How to Get Featured in the Press and Media with Renee Warren
For entrepreneurs, one of the commonly misunderstood and confusing elements is PR and how to get featured in the press and media. For many, this is the next big step in getting more eyes on the business and you might be tackling it the wrong way. That’s why I’ve asked Renee Warren onto She Sells Radio today to help us gain better PR and press for your brand.
Renee Warren is a mom, award winning entrepreneur, investor, drummer, author, and public speaker. Not only is she a mom and businesswoman at the same time, she shares her story about starting her business while pregnant and then having two babies in one year. Talk about incredible! Her business, We Wild Women, is all about helping female entrepreneurs transform their visions into massive impact with programs, courses, and even a podcast called Into the Wild.
In his episode, we dive into all things PR: what to do, what not to do, and how we can show up powerfully in the media and press all while maintaining authenticity.
[3:08] – Renee lives her life as an unapologetic risk-taker. She shares what that means to her.
[4:34] – There’s so much freedom when we step outside the boundaries of expectations.
[5:54] – Society is so mean for mothers and as a mom, she realized that she can throw out those expectations for her business as well.
[7:35] – Renee scaled to seven figures with two babies at home by taking risks.
[8:27] – When committing to something publicly, Renee always follows through.
[9:45] – Tag the people online who you know are going to hold you accountable.
[10:25] – Those you inspire won’t always tell you but it’s your calling to keep going.
[11:22] – An audience of one is still an audience.
[12:24] – Renee shares tips on inspiring you to keep going.
[14:15] – Create a media kit. This forces you to be organized.
[15:44] – Media kits don’t have to be complicated and Renee has free templates on her website.
[16:54] – Credibility is important to share with potential PR.
[18:12] – Elyse shares her strategy and what she advises her clients.
[20:05] – In order to make news, you have to create news. Make something newsworthy.
[21:24] – Your hook depends on who you are pitching.
[22:22] – Renee advises to never mass pitch.
[23:59] – What is it about you and your business that is different from everybody else?
[25:40] – There’s a strategy to following up.
[28:27] – Podcasts are actually a form of PR.
[30:01] – Podcasts have a very specific niche audience and are great for sales.
[31:33] – Everyone on an executive team needs to have a personal brand.
[33:18] – Renee shares her favorite pitches for getting people on her podcast.
[35:40] – You will stand out by taking the time to be intentional.
[37:42] – Renee is launching a new membership through We Wild Women that will help with PR.
[39:21] – Renee’s advice is to be okay with failing.
[40:15] – With taking risks comes judgment from others. You have to put it aside.
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She Sells with Elyse Archer Home Page
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to she sells radio. I am so truly excited for this conversation today, because what we’re gonna talk about is an area that I personally am always, always, always looking to grow in, which is all about getting better press and PR for your brand. And I think we’re gonna go some other really powerful places too. Knowing my guest, my guest today is Renee Warren. She’s an incredible, incredible woman, as you will soon learn if you’re not familiar with her yet. And she’s an award-winning entrepreneur, she’s an author, she’s an inspirational speaker. And she’s the founder of we wild women, which if you’re watching the video version of this on YouTube, you can see her very, very cool. Um, what is that called BA uh, it’s lighting. I don’t know what the technical term is
Speaker 2 (00:48):
For neon neon neon.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
It’s so cool. So definitely watch this video on YouTube if you’re listening so you can see her amazing background. Cause I think she’s a really great just model of how do we show up powerfully in the press and media and do it on brand as well. So we, wild women is all about helping entrepreneurs start and scale their businesses. And she’s the host of the celebrated podcast into the wild, which I was super honored to, um, to be a guest on as well. And so I’m just, I’m so excited Renee to have you here on the show and to have you bringing your magic so welcome to she sells radio. You
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Well, thank you so much for having me. I am so excited and I’m used to introducing guests. So to actually be introduced, feels really good.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I love that. I love,
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I love, I love the word wild. It’s funny cuz my sister just visited and as a gift or token appreciation for hosting us or hosting them, um, she bought me a candle that’s called into the wild and when I opened it up and I smelt it, I was like, this is the smell of my show. My gosh. So perfect. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I love that. And I love that you say that too. And I, I actually wanna talk about part of your mindset here to start before we get into the media and PR piece because you know, I know you talk about you live your life, being an unapologetic risk taker. And I really work to lean into that continually in my life. And I am so inspired by that’s how you live as well. And I’m just curious, what does that mean? And why is being an unapologetic risk taker so important to you?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
So at the end of my podcast, as you know, I ask this question, what does it mean to be a wild woman? And at this point now I’ve interviewed 110 female entrepreneurs and unanimously. Most of the replies when I, when I ask them is to be UN and, uh, it’s an interesting concept because why do we have to apologize for being ourselves? Why do we have to apologize for being loud or sexy or voluptuous or wanting to go for something bigger than isn’t exactly expected of us? Yeah. Um, and it got to the point in my career that I, I just needed to stop apologizing for the things I wanted to achieve. This meant like being okay with telling my parents and family and friends that I wanna do this thing and I’m gonna do it. And I don’t really care about your opinion cuz I’m gonna do it. The more that we sit within the boundaries of what we think people accept of us, um, expect of us the more we are no longer in alignment with what it is that we wanna do. Wow. And there’s so much freedom in actually just stepping outside those boundaries and be like, I did this, it’s uncomfortable. As long as it’s safe, if it’s uncomfortable, then it’s great. And so to step into your power is to step out of those expectations and to be okay with success, to be okay with failure and stop saying, sorry. Ah,
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Gosh, that’s so good. That’s was that hard for you? You to learn how to do that in your life? Oh,
Speaker 2 (04:02):
It, it started when I became a parent because how this all happened was I launched a very profitable, successful PR agency. The, the eight, when I was eight months pregnant with my first son and I had both my babies in the first year of starting that business. They’re Irish twins. And there was all these expectations of parenting, of being a mother, how long you should breastfeed for how long you should be home with your kids when they should go to daycare. And I busted all those myths. My kids are safe and they’re healthy. How I, a parent doesn’t matter. And so they were in daycare full time. At five weeks old, I was traveling. I was literally high fiving. My husband in airports, he was coming, I was going in vice versa and it didn’t breastfeed for that long. And I have no shame in that right now. Mm. Because my kids are resilient, amazing children. So when I was able to break free of those expectations, quite personally are probably the hardest cuz like society is just so mean to mothers. And I was able that I’m like, oof, I can do that for my business. No problem. And then I did.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
I love that. You share that. And I think if there’s any experience that will teach us as women to have to learn, to look inside more than outside it’s motherhood, if we, if we approach it a certain way. But one of the things that I, I have learned to live my life by and that we really believe in the, she sells community, is like we make our own rules because a lot of the rules that society says you have to abide by in order to be successful. You’ve gotta work this many hours, do it that way, do it this way. It’s like it’s outdated. And I have learned in my own life to always filter the advice from the person who’s giving it to you. So looking at, do I want the life of this person who’s telling me I should do it this way?
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Like, do I want their financial situation? Do I want their happiness level? Do I want their health level? And if I don’t, even if it’s a close person to me, it’s okay to say I’m gonna do it differently. So I, I, I love that you share that. I know we have so many women who are gonna resonate with that too. Tell us a little bit about, so I wanna get into, it’s such a treat and such a pleasure to have you here, cuz you’re such a brilliant mind when it comes to marketing PR brand growth. So we’re, we’re definitely gonna get into some of the more tactical tips about that. But I wanna hear too about that business journey and scaling, scaling to seven figures in a year with two babies born in a year is wild. I like we had one this past year and I can’t imagine two within a year. That is crazy. But what were some of the, what were some of the risks that you took along the way that paid off and that you think helped contribute to your success?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Um, well the first one was incorporating a business when I was eight months pregnant. That was crazy. Uh, I actually had a phenomenal business partner at the time that carried through those rough few months. And it’s funny. I remember sitting on a couch, joking with her when, um, we were, I was like, it was my due date and we were recording a webinar to be on somebody else’s show. And she’s like, well, like how is this all gonna work? And the baby comes. I’m like, oh baby sleep all the time. We got this like no big deal, which is true. They sleep during the day, which you can think to be more productive, but they don’t sleep at night. Yeah. Um, so the biggest risks in all of this was actually just taking the first step was making the first dollar because I’m someone that’s like, if I publicly say I’m gonna do something, I commit to it.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
So for instance, this fall, I did this program called 75 hard. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a 75 day journey at which you have to follow a list of, um, action steps. So it’s 2 45 minute workouts in a day. One has to be outside, uh, 10 pages of a book, gallon of water, follow a diet, no cheat mills, no alcohol. Um, and I think that’s it anyway. Yeah. For 75 day it was a lot, but I kept pushing it off for years. And so finally, one day I just tweeted about it. Um, I Instagramed about it saying I’m gonna do 75 hard. So the moment I put it out there, it’s like, oh, I’m committed because there’s people watching. Cause I know I inspire people, you inspire people. And so the moment that you make it public it, okay. I gotta do this. Yeah. Mm.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Okay. So that’s the first like big lesson there is just literally putting it out there so that you it’s almost like burning the ships.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yep. And, and if you, even, if you don’t have a big following, what I would do is whatever social platform you use the most Instagram for instance is as soon as you publicly make something like your commitment to doing something, tag the people in your life that you know will hold you accountable for me, it’s my husband. Mm. And so now he’s like, oh, 75 hard there’s days. And I’m like, oh, I’m done. I’m throwing in the towel day 43. I’m good. I’m fit. I feel good. I don’t need this anymore. And then he’s like, gotta keep going. Can’t can’t quit now. And there’s too many people watching. Right. Okay. You gotta go for them to inspire them. And subsequently there’s probably a dozen people that started 75 hard because they watched my journey.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Wow. And, and that’s just one example, but you think about in business or in parenting, it’s like the moment you put yourself out there and you commit to this thing, you inspire people. And most people won’t tell you that most people sit in silence. They won’t say they won’t message. You saying, Hey Renee, you’ve inspired me to do this. You do get some, and those are the people that really like the you under you to keep going. Yeah. But doesn’t happen all the time. But the moment, you know, you’re inspiring a person, a community, children, whatever it is is that you’re calling to keep going.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Wow, that’s so powerful. And that’s a, that’s a big mindset shift too, because I don’t know about you, but for me, for a long time in my life, I would think, well, no, one’s watching because I’m not like getting a bunch of feedback on what I’m doing. And I, then I started getting messages from people like I’ve been watching for months, years, or whatever. And like you’re inspiring and yada, yada. And I think if we remember that, like people are always watching, even if you don’t have a huge a audience yet, even if it’s not to the size that you desire to build, like an audience of one is an audience. Right. It is still someone who’s watching you. So do you, like, I’m curious how I feel like that’s a powerful belief system to lean into that would help us be more consistent with what we put out there with how we present ourselves. How do you, like, how do you remember that while you’re doing what you’re doing and, and let that, uh, yeah. How do we lean more into that mindset? Okay.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
So, uh, for me, it’s always putting out physical things that remind me of success. So on top of my desk is my, my ring light. But through it is a shelf and perfectly situated on that shelf is the award. I won the book I published as an author and the planner that’s coming up. So these are physical things that I can actually look up and be, oh, that’s right. People nominated me for this award. People have bought my book. People want copies of my book. People are blinding up to buy my planner. It’s like, people want that stuff from me. So I need to keep showing up for these people. And then I’ll have reminders on my phone. It’s like one good thing to do. If you’re like actively using social media, as an example is to go back, create a reels or a video of all of the things you’ve done successfully in your life, because it takes a good hour to go through those pictures and those videos and putting it together.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
And this really cool little video yeah. Inspires you. Like I just did this the other day and there’s a lot of people that don’t know about my past either. Yeah. And it’s good for them to be either a refresher or to, or to see that I’ve, I’ve come a long way. Mm. And, and yes, we plateau there’s things in life that happened. But if you can have those gentle reminders of the success and the other, other thing too, is, um, I have a framed, I’m repainting the frame, but I have a framed, uh, copy of this two page spread that I have in marketing magazine. And this was, we, this was in October a, of 2012. And it wasn’t three months before that we started our business and we got this huge spread. I know,
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Kill it, sister. I love that. Yeah. Okay. So tell us, so how do we do something like that? And I know we, I know we don’t have time you in this interview for, you know, a deep dive into PR, but I would love to know from you, like, what are some tips? Let’s, let’s assume that we have someone listening who is like, they haven’t focused on it a lot yet. It’s maybe they’ve been more focused on direct sales, direct outreach, whatever, but they’re like, I feel like a newbie, this feels intimidating. Where do we even start? What are some tips we can use?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Oh man. PR I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna sugarcoat it. It is tough. Mm. And journalists can be so mean. And the whole process is just full of, um, crickets and nos. But realize that sometimes it just takes a one little win and then the next win to get a big win. Um, and so when it comes to PR the first place to start, if you’re doing it for yourself or your business, I always say, this is a good, um, like homework assignment is to create your media kit. Mm. And why I say that, cuz it really forces you to be organized. It forces you to get your messaging, your positioning, your bio, or head shots, your product shots, all the things you tangibly need to put into a digital media kit ready so that when you go to pitch, it’s all there, but it forces you to clean up shop. Cause a lot of people just dive right into it. They’ll be like, Hey Elise. Um, yeah, I’m really cool. And I’d love to be on your show.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
We’ve never gotten one of those emails,
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Right? Like, yeah. And then some people they don’t know and they don’t do their due diligence. Is this the right person? The most like actually you, you and your team pitching me to be on the show was a perfect example. And I, and I was saying this earlier, how I refer to your media kit all the time, because it’s just a sign that somebody is organized. And if you can spend so much time to make something so beautiful, it means you really care about what you do. And when you can show the world ex especially journalists that you care about, what is it you do then they’re more open to talking to, you might not be the right time. But sometimes it is so start with the media kit. And I actually have resources on my website that like there’s free media kit, um, downloads and stuff. You can go
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Check out that’s
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yeah. But doesn’t have to be complicated. Yeah. And then you just get the, you just, and then you start working on your media list. So you got the media kit done. Then you start working on the media list. So I always say, start with the top 10 dream publications, whether it’s radio, TV, magazine, whatever it is, put those at the top. Don’t pitch them.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Why not pitch them? So tell, so tell us why not? Cause I think this is important.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah. So if, especially if you’re first starting out because you need to get the kinks out.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Mm
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Yeah. You need to figure out the pitch, the subject line, the angle, all this stuff. And it’s really best to start with smaller tier publications, not to say that they’re not as valuable, cuz they could be more valuable. Um, but they’re are likely more open to those, those mistakes.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Mm.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Um, and so you start with the smaller tier publications, you start to build the confidence, you start to build the process and then when there’s the right time, then you start pitching the big guys.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
How do you, how do you start to know when it’s the right time? It’s like, you’ve, you’ve got, is it just that you’ve got the process underway or is there a certain size falling we should be looking for? Like how do we it’s how do
Speaker 2 (15:58):
We it’s it’s the credibility factor. It’s the, where have you been interviewed before? Which podcasts have you been on? Where have you been mentioned? Um, linked to featured it’s like, so PR is all about creating credibility authority in your space. So credibility comes from previous VES. Yeah. They don’t have to be big, you know, you could have been on a handful of podcasts. You may have been linked to a couple of articles, whatever it is, those are still big deals. And so you start building that list of places that you’ve been that becomes leverage to pitch bigger publications, not to say that you actually link to or mention those things. Cuz most journalists don’t care. If you’ve been mentioned like you don’t pitch Forbes and say, oh yeah, I was just in, you know, times.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
But if they go and they do a quick search on you, they’ll see where you’ve popped up. Interesting. Where you mentioned. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
I’m curious too Renee, to get your perspective on this. Cause you may, you may think differently than me. So I, I always love like hearing other people’s perspective on this. So sometimes clients will reach out and ask me like when should I be focusing on PR for my business? When does it matter? My, my approach. And I’m not saying that this is the only way to do it, but my approach has always been like focus on getting customers first, getting revenue, if like not everyone needs revenue right away. But most of my clients do. And I’ll say like, get, you know, do direct outreach, focused on making your sales, get a good working funnel in place so that when there are more eyeballs on what you’re doing, you’re actually converting the leads because this is again, I’m very open to being challeng on this. My understanding is that like it’s credibility to your point, like adding those logos to your name is credibility. It’s gonna help you convert more, but they’re not necessarily gonna be huge lead generators per se. So that’s how I advise clients. I’m I would love to hear your perspective on it.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Well, they definitely need to find you first. Yeah. So if, if you have all of these beautiful mentions on your website, but nobody goes there, then they, they can’t find you. Um, absolutely. So part of like creating your media kit first is also making sure all your assets are in order, which includes web site. So I’ve worked with tech companies before and they’re in the midst of launching and we’re ramping up their PR to make a launch announcement and their website’s broken. Like people are coming to your site and they wanna buy your product and they can’t. So fix that first. Yeah. So absolutely make sure that the bare necessities of where people are going to function, if you’re selling a planner, make sure it’s easy for them to buy it. Don’t make it be don’t confuse people. So a hundred percent, um, I wouldn’t say that you necessarily have to have complex funnels set up, but definitely make it easy for people to understand what is it you do and have how to buy, um, when to start PR is subjective.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
So you can, you can do PR for launch. Like you’ve never done your business before, but you’re launching, you can still run a PR campaign because a lot of people do that when they’re launching. Yeah. Um, I always say in order to get news, you have to create news. So you don’t just get media coverage because you’re awesome. You get it because you’re doing something great. You’ve made an impact. You want an award, you’re creating a new product, whatever it is, you have to have something newsworthy. If there’s no hook, then there’s no story. It’s as simple as that. But here’s the thing is you can create stories all day long. If you’re a really good storyteller, I can get PR all day long. Um, so there’s simple ways of doing this. The first one in every business, there’s always two angles. There’s the founder story. And then there’s the service or product story. So you have two campaign pitch, the founder to be on podcasts, to, um, beyond panels, to be featured in certain publications, pitch the product to get the customers.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yeah. Ah, interesting. I love that perspective on it. I’ve never thought about it quite like that too, of like there’s, there’s automatically built in stories. How do we, I love what you mentioned about the hook. I’d love to lean little more to that. What are some, how do we know what the hook is and how to craft it in a way that the media would actually be interested in?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yeah. So the hook is dependent on who you’re pitching, right? So I always say this, you’re not gonna pitch Johnny from Autotrader magazine about your new breast pump, cuz he ain’t gonna care about that. So it’s, it’s very, has to be hyper relevant to the publication and the journalist and the reason why PR takes long and it should take long it’s a marathon is because when you find the contact who is written about you or your competitors or the industry in the past, you gotta insert your, your story in a timely manner. That’s relevant to what that journalist or writer has written about before. And so the hook can be very dependent on their, their writing and their, their previous stories. Okay. And so for me, I remember one time it took me two hours to F find a contact, find the contact details and position a 250 word email to pitch to her two hours wow.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
For a client. Um, and so it does take long. And one thing I suggest is you never mass pitch never just attach a press release to a a hundred person email list and send it out. I ain’t going to get anybody’s attention. And the only way that’s effective is if you’re going through, um, the wire and you’re submitting a press release over the wire and then anybody can come pick it up. Um, but to be successful in PR means that you’re reaching out individually to these people. And you’re specifically creating the hook, the story angle that is relevant to them. Got it. Because ultimately they’re yes or no. And if they say yes, then they have to pitch it to the editor. And so that, that pitch to the editor, the editor’s decision is will this get us traffic? Will this get us eyeballs? Is this an interesting story or is it just another person launching another whatever, like fashion apparel. Um, and so you have to think of what is the unique thing that you do. So when you, when I say do your media kit first, you’re really thinking about like, how are you different than everybody else? Mm. Like if you’re, well, let’s talk about like, um, a, an apparel company, like, um, a what’s it called? Like the, the relaxing loungewear say, say, say you’re launching a loungewear company and there’s a lot of them out there, especially after the last two years,
Speaker 1 (22:41):
We’re all in it.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Um, it’s like really at the end of the day, it’s like, you’re not really different than anybody else. We ex fact good quality clothes. I mean, if you’re gonna charge me $150 for a pair of track, pants better be good quality. Right. Those are the table stakes. So what is it about you or your story or your product or the manufacturing process or the experience that’s different than everybody else. Right.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Interesting, interesting. And I want, I appreciate that approach so much because that’s one of the things that I just think in the sales world in general, we all get those like just copy and paste, blanket pitches. They never work, whether it’s on LinkedIn, whether it’s, you know, like the spray and print, right. I’ve never been a fan of that. So I tend to teach the opposite in terms of sales and direct outreach and pitching podcasts, which I wanna talk with you about in a second, but before we go there, I’m curious, what is, what’s the follow up protocol? So you say, let’s, you send the pitch, you send, like you just told us it takes a long time sometimes. So how do we know when to follow up? And what’s the appropriate protocol?
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Yeah. I mean, I guess it depends who you talk to. Okay. I always say two is good.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Two. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Sometimes three. And, and, and I’m the one that pitches and I also receive a lot of pitches to be on the show. So I know what’s a good pitch. And funny enough, um, anybody that sends me a really terrible pitch I’ll might reply with suggestions on, on how to improve it. Anybody that sends me an excellent pitch, regardless of that guest being on my show, I always say, good job from a PR person, two thumbs up. This is a great pitch. Yeah. Um, so follow up is typically two or three times. Okay. And it’s not the, you know, pitch on a Tuesday follow up on a Thursday. Typically you want a good, like four to five business days in between. Got it. And the follow up, can’t be a, Hey Renee, just checking in to see, have you got my email because yes, I got it.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
I may have looked at it and very likely deleted that if I was actually really interested in your story, I would’ve replied right away or I’m super busy. I’m traveling. There’s something else going on. There’s a big story that broke. So there’s a lot of reasons why people won’t answer your email. Um, and so the follow up is usually like, I’ll just say a week later got, and what you do is like, when you write your pitch, leave, like leave like a one sentence or two sentence nugget, remove that from the pitch. And when you follow up with it, add more value to the pitch. Don’t be like, Hey, I’m just seeing if you got my email, like, sorry, obviously they didn’t,
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Or they don’t care.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
So how can you make it more enticing for that person to wanna open? It can reply to the email in that same initial pitch. Um, but sometimes it’s like the subject line may have not worked. And if someone sees like that re regarding email coming back in, ah, they haven’t opened it before. Who knows. Um, but yeah, always adds something way more valuable in that second pitch, just like that. You wanna talk about it? Like I’ve had so many people follow up and be like, oh, Hey Renee. Um, so, and so, you know, just went live on the today’s show and I thought you’d love to watch the feature that’s like, of course I do. That person is totally credible. I want them on my show now. Thank you for that, by the way. Ah right. Or they’re due this or something like something happened, like just add that value. So the follow up is just as important as the initial pitch.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Wow. That is gold. That is, there’s so much that I took from that where I’m like, gosh, we can do that differently and better in our business. And that applies to even outside of media pitches that applies to sales follow up, that applies to such well period
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Sales. I mean, and sales is PR really. I mean, it’s the same thing.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah. It’s a good way to, I always I’m like everything is sales, like at the end of the day, everything totally. I’m like thinking about it that way too. Sales is PR I’m curious. This is so helpful too. Thank you. This is just so like value packed, which I really appreciate. I wanna, as we kind of tie the loop on pitching and media and PR, I wanna speak to podcast pitching specifically, and there’s a few things I’d love to get your thoughts on. Um, one is just the shift and like what you focus on in your own business right now for PR. And I remember, I think it was last year when Matthew McConaughey came out with green lights and it was like seeing him on every big podcast. And that was cool. And I thought, huh, like he’s got a savvy media team that knows where people are. And obviously the landscape has shifted. You’re a podcaster, I’m a podcaster. We love the platform. But from your perspective, like what are you doing right now? Are you focused more on pitching podcasts? Are you focused more on major media and tell us why?
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Well, first of all, everyone wants to hear Matthew McCant’s voice and
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Sot me all. That’s just an easy
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Pitch anyway. Um, yeah, so right now we’re actually ramping up podcasting. So I’ve been so, um, ingrained in actually growing my own podcast and having excellent guests on my show that I, it took a while for me to be like, Hey, I gotta go on other people’s show as well. And so my team is ramping that up right now. And the goal is to have at least a couple a month. I don’t a lot, like I actually have a list right now of 75 podcasts, active podcasts that are around entrepreneurship women in business that were going through the list. There’s a lot, there’s so many podcasts out there too.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
It’s but this is, this is always how I think about it. And I love your perspective on it. Like if you get a major media feature, obviously huge credibility. That’s awesome. But the audience isn’t usually as targeted, right? So it’s like, let’s say that you’re on, I don’t know, good morning, America tons and tons of people see it, but they maybe see it while they’re like getting breakfast for their kids and they’re not really paying attention. And how many of them are actually your target market. It’s great for credibility, but it’s probably not the strongest lead generator per se. But if you go on a very specific podcast, even with a say, they have a smaller audience, let’s say they have like a thousand people a month who is their five, I don’t know, five, whatever. That’s a captive audience who loves the host, who trusts the host, who listens to the host, who believes the host. Like, to me, that feels like, I don’t know about you, but for me in my business, we generate the most clients from just going on podcasts.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
I love to hear that. And thank you, cuz that is such an important point when it comes to PR too, is like, I don’t wanna reneg on me saying sales is PR PR sales. Um, there’s definitely elements of both to tie into each other, but PR you don’t go out to make a sale when you do that. Oh
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Yeah,
Speaker 2 (29:39):
It does happen. But you are so right. It’s just like people that are listening to like good morning, America aren’t necessarily like, think about the demographic. They aren’t necessarily a person that’s gonna buy my membership because they’re not women in business. Yeah. But it’s still that credibility factor. And it’s kind of like your report card coming home to mom and dad saying, I got a plus. Right. So like putting that batch on your website is like that report card that you’re a credible person. Mm. Um, yeah. And it’s, it’s more, it’s like, it’s a nice to have it’s it’s not a necessity. What’s what’s important is I, why we call the PR engine is you’re constantly fueling this PR engine. Mm. Which includes social content, marketing and PR than how they played together. Um, but yeah. And I just think about like the importance of PR now more than ever, because there is so much competition, um, with the Facebook iOS updates and people’s ads falling off. It’s like every single person that’s on the executive or founding team in a business needs to have a personal brand.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
And you think about anybody in your company, especially smaller companies, they’re walking billboards for your business. Yeah. I would tell like the, you know, 25 year old intern coming into my business as like the moment you state that you work for me, you represent my company. So everything you do in your personal life, which, you know, I can’t control is a reflection of the culture that we have within the organization. Mm. And I’m like, just don’t do stupid stuff. And if you’re already doing stupid stuff, let me know. It’s true. You need a personal brand more than ever. And so when it comes to like what we’re focusing on now, it’s a lot of podcasts. So my own podcast getting on other people’s show. Um, and as you know, those relationships evolve. Yeah. Right. Like you and I, after this, if something comes up where you’re like, oh, I need a PR person to come in. Yeah. To do a summit. I know who to call.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
You can’t build this level of intimacy. I’m just pitch somebody for a feature in a magazine. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Gosh, it’s such a good distinction. Are there any, are there any nuances to podcast pitching and I you’ve been so generous with your information. So I, I really appreciate this. Um, you know, I’ve got I, what I do know about our community is a lot of them right now are asking me, how do I land more podcasts? How do I pitch it’s the right podcast? And I think about, you’ve already shared so much great information about being specific, sending the media kit. Is there anything else that would be different from pitching a podcast to, as opposed to major media that we should keep in mind?
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Ooh. My favorite pitches, um, are always the, okay. So here’s the thing about being a podcaster the most are your downloads. How many people are downloading the, the episodes, how many people are leaving reviews and how do you get that? It’s more eyeballs. Yeah. And so we know the way this works is you coming on. My show, me going on your show is that we’re just gonna share within our ecosystem of, of these episodes. Um, and so what I love about some pitches is they’ll say here’s so and so like they follow the good like template. Here’s the link to them. Their media kit is, is attached or there’s a link to their digital media kit. And here is how our team internally shares these episodes. Um, it goes out to the newsletter of a hundred thousand subscribers. It goes out to their Instagram. So like they’re already stating how they’re going to GA give me more exposure. Oh. And so not only have they taken the time to identify that this is a potential, very relevant guest for my show, but they’re telling me how they’re gonna promote it. Oh. And the best ones to, when they follow up, they have screenshots of the reviews they left on my podcast.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Oh, I that’s ninja. I love that.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Totally. And I’m like, oh, that’s so good. It’s totally ninja.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Wow. Gosh, that’s so good. That’s so good. It’s like little it’s it’s the, to me, the bottom line is it’s intentionality. What, whether you’re booking, you know, whether you’re pitching major media, whether you’re pitching a podcast spray and pray does not, it’s not gonna get you anywhere. Great. No, you wanna be right. So
Speaker 2 (33:51):
You have to ask what’s in it for me. Yes. For the host, what’s in it for me, for the writer, the journalists, like what do they need? Right. So podcasters, they need more reviews. They may need more download. So how can you help them achieve that? And I don’t like the lazy pitches I’ve been, I’ve been like pitched, Hey, John, uh, love your show. Like I know Renee, it is not John, But I know you cut and pasted that
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Don’t you love it. Or I’ll get ’em on LinkedIn, like right across my LinkedIn is podcast. So it’ll be someone who reaches out. They’re like, Hey, have you ever thought about starting a podcast?
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Right.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
I mean, it’s, it’s the world we live in. But I think the bottom line is you can really stand out by not doing that. You can stand out by taking the time to be intentional, two
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Seconds to find somebody’s name. It takes two seconds to say, oh, Renee has never hosted a male on her show other than her husband once. So maybe John won’t be a good guest for the show.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I love that. I love that. So
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Just have patience go at it, slow. It’s a marathon and understand that you’re gonna get a nose and rejections and people being rude. That’s the name of the game. Don’t take it personally. It’s on them. Yeah. Just be intentional. Be aligned with your values. And if, like I said earlier, if you genuinely care about what you do, people will see that they’ll feel that coming through on your pages.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Yeah, for sure. That’s so powerful. Tell us ran. This has been phenomenal. Um, I have one wrap up question for you, but I wanna ask first, I know you’ve got a really exciting program. Yeah. Open up for opening up for enrollment. Um, and we’ll link below in the show notes, but tell us about where they can connect with you. Tell us more about your program. Yeah. And, uh, and then we’ll ask my final question.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Cool. Well, you can find me on Instagram, Renee underscore Warren and I am unapologetically myself. I’m a six foot tall, um, goofy gangly woman from, can I
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Say
Speaker 2 (35:55):
I’m awkward. Um, and you know what, that’s just, that’s just who I am. And it took me my pretty much my whole life to come to those terms, um, of, of accepting that. But I don’t hold back and I, yeah. And I, and I, I love sharing my stories, uh, on Instagram, about, you know, my business, about my life of travel, about things that we’re doing, thoughts that I have, but encouraging people to just be themselves. Um, I think the best, most successful women in business, female entrepreneurs are those that, um, they’re more aligned with their purpose and they’re, they’re doing the work that really fills them up in and are okay to take those, um, uncomfortable, safe risks.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Yeah. Um, so yeah, that’s me on Instagram. Or you can pop on over to we wild women.com and I’m launching this new membership it’s called the wild collective, which was my take on making my private coaching services marks festival to a lot of more women. And we have some incredible content, uh, all things PR financing, leadership. We have monthly master classes, experts from all over the world that are the best at what they do coming in and training sessions. And I have really cool accountability group.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Uh, I love that so much. I love that so much. I, uh, like I wanna go back and I need to watch your stories now and see, see all the behind the scenes. I love that. And the membership is such a, what a cool opportunity for people to be able to get access to you, um, in that way. So I wanna wrap up with one final question and I love how you shared Renee, that the women who are doing the, and you know, women, everyone who do the best, they’re aligned with their purpose. And I know in my life it took a long time to get to the point where I felt like I could trust myself to like, to that if I had a big goal or a big vision or a big dream, but it was safe to go after it. And it was okay, cuz there’s a lot that tells us we can’t it’s
Speaker 2 (37:59):
The
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Out possible, yada yada, there’s a lot that tells us our instincts are wrong. We want too much. Right. All of that. So how have
Speaker 2 (38:07):
You
Speaker 1 (38:08):
In your life learned to really, really trust yourself?
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Mm. Uh, most days I still don’t. Mm.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
I appreciate your, your vulnerability there.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Yeah. No, but it goes back to the story out creating boundaries. And actually my last reels is a perfect example of this, but it’s a being, being okay with the unknown and being okay with succeeding and being okay with failure. And here’s the thing is if you wanna live a mediocre life, then do mediocre things. And, and it’s okay. There’s a lot of people that, that are so important to society, to our communities that are doing things that are, some people quote think are mediocre. But if you wanna live a life of purpose is you have to know that what comes with that is judgment from others is step uping on other people’s toes is breaking other people’s hearts. It’s making other people jealous and envious. And we don’t wanna believe that. Especially as, as women we’re, we’re very empathic. Um, but know that those are such a small percent of the people that you actually inspire. And so anytime I’ve had those like little common or like little things that people have said, it’s like half of a percent of all the people that have said, Renee, you inspire me, keep doing what you’re doing. I need you please like launch this thing, do that thing. I can’t wait for you to speak at this summit. So those are the people we have to remember. It’s like, if you can just impact one person’s life, then you’ve like done your job essentially. Oh
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Gosh, I get chills with that answer truly. And remembering like that’s part of it. And I appreciate your honesty there. Just like you were honest at the beginning about, Pure’s not always easy, like your honesty about this is it’s part of it. And if you’re not having some of those experiences, it’s like, what are you sheltering yourself from? And where are you not fall your instincts and where are you not playing full out for the fear of hurting someone else, hurting yourself, et cetera. But I it’s like, it’s a life choice of whether we’re gonna at the end of our lives, look back and be like, did I play full out or was I playing not to lose? Right. So, oh my gosh, I enjoy you
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Play too in and define success on your own terms.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Yes. Yeah. Oh, that’s so good. You’re incredible. This was such a gift I learned, I, I knew I was gonna learn a lot about media and PR, which I learned so much and just being in your energy is so powerful and so inspiring. So thank you for, for your incredible gift today.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Well, thanks for having me. This is so much
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Fun. Oh my gosh. I love it. Well too, everybody listening, please go out. Connect with Renee. We’ll uh, we’ll link her Instagram we’ll link her website and the membership in the show notes on my website, Eli archer.com/podcast. And um, uh, go out and share this episode with a friend. This is so powerful. This is so impactful. Share it. Please tag both Renee and me. Let us know what your biggest light bulb moment was. I had so many, I know I had so many while I was listening. So thank you so much for being a listener of she sells radio. I love you so much. I’m grateful for you and we will see you next week on next week’s sound bye for now.