Speaker 1: Now you know that here at Gloria Chow PR and the Small Business PR Podcast, we are all about dispelling the most commonly held beliefs around PR. The system has been made to make small business people feel like they're left out of the conversation, that the system is rigged against us, that you need certain access and privilege and to be a part of the cool kids club to get featured. And I have spent my entire career hacking it from the outside without any industry contact. So this episode is the five lessons I learned from sending out over 1000 cold pitches to journalists I've never even met. So let's get started. Number one thing I realized from cold pitching again, without any kind of industry contacts is that you do not need to be at a certain level of business or revenue level, have a celebrity spokesperson or even fully launched to get featured. Listen, journalism is not dead. And the reason why journalists and media outlets have such integrity is that they are looking for perspectives from everyday main street heroes from you. People who are ordinary, but everything but ordinary, because you have unique and diverse experiences. If journalism was only interviewing the Elon Musks and Jeff Bezos of the world, we probably wouldn't really hold them in such high regard, right? That's why the opportunities are all around for you to pitch. So think about it this way, whenever you read an article, you're constantly seeing quotes from this expert or this person that you've probably never heard of, right? That just goes to show that there are opportunities for people to get featured every day. The news cycle is so diverse. There are always new opinions and new stories being written for every season and every reason. So why have it not be you, right? Now to think of it this way is less about what level of business you're in or what kind of fancy connections you have, and more about how you can pitch with relevance. I teach this in my PR secrets masterclass and relevance is perhaps the most important thing for you to be able to cut through the noise and to get featured without any connections. Think about not selling to the journalist, but how you can be a part of the solution. Remember, if you can offer some tips, a framework, an insight, a perspective, a discussion point on a topic that people care about, you are serving their audience. Remember, the journalist is not going to buy your product or service. They are in business to serve their audience. So how can you serve their audience? So think about your point of view as an expert. Think about what you've noticed amongst your community or your audience, or if you can make something just a little bit easier for the consumer to understand, boom, there you go. That is your angle. So always think about relevance more than anything. Another thing to know is that in order for you to get featured in the media without knowing anyone, you really need to master the art of translating your marketing or sales pitch, which you're so good at, right? As founders, we know the ins and outs of our product, the ROI, who it's for, but we need to roll up our sleeves and do the work of honing in on how to cold pitch anyone. And that starts with translating your marketing pitch into a newsworthy pitch. I always say this over and over, which is there's no such thing as a newsworthy company or a person. I've written pitches for candles, bath towels, and they've all gotten featured. So there is such a thing about a newsworthy pitch, and anyone can have a newsworthy pitch as long as they follow my CPR method. And that stands for credibility, point of view, and relevance. So there you go. One thing I've learned is as long as you have a good pitch, you don't need to know the journalist or be a part of the Cool Kids Club. I certainly don't know a lot of journalists. I never studied PR. I never worked a day in the PR industry, and I'm definitely not a part of the Cool Kids Club, but I have been able to build an entire business and community of thousands of founders who are everyday heroes, wearing all the hats, who are featured over and over again. So that's number one, is you do not need to have a profitable business to have any VIPs vouching for you or even know the journalist to get featured. What you need is a really good pitch. And after this episode, if you still haven't already, watch my PR Secrets Masterclass where I go over step-by-step how to write a winning pitch. This is a pattern that I picked up from cold pitching thousands of times, and I'm sharing it with you. Just go to GloriaChou PR.com slash masterclass. That's Gloria C-H-O-U PR.com slash masterclass. Now, number two thing that I've learned from cold pitching thousands of journalists and getting featured is this. The number one biggest fear that is really a made up lie is that somehow there is a blacklist. That somehow the journalist is going to ban us or block us if we email them too much. And that cannot be furthest from the truth. Look, I know that PR seems like such a daunting task because again, the industry have told us over and over again that you need special access or privilege or know how to get featured. And that's simply not true. And I know that as a small business founder, when you're doing all the things, trying to wear all the hats, it can be so daunting to just press that send button because let's be honest, talking to journalists is not something that we were taught growing up. And unless you really know journalists, they seem like they are on a pedestal somewhere up there. Right? And here's what I've learned. Journalists are people like me and you. They are approachable. They get thousands of pitches in their inbox. They are being messaged by very pushy, aggressive PR people who are sending them so many messages. So I want you to have that confidence of a $10,000 a month PR agency and just press the send button. I encourage actually you to press the send button even if the email is not perfect because here's why. As long as you can get over the fear of pressing the send button, you know that all of the opportunities are on the other side of the send button. I tell all of my PR starter pack students to get at least five rejections per week, whether that's sending a DM to someone who is an editor at a sought after outlet or maybe being okay with hearing no response. I want you to build up that mental tenacity, that resilience, because that's going to allow you to step into your worth and keep pitching over and over again because the more you pitch, the luckier you get. Vincent Van Van, who is one of our PR starter pack members, he was able to get featured during COVID staying at home on five plus outlets. He ended up getting onto Forbes and Inc. and was speaking at top panels and actually was able to connect with the Forbes journalist in real life when they traveled to his hometown of Nashville because he was fostering that relationship and it all started with one cold pitch. So my friends, it is 1000% doable, but do not think that there is a limit to the amount of pitches that you can send. You won't get blocked or blacklisted. Now obviously pitch respectfully. Don't pitch and have demanding or threatening language. But as long as you're being of service and your pitch is something that's going to offer a new insight or perspective or a solution, then you don't have to feel like you're selling anything. That's the beauty of knowing how to pitch using the CPR method is you're not selling to the journalist. You're not begging to be featured. The energy is saying, Hey, this is something interesting that your audience might benefit from, or this is an interesting commentary that might illuminate a bigger topic. Here is how I'm offering value to your audiences. And as long as you lean into being a part of the solution and not being overly salesy, then you will not have to worry about following up again. In fact, I've interviewed so many journalists on this very podcast, journalists from top outlets like Allure and Business Insider and Forbes, Refinery29, and they all say that they've never blocked anyone from pitching too many times, from following up too many times and they actually really appreciate it if you follow up. Think about it this way. Think about all the things that you get in your inbox. Now times that by 10, that's how busy and noisy a journalist inbox is. Margo Lushing, who writes for Forbes and Refinery29 on episode one of this podcast, said that she always gets great story ideas, but she's eating lunch or she's walking out the door and she reads an email and then she was like, Oh, this is so good, but then forgets about it. So she is actually super appreciative if you actually follow up with her. Now in terms of follow up, I teach this method in my PR starter pack, but usually you want to follow up after about five to seven days. That way it gives it a little bit more breathing room and also don't forget to change up your subject lines or change up the first few sentences if something relevant is happening. So for example, if you pitched in May and all of a sudden it's July and June, it's summertime. So maybe there's an angle that's more relevant. You can definitely put that in the subject line because stories are changing. PR is opportunity for new angles every single month and heck every single week. So that's that. Now just remember that in terms of follow up, as long as you are delivering value and you are being a part of the solution, you don't have to worry about following up because you're not selling. So that's really all of it is, is you getting over this fear that there are some limit to the number of times you can get featured or that you can pitch because there really is not. Another tip if you're sending out any emails or cold pitches is install an email tracking device. So there are tons of Chrome extensions, for example, that will be able to tell you if your email is being open or not. A lot of times we make up all these stories about how the journalist doesn't like us, but they haven't even read your email, right? So install an email tracking device so that way you know if your email is being open or not and if it's being open multiple times, it means that you are really on the right track because the journalist is probably more than likely interested in what you're having to say, but they just don't have a place for it right now, but they're labeling it, they're filing it away and they might come back to it later. In fact, Jennifer Dawkins from Business Insider who was interviewed on this podcast, I asked her about how she reads and sifts through the hundreds of emails she gets. She says that she doesn't respond to all the emails because then that would open up a whole can of worms of having personal discussions with people and she's too busy, but she reads all of her emails and actually tags them and labels them. For example, founder story or gift guide feature or this and that, so that way when her editor tasks her with the story, she can go back into her inbox and do a simple search and that person might be you. So I always say pitch early, pitch often, don't forget to follow up because you need to put your name in the hat. You never know when they're going to be tasked with that story and they're going to go back to their email and do a quick search and boom, because of your subject line and what you're pitching, you might be the person they want to get on the phone and interview and get featured. This has happened so many times with every single person in our PR starter pack. I can't even tell you, right? This stuff really works. Number three is that when I interviewed the editor in chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, he has two podcasts. He's probably one of the most sought after top tier journalists giving speaking on the world stages. When I asked him, what is the number one skill that all successful entrepreneurs have? What do they have in common? He says, they master adaptability. They are masters at being adaptable. So let's translate this to pitching, adaptability. You need to be adaptable and know that you're relevant all year round, not just in the most obvious ways. So for example, if you are in health and wellness, it's not just about giving tips about health and wellness. It might be something completely unrelated, but to a certain sector of audience, right? It might be to a vegan people or people who are overcoming surgery and they need low impact exercises. Think about how specific you can be. I always think about pitching like layers of an onion. The most obvious one that people pitch the most is the top layer of the onion. It's the most obvious, but it's probably the least flavorful. How can you peel away the layers of the onion and get to that really juicy core that's really going to flavor the entire dish? That's what I mean by peeling away the onion. I once worked with a non-alcoholic winemaker, so she made sparkling juices and instead of writing a pitch about the benefits of not drinking alcohol and substituting it with something that's non-alcoholic, which is the top layer of the onion, she told me that there was a social media trend going around where people were using the hashtag sober curious. People were dabbling in the sober curious lifestyle. That became a whole pitch about whether or not the sober lifestyle that people were trying for the first time, if that was going to survive a pandemic when people were drinking more than ever. Do you see how using social media memes, maybe looking at trending keywords, using SEO, that's going to allow you to adapt your story to something that is super trending right now. Again, it's all about adapting your story, peeling away the layers of an onion, and thinking about creative ways that your story can build connections and draw people into your world. I'll give you another example. Dr. Ross Radusky, episode 38 of this podcast, he's a dermatologist and inventor. He doesn't only pitch around protecting your skin in the sun or the most obvious things about skincare and acne. He actually pitched stories even during Halloween season. Now you might be thinking, what does Halloween have to do with a dermatologist? He said, Oh my God, I got featured because I pitched a story about how all the Halloween candy was wreaking havoc on your skin and what to do instead. And what are the signs of too much sugar? I mean, that is such a creative way to think about it. And that's the really power of our small business PR community. Because once you know that there is a blue ocean of opportunities for you to pitch every month, every week, every holiday, you will never run out of ideas of things to pitch. Don't let the PR industry make you think that other people have better ideas than you because no one cares or knows about your stuff more than you do. Maybe it's just about taking a few steps back and looking at, again, not the most obvious story angle right in front of you, but maybe some of the other ones like Dr. Ross pitching a story around Halloween. So that's probably something to think about. I'm sure you're beaming with ideas. So definitely take a pen and paper and write it down. Number four is that I've learned from pitching thousands and thousands of times is that again, you never know when it's going to be your time. So as I touched on this about following up, what I mean is we don't have a crystal ball into knowing when the journalist is going to write about a certain topic, when they're going to be tasked to maybe write a product roundup of 50 best products featuring something that you might have or highlighting founders with stories like yours. So what you need to know is that journalists are always organizing their inbox and they do a search. And if your email with the subject line is there, it's very possible that even months down the line, you can still be featured. So think of it in a long-term perspective. Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint. We are building skills, connections, and relationships for life. So you might be pitching something right now. You might not get featured, but in a few months or weeks, boom, something happens in the news. Something happens to a big company in your industry and they're looking for everyday heroes to give an insight. They're going to go back into their inbox and do a search and you never know when they're going to contact you. That's why it's so important to do PR in-house. You can hire an assistant or an intern to do this. I have this all laid out for you in my PR starter pack. But if you own the pitching process, if you're sending emails from your email, you're not going to have to relinquish your power to an outside agency who, once you stop paying their retainer, are going to stop bringing those connections to you. You're going to have to keep paying them and paying them until they get results. And if there's no results, then you're still stuck as square one, not knowing how to do PR. The beauty of honing your pitch and knowing how to do PR and delegating it to someone in-house is that you're always going to know who's opening your emails. You're going to have transparency into the process and you're building that relationship in the long term. So even if it's three months down the line or something, there's still a plausible chance that you can get featured. I can't tell you how many times this has happened to our PR starter pack students and also to me when I was pitching for startups. I'd pitch something and they wouldn't get back to me or they get on the phone, but they decided not to run the story. All of a sudden something happens in your industry and they're looking for someone to get on the phone to give commentary and boom, that's your chance to shine. So it's definitely happened many times before. Just because you don't get a response right away does not mean that that seed is not planted. So think of it in a long term view because journalists will always go back to their email and do a quick search. That's why it's important to have good subject lines and to take a long term view. All right. The last one is, remember, it never hurts to ask the journalist how you can be of service or asking them if this is not a fit, then what stories they're writing in the upcoming months that maybe you can be a valuable resource for. It also doesn't hurt to offer samples. If you have a product, maybe you want to get into a gift guide and if it's low cost for you to provide a sample. I never force or say that this is a prerequisite to getting featured because a lot of times your profit margins are thin. You might not be able to offer samples, but you might be able to offer a video which gives them an experience of your product. Or maybe if you make a scarf, it could be a little piece of the material so they can just feel how soft it is. Or even a small travel sample size, whatever it is. It doesn't hurt to offer up whether it's samples or new ideas or ask maybe if they're writing something about it this year. For example, in the PR starter pack, a lot of my students have the database that is unlocked for you. Once you're in the starter pack, you can search for any journalist online. And if they wrote something about, let's say, fitness trends last year, and they're doing like the best 50 summer workouts, or five summer workouts, you might ask them around this time and say, Hey, since you covered this last year, are you still doing the same? Or maybe it's a product guide or a gift guide. Or if they write about books, then you can say, Hey, I saw from just Googling you that you wrote this brilliant article about the five best summer reads. Are you going to do it again this year? So it doesn't hurt to ask. Don't be afraid to ask, and don't be afraid to always be of service. And if they actually say yes to, yes, you can send me a sample, or yes, I'm interested in knowing more, even if they respond, you are 80% of the way there. The fact that you even get a response is incredible because journalists do not respond unless they're interested. They are very busy people. So pat yourself on the back if you get a response. Even if it means it's not now, it means that you already are doing your part to get featured. And I know you already are doing your part because you are listening to this podcast, the Small Business PR Podcast. So from the bottom of my heart, I so appreciate you being here week after week. And please rate and subscribe in order to win a one-on-one pitch writing session with me and recommend this to your friends who are just starting their business or looking to get on a podcast or a media feature. For me, landing media is not only about growing our business, our expertise, our visibility, it's about redefining what the entrepreneur landscape looks like. Because we cannot seek representation of diverse entrepreneurs if we don't see ourselves reflected back at us. Right? Now growing up, I never saw people that look like me in the media. And unless we tell our stories, unless we have the audacity and courage to pitch, we will never be able to rewrite the narrative of what an entrepreneur looks like. So that is my why, and I encourage you to lean into your why the next time you get afraid to send that cold pitch or that cold DM.