July 2, 2024 • 28 mins
Ever wondered how a simple press release can transform a business? Join us as we sit down with Mickey Kennedy, the founder of eReleases, to uncover the secrets behind crafting compelling narratives that capture media attention and drive sales. From his humble beginnings waiting tables to mastering the art of storytelling at a telecom research startup, Mickey shares his journey and the evolution of his press release distribution business. Learn how he created a vast email database of journalists and why meaningful stories are the backbone of effective PR.
Discover the magic of a unique selling proposition (USP) and why it’s crucial for your business, especially if you're a startup. Mickey offers practical advice on how to identify your business's unique traits by engaging with customers and leveraging unique resources or services. For coaching businesses in particular, he emphasizes the importance of detailed case studies with data and client quotes to establish credibility and stand out in a competitive market. Mickey also discusses why reliance on price competition alone can be a dangerous strategy and how focusing on what makes you unique can attract both media and customers.
Unlock the secrets to writing a successful book and providing unique value in this insightful discussion. Mickey shares his experience with Perry Marshall's marketing book and how breaking down content into daily emails can foster engagement. He also reveals his philosophy of offering valuable PR secrets for free and how strategic press release efforts, such as conducting industry surveys, can significantly elevate a company's credibility and visibility. Don't miss out on Mickey's invaluable PR tips and his free masterclass at ereleases.com/plan.
if you enjoyed the show be sure to check out my info:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
So your boy got a little too excited and forgot to
have the guest introducehimself.
Mickey Kennedy was amazing.
We talked a lot about PR, lifeand different strategies.
I asked him about a couple ofsituations in my life, but
nothing crazy or outrageous,just honest to God, had a good
(00:21):
conversation.
I left it with a lot of goodknowledge on pr and how to
approach things.
So also, he's just a really funguy to listen to, so enjoy so,
um, I run uh e-releases.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It's a press release distribution business.
I started in october of 1998,so a little over 25 years.
Um, I finished my mfa uh, about27 years, and my original game
plan was to wait tables andwrite poetry.
And I did that for a summer andrealized that I don't know,
your back and knees hurt frombeing on concrete for 10 hours a
(00:58):
day, and so I just decided Ineed a safe office job and I got
hired by a telecom researchstartup in Washington DC and I
was employee number threebecause I had writing as a
background and an English degree.
They were like hey, write pressreleases for us and send them
out.
I did that a few times, got noreal pickup initially, but then
(01:19):
I started to figure out whatjournalists were looking for.
I was just publishing somepockets of our data and I
realized they wanted storiesbehind the data and so I'd flesh
those out and then talk aboutthose.
And those did start gettinglots of media pickup.
And I was faxing at the timeand I think over the next year
or so a lot of journalistsstarted to call and say in the
(01:41):
future, could you just emailthese to us?
And so I just thought, hey, Icould put together an email
database just contactingjournalists.
I spent a little over a yearreaching out to journalists and
just asking them if I could putthem in my database.
I was originally going to betechnology oriented, but what I
found is, as I talked tojournalists, they'd be like, oh,
my beat changed.
(02:02):
I no longer do technology orconsumer electronics, now I'm
sports or I'm business.
And so it's just like, ok, I'lljust keep record of everybody.
And and then when I launched inOctober of 98, I had about
10,000 journalists and I wasjust a matchmaker, you know,
getting clients and sendingtheir press releases to these
journalists, and we were havingpretty good success.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
That's interesting.
So just the evolution goingfrom you know the working as the
waiter, to the office job.
It's almost it's like a cliche,but it's almost like the
stereotypical.
Like you, you start off as awaiter but realize there's
greater things.
What, what about the pressrelease system?
Did you like the most?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I liked how, if you told a compelling story, you
could get lots of mediaattention.
So the startup that I worked atI mentioned, we published
telecom data and you know I waslike, oh, here's our most recent
telecom data for inbound andoutbound traffic to the US, for
Caribbean countries, and nothinghappened.
And I did notice that onecountry had way more traffic
(03:13):
than everybody else.
So I was like, ok, let'sexplore why.
And I found out it was thecenter of 1-900 numbers.
And so when I wrote a pressrelease about that and wrote
about the story and sent it out,we got picked up in the
Economist, Financial Times,washington Post, wall Street
Journal and three telecom tradepublications after you know
nothing before that.
And so I just felt like, wow,you know, this is really, you
(03:36):
know, really great.
It drove a lot of sales, drove alot of interest.
We started talking about, youknow, data being a predictor for
economic growth, like if youlooked at a country that was not
industrialized and all of asudden it started having growth.
If you looked back you couldkind of see it through telecom
growth three years before.
(03:56):
And so we published a releaseabout that and that got the
attention of hedge funds andinvestment firms, and all of a
sudden we were getting tons oforders from a whole new audience
that we never had and I justthought, you know why aren't
other people trying this?
And I just felt like I wantedto be out there and sort of help
people sort of, you know, gettheir messages out and get
(04:17):
access to the media.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
That's really cool.
I didn't know about thecorrelation between the phone
number and the sign of growth.
That's really cool.
I didn't know about thecorrelation between the, the
phone number, and the uh, thesign of growth.
That's really cool.
Um, the one thing you touchedon and you've hit it twice, and
I want to double down on it isthe story behind the press
release there.
There must be a formula to thatstory, though you can't just be
like my name is blank.
I grew up in kansas, blah blahright.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
So press releases are generally written in the third
person, their announcement, andit's sort of like top down,
what's the most important thing?
You want to make sure that theentire message answers the who,
what, when, where, how and why.
But at the end of the day, whatyou're announcing, you want to
make sure it's meaningful and itcan fulfill a story arc,
(05:01):
because journalists, even ifit's a small article, like to
have a story arc, and everybodyknows what a story arc is.
We've been telling storiessince we've been sitting around
campfires thousands of years ago.
It has a climax or it hassomething, and then it sort of
settles down and take thingsthat get announced through press
(05:25):
releases.
We get a lot of product launchpress releases and it's usually
like here's a new product thatwe're introducing, here's a list
of features, here's a page tolearn more, and boom, they send
it out and, of course, not muchusually happens because there's
not much there for a journalistto write a story about.
But if you were to talk aboutyour journey, what caused you to
create the product, that couldbe something you could put a use
(05:50):
case study in there.
Very few people releasesomething that they haven't had
people try out.
And so what was the experienceof someone?
This was a company that waslosing 12% a year and not
profitable, but they used yourlogistics solution.
It made them more efficient andall of a sudden, at the end of
(06:10):
the trial, they achieved a 9%profit rate, which is just
phenomenal.
And then you have a quote bythem.
And so a journalist looking tocover this would say oh, you
know, I have an audience, youknow, is this important enough
that they would either entertainor educate them, and ideally
both?
And they're like oh, you know,I have an audience, you know, is
this important enough that theywould either entertain or
educate them, and ideally both?
And they're like oh well, thisis an interesting product.
(06:31):
We've got a great little storythat illustrates its value.
Yeah, that would attract ajournalist.
And so so many people thinkabout it.
As we've got this product, wewant to sell more, so let's just
just list the product listfeatures.
But they don't think about theneeds of the journalist and and
the the need for there to beenough elements for them to
create a story yeah, no, that'svery true.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I, as I think about it, it's I don't personally read
a lot of press release, but thefew I have, it's it's usually
the, the compelling story whereit was like the underdog, ceo,
like I, just I couldn't find aproduct, so I made it myself and
it was just like, oh, wow, okay, cool thing yeah, I mean
personal stories and journeysare really important.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Um, I mean, there's a reason that everybody that
appears on Shark Tank usuallyopens with their personal story
where they're vulnerable orthey're sharing an obstacle or
what inspired them to create theproduct or the company, and the
reason for that is it reallyjust sort of immediately creates
a human interest element.
(07:36):
There's this immediate empathythat you feel for the other
person and it really helps tohumanize them and you know, that
story and that journey and thatarc is an important element to
a lot of people's success ingetting people interested in
them and interested in coveringthem.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah, so I'm just curious.
One thing that I've beenthinking about and I'm sure you
get this a lot with your pressreleases is the new ai startups.
How do you help them findpeople and correspondence for
like a press release, for a,let's say, uh, like a?
If you talk into this app,it'll transcribe what you say
and then give you an AI summary.
(08:15):
How would something like thatwork with your mechanics and
stuff?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
So I mean, if you're looking for us to write a
release, what we try to do focuson is you know what is unique
about your product or service,what's your story of creating
the company and what's yourunique selling proposition.
What do you do that's differentthan everybody else in the
marketplace?
What you talked about using AIto transcribe it I think I know
(08:42):
of like 14, 16 companies outthere that do it, and I've used
one with Zoom for, I think,almost two, three years and it's
done a great job.
So I would think, if you'reediting that marketplace with AI
based on what you described,they're not doing anything new
and I don't think a journalistwould be attracted to it.
But if there was an elementthat they were doing something
(09:04):
different or they had their owndifferent spin on it, is that
spin important enough tointerest an audience that
journalists represent?
Speaker 1 (09:16):
That's a really good answer actually, thank you.
Yeah, there's a friend of mine.
He's working on something likethat and I keep telling him I'm
like you're unique, but I can'texplain why you're unique, kind
of thing.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, that's really important and you know it's
really.
If you're a startup and yousort of realize that you're very
similar to a lot of things,that's your moment to sit there
and say what could we do toenhance this product or tweak it
or a slight pivot to make itmuch more unique.
(09:48):
And really the best thing to dois talk to people, talk to
people who use products likethat and say, have you tried
this product?
And some people will say, yeah,but it doesn't do this.
Or I would love a product thatwould just do X, y and Z.
And if you get a few peoplesaying the same thing, you can
potentially say that could be adirection that we could consider
(10:11):
.
And I do think that you know Ideal with people all the time
who, when I ask them what'sunique about their business or
what do they do, they often sayI'm just a commodity business,
I'm just located in the Chicagoarea but I'll ship anywhere.
But there's literally 60companies across the US that do
the same exact thing, sellingthe same exact widget, and I'm
(10:32):
like whoa, you are in a badbusiness, because the only way
if you are selling a commodityand you're selling it the same
way, with no distinction fromeverybody else.
The only thing you're competingon is maybe proximity, the
belief that being closer willget it to them better.
But he said I can order it fromany warehouse anywhere, so the
(10:53):
delivery is the same for anybody.
You're only competing on price,and that's a terrible thing
because eventually it will driveprices down to the point that
you're just making razor thinmargins.
I've also had conversations withpeople who said that.
And then they're like well, youknow, we really do great
onboarding.
And I said tell me more, tellme more.
(11:13):
And they're like oh well, wehave a library of like 600 hours
worth of videos that you can goin and do a search for doing
any action with this verycomplex CRM.
And it's there and they canimmediately implement it.
And I'm like OK, how hard wouldit be your competitor to create
that?
(11:33):
He goes well, there are somecompetitors that have soft
videos that they add every oncein a while, but they've got like
12 hours and we've got hundredsof hours.
And I'm like okay, it seemslike it would be very hard for
someone to create hundreds ofhours to compete against you.
That is your unique sellingproposition.
And they said oh, we don't tellpeople about it until after
they bought.
And I said that's stupid,because if I'm looking at two
(11:56):
companies that are basically acommodity and price is a
consideration, I'm going to justgo with the cheapest and then
find out.
Luckily, maybe you have thisgreat onboarding library and
resource that anytime someone'sstuck using the CRM, they can go
(12:21):
to a video that they can easilysearch and be able to implement
it.
I said do you know how manypeople buy CRMs and then are
just devastated that they spendtens of thousands of dollars on
consultants because they can'tfigure out how to do these
little intricate actions andthings like that?
I said this is your uniqueselling proposition and so, yeah
(12:45):
, you have to be able to createsomething that is unique and
really defines you differently,and there's lots of different
ways to do it.
I mean, there's some companiesthat Amazon started competing on
how quick they can get it toyou, and then you know other
little things as well, buteverybody has sort of something
that they do a little bitdifferent than everybody else,
(13:07):
and you just have to figure outwhat that is for you.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
So what would be some of the steps to figure that out
?
Let's say it's hypothetical,like a coaching business that,
like a lot of people, especiallyduring COVID, want to be a
coach.
So what could someone offerthat's unique, that no one else
could offer?
Is it like a one on one,consulting, a deep analysis of
your business, kind of thing?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I think for a coach it is who you are and kind of
what your track record is.
Who you are and kind of whatyour track record is, and so you
know.
I don't think people are goingto go and say, based on the
number of people I've consulted,x amount have grown.
But I think that having casestudies I don't think
testimonials is enough, buthaving case studies where you
(13:52):
include quotes from the personbut you also show you know
numbers, like include quotesfrom the person but you also
show you know numbers, like Iprovided coaching to this person
.
This was their obstacle, youknow, and this was the outcome.
And ideally people like numbersand data if they can get that
in there and then having anamazing quote by them and that
(14:15):
you know really shows value.
You want to go beyond atestimonial because, I'll be
honest, a lot of people havetestimonial fatigue and uh, it,
it, it doesn't, you know it's.
It's so easy to just sort ofget friends and family to build
testimonials.
I think it's what people thinkand uh, it, it, it, it.
It's harder to get that actualdata and uh, and get those
(14:38):
numbers and build something outto really show an actual case
study.
But I think that having somesolid case studies, you know,
maybe having a book that's donereally well in the marketplace,
you know, those are things thatposition you as a thought leader
, give you credibility, boostyou.
But, that being said, you couldalso not have a book at this
(15:05):
point but still have articlesthat have been written about you
, or you've written articlesyourselves and submitted them to
, like, say, the HarvardBusiness Review or other places
that really give people comfortthat this person is legitimate
and you know they're recognizedin the industry that's
interesting.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
You mentioned the book idea.
It's one thing I've beenhumoring is writing like a
business book.
But I was like there seems tobe a lot of traffic, a lot of
people doing it, especially withlike russell brunson's like
write a book and you get clients, kind of thing.
Um, it seems very salesy andpitchy and I don't like reading
the books.
So what I did when I was doingsecurity work, I helped a
(15:46):
logistics company improve theirmorale and the productivity went
from, let's say, 100,000products to almost a million
products a day and injury ratewas plummeted.
And I don't know how toreference that into a book.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
So I think that you kind of have to, if you're going
to write a book, positionyourself different from all the
other books out there in themarketplace and I think you know
, show a distinct point of view.
You know you're addingsomething and you're not just
(16:26):
sort of building on what'salready out there.
I mean, you can build onsomething and grow from it, but
I think the people who do arethe least successful are those
that sort of just you know, getbasic information spit out
through either AI or aghostwriter and they're really
not writing about something thatis completely different than
(16:48):
everybody else has ever talkedabout in the marketplace.
What's your edge, what's yourlittle thing?
And so I wouldn't recommendpeople writing a book unless
they have that.
Or maybe you just kick the cana little bit until you figure
that out what your little edgeis.
But I do think that books dowork.
You just kick the can a littlebit until you figure that out
what your little edge is, um,but you know, I do think that
(17:08):
books uh do work.
Um, they add a lot oflegitimacy.
Um, you know they can beself-published, uh, you know.
But you do want to make surethat you uh are uh, giving
something of high value, and Ithink one of the you know, the
easiest ways to look at it arelook at books that have mattered
and have generated, you know,many, many hundreds or if not
(17:31):
thousands of Amazon reviews.
They usually have a hook,something that is sort of like
overarching theme, but then theyget in there and they give you
solid anecdotes, they give yousolid information.
You know, a long time ago,because I started this business
(17:53):
as a poet, I didn't have a lotof marketing experience, so I
bought a marketing book online.
It was about teaching me how todo AdWords and it was with
Perry Marshall and I bought thebook.
And then he also had an upsellfor the audio book.
It was just an MP3.
It wasn't through Audible oranything at the time and so I
(18:16):
did that and I meant to listento it, I meant to read the book.
And then I started getting thisautoresponder where each day he
was feeding me little gems andI'm like God, this guy's so
smart.
And then he's like after Ilearned so much through the
emails, the daily drip of emails, I did a meeting with him where
(18:43):
I went to his house with threeother people for two days and
for half a day he looked at mybusiness, dissected it and we
addressed AdWords, but I wouldsay 95% of it was just
addressing my business, like youneed to improve this landing
page, you need to do this, allof these things.
And my head was just swimming.
And then he's like, oh, I alsohave a marketing mastermind of,
like you know, 14 to 16 peoplethat we meet three times a year.
(19:05):
And I was like, yeah, I joinedthat.
I got so much out of this wholeexperience.
And then later he told me.
He said I said I am kind ofembarrassed but I keep feeling
like I have to go back andeither read your book or listen
to your audio book.
But and he goes.
Let me guess he goes.
You got my emails and thenthat's what got you into action
(19:28):
and you learned a lot.
And I said, yeah, he goes.
My emails are the book he sayspeople don't read.
They're not.
A book is intimidating.
Very few, a lot of people buyit intending to do it.
Very few people read it and hegoes.
So I just give people the bookbroken down in autoresponder
series.
He goes, you can get all myautoresponder series.
Never even buy the book, andyou'll learn the same thing
(19:50):
that's in the book.
And he's just like and he goes.
And then there are people whothen will get everything and he
goes.
A natural progression is invideo Do a bunch of videos, give
it.
Give the book away for free.
And he says people will watchthe videos and then go still buy
the book.
Give the book away for free.
And he says people will watchthe videos and then go still buy
the book.
And he says and then they'llstill want to work with you.
(20:10):
They're like I learned all this, I want someone else to
implement it.
And he says he goes, I give allmy secrets away.
He goes, I don't lock them away.
And then once you pay a big fee, he goes I give it all away
freely.
And he goes.
And some people just you knowthey're not going to read the
book.
Some people aren't going tolisten to the audiobook.
Some people will read theautoresponders because it's like
(20:30):
it's a very small commitment.
Each day you get a little emailwith such a strong nugget and I
do imagine that it's a bridge.
Well, yeah, that it is a bridge, that it's not the exact
literal book, but he's condensedit, and then from there they go
on and do other things with him.
But he says he's got somepeople that then want to say
(20:53):
I've read all this but I don'twant to actually implement it in
my business.
I want to just hire someone.
So at the time he was workingwith someone, he would just pass
you along to them.
And so I think that you knowthat speaks to the value of what
you have to communicate.
So I think that you know thatspeaks to the value of what you
have to communicate.
I've read books from expertswhere I felt like they were
(21:13):
holding on to all of the valueand they were just giving you
anecdotes of people they'vehelped and principles, but no
real tools, no real resources,no real actionable tips, and you
know that works for some people.
But you know, for me I give allmy stuff away.
I mean I have a freemasterclass on my website at
ereleasescom slash plan P-L-A-N,where I have an hour-long video
(21:37):
masterclass for free.
I give people the best secretsin PR, the types of press
releases that work in and out,and I've had so many people say
I don't get it.
Why do you give this away?
I'm like if you learn how to doamazing releases, you're going
to do them.
They're going to work andyou're going to keep at it, and
so that's my goal, and I want toget my customers to do better,
(22:00):
more strategic releases and havemore wins, and I think that,
going back to coaching, I thinkthat if you're going to write a
book, I think it has to haveactionable things that can make
a difference in someone's lifeand for a lot of people there,
you know there is a hook, thereis something that is very
meaningful, that they found apattern with many people that
(22:21):
they've coached, and in thatpattern it is this and this is
how they want to approach it.
Maybe it's a metaphor orsomething like that, and I think
that's kind of how a book sortof coalesces from you know,
becoming an idea that you canthen start to implement and
start to build out.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
So it sounds very similar to a press release.
You have to think of the book,the unique proposition, the
angles, how to.
Yeah, you could use, like,let's say, you use Jordan
Peterson style of explaining,although that's very long at
times, but more elegant and longand poetic, but then you're
maybe more blunt like DavidGoggins.
So that's interesting thecorrelation between the best
(23:05):
release style and reading thebook.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
And I think some of the best content does both.
And especially, you know, ifyou're in business and you're
(23:29):
doing a book, you know in abusiness book you definitely
want to focus more on theeducation and the entertainment.
But you can't ignore that,because if you're just all facts
and tips it can be kind of dry.
And I think that's wheresometimes putting anecdotes
making it personable so you cankind of envision things and
stuff like that, uh, I thinkthat that, uh, that can make a
huge difference oh, 100, I agree.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Um, I'm reading bruce lipton's the biology of belief,
and the first, like fewchapters, were great.
He was explaining his backstoryand then, as he's going into
the mechanics, I'm like, oh god,this is the driest lecture I've
ever heard.
Oh my, I don't know if I'mgoing to get through this in
time.
Right, is there anything inparticular I might have missed
(24:12):
that you want to talk about?
Speaker 2 (24:15):
I guess the big thing is that when you do press
releases, you do want to makesure you're doing strategic ones
that are important.
If you look at the world ofpress releases out there, and
even the releases that wenormally get, more than 90% of
them don't generate any earnedmedia, and that's what we call
it when a journalist writesabout you and so you just have
(24:36):
to be careful that when youwrite releases, you're not
looking at what other people inyour industry are sending press
releases off, because themajority of them aren't helping
them, and so you kind of reallywant to focus on the ones that
are meaningful, the ones thatfocus on unique selling
proposition, the ones thatincorporate story, the ones that
(24:56):
introduce data and put data inthere.
Even doing a survey or studywithin your industry is a slam
dunk easiest way to get earnedmedia and to really position
yourself as an expert in yourindustry in a way that you don't
even have to be an author.
I've had companies who were.
One in particular is almost alink farm, and they would do top
(25:21):
10 rankings of lots ofverticals in lots of spaces,
like top CRM for salespeople,you know, top software for
architects and all thesedifferent verticals and it was,
it felt to me like a link farm.
Years ago they started doingsurveys for each of these little
(25:42):
verticals and after doing thatfor a few years on average, they
got eight to 14 articles forevery press release they did all
going back to that one littlevertical drove their SEO up.
Everybody in the industry knewabout them and today they get
approached repeatedly by allthese different industries and
(26:03):
say can you give us a comment onthis space?
This just happened, this mergeror this thing?
They have establishedthemselves as experts just by
using PR and getting that wordof mouth out there, that huge
credibility, and it has beenreally meaningful for them.
And at the time, years ago,they were doing 30 plus of these
(26:27):
surveys a year for each ofthese little verticals and they
were doing them annually and itworked out really, really well
for them.
They are known as big deals nowand people pay a huge premium
to be considered for theserankings and stuff like that.
So it really shows that withmedia attention, it elevates you
(26:50):
and really puts you out thereas someone to trust, because it
gives a signal of trust topeople when people write about
you in the media and it reallyhelps to increase conversions,
drive interest, drive traffic,drive sales, and that's really
amazing.
And again, for anybody who'sthinking about PR, I would
(27:14):
recommend the first place to goto is that free masterclass at
ereleasescom slash plan P-L-A-N,again completely free.
It really is very digestible.
Less than an hour, it really isvery digestible.
Less than an hour you're in andout and I guarantee you'll come
away probably with a brainstormof half a dozen ideas that you
could do.
That would do strategic typesof press releases for your
(27:34):
business.
Um, that would result, uh, andand definitely not a 90 failure
rate as opposed to what, uh, somany releases do that's's really
cool.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, I'll definitely link that in the description
for everyone too.
It's been an absolute honor anda pleasure to chat with you.
I learned so much today.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
It was great talking with you.
So your boy got a little too excited and forgot to
have the guest introducehimself.
Mickey Kennedy was amazing.
We talked a lot about PR, lifeand different strategies.
I asked him about a couple ofsituations in my life, but
nothing crazy or outrageous,just honest to God, had a good
(00:21):
conversation.
I left it with a lot of goodknowledge on pr and how to
approach things.
So also, he's just a really funguy to listen to, so enjoy so,
um, I run uh e-releases.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It's a press release distribution business.
I started in october of 1998,so a little over 25 years.
Um, I finished my mfa uh, about27 years, and my original game
plan was to wait tables andwrite poetry.
And I did that for a summer andrealized that I don't know,
your back and knees hurt frombeing on concrete for 10 hours a
(00:58):
day, and so I just decided Ineed a safe office job and I got
hired by a telecom researchstartup in Washington DC and I
was employee number threebecause I had writing as a
background and an English degree.
They were like hey, write pressreleases for us and send them
out.
I did that a few times, got noreal pickup initially, but then
(01:19):
I started to figure out whatjournalists were looking for.
I was just publishing somepockets of our data and I
realized they wanted storiesbehind the data and so I'd flesh
those out and then talk aboutthose.
And those did start gettinglots of media pickup.
And I was faxing at the timeand I think over the next year
or so a lot of journalistsstarted to call and say in the
(01:41):
future, could you just emailthese to us?
And so I just thought, hey, Icould put together an email
database just contactingjournalists.
I spent a little over a yearreaching out to journalists and
just asking them if I could putthem in my database.
I was originally going to betechnology oriented, but what I
found is, as I talked tojournalists, they'd be like, oh,
my beat changed.
(02:02):
I no longer do technology orconsumer electronics, now I'm
sports or I'm business.
And so it's just like, ok, I'lljust keep record of everybody.
And and then when I launched inOctober of 98, I had about
10,000 journalists and I wasjust a matchmaker, you know,
getting clients and sendingtheir press releases to these
journalists, and we were havingpretty good success.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
That's interesting.
So just the evolution goingfrom you know the working as the
waiter, to the office job.
It's almost it's like a cliche,but it's almost like the
stereotypical.
Like you, you start off as awaiter but realize there's
greater things.
What, what about the pressrelease system?
Did you like the most?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I liked how, if you told a compelling story, you
could get lots of mediaattention.
So the startup that I worked atI mentioned, we published
telecom data and you know I waslike, oh, here's our most recent
telecom data for inbound andoutbound traffic to the US, for
Caribbean countries, and nothinghappened.
And I did notice that onecountry had way more traffic
(03:13):
than everybody else.
So I was like, ok, let'sexplore why.
And I found out it was thecenter of 1-900 numbers.
And so when I wrote a pressrelease about that and wrote
about the story and sent it out,we got picked up in the
Economist, Financial Times,washington Post, wall Street
Journal and three telecom tradepublications after you know
nothing before that.
And so I just felt like, wow,you know, this is really, you
(03:36):
know, really great.
It drove a lot of sales, drove alot of interest.
We started talking about, youknow, data being a predictor for
economic growth, like if youlooked at a country that was not
industrialized and all of asudden it started having growth.
If you looked back you couldkind of see it through telecom
growth three years before.
(03:56):
And so we published a releaseabout that and that got the
attention of hedge funds andinvestment firms, and all of a
sudden we were getting tons oforders from a whole new audience
that we never had and I justthought, you know why aren't
other people trying this?
And I just felt like I wantedto be out there and sort of help
people sort of, you know, gettheir messages out and get
(04:17):
access to the media.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
That's really cool.
I didn't know about thecorrelation between the phone
number and the sign of growth.
That's really cool.
I didn't know about thecorrelation between the, the
phone number, and the uh, thesign of growth.
That's really cool.
Um, the one thing you touchedon and you've hit it twice, and
I want to double down on it isthe story behind the press
release there.
There must be a formula to thatstory, though you can't just be
like my name is blank.
I grew up in kansas, blah blahright.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
So press releases are generally written in the third
person, their announcement, andit's sort of like top down,
what's the most important thing?
You want to make sure that theentire message answers the who,
what, when, where, how and why.
But at the end of the day, whatyou're announcing, you want to
make sure it's meaningful and itcan fulfill a story arc,
(05:01):
because journalists, even ifit's a small article, like to
have a story arc, and everybodyknows what a story arc is.
We've been telling storiessince we've been sitting around
campfires thousands of years ago.
It has a climax or it hassomething, and then it sort of
settles down and take thingsthat get announced through press
(05:25):
releases.
We get a lot of product launchpress releases and it's usually
like here's a new product thatwe're introducing, here's a list
of features, here's a page tolearn more, and boom, they send
it out and, of course, not muchusually happens because there's
not much there for a journalistto write a story about.
But if you were to talk aboutyour journey, what caused you to
create the product, that couldbe something you could put a use
(05:50):
case study in there.
Very few people releasesomething that they haven't had
people try out.
And so what was the experienceof someone?
This was a company that waslosing 12% a year and not
profitable, but they used yourlogistics solution.
It made them more efficient andall of a sudden, at the end of
(06:10):
the trial, they achieved a 9%profit rate, which is just
phenomenal.
And then you have a quote bythem.
And so a journalist looking tocover this would say oh, you
know, I have an audience, youknow, is this important enough
that they would either entertainor educate them, and ideally
both?
And they're like oh, you know,I have an audience, you know, is
this important enough that theywould either entertain or
educate them, and ideally both?
And they're like oh well, thisis an interesting product.
(06:31):
We've got a great little storythat illustrates its value.
Yeah, that would attract ajournalist.
And so so many people thinkabout it.
As we've got this product, wewant to sell more, so let's just
just list the product listfeatures.
But they don't think about theneeds of the journalist and and
the the need for there to beenough elements for them to
create a story yeah, no, that'svery true.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I, as I think about it, it's I don't personally read
a lot of press release, but thefew I have, it's it's usually
the, the compelling story whereit was like the underdog, ceo,
like I, just I couldn't find aproduct, so I made it myself and
it was just like, oh, wow, okay, cool thing yeah, I mean
personal stories and journeysare really important.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Um, I mean, there's a reason that everybody that
appears on Shark Tank usuallyopens with their personal story
where they're vulnerable orthey're sharing an obstacle or
what inspired them to create theproduct or the company, and the
reason for that is it reallyjust sort of immediately creates
a human interest element.
(07:36):
There's this immediate empathythat you feel for the other
person and it really helps tohumanize them and you know, that
story and that journey and thatarc is an important element to
a lot of people's success ingetting people interested in
them and interested in coveringthem.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah, so I'm just curious.
One thing that I've beenthinking about and I'm sure you
get this a lot with your pressreleases is the new ai startups.
How do you help them findpeople and correspondence for
like a press release, for a,let's say, uh, like a?
If you talk into this app,it'll transcribe what you say
and then give you an AI summary.
(08:15):
How would something like thatwork with your mechanics and
stuff?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
So I mean, if you're looking for us to write a
release, what we try to do focuson is you know what is unique
about your product or service,what's your story of creating
the company and what's yourunique selling proposition.
What do you do that's differentthan everybody else in the
marketplace?
What you talked about using AIto transcribe it I think I know
(08:42):
of like 14, 16 companies outthere that do it, and I've used
one with Zoom for, I think,almost two, three years and it's
done a great job.
So I would think, if you'reediting that marketplace with AI
based on what you described,they're not doing anything new
and I don't think a journalistwould be attracted to it.
But if there was an elementthat they were doing something
(09:04):
different or they had their owndifferent spin on it, is that
spin important enough tointerest an audience that
journalists represent?
Speaker 1 (09:16):
That's a really good answer actually, thank you.
Yeah, there's a friend of mine.
He's working on something likethat and I keep telling him I'm
like you're unique, but I can'texplain why you're unique, kind
of thing.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, that's really important and you know it's
really.
If you're a startup and yousort of realize that you're very
similar to a lot of things,that's your moment to sit there
and say what could we do toenhance this product or tweak it
or a slight pivot to make itmuch more unique.
(09:48):
And really the best thing to dois talk to people, talk to
people who use products likethat and say, have you tried
this product?
And some people will say, yeah,but it doesn't do this.
Or I would love a product thatwould just do X, y and Z.
And if you get a few peoplesaying the same thing, you can
potentially say that could be adirection that we could consider
(10:11):
.
And I do think that you know Ideal with people all the time
who, when I ask them what'sunique about their business or
what do they do, they often sayI'm just a commodity business,
I'm just located in the Chicagoarea but I'll ship anywhere.
But there's literally 60companies across the US that do
the same exact thing, sellingthe same exact widget, and I'm
(10:32):
like whoa, you are in a badbusiness, because the only way
if you are selling a commodityand you're selling it the same
way, with no distinction fromeverybody else.
The only thing you're competingon is maybe proximity, the
belief that being closer willget it to them better.
But he said I can order it fromany warehouse anywhere, so the
(10:53):
delivery is the same for anybody.
You're only competing on price,and that's a terrible thing
because eventually it will driveprices down to the point that
you're just making razor thinmargins.
I've also had conversations withpeople who said that.
And then they're like well, youknow, we really do great
onboarding.
And I said tell me more, tellme more.
(11:13):
And they're like oh well, wehave a library of like 600 hours
worth of videos that you can goin and do a search for doing
any action with this verycomplex CRM.
And it's there and they canimmediately implement it.
And I'm like OK, how hard wouldit be your competitor to create
that?
(11:33):
He goes well, there are somecompetitors that have soft
videos that they add every oncein a while, but they've got like
12 hours and we've got hundredsof hours.
And I'm like okay, it seemslike it would be very hard for
someone to create hundreds ofhours to compete against you.
That is your unique sellingproposition.
And they said oh, we don't tellpeople about it until after
they bought.
And I said that's stupid,because if I'm looking at two
(11:56):
companies that are basically acommodity and price is a
consideration, I'm going to justgo with the cheapest and then
find out.
Luckily, maybe you have thisgreat onboarding library and
resource that anytime someone'sstuck using the CRM, they can go
(12:21):
to a video that they can easilysearch and be able to implement
it.
I said do you know how manypeople buy CRMs and then are
just devastated that they spendtens of thousands of dollars on
consultants because they can'tfigure out how to do these
little intricate actions andthings like that?
I said this is your uniqueselling proposition and so, yeah
(12:45):
, you have to be able to createsomething that is unique and
really defines you differently,and there's lots of different
ways to do it.
I mean, there's some companiesthat Amazon started competing on
how quick they can get it toyou, and then you know other
little things as well, buteverybody has sort of something
that they do a little bitdifferent than everybody else,
(13:07):
and you just have to figure outwhat that is for you.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
So what would be some of the steps to figure that out
?
Let's say it's hypothetical,like a coaching business that,
like a lot of people, especiallyduring COVID, want to be a
coach.
So what could someone offerthat's unique, that no one else
could offer?
Is it like a one on one,consulting, a deep analysis of
your business, kind of thing?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I think for a coach it is who you are and kind of
what your track record is.
Who you are and kind of whatyour track record is, and so you
know.
I don't think people are goingto go and say, based on the
number of people I've consulted,x amount have grown.
But I think that having casestudies I don't think
testimonials is enough, buthaving case studies where you
(13:52):
include quotes from the personbut you also show you know
numbers, like include quotesfrom the person but you also
show you know numbers, like Iprovided coaching to this person
.
This was their obstacle, youknow, and this was the outcome.
And ideally people like numbersand data if they can get that
in there and then having anamazing quote by them and that
(14:15):
you know really shows value.
You want to go beyond atestimonial because, I'll be
honest, a lot of people havetestimonial fatigue and uh, it,
it, it doesn't, you know it's.
It's so easy to just sort ofget friends and family to build
testimonials.
I think it's what people thinkand uh, it, it, it, it.
It's harder to get that actualdata and uh, and get those
(14:38):
numbers and build something outto really show an actual case
study.
But I think that having somesolid case studies, you know,
maybe having a book that's donereally well in the marketplace,
you know, those are things thatposition you as a thought leader
, give you credibility, boostyou.
But, that being said, you couldalso not have a book at this
(15:05):
point but still have articlesthat have been written about you
, or you've written articlesyourselves and submitted them to
, like, say, the HarvardBusiness Review or other places
that really give people comfortthat this person is legitimate
and you know they're recognizedin the industry that's
interesting.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
You mentioned the book idea.
It's one thing I've beenhumoring is writing like a
business book.
But I was like there seems tobe a lot of traffic, a lot of
people doing it, especially withlike russell brunson's like
write a book and you get clients, kind of thing.
Um, it seems very salesy andpitchy and I don't like reading
the books.
So what I did when I was doingsecurity work, I helped a
(15:46):
logistics company improve theirmorale and the productivity went
from, let's say, 100,000products to almost a million
products a day and injury ratewas plummeted.
And I don't know how toreference that into a book.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
So I think that you kind of have to, if you're going
to write a book, positionyourself different from all the
other books out there in themarketplace and I think you know
, show a distinct point of view.
You know you're addingsomething and you're not just
(16:26):
sort of building on what'salready out there.
I mean, you can build onsomething and grow from it, but
I think the people who do arethe least successful are those
that sort of just you know, getbasic information spit out
through either AI or aghostwriter and they're really
not writing about something thatis completely different than
(16:48):
everybody else has ever talkedabout in the marketplace.
What's your edge, what's yourlittle thing?
And so I wouldn't recommendpeople writing a book unless
they have that.
Or maybe you just kick the cana little bit until you figure
that out what your little edgeis.
But I do think that books dowork.
You just kick the can a littlebit until you figure that out
what your little edge is, um,but you know, I do think that
(17:08):
books uh do work.
Um, they add a lot oflegitimacy.
Um, you know they can beself-published, uh, you know.
But you do want to make surethat you uh are uh, giving
something of high value, and Ithink one of the you know, the
easiest ways to look at it arelook at books that have mattered
and have generated, you know,many, many hundreds or if not
(17:31):
thousands of Amazon reviews.
They usually have a hook,something that is sort of like
overarching theme, but then theyget in there and they give you
solid anecdotes, they give yousolid information.
You know, a long time ago,because I started this business
(17:53):
as a poet, I didn't have a lotof marketing experience, so I
bought a marketing book online.
It was about teaching me how todo AdWords and it was with
Perry Marshall and I bought thebook.
And then he also had an upsellfor the audio book.
It was just an MP3.
It wasn't through Audible oranything at the time and so I
(18:16):
did that and I meant to listento it, I meant to read the book.
And then I started getting thisautoresponder where each day he
was feeding me little gems andI'm like God, this guy's so
smart.
And then he's like after Ilearned so much through the
emails, the daily drip of emails, I did a meeting with him where
(18:43):
I went to his house with threeother people for two days and
for half a day he looked at mybusiness, dissected it and we
addressed AdWords, but I wouldsay 95% of it was just
addressing my business, like youneed to improve this landing
page, you need to do this, allof these things.
And my head was just swimming.
And then he's like, oh, I alsohave a marketing mastermind of,
like you know, 14 to 16 peoplethat we meet three times a year.
(19:05):
And I was like, yeah, I joinedthat.
I got so much out of this wholeexperience.
And then later he told me.
He said I said I am kind ofembarrassed but I keep feeling
like I have to go back andeither read your book or listen
to your audio book.
But and he goes.
Let me guess he goes.
You got my emails and thenthat's what got you into action
(19:28):
and you learned a lot.
And I said, yeah, he goes.
My emails are the book he sayspeople don't read.
They're not.
A book is intimidating.
Very few, a lot of people buyit intending to do it.
Very few people read it and hegoes.
So I just give people the bookbroken down in autoresponder
series.
He goes, you can get all myautoresponder series.
Never even buy the book, andyou'll learn the same thing
(19:50):
that's in the book.
And he's just like and he goes.
And then there are people whothen will get everything and he
goes.
A natural progression is invideo Do a bunch of videos, give
it.
Give the book away for free.
And he says people will watchthe videos and then go still buy
the book.
Give the book away for free.
And he says people will watchthe videos and then go still buy
the book.
And he says and then they'llstill want to work with you.
(20:10):
They're like I learned all this, I want someone else to
implement it.
And he says he goes, I give allmy secrets away.
He goes, I don't lock them away.
And then once you pay a big fee, he goes I give it all away
freely.
And he goes.
And some people just you knowthey're not going to read the
book.
Some people aren't going tolisten to the audiobook.
Some people will read theautoresponders because it's like
(20:30):
it's a very small commitment.
Each day you get a little emailwith such a strong nugget and I
do imagine that it's a bridge.
Well, yeah, that it is a bridge, that it's not the exact
literal book, but he's condensedit, and then from there they go
on and do other things with him.
But he says he's got somepeople that then want to say
(20:53):
I've read all this but I don'twant to actually implement it in
my business.
I want to just hire someone.
So at the time he was workingwith someone, he would just pass
you along to them.
And so I think that you knowthat speaks to the value of what
you have to communicate.
So I think that you know thatspeaks to the value of what you
have to communicate.
I've read books from expertswhere I felt like they were
(21:13):
holding on to all of the valueand they were just giving you
anecdotes of people they'vehelped and principles, but no
real tools, no real resources,no real actionable tips, and you
know that works for some people.
But you know, for me I give allmy stuff away.
I mean I have a freemasterclass on my website at
ereleasescom slash plan P-L-A-N,where I have an hour-long video
(21:37):
masterclass for free.
I give people the best secretsin PR, the types of press
releases that work in and out,and I've had so many people say
I don't get it.
Why do you give this away?
I'm like if you learn how to doamazing releases, you're going
to do them.
They're going to work andyou're going to keep at it, and
so that's my goal, and I want toget my customers to do better,
(22:00):
more strategic releases and havemore wins, and I think that,
going back to coaching, I thinkthat if you're going to write a
book, I think it has to haveactionable things that can make
a difference in someone's lifeand for a lot of people there,
you know there is a hook, thereis something that is very
meaningful, that they found apattern with many people that
(22:21):
they've coached, and in thatpattern it is this and this is
how they want to approach it.
Maybe it's a metaphor orsomething like that, and I think
that's kind of how a book sortof coalesces from you know,
becoming an idea that you canthen start to implement and
start to build out.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
So it sounds very similar to a press release.
You have to think of the book,the unique proposition, the
angles, how to.
Yeah, you could use, like,let's say, you use Jordan
Peterson style of explaining,although that's very long at
times, but more elegant and longand poetic, but then you're
maybe more blunt like DavidGoggins.
So that's interesting thecorrelation between the best
(23:05):
release style and reading thebook.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
And I think some of the best content does both.
And especially, you know, ifyou're in business and you're
(23:29):
doing a book, you know in abusiness book you definitely
want to focus more on theeducation and the entertainment.
But you can't ignore that,because if you're just all facts
and tips it can be kind of dry.
And I think that's wheresometimes putting anecdotes
making it personable so you cankind of envision things and
stuff like that, uh, I thinkthat that, uh, that can make a
huge difference oh, 100, I agree.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Um, I'm reading bruce lipton's the biology of belief,
and the first, like fewchapters, were great.
He was explaining his backstoryand then, as he's going into
the mechanics, I'm like, oh god,this is the driest lecture I've
ever heard.
Oh my, I don't know if I'mgoing to get through this in
time.
Right, is there anything inparticular I might have missed
(24:12):
that you want to talk about?
Speaker 2 (24:15):
I guess the big thing is that when you do press
releases, you do want to makesure you're doing strategic ones
that are important.
If you look at the world ofpress releases out there, and
even the releases that wenormally get, more than 90% of
them don't generate any earnedmedia, and that's what we call
it when a journalist writesabout you and so you just have
(24:36):
to be careful that when youwrite releases, you're not
looking at what other people inyour industry are sending press
releases off, because themajority of them aren't helping
them, and so you kind of reallywant to focus on the ones that
are meaningful, the ones thatfocus on unique selling
proposition, the ones thatincorporate story, the ones that
(24:56):
introduce data and put data inthere.
Even doing a survey or studywithin your industry is a slam
dunk easiest way to get earnedmedia and to really position
yourself as an expert in yourindustry in a way that you don't
even have to be an author.
I've had companies who were.
One in particular is almost alink farm, and they would do top
(25:21):
10 rankings of lots ofverticals in lots of spaces,
like top CRM for salespeople,you know, top software for
architects and all thesedifferent verticals and it was,
it felt to me like a link farm.
Years ago they started doingsurveys for each of these little
(25:42):
verticals and after doing thatfor a few years on average, they
got eight to 14 articles forevery press release they did all
going back to that one littlevertical drove their SEO up.
Everybody in the industry knewabout them and today they get
approached repeatedly by allthese different industries and
(26:03):
say can you give us a comment onthis space?
This just happened, this mergeror this thing?
They have establishedthemselves as experts just by
using PR and getting that wordof mouth out there, that huge
credibility, and it has beenreally meaningful for them.
And at the time, years ago,they were doing 30 plus of these
(26:27):
surveys a year for each ofthese little verticals and they
were doing them annually and itworked out really, really well
for them.
They are known as big deals nowand people pay a huge premium
to be considered for theserankings and stuff like that.
So it really shows that withmedia attention, it elevates you
(26:50):
and really puts you out thereas someone to trust, because it
gives a signal of trust topeople when people write about
you in the media and it reallyhelps to increase conversions,
drive interest, drive traffic,drive sales, and that's really
amazing.
And again, for anybody who'sthinking about PR, I would
(27:14):
recommend the first place to goto is that free masterclass at
ereleasescom slash plan P-L-A-N,again completely free.
It really is very digestible.
Less than an hour, it really isvery digestible.
Less than an hour you're in andout and I guarantee you'll come
away probably with a brainstormof half a dozen ideas that you
could do.
That would do strategic typesof press releases for your
(27:34):
business.
Um, that would result, uh, andand definitely not a 90 failure
rate as opposed to what, uh, somany releases do that's's really
cool.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, I'll definitely link that in the description
for everyone too.
It's been an absolute honor anda pleasure to chat with you.
I learned so much today.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
It was great talking with you.
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Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.