How to Get Amazing PR w/ Alessandra Pollina

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Welcome to She Sells Radio you know I always want to bring you guests and

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experts who have skill sets that you need but aren’t necessarily my background or real house and I feel like

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the few times on the show that we’ve had a conversation or about PR I get so much

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feedback and so many questions and so many people saying oh my gosh I want to know more about this I want to master it

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and so today I am so excited to bring you a real expert on this topic

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Alessandra Polina and if you are not yet familiar with Alessandra I actually

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found her when I was searching for like top podcasts for female entrepreneurs

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which is by the way like not an easy ranking to get so the woman knows what

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she’s doing and is brilliant at PR and it’s gonna like I think you’re gonna

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learn so much in this conversation today but she’s the founder and owner of quotable Media Company a PR agency and

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media company that she has owned for over a decade which also speaks to the power of her work she’s the host of

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quotable a female Millennial entrepreneur podcast and the creator of quotable magazine which we’re going to

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talk about today because I have a secret passion in my heart to launch a magazine and I want to learn all the things about

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how this came together and she was also awarded the 40 under 40 from Boston

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business journals so Alessandra. Welcome to She Sells Radio. I know this is going to be amazing and I know I’m going to

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learn a lot from you too so we’re so glad to have you oh my gosh thank you so much I’m so excited to be here and it’s

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always humbling to hear somebody like introduce you that way I’m like oh my gosh like we never missed out all those

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things like that you know so yeah we’ve got a lot we could talk about there’s so

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much and that’s you know just like quick side note but I think that’s one of the biggest things that for us as women and

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whether you’re a female entrepreneur or whether you’re we’ve got a lot of listeners who are in sales and corporate

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like a lot of times we just don’t see ourselves like we don’t notice or see the amazing things that we’ve done and

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actually you know what I was about to go off on a tangent but this ties in totally with PR because there’s probably stuff that you could be getting featured

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in The Press for and that like you don’t even think about because you’re like oh that’s just obvious or that was just easy for me right so exactly yeah okay

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there’s always a tie-in there’s always a child absolutely as you said that I was like yeah you know this is actually

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something to talk about with people a lot it’s like we it’s harder for us to see all of our things all of our

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newsworthy and noteworthy like aspects but when you really think about it like we have those things and it’s important

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to recognize those because the more you feel like aligned with that and excited by it the more and you know I feel like

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when people kind of shy away from it they’re like oh like I just do this or I you know just dabble in that that shines

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through like in everything else that you do too and and that comes through in like your media outreach and things like

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that too so but when you really stand behind it and you’re like you know what yeah I do those things like I founded this thing and I’m awesome at this like

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that comes through too and people really pick up on that and it helps with all of your other Outreach and media attention

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and things like that so it totally does tie in and we can talk about that more too yeah totally I know and I it’s funny

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um I’m very conversational on these so we’re just gonna kind of go with the flow and I I will get to like your background and how you started your

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company because I think it’s really cool um but you know the other night I was like I was sitting in bed and I was

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scrolling on I don’t sit and scroll at the end of the night like my clients are gonna be

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listening they’re like what she was sitting in bed scrolling she tells us to put our phone away an hour before bed and program our subconscious mind with

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what we want well yes I was sitting and scrolling and I don’t do that often but I did this night

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sorry in content and I was watching I was looking at content from a woman um who I just think has done such a

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beautiful job of like marketing and positioning herself and it inspired me to think about okay if I was gonna like

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if I forgot that I was me and I was gonna go like pitch me to the media or

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think about like the stories that I could position or how I would position it what would I do and suddenly all of

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these things started coming and I was like dang like that’s good or that sounds really newsworthy or noteworthy

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and it’s it’s not like that I’m so different or amazing it was just like I got out of my own way and I put on a

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little bit of like my limited PR marketing hat and started thinking about

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it and the ideas that came were like oh my gosh like people would want like that would be something I would see in a

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magazine or that I would see on TV so how is that kind of the mindset that we

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need for successful PR pitching like let’s just start there and then we’ll we’ll go into we’ll weave in some of

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your story as we go to yeah I think it is and what I was going to say to kind of like the next step of that too is

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which can be really powerful and interesting I think can be to go back and look at your your stuff like look at

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your actual presence after you’ve thought about those things are any of those things coming through in your

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social media posts or your blog posts your other like your direct marketing and I think a lot of times people are

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really surprised to see which pieces are coming through and which pieces you really like because sometimes you really aren’t thinking about it in that way and

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you realize like if I did Pitch this to the media or you know it came up in conversation would other people even be able to

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really tell this is like a thing that I do or is like something that’s really important to me or is like a core part

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of my the way I see my personal brand and sometimes you’ll find that those things really aren’t showing up that

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much and that can give you a really good kind of indication of where you might want to start when it comes to getting

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yourself ready to present to the media or just tweaks that you can do even if you have been and also sometimes you

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might be like oh yeah like those things are coming up a lot like I am talking about that why haven’t I thought to pitch it like that is something people

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are seeing me as an expert in but I’ve never thought to you know try to get an article featured on that or try to get

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on to you know do a TV segment about that topic but people really would look at my stuff whatever that is wherever

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you’re showing up the most and feel like it makes sense and so that can be a really powerful thing to do I

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try to do it personally too for my companies because sometimes I’m like wait a minute like we haven’t even been like talking about this thing that like

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I consider important to us and it just like hasn’t come up on social lately or it hasn’t been something we’ve you know

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put out there consciously recently yeah what is what’s the mindset with that

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because even as I did it and I was like it was like content idea after content idea after content idea came up and it

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was all like I knew it was good intellectually and I knew it would be like a hook and it would pull people in and then there was still this like

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little voice in my head that was like oh like look at how you’re positioning yourself and you’re like I know how to

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overcome the limiting beliefs but it still came up and I’m just curious what would you what is the mindset that you

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use to most powerfully position yourself for your clients well the most important

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thing that I feel like is what we struggle with is keeping in mind that you know why you

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started your business or why you talk about or think about or care about these things to begin with and always be bringing that up and I think it goes

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back to like really the mindset in a lot of the things we do in business but it’s the same exact thing here it’s like why

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are you doing this you’re doing it because there’s someone out there that needs what you’re offering there’s

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someone out there that that you’re speaking to because you found it was a need you found there was room or space

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in the market for because nobody else is talking about this thing the way you’re talking about it or no one else is

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putting this stuff out there in the way that you are putting it out there and that’s going to speak to somebody for whom it’s going to be life-changing

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right so that’s like I mean that’s like I think what it really all comes down to when it comes to so much what we do in

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business and it’s the exact same thing when it comes to putting your story out there because that’s the main thing is to make sure you are you do have

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something a unique take on like the topic because you don’t want to pitch something that you know already is out

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there a million times in a Million Ways you want to pitch it in the really unique way that is true to how to to you

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and your your expertise and what you can bring to the topic and once you’re doing that

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that’s that’s it that’s the important part like once you have that unique take on it there’s someone who needs to hear

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that unique take in order to take action or you know to have the result that you

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can help them bring and once you identify that like I think I think that’s what I always just remind people

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of is you know if you don’t try to put this out there then think of the people that are not going

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to ever find out about you or find out about the things you offer or the things you can do or the things they can do if

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they have thought about it the way that you’ve told them to you know it’s that it’s about those opportunities that you’re going to miss for others in a lot

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of the case I think interesting oh my gosh it’s like everything else right and

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like the right mindset with sales too is it always comes back to just how can I serve how can I serve and one of the

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things I’m hearing from you is like remembering that you are a mirror for other people and so when we can like get

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out of our own way and remember it’s not about us and you sharing how you did XYZ

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awesome thing while overcoming these challenges it’s not so much or if it’s in the energy of I’m not bragging but

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I’m sharing so that you can also do this thing it’s a different Dynamic right we can kind of get out of Our Own Way exactly

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and even if it is a little brag it’s still putting your business out there because you know or yourself or your

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product or service because you know it’s going to help someone and maybe that is the way maybe it has to be a little bit or a brag to be the hook that gets you

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to get that article or to get that placement and still it’s it’s still for the reason behind it which is getting

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getting yourself out there in order to done be what the other what what the people

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need I like that yeah I like that a lot that’s powerful so okay before we get too far because I

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do want to I want to come back to what you were saying about the unique positioning but before we get too far you started your company at age 23 right

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is that right yeah this is amazing I mean I don’t know we’ve got we’ve got

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amazing people listening and then there’s also like I think at age 20 I don’t know I was like in corporate

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trying to figure my life out like not I wasn’t there so how did it come about

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for you and how much I’m sure you’ll talk about the role of press and PR in your growth as well but like how did it

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all come about and how was that for you starting it so young it was um yeah I mean it was out of

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necessity I think really like I know a lot of people feel like they need to do kind of go that corporate route first

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before going off on their own I um I had a series of you know well I had

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really one bad job and very quickly only one you got it out of the way I was like

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you know what I don’t think I I can’t do this ever again so so it really felt like necessity basically I had set

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myself up for like success in terms of starting out early from the time I was

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in college I knew you know I knew going into I was well I didn’t know going into it but I decided very quickly I was majoring in PR I was in a very good

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School of Communications that was like very well you know reputed for their PR program I got internships ever since I

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think after my very first year of college basically like that first summer I started um interning at a small agency and every

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pretty much every semester and summer after that I interned to other agencies so by the time I graduated I already had

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experience working within most of the like good agencies in in my city

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um so I had a ton of experience and some of them were in-house too I I had um I studied abroad in London where they kind

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of like did a placement for you so I didn’t even like have to really apply for that one which was really lucky

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um and that was in-house at for Disney um for like you were a broad in-house for Disney in London in the publicity

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Department relaxing Disneyland Paris um the crew were a part of that for some

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reason um yeah although like anything basically besides like the US wow that this wasn’t

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the bad job I’m assuming that one was really fun um that was just

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example being like in-house in a really big company right um which it would that

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was a fun experience I enjoyed that internship but I also did realize I didn’t think I wanted to ever work for

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like such a big company um it was really very disjointed like I didn’t know it was very hard to see like

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how things were working together essentially um and I was like I want to feel like I

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work somewhere where I’m having more of an impact day-to-day and I’m sure you know not necessarily having to work your

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way up the ladder to get to a point where you’re there probably um

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so yeah anyway when I by the time I graduated I had a lot of experiences I also had already worked part-time for

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one of my first internships again later because I had kept up a really great relationship with the guy who owned this

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small agency and um it worked out that he ended up needing some part-time help I think by that must have been like by

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one of my last Summers of college so like I had a lot on my resume including

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like a part-time account manager position essentially added at a agency so it just kind of all worked out that

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then a graduating got this job that was actually not at an agency it was I thought I wanted to do um work with

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non-profits so it was not a small organization where I was like doing everything and

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um anyway it ended up not being great and I called up the same guy I had worked with twice before and was like

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what can I do with you so I ended up working on a couple clients with him right away so I was just like I gotta get out of here right now so that’s when

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I said it was kind of like necessity it was like okay I kind of quit with no other options he said I could do some stuff here and

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there with him so that would like kind of keep me going but basically it was like okay what else can I do and my

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husband who was my boyfriend at the time was like well why don’t you just do some of these clients yourself like the same thing that you’re going to be doing with

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him and that you’ve done for like the last five years like through other agencies and it sounds kind of

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ridiculous but I was just like yeah I guess why not like I had seen at some of the tiny places like all the behind the

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scenes in terms of like how to even run their business and then I had met some of the larger places you know all the

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other stuff like how to run a business like or how to do PR like a big agency so I like had all of that and I was just

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like let me give it a try and I started working with clients um you know I was just myself at that point in time like

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when I say started the company it was just me and some clients but let me ask you I just want to pause really quick

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and ask because I would imagine and you can tell me if this wasn’t your experience but you know going off and

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launching your own thing like I just got off um completing a call with some

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clients and we were talking about like overcoming the limiting beliefs and the self-doubt like who am I to do this and

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I need another credential and I like all the things that our brain will tell us and did that come up for you and if so how

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did you overcome it or was it more like no like I’ve I I feel like I have what I

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you know what it takes and what I need and was that more just like you’ve always been really confident like that or how did that come about you know I’d

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say really good question because I feel like I didn’t struggle with that as much as a lot of people do I think part of that came from I was building a business

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based on the skill I already knew I had the skills I had had these experiences where I knew I could take a client and

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Pitch them to media and get them featured in media I knew I could get the end result of the client work so while I

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had no experience actually running my own company like I feel like that’s where I kind of like probably just

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didn’t even know how much I didn’t know or what I was getting into it’s just a blessing yeah me too yeah definitely it

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was and it grew really slowly like I started with literally one client you know because I was still like helping you know do some of those other projects

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with that guy on the side so it wasn’t like I’m not saying I you know grew to like a

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successful you know full-time six-figure business in the first year or anything like that but we grew really slowly and

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that I think gave me a chance to to build that confidence as we went and again I always was getting the results I

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feel like that really really helped I do think a lot of times people nowadays start businesses and they’re like I know I want to start a business they know I

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want to work for myself and that’s and then it’s like okay what can I do to like to have my own business

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right and I didn’t come into it like that I came into it as I already know I’m really good at the skill I already

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know I can do this thing and starting the business was just really out of necessity because I was like I just

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don’t know if I can get a job in time yeah I mean from that that perspective

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was a little bit different but I will say the places that it manifested the most for sure and I know this looking

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back and it’s something I’ve struggled you know dealt with and worked on for years after is in like

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charging what I’m worth you know knowing and understanding and feeling the value because as I said I knew I got the

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results but I had trouble asking people to pay me enough for it

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because I was like well this is easy like how much are they gonna pay me to do this easy thing of getting them

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featured in the media you know what I mean and so since I was new and I didn’t have a lot of examples of my own work

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you know that was through my company because I was brand new as a company

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um you know if they’re like oh will you do it for this or you know people were always trying to negotiate the proposals

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at first so I did work for a long time for a lot less than it was worth because

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of that and I think that’s the main place that that came up for me because it was kind of like well I should take whatever I can get you

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know I think I have a lot of that mindset that was like I think the most damaging mindset that I had that came from probably essentially like what

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you’re talking about in terms of like not fully trusting myself as a business owner or like

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yeah being in business I think that’s where it would come from yeah well and we may Circle back to that because I

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think that’s like you know that’s one thing I say here on this podcast is your level of income will never exceed your

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level of self-worth and I know like my first client coming out of corporate I charged them like 300 to like make and

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review a sales presentation and I looked back and I’m like uh wow they got a

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steal but at the same time sometimes it is a building process you know what it is like I think just getting that even

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that first dollar is such a win when you’re doing something new so okay so

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fast forward a bit so you launched you guys and I appreciate you saying like you grew kind of slowly

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but also you were learning and like getting the wins and seeing the client results

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um you know now you’re you’re what over 10 years in now I think right to your business and summer yeah it’s amazing

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and so give like a super quick overview of so you’ve got the pr agency you’ve got the podcast you’ve got a magazine as

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well I want to just like give get people kind of oriented to what you’ve created in these past 10 years and then I want

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to dive into a little more of the Tactical PR outage I’m sorry I feel like we went like way into a lot of detail I

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do that on the show it’s totally that’s how we roll yeah who cares but what got

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interesting I would say is I guess the one thing I’ll touch on which maybe came from kind of that time period too was I

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didn’t know anyone else who had a business so what I with where everything else kind of came from was really I

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didn’t know any other women who had a business that didn’t know anyone else like kind of in my age range I didn’t know anyone in their 20s I had a business so what I did was I tried to

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start a like Meetup Group to try to find some because I was like it would be cool to talk to people other people kind of

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in this boat so I started this group to like get together for coffee there were

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very few of us for a long time like people who I found to join um but now there’s a lot so that’s great

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news but basically what came from that was I was like actually I want to make a podcast of basically this group and the

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conversations that we’re having and be able to share the stories and these kinds of experiences with more people

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because if I’m having trouble this much trouble finding and connecting with other women in a similar situation and

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I’m in Boston which is like a major city right imagine like what if I had stayed

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in Vermont in the middle of nowhere where I grew up like it that they must not have anyone or I mean I’m sure

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there’s always someone but like you know much harder so I was like let me record these conversations basically and turn it into a podcast so that’s where my

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podcast came from and what year was this because this was this like before podcasting was really

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um kind of felt I feel like now I’m like oh I’m glad I started when I did because I feel like it now I don’t know I

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already at that point I already thought it was too late it was four years ago I think we just celebrated like four years so

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I don’t know 2019 yeah yeah um yeah I felt like everyone else

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already had a podcast but I also think that like I did start it before a lot of people who have podcasts now so you know

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there’s always more yeah well it kind of speaks to I’m curious your approach on this with press

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like the value of both going after other people’s platforms and also creating your own platform which I’ve always been

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a believer in and it’s something I’ve always tried to leverage like I love how you created your meetup group that’s something I did early on in my journey

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too because I think if you can anytime you can be the creator of a platform where people want to come play like

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that’s very powerful so maybe speak to a little bit of that balance like of what

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you see in terms of important with like creating your own platform versus going out and pitching others is it a it’s a

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both and type of scenario or how do you approach that for yourself yeah no it’s interesting I mean I think that I I

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always went into it like I went into the the group kind of always being like I’m not I’m only creating this because I

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can’t find it like I’m only creating this because I wanted to exist I don’t want to be somebody organizing like events or get togethers like but I can’t

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find anyone who’s doing it so I’m gonna try um which you know obviously maybe isn’t

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the best kind of I just had to go into it like I kind of wish I had approached it with more of a probably like strategy

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and like business mindset of like oh yeah this is actually a great opportunity to create something

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um but I admit that was not really and again this was even sooner I don’t remember the group kind of went through a couple other not iterations but like

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there were like months where I would try to like you know organize something every month and then

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um months where I was like I don’t have it in me right now like nobody’s showing up I don’t like literally one person

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would come half the time and I’d be like okay I went like all the way downtown to a coffee shop that wasn’t the most convenient to me just because I thought

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it would be convenient for you know other people to read at and so I would like not host anything for a while and

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then it would get like re-inspired again and be like okay let me try again and like then just one time it clicked and I

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don’t know if it’s because by then there were more women my age business a couple years had passed and like it definitely

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got more common like by the later 20s and definitely early 30s um but I would say in terms of like most

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like all the other platforms for me came from really just that again it’s like I’m an

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abnormal person to ask about this because I have the pr background and for me I was just like

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I feel like there should be more platforms like I just feel like there should be more places for women to tell

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their stories like even if it’s not like brand new or some super newsworthy like

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groundbreaking thing like these women have really great important stories to tell even if they’ve been in business for you

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know five years or even if they’re just starting out and maybe wouldn’t be seen as like you know as notable yet as you know for

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some bigger platforms that they want to see that you’ve already you know already done XYZ before they want to feature you

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and I was like I wish there were just more opportunities more platforms for people to get to really just tell their

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story of what they’re doing and who they are because I find such inspiration in I

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don’t I I don’t want to say like in the everyday stories like I think that’s kind of what I’m trying to say like

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it just could be anyone and I’m like wow she did that like ever I feel like everyone needs to know

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because those are really helpful and powerful and so for me creating the platforms was again less of like a

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business decision of like oh I need to be a person who owns the magazine or who hosts a podcast and more just like from

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almost from being on the client side being like I really wish these platforms existed for me to tell my client stories

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on and get them featured on so that’s really where it came from from for me

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um I do feel that from you know it is really powerful though to see the other

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side of that as a PR person and for as any other business person to kind of see like okay like what kinds of things are

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people are pitching me right now like I think that could be really powerful for anyone who has a podcast

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um and yeah there’s a lot to be said to to be creating those spaces for other people and being seen as the person

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who’s doing that and that’s something I’m trying to like actually own a little bit more right now and like going

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forward because I think I haven’t done enough of that before yeah well it’s I mean it’s helpful to hear how it’s an

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evolution and a journey too as you go um and I’m curious so I want to you know

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as we record this and obviously what we talk about here will be relevant um in many ways whenever somebody

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listens but you know as we record this it’s like closer to the beginning of 2023 and

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media is changing press is changing like how we communicate is changing

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I would love to hear from you what are the things that you are seeing like your clients who are most successful in

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getting positioned well within the Press what are some of the commonalities of what you’re doing with them and what

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they’re doing that you think is making the biggest difference now oh great question

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um I mean I think ultimately it comes down to being able to find those angles those unique aspects um and create them

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if need be because you know I know some people are like well I don’t really have anything like super unique but like there’s always something that we can

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create or you know it can be the way that you talk about your unique formula for doing the thing that you do even if

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it is a thing that a lot of other people do right or people offer um just finding those unique ways to

26:26

tell that story is really important and being open to like figuring out what those are developing them if they aren’t

26:32

something that you already had um because I think sometimes people think like it has to be something that’s

26:38

I don’t know an innate part of their business or something they’ve already been doing for years or something and it

26:43

really doesn’t it can be something that you kind of develop in order to have these media angles

26:48

um you know as I said not not necessarily like develop a whole new part of your business but maybe develop

26:53

a your unique formula for doing it or the way that you look at things or explain things that can be all that that

26:59

we’re talking about here for for like your unique take on something um but the other thing that I think that

27:05

you know in recent years even in past several months

27:11

um I find that looking at things from a couple of different lenses can be really

27:17

helpful finding you know not necessarily being stuck on like oh I really need to be in this Outlet this is the outlet

27:22

that’s going to be the game changer for me um it might be and I’m not saying you shouldn’t go for that but I’m finding

27:29

that you know as media changes so fast and as the way people consume media is changing so fast too I really try to

27:36

look at it as um you know I’m kind of really saying like what is like your visibility plan

27:41

and it’s not necessarily just pitching the mainstream media the way that it always has been you know we’re

27:47

looking at of course podcasts that’s not super new but building that into your

27:52

plan being really strategic with podcast Outreach um contributing articles to outlets a

27:59

lot of outlets don’t have nearly as many staff writers anymore or people you know

28:04

the actual people on staff who are putting together the publication and they’re actually accepting a lot more contributed articles so if you or I were

28:11

to write an article and send it to them and it will have our byline on it it’s not quite the same as like earned

28:17

editorial but it gets your expertise out there in a really personal way it allows

28:23

people to get to read something from your perspective with your expertise and

28:28

that is something that I’m seeing really becoming more powerful and more important

28:34

um you know already but for the next couple of this year especially

28:39

um there’s just a lot more opportunity for it now I think people are a lot more receptive to it I kind of consider that like a gateway to

28:46

um like to doing PR if you’re if you’re thinking about like starting to do some of your own PR2 because it can be feel a

28:52

little easier you know we’ve all written a blog post we’ve all written you know content for our business about certain

28:57

topics so if you can take some of that and turn it into more of an article and then submit that somewhere that you

29:03

would like to be able to say that you’ve been an expert you know featured on in this place that can be a great way to get

29:10

into it um so yeah people who are I’m finding that’s where we really need to be kind

29:15

of thinking is is where all the different places that your audiences might be and it’s not necessarily just

29:22

the New York Times you know it’s it’s really gonna ask about that like should we always go big or should we really

29:27

like I have a different perspective from what I know but you’re the expert here so I want to hear from you like yeah

29:35

does it make sense to pitch smaller to start like what how do we know where to pitch I think a lot of times starting

29:41

small is a good idea and that’s partly because a lot of depending on what you know what you’re talking about and what

29:46

your pitch is but a lot of places kind of want to see that you’re already sort of an established expert before they’re

29:53

gonna you know before a bigger major Outlet is going to consider you an expert you know so the reason that I

29:58

like to start with maybe a smaller or a local Outlet or something like that is to just build that up a little bit and

30:05

get let people be able to see that you’re talking about these topics because part of it is like they’re gonna

30:11

go vet you they’re gonna go and this kind of goes back to what we’re talking about the beginning in terms of like are these topics coming through in the

30:18

rest of your marketing because a lot of times people I think approach their marketing their PR from like two

30:25

different places but they’re they’re the same I mean PR is a form of a part of your marketing and you should be talking

30:32

about all the things that you’re going to want to be pitching in your marketing also because what they’re going to do is Google you or look you up on Instagram

30:38

or you know look you up wherever you are and if you’ve shared on Instagram that you

30:45

were recently in this other article or if that you know they Google you and you come up that’s going to be it’s gonna be

30:52

a no-brainer like yeah oh yeah she’s the an expert on this thing she talks about this I can see how she speaks especially

30:57

if you want to do something like TV um being able to have examples of how

31:02

you speak and whether you know whether that’s even podcasts to get started but if you can get on like local TV channel

31:08

they’re going to want to see that before they’re going to have you on you know Good Morning America which is what everyone says they want to be on

31:15

it’s so funny I’m like at some point I know I’ll do TV like I’m interested in it’s just not something I’ve like I’m

31:21

actively pursuing right now so GMA is the one yeah that and Oprah everyone still says of

31:28

course I mean I would say yes to that in a heartbeat oh yeah and I mean I’m all for

31:34

and I think you know especially if you’re doing it yourself which is what I tell people a lot of the time they can do is you know we didn’t even really

31:39

touch on that but as well as having the agency I love to tell people you know you can also do this yourself you can pitch yourself and in that case you have

31:46

nothing to lose so I mean yeah go for the big guys but also

31:52

you know strategize a little bit with maybe starting a little bit smaller starting with these contributed pieces

31:58

where then you can be like I’ve already been quoted here and here or you can see me talking about these topics here and

32:03

here I’d love to go into it in more depth or in this different way for you and then it just makes sense you

32:10

know yeah I think no I think that’s so smart to like know how they think and know what they’re going to look for like

32:16

and you have nothing to lose you already this is what I tell clients at sales like when they’re afraid to go out and

32:21

pitch a big sale you already don’t have the client so already it’s worst case scenario for you that you’re afraid of

32:27

that you’re still not gonna have the clients so like you might as well go for it so and the thing with pitching too is

32:33

like even a no is not like I mean yes that’s and I I hate like whatever they say like it’s not like that a no is a no

32:40

it’s but you can always pitch another idea later so like they’re not saying no way and I hate you and we’re never gonna

32:47

even if they say no that’s not a good idea for us right now or we don’t have space to include that right now yeah

32:52

they’re not saying you can never pitch us another story idea in the future so you absolutely can so like literally

32:58

there’s no downside like it’s not even like you can be like oh I already pitched them check them off the list it’s finished now I’ve lost

33:05

that’s such a good point so there’s two things you and I were talking about at

33:10

the beginning that I think are awesome resources that our listeners could take advantage of moving forward I also would

33:16

love for you to share how people can get in touch with you because I know we like just scraped the surface of your

33:23

knowledge and skill set and how someone can use this information to go out and get the features they want so let’s

33:30

speak to can you speak to the magazine first so I thought this was very cool that you have a magazine and that people

33:35

can pitch themselves for like share a little bit more about that if you can so in the magazine we have like different

33:41

sections so there’s kind of we’ll do interviews with people people can pitch themselves to that we also have a lot of PR people who pitch you know clients to

33:47

us but we love to hear directly from a business owner or um you know woman leader leader in your

33:54

business um so those are interviews we also do take contributed articles so if somebody

34:00

wants to try writing something that’s you know a it’s we’re focused on female entrepreneurship and women leader so

34:05

some kind of topic that has that’s interesting or important or relevant to other female entrepreneurs um so if you

34:12

have like a business where you have a service that is relevant to other entrepreneurs or if you just have some

34:18

kind of experience that you’ve gone through in your business that’s something that would be you know useful for people to read

34:24

um we accept those for every issue and you know we’ll also do like features on

34:29

another business or a person or something else happening so feel free to pitch really anything like that um and

34:37

what was it uh yeah people can email us no I was just gonna ask about like how

34:43

does somebody is it uh they just go through your website to do that is that yeah so you’ll find a button on the website you can just email magazine at

34:49

quotablemediaco.com too um you can just email a pitch right over there you will get an automatic bounce

34:54

back that will say um we really don’t have time to review like every idea so you can send a pitch

35:00

and we will get back to you if it’s something we can do but if you want to like contribute an article just send the whole article because sometimes this is

35:07

my one this is a good tip for you sometimes people will be like Oh I’m interested in contributing an article about XYZ right which is what you would

35:14

often the way you would often pitch an outlet but if it’s a contributed article they don’t know that you’re a good

35:20

writer like we can’t I I might love the topic but you might have a terrible article so like I can’t commit to saying

35:27

yes send that over we’ll use it just because it’s a great idea so when it comes to a contributed article send the

35:34

actual piece and then if we love it we’ll use it and if we if we can’t then we’ll tell you you know we passed on

35:39

this you can send it somewhere else or use it elsewhere that’s super helpful to know just like again knowing the nuances

35:45

the ins and outs like make it easy for the person on the other side yeah yeah which I think is a great rule of thumb

35:51

and then you spoke also to you know for someone who wants to do this for themselves to start

35:58

um you have a is it a boot camp that helps people with this like share just a little bit about that yeah I’d love to

36:04

hear more together like an online program basically because so many people were like asking me and I love to tell

36:09

people about it I’m like yeah you like you can do this if you’re Savvy enough to start your business you’re Savvy

36:15

enough to be able to do your NPR but I know most people don’t have a lot of time when they get to a certain level of business so I’m always going to have a

36:21

job on the agency side like there’s always going to be someone who wants us to do it for them so I’m definitely not

36:27

like afraid to tell people how to do it themselves and to tell them like you really can so I started like putting

36:33

together recordings and templates and information for people and then I realized I needed it was basically an online course

36:40

um which we updated somewhat recently to be more of a boot camp now because I find the main thing that’s missing is the accountability

36:46

because people can know how to do something but with the busyness of your day-to-day like running your business it

36:51

cannot end up getting done unless you know that like once a month I’m gonna be like hey so how did those things go so

36:58

we turned it into a little bit more of an interactive boot camp where now there’s a live Workshop every month and check-ins every week to kind of see how

37:06

things are going and where you need help or you know just saying like oh do you want us to take a look at the pitch you were working on things like that just to

37:12

kind of keep it top of mind a little bit more so yeah that people can join that any month and they’ll just jump into the

37:19

workshops wherever we are and get access to the material starting that month um

37:25

so that’s been really fun it’s just been a good way to like consolidate all the information that I’m like giving to

37:30

people all the time that’s I think I feel like there’s so much and people probably just feel like they need like

37:35

at least for me speaking for myself I would feel like I need to be like handheld through this yeah

37:41

and you know the people for people who have the time to do it themselves but maybe like not the money to hire an

37:46

agency it’s like it doesn’t it still doesn’t take a lot of time like I feel like I need to say that like you also

37:52

can still find success while only spending a couple hours a month like it

37:57

because again it doesn’t have to be anything major like you can pitch two places this month if you want and like

38:03

that’s still a great job and you might get an article so like literally you know you spend 10 minutes and you have a really good chance of

38:09

getting in front of hundreds of thousands of people like you spend that longer than that putting together a

38:15

social media post that’s let me get in front of you know your 500 followers not you specifically but I mean a lot oh I

38:21

hear you yeah yeah yeah I feel like people don’t necessarily always come at it with that mindset um

38:27

right remember oh my gosh yeah this is so good I love both like the mindset

38:33

piece of this and then also the Tactical and so um Can people just find out about the boot camp as well through your website

38:39

yeah yeah you’ll find that affordablemediaco.com it’s through thinkific

38:44

um but there’s a link to it on the website perfect yeah that’s what we use too for our course I’m gonna I’m a thinkific fan so this was so fun

38:51

Alessandra if people want to connect further just like with you or get you know follow you where’s the best place

38:57

to connect from here um well I mean since most people are on social you can definitely find me on

39:02

quotable and quotable media Co on Instagram we also have quotable Magazine on Instagram

39:07

um I it is me behind the scenes on like the you know messaging and stories

39:12

um I also though would say you can email me because I’m all about like actual you know let’s form a real connection I’m

39:18

Alessandra at quotablemediaco.com um if you email me I’ll email you back and

39:24

like we can we can you know sometimes have a little bit more in depth of a conversation on there so amazing more

39:29

than happy to to connect in that way amazing well I so appreciate you know everything that you shared and just how

39:36

open you are about what it takes to be successful today in PR and the pro tips

39:41

and all of it so um thank you for coming on thank you for sharing your journey and I would highly

39:47

encourage everyone listening who does want to elevate their Preston PR to go connect with you and take advantage of

39:53

either the magazine or um or the boot camp and or Reach Out directly in the

39:58

podcast too I mean yeah please yeah that’s how we connected I was like

40:06

she’s got an amazing podcast and I haven’t been like pitching myself a lot for shows I’ve usually had team doing

40:12

they were just kind of were in between and I was like I want to go find the shows I actually want to connect with and like I love what they’re doing and

40:18

you were right there and you like you responded back and we built a relationship and that’s how this stuff

40:23

goes right you don’t know until you put it out there so and that is the power of

40:28

doing your own PR2 sometimes because I feel that same way sometimes I’m like you know what I just want to send this same thing I’m like I have an agency of

40:34

course I’m like usually have one of you know somebody do it for me I’m like sometimes I’m like I send an email to

40:40

the podcast I actually love listening to and not like maybe something strategic we feel like we should be on this one

40:46

and yeah sometimes it’s more powerful coming directly from you too it definitely caught my eye you’re getting

40:51

more real yeah well that makes me happy so thank you so much for your time thank you for coming on

40:58

um and again for everyone listening thank you so so much for uh for being a member of the She Sells

41:04

community and for listening to the show go connect with Alessandra on social and on her website and we’ll see you on our

41:11

next episode. Bye for now.