratch and are
now ready to give back to thosewho are just starting.
Let's get ready to learn, growand elevate our businesses.
And now your host, chrisAnderson.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome back to another recording of the Elevate
Media Podcast.
I'm Chris Anderson, your host,and if you're like me when
you're starting out thinkingabout PR, you know what is PR.
Does it even matter for me?
You know, as a solopreneur andyou know when I started out and
a lot of you thinking the samething PR for the big dog.
You know they have the bigbudgets and funds to be seen and
(00:46):
what does that all entail?
So we're going to dive intothat today.
We have an award winningentrepreneur.
She's an angel investor andauthor speaker.
She's a founder of we WildWomen, which is a PR agency that
revolutionizes how female ledbusinesses shine in the media
spotlight.
So she's not just a leader,she's a visionary.
(01:09):
She innovates how women canachieve and get even bigger
visibility and success in theirmarketplace.
She also is a top-rated podcasthost of the podcast Into the
Wild and she's a top 1.5%globally listened to show.
So when I say that about thisshow, you will see now that we
(01:30):
are in a very great companybeing able to say that we've had
this guest on the show as well,who's doing amazing stuff.
So being into the same level isjust humbling for us.
She interviews successfulentrepreneurs all over the
country.
She's out of Canada, reneeWarren.
(01:50):
Welcome to the Elevate MediaPodcast today.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Chris, thanks for having me and correction on that
intro we actually made it tothe top 1%.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Okay, she's beating us.
No, that's good, but no, it'sjust.
It's awesome to see you knowand be connected with people who
are doing amazing things likeyou're doing and how you're
changing lives.
So congrats on that new step upin the now top 1%, which is
awesome.
So, everyone, you're going toexperience why here in a second
(02:20):
as we dive into this topic of PRand what that looks like here
in a second, as we dive intothis topic of PR and what that
looks like.
But, Renee, to kind of start,some of the listeners like when
I was starting out, what is PRexactly?
We might have an idea in ourmind, but what is it?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Yeah Well, first of all, it's shifted so much and I
can say that it's beeninteresting watching the journey
since 2012 was when I startedmy first agency and I worked
with funded technology startups,and so we did a lot of like
announcements and like launchesand funding announcements.
(02:57):
But I want to say that it usedto be much easier to get media
coverage back then, and Iwouldn't be lying if I said
otherwise.
Today it's so much harder andthere's many reasons why.
I'm going to go back to answeryour question in a moment.
But what's happened in theindustry is a lot of the big
publications have laid off a lotof their staff writers.
(03:18):
The way I describe it, it'skind of like an anthill, you
know, when you see these antsthat are just busy building
their home and then you kind ofsmush it and then, all of a
sudden, the ants kind of run allover the place and they're
freaking out.
That's kind of what happened inthe world of PR, especially
during kind of started duringthe pandemic, when my
(03:39):
perspective is that a lot ofpeople started to lose faith in
media because we started to seethere's something going on here
and I just don't believe what'sbeing said.
So it shifted how we do it.
But what is PR is really about?
Setting the standard in yourindustry.
It's about becoming the go-toexpert, the sought after thought
(04:02):
leader in your industry.
You talk about it a lot, you goon stages, you're on social
media ad nauseum.
Talking about the same thing iswhat I encourage my clients to
do, and then you become thatexpert so that it's easy for you
to pitch the media.
But also the media comes to youbecause you're the person that
has all the answers.
And so really it's aboutcreating a positive reputation
(04:27):
in the mind of your potentialcustomers or current customers
and the community, so that youbecome that trusted source.
And while there's sure there'sother ways of doing it, you
could run ads to a landing pageand get people to convert to a
sales call, or you can show upon social, which it's highly
recommended.
Getting mentioned and featuredin the media still has.
(04:51):
You still win so much morebecause of it.
Now here's the thing is, socialmedia is fleeting, but getting
a mention in a top publicationor getting on like morning
television or on other podcastshas staying power.
Podcast is another example ofthis.
Is what?
What platform allows you to sitfor 30 minutes talking about
(05:16):
all the things you're reallygood at in front of somebody
else's warmed up audience.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
We don't think of it that way, but there's no other
platform that allows you to dothat.
Podcasting authority at theauthority builder engine.
It's about three things beingrare, creating reputation and
(05:50):
extending that reach.
So really defining how it isthat you're different,
developing and maintaining thatreputation and then extending
that reach, and it's kind oflike this cycle that goes over
and over and over again.
Um and so I know that a lot ofyour listeners may have never
done pr before, or if they tried, they failed, they gave up too
soon, which is so common.
The reality is that anybody, atany stage, has the capability to
(06:14):
be able to do their own PR.
It's really not difficult.
It just becomes kind of mundaneand repetitive.
Becomes kind of mundane andrepetitive and it requires so
much creative thinking becauseyou're pitching the angles.
You're not just pitchingyourself.
You're drafting the angles.
You're pitching the stories towriters, to podcast hosts, you
(06:41):
name it.
But I think that it'sabsolutely the most massive
complement to anything you'redoing in marketing, and I
believe that PR is actually themother of all marketing.
Everything else sits underneathit, and why?
Because it is about buildingrelationships.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
So if someone's going out and they're you know,
they're starting their business,their agency, their, their
coaching, and they're trying tobuild these relationships and
maybe they don't have a lot ofsocial proof yet, what is a good
way to go about quote unquote,pitching as you're building
(07:16):
these relationships, how can youkind of bring some ammunition
to that to make a show that it'sworth those people's time?
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Well, I say, create that social proof.
So we all, we all havesomething within us.
It's called a story.
We have our reason why we'redoing something we might have
like a rags to riches story.
There's something that we'vedone in our lives.
I'm hoping that is really umentertaining.
So I have a client, elise.
She is a Salesforce salesinfluencer, which is a third
(07:49):
time in a row she's beennominated for this.
I want to say award, but it'sjust position and we use that as
the hook.
But how she started is herstory is how she went from
earning the same income levelfor 10 years in sales, going
through stress and anxiety,eating disorder, all these
things, just to maintain thatsales position at the top of her
(08:12):
company.
And while she was maintainingthat position her income never
grew and it caused so muchstrife in her life and her
family life to one day she justfigured it out.
She created this idea aboutcreating quantum leaps, about
taking quantum leaps and howmindset is the most important
(08:33):
thing in anything that we do.
And so she questioned herselfwhy is it that I'm still making
the same amount of money after adecade and I see other people
winning, and I'm not winningmoney after a decade, and I see
other people winning and I'm notwinning yet I'm still the top
of the leaderboard.
And so she realized that sheneeded to do this for herself
and not make somebody else rich.
She took the leap, she createdthis program.
(08:55):
She shifted her mindset andwithin six weeks she created, so
she ended up garnering herannual salary in a month, and
then from month to monthafterwards, she figured it out,
which is a a month, and thenfrom month to month afterwards.
So she figured it out, which isa cool story and I obviously
articulated better in a pitch.
But prior to that she didn'treally have all these awards or
recognition.
So we use that as the hook topitch media.
(09:17):
And then what happens is thatwhen you start getting on bigger
podcasts or more media mentions, your story shifts and changes.
So even though we've beenworking together now for six
months and we've kind of pitchedthat story that I just told you
multiple times, the fact thatyou just won again the
Salesforce influencer issomething now that we can pitch,
(09:37):
we use in a follow up.
So we pitch somebody you knowtwo weeks ago, four weeks ago.
We'll use that in the follow upsaying something like hey,
chris, since I last emailed you,this cool thing happened with
Elise, which is something maybeshe'd like to talk about on your
podcast and so anybody can doPR.
Anybody that doesn't even havethe awards or the recognition or
(09:59):
they have 200 followers onsocial media can do it.
It's just going to take longerand it's going to be harder.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
But you can't give up , because the people that have
250,000 followers on TikTok andInstagram and they have book
deals and they're getting paidto speak on big stages didn't
just wake up one day and thatwas there.
I mean, that would be the dream.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
These people started from 200 followers as well.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
And they stayed the course.
Perfect example would be myhusband, dan Martell.
When he started his YouTubechannel I don't know how many
years ago they were terriblevideos, but he showed up every
week for I think like eightyears.
Now he's posted a video and itgot better and better and better
.
And that's what you do.
You do this with your podcastepisodes as well.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Every single episode of mine that goes live the day
it goes live, I listen to itfrom start to finish and I look
for ways that I can improve thequestions, improve the way that
I show up, maybe look atdifferent guest opportunities,
how to promote the show I showup, maybe look at different
guests opportunities, how topromote the show.
And so I went from hovering inthat 1.5, the top 1.5%, forever
(11:14):
to finally breaking it to 1%.
And why?
Because we just kept showing upand tweaking and improving.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
And so the person who is intimidated by the whole PR
process because they don't havemuch of an audience.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Start working on that now.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Yeah, I can, yeah, I agree anymore because it's so
true.
And you know it's funny.
When I started my podcast, Itell people it's still there,
like the very first episodes,when it wasn't called the
Elevate Media Podcast because Ihad this whole other idea.
Like you can go back and seehow bad I was.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
But you had the courage to go out and you're
like I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, I was like, and you got to start, though,
because you'll never get towhere, like, I would have never
got to where I am now if Ididn't start.
And you know your husband, dan,he's been doing he like said
eight years I'm never going toget to the next level if I never
(12:11):
started.
So, like, you have tocontinually grow, innovate and
take the chance.
You know, send that email, sendthat message, connect with
those individuals Because, like,we're at that point now too,
where you know myself trying tobe on other podcasts and the
guests we bring on are and I tryto say this carefully like are
a different caliber, notnecessarily.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
They're more elevated .
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Yeah, they're more elevated yeah, they're longer
they've been in their journeylonger they've had a little bit
more success.
Because now we're trying to,you know, just increase the
value that we're bringing to ouraudience, like we're gonna add
that uh, next level where we'rehaving to do a little bit more
outreach and and connect andhaving that extended process of
(12:44):
you know know, either findingthe higher level guests or
finding shows for myself to beon, and it is.
It's a process just like thesales process.
You know, if you're going forbigger clients, bigger deals,
like it's, the process is goingto be a little bit longer
because you have to build thatrelationship first.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
And that's it, like I've been podcasting now.
On April 27th will be ourfourth birthday.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Awesome, that's awesome.
Congrats.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Yeah, and we just dropped episode 260 today with
Susie Moore, and there have beenmoments when I mean even last
night, while I couldn't sleepbecause there's so much going on
, I said maybe I can just, youknow, throw in the towel, maybe
I'll just shut down the podcast,because it takes a lot of time,
costs a lot of money and peoplethat don't podcast don't
(13:34):
understand what goes on in thebackground.
It's not like you just show uprecord something and you have a
million downloads.
There's a lot of work that goesinto it.
I knew this starting, though Iknew this was a long-term,
long-tail approach.
Lori Harder even says that shewas podcasting for four years
before she even figured it out,but also in that time she
(13:55):
started to become morerecognized.
She was in tandem, growing herfollowing, growing kind of what
it is that she she was focusingon, like she launched a new
product.
So it's similar like podcastingis similar to pr in that it
takes a lot of time and rightnow even I have clients that
(14:17):
I've been working with sincelike january so we're april, so
how many like three months.
I'm getting follow-ups now frompeople I pitched in january and
I'm telling you like our pitchesare the best.
They set industry standards.
And here's why because I know agood pitch.
You know a good pitch becauseyou probably received a ton for
(14:37):
being guests on your show.
Yeah, we also have on retainera notable journalist that has
bylines for top publications, soshe goes and reviews all of our
pitches before we send them forourselves, for our clients.
She said most of the time ourpitches are at least a nine out
of ten awesome, and so it's notthat the content isn't great.
(14:59):
Here's what happens with pr isit the right time, the right
place, the?
Is it the right time, the rightplace, the right person, the
right pitch?
There is a hands down, a lot ofluck that goes into PR, a lot
of luck.
And I'll tell you an example.
Back in the day we used to havea mattress company that was a
client of ours and their dreamwas to get into the consumer
(15:20):
reports season, where they talkabout all these mattresses Just
get us into Consumer Reports, ofwhich they publish their
mattress lineup once a year.
Pitched Consumer Reports, and Ipitched them on like a
Wednesday, okay, and the guyreplied he said oh my gosh, I'm
so sorry.
The deadline for mattresses wasyesterday.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I asked him if they could just squeeze us in.
He said no, they can't, butthey would have included my
client and I didn't know this.
It's not like the deadline isnecessarily public.
It was luck.
If I had pitched them 24 hoursbefore they would have been in
the magazine.
And I have some clients whereit took a year to get the media
(16:02):
coverage.
So they're like Renee, what areyou doing?
You know we're paying you thismoney.
What's happening, the way thatwe operate I mean, we can talk
about this too in detail, butyou get to see every single
pitch time stamped who wepitched when we followed up and
it takes three, four months forthings to actually start coming
(16:23):
back to you.
So here's another thing is wehave a client who's a celebrity
dog trainer and there was anopportunity for her to have a
quote in chewy, so like a reallygood blog for dog cats.
The problem is that she neededa special I guess credential in
order to be considered as anexpert in the publication.
(16:47):
So she needed to spend $500 andtake a weekend course to get
this little letter designationat the end of her name, although
she's been in the industry for12 years, has trained over
thousands of dogs, trainedcelebrity dogs and actually
trains out of the california dogpsychology clinic in california
, and so arguably she's more.
(17:11):
She has more designations thansomebody who takes a weekend
course.
Sure, and there's no workaround.
However, had she had thoseletters behind her name, she
would have been in Chewy, andsometimes we just don't know
these things until you actuallystart pitching the media, until
you receive those responses.
So all this not to discouragepeople.
(17:33):
I just kind of want to give youan idea and a sense of what it
is in the life of PR.
Absolutely idea and the sense ofwhat it is reality in the life
of pr absolutely, and knowinglike right time, place, person
pitch is the most importantthing.
So how do you know it's theright time?
Well, there's certain timesthat you're not to pitch really
depending on your product butfor, like, consultants and
coaches.
There's like two weeks in thesummertime, usually the end of
(17:55):
july into august, and thenthere's the three-ish weeks
around the holidays, likechristmas time okay, yeah, those
are just like dead times.
Yeah, but also know that a lotof these publications they need
their content three, four to sixmonths out okay, yeah, makes
sense so right now, you knowspringtime, summer, like we're
(18:19):
looking at stuff for the summer,it might be even a little bit
too late.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Wow yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
And so this is why you need to do a preloaded
marketing year in December, lookat your entire year and look at
all the things that you'repromoting throughout the year
and get a three month start oneverything.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Okay and so with that , so you know, maybe you find,
so you can, you know the time,or you're you got the three
month gap where you're preppingto to do all these connections,
these pitches, finding the rightperson.
You said, and I think that's areally important one.
I think sometimes, you know, Ifound this, you know, just when
(18:55):
we're doing like cold calls forfor clients cause we do do video
production and so we look herelocally as well, you know, if
you call the number that youfind online, a lot of those
times you're just getting likecustomer service and they don't
know anything aboutdecision-making.
So you have to make sure you're, you know, connecting and
(19:16):
LinkedIn is great for this A lotof times for us is finding the
right person, whether it be themarketing director, you know,
maybe even the content creatorfor the company and, you know,
following your attempts towardsthem, or even CEO, sometimes,
depending on the size of thebusiness.
But I think that's crucial too.
People sometimes overlook, theyjust kind of find the support
(19:37):
email and they just send it,hoping that it'll get to the
right person no, no, you got itenough yeah and this is probably
one of the harder parts of pris the way that we do.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
It is so without investing in really expensive
tools, which I don't encourageanybody to do from the beginning
, because there's a free way ofdoing this is simply write down
the top 10 publications thatwould be more the most
meaningful to you to have afeature or mention, and and I'm
and I'm talking like realisticif forbes is actually the thing
(20:09):
that's going to move the needlefor you, then put it on the list
.
But trade publications, smallerniche publications, can have
just as much weight.
So write those publications.
Then on one day you go in andyou search because they all have
search bars, is you searchkeywords that are your keywords
and you can see what otherwriters have written about in
the publication.
So say, all this Chris Andersonguy talks about PR for small
(20:33):
business and he doesn't have aPR agency.
Maybe I can pitch him a story.
So now you're building out amedia list of people that write
about your content.
Now you have to make sure thatthey've written about the
subject within the last sixmonths to a year.
If it's something from fiveyears ago, they've probably
moved on.
If they haven't publishedanything and then look for two
(20:56):
or three other people that alsowrite about similar topics from
that same publication.
Do the same thing for those 10publications and then start your
outreach.
And typically what you do forpodcasting if you want to go on
a podcast tour, you make thatlist, you pitch the show, you
follow up two weeks later youdon't hear anything back.
(21:18):
And you follow up four weekslater.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Now, with the media, it's a little bit different.
Now, unless you have somethingthat's really pressing, there's
a deadline for this.
You can follow up within 24 to48 hours.
If not, if it's just a genericstory, then you can follow up
within a week or two.
Gotcha.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Oh, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
No, that's the simplest way to start.
There's no fancy tools orthings you need to invest in.
It's a Google spreadsheetCreate your media list, find the
people.
And there's actually tools.
There's an affordable one.
It's called Signal Hire.
It's a LinkedIn extension.
(21:59):
It's the best one that we'vefound for the money, I think
it's like 25 or 30 bucks a monthand essentially, when you find
the contact, the writer, you gointo LinkedIn and find their
profile.
The Signal Hire button kind ofshows up on LinkedIn and you
click it and it reveals thecontact information.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Yeah, I'd say like 90% of the time it's accurate
emails.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
That's awesome.
That's a great tool to knowabout for sure, because you know
, like I said, that could be thehardest part Getting to the
right person, the gatekeeper,the individual who kind of makes
that call.
And so with that, I'm curious,do likeing podcasting as an
example?
I know some shows out there.
(22:44):
They charge you know X amountto be a guest on the show and we
do, you know, for, for peoplewho reach out to us just to
because we want to vet the onesthat are serious and it's a very
small, I mean, it's likenothing I feed my dog maybe from
it um, but like bigger onesthat are charging these bigger
fees are is that the same?
(23:07):
in publications do they chargeto have you.
Is that a way to, I guess,bypass some of the stuff?
Or is that not a way you wantto do it?
Speaker 3 (23:15):
so we're starting to see more and more pay to play in
PR because, I mean, the worldof PR has shifted so much these
publications and platforms needto monetize.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Right.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
It used to be where you'd get the eyeballs and the
advertising was enough for themto actually run the show, but
that's shifted so much, so nowthey do sponsored posts.
Back in the day,entrepreneurcom you used to
apply and you could become acontributor and that was me.
This was like back in 2013 iswhen I started, and I got kicked
(23:49):
off because now the only way tocontribute is if you invest
into their like platform.
Same thing with Forbes.
Forbes, to become a Forbescounsel, you need to have proven
a million dollars of revenue inyour business a year, and then
you have to pay I don't knowwhatever it is annually to
become a contributor, and you'llsee too.
(24:10):
There's some pay-to-play modelswith industry publications.
There's a dog magazine that Ipitched for my client and they
would allow us to contribute anarticle.
Get this.
We have to write the wholething, have it edited based on
their submission guidelines andpay $2,500 that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
It's like I was.
I was pitched to be like.
They reached out to me to be ontheir podcast and the guy has
like a million followers a month.
I mean, it's a legit show, atleast it looks like from the
outside.
I haven't done too muchresearch on it.
So I was like, oh, that couldbe a great opportunity there to
say, hey, yeah, we thought you'dbe great, we'd love for you to
apply, you would come out toColorado and record in person.
So there one.
(24:57):
Logistically.
I was like, oh, okay.
So then I had to startmeasuring the ROI of it, because
we're still building some stuffout as far as a course type
thing goes.
I was like, is it really?
The ROI won't be there rightnow.
It doesn't make sense.
But it kind of opened my eyesbecause that's the first time
I've ever had someone tell methat I had $5,000 to be on a
(25:19):
show.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Yeah, I see it.
I don't say a lot, but moreEntrepreneur on Fire does the
same thing.
It's not like they charge everyguest too, because, if you're
kind, of in the friend circle oryou're someone of influence,
you won't be charged, right.
(25:41):
But if they don't really knowwho you are, they want to make
sure that you have skin in thegame.
Sure, 100.
And so you invest, like someshows, they'll be like, hey, you
need 75 per episode.
It covers it, sure, so pay the75.
But if you're ever faced withthis opportunity to be on a show
or in the media and there's afee, you do the research and ask
the questions about, especiallywith show like what are the
download numbers?
(26:01):
What's the completion rate ofthe show, which is a really
important metric a lot of peopledon't talk about, which is
essentially not great, right, soyou can ask the question.
So if there's a milliondownloads and it has a high
(26:24):
completion rate, then it's apretty decent show.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Right.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
And you'll likely get good exposure.
Listen to some episodes.
Look at how they promote theepisodes as well, because
sometimes it's worth spendingthe money.
Yes, I did Dan's book launchfor and we went on the podcast
tour and there was, you know, ahandful of opportunities to pay
to play, and one was I think itwas like 10 000 because a person
(26:52):
didn't know who dan was at thismoment gotcha, and he asked me
what did I feel about theopportunity?
And I said I think you shoulddo it because this person is so
connected and if you can becomefriends with this person,
they'll make intros that nobodyelse would have access to.
Not only did that happen theinvestment was for one podcast
(27:13):
episode, but when they met, heended up liking him so much that
he did like an Instagram liveand put it on his newsletter and
made all these intros, which islike we couldn't predict that.
However, it worked out waybetter than we could have
imagined.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Yep, that's awesome and I think, yeah, you have to
definitely weigh the pros andcons and, like you said,
sometimes just being able to bein proximity with those caliber
you know, caliber of people, umis is huge, you know, and it's
like, after we got connected, Isaw your husband, so I connected
with him on Instagram.
(27:47):
So now I'm learning from bothof you and it's like the, you
know, the my, my circle is kindof growing on who I know, I mean
know of and I'm learning fromum, and that's just kind of the
start.
And now we've had aconversation and that's it.
Start to build relationshipsfrom there and you never know
where it could go.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
That's it.
Your network is the mostimportant thing.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Because they make intros.
I had a woman on my show, amberSpears.
She's amazing, she's anaffiliate guru, affiliate
marketing guru, and we had metin passing at an event and then
we connected on social and thenI wanted her on my on my show.
So after hanging out for anhour online, she's like Renee,
you're great, you really knowyour stuff.
(28:30):
She made a ton of intros andscored me a handful of clients
because of it and she didn'twant anything of it Like that's.
What she's here for is toconnect the right people.
But if you're not intentionallygoing out, networking and
meeting new people and providingvalue to other people, you'll
just stay at the exact sameposition forever.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Right, yeah, it's like the quote you can get
everything you want out of lifeby helping people get what they
want, right, exactly, and justadding value where you can and
um.
So it's exciting, it's crazy.
When you look back at yourjourney after renee you kind of
think the same thing is likewhere we started and we kind of
mentioned it, alluded to it alittle bit.
It's like who would everthought we would have got to
(29:12):
this point?
And then you get to this point.
You're like man, it's ups anddowns and it's crazy, but what's
ahead?
If you just stay with it,you're gonna be like interesting
when.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
So my friend chris smith says that you should never
want to conquer a mountain,because once you get to the top,
it's actually very deflating,because you always think what's
next right and not to look at itin a pessimistic perspective,
but if you just look at climbingthe mountain as a perpetual
journey, you have little summitswhich it's just a constant
(29:47):
drive to the top, 100%, and thetop is like the end of your life
.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Yeah, exactly, yeah Right.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
So you know, it's like these people that have
quote made it.
They got to this level 10 yearsago.
They couldn't have possiblyimagined being there and today
they're there.
But they're sitting there atthe peak of this little mountain
thinking what is next, andthere's almost nothing more
discouraging than getting to thetop and thinking it was going
(30:17):
to be a much bigger deal than itreally was.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
And asking yourself oh crap, what's next?
Like, I've done it, I'veachieved this thing.
Now what do I do?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
We have this pressure to actually create a bigger,
more audacious goal.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yes, love the journey , not the destination, right
Exactly, and just keepcontinuing to grow with it.
And that's the thing is, it's ajourney and again, you alluded
to it earlier.
You know the whole PR thing isa process.
It takes time, it takes effort,especially at the beginning,
when you're doing a lot of thework, when you can't afford
(30:52):
things or you know theseexpensive tools and programs
like what you do and your agencydoes, so, like you're going to
have to, you have to take thatjourney on your own and learn,
so you know, kind of kind oflike bring this whole thing to
an end cap.
If people are thinking about PR, they're thinking about
starting to pitch differentshows or different news
(31:14):
organizations, different TVshows.
How do they make sure they'reready?
You know it's one thing topitch them, but then if you
actually get those, you knowthose things that happen.
Are you ready for that?
What are the things they can beready for once they get those
opportunities?
Speaker 3 (31:41):
ready.
So what I mean by that is thatyou're putting yourself out
there because you want people totake action.
It could be listen to yourpodcast or buy from you.
Whatever it is, you want tomake sure that, whatever the
call to action is, that is ready.
So I'll give you an example ofa client.
She was publishing her book lastJune Great book Out of the
gates.
We got a lot of media coverage.
However, before we startedstarted, I was like what are you
(32:02):
actually selling on the backend of this?
And she's like oh, I don't havethat figured out yet.
I mean, you don't make moneyfrom an actual book, right, book
sales.
You don't make money unlessyou're selling millions of
copies.
You make money off thereputation you create from
having this book, off thepromotion, off the valuable
(32:22):
content you share on the inside.
That leads you to the back end,which is like a coaching
program or a product or of aservice, and so the readiness is
really about is all that ready?
And it's not going to beperfect, like, you don't have to
have the most perfect websiteor funnel, just make sure that
if you're saying hey, follow meon Instagram, you're actually
active on Instagram or subscribeto my YouTube channel.
(32:45):
Make sure you're actuallypublishing weekly content.
Easier said than done, don'tdrive people to a location
that's dead or is totallydisconnected from the message.
So when that's ready to go,think about your stories.
Typically, there's two stories.
There's a story of you and whyyou started your company or
doing the thing you're doing.
Then there's the actual productor service story.
(33:07):
There's nothing else that'ssignificant.
Those are your stories and yougo deep.
You have to ask yourself how areyou rare?
How are you different?
How are you different than theperson that's doing it the exact
same way as you, right?
How are you different than theperson that's doing it the exact
same way as you, right?
So we look at like carcompanies or restaurants and
there are so many of them.
Okay, maybe car companies, not,example, the restaurants.
(33:30):
Or like clothing brands Right,they just keep popping up.
There's new ones.
But how are?
How are they different?
And there are table stakes inthe industries.
Like you order food, it's gotto be good, it has to come out
quick, you have to have greatcustomer service.
There are table stakes.
And then the readiness is howcan you show up on podcasts?
(33:51):
How can you show up on TV.
Typically, what we do is we'llcreate about 20 to 30 interview
questions based on certainthemes that the podcast or the
media can ask, and what we do iswe have our clients go and
answer these questions.
So we will interview them onZoom for an hour and they will
(34:12):
go through and answer thesequestions and we'll help correct
them.
It's like media training weteach the people how to stop
saying like ums and ahs orrepetitive things.
They need to have frameworksand models to discuss, um, and
what else do they need for peerreadiness is they need to be
available.
(34:33):
I remember my one client, andrew.
We had this tech startup.
This was back in 2014.
We we always say what's yourdream list of media.
So he gave us like the top 10.
Right away we got them and so hewas announcing the funding.
He hired us to help himannounce his launch and his
funding round and the week thatwe were actively making this
(34:56):
announcement, he decided to goon a disconnected vacation and
didn't tell anybody.
And so while we were gettingthese wins, techcrunch, betakit,
wired were calling us up saying, hey, we want to get on the
phone with Andrew and I'm like Idon't know where he is, so now
it looks kind of stupid on us.
So the readiness and theavailability when you start
(35:18):
pitching podcasts, you probablywon't get too many yeses out of
the gates and then you'll havesome months where you have a lot
of recordings and some monthswhere you have nothing, and so
your availability is important.
Like I will record podcasts atfive o'clock in the morning if
I'm talking to somebody inAustralia, right, and that's
just a price you have to pay.
(35:40):
Yep Australia right and that'sjust a price you have to pay.
Yep, and I will interviewguests on my show at weird times
too, even though we have verystrict rules about when we can
record these episodes, so thatdoesn't cannibalize my time with
the family.
However, I realize there arecertain conversations that need
to be had different times, andthat's okay, yep, so
availability is huge too.
You can't, you don't need tohave a fancy media kit, but one
(36:02):
thing I do suggest, which makesit's kind of like a good
homework.
To start, if you go to mywebsite, my personal website,
reneewarrencom, forward slashpress, it's a press page and on
it you have pre-approved mediaimages.
You have links to a previouspodcast, you have questions to
(36:22):
ask me, links to my own podcastand a bunch of other stuff that
most people could use if they'regoing to have me as a guest on
their show or for the media, andit's not necessarily a public
link.
It's not something that peopleare constantly searching for, I
mean I wish.
However, it's great when we'repitching, or it's great when
we're filling out forms forshows.
(36:43):
It's like, hey, here's all theinformation that you need.
What it does, it's a forcingfunction for you to get
organized, to get updatedheadshots, updated bios, you
need a long bio, short bio, allthose things.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Yeah, I think those are all great tips and things to
think about, because, yeah, youcould I mean you could pitch
all day but then if you get themwhen you're not available and
you don't have everything set upand ready, it's like, uh, what
was what was all that for?
Like, what was the time you putinto it?
If you're not ready behind andI and I love the press kit uh,
something I need to work on forme personally um, on the website
(37:17):
, uh, because it's just sosimple on the website, uh,
because it's just so simple andyou know, we try to keep it
simple for our guests um, on theshow, and I think that just is
one way to keep it even simpleras having it one location like
that.
So, um, this has been fantastic, renee, I think it's.
It's such a, you know, um, Ijust remember starting out, pr
(37:39):
was just like oh, that's forlike again, like for huge
businesses.
So I think this is really makesit plausible for anybody, uh,
just from what you've said andshared with us today.
So I appreciate your candidnessand openness to do that and and
what you're doing out there.
So I would love for people toget connected with you, find out
more and if they're ready, youknow, utilize your guys'
services.
(37:59):
So where can people?
Obviously you know you toldabout the press and
ReneeWarrencom.
Is there anywhere else youwould like to direct people to
go check out and get connectedwith you?
(38:19):
Yeah they can go toWeWildWomencom and they can see
there's free resources and ourprograms there, as well as on
social.
I'm on Instagram most activelyRenee underscore Warren, awesome
.
So yeah, everyone, if you'reinterested, definitely get
connected with Renee and learnfrom her and utilize her
services, if it's somethingyou're ready for and could
benefit from.
So again, renee, thanks so muchfor being on the Elevate Media
podcast today.
Speaker 3 (38:35):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Thank you for listening to the Elevate Media
podcast.
Don't forget to subscribe andleave a review.
See you in the next episode.
Absolutely.
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