Speaker 1: 0:00

But if you are a photographer or creative, chances are you don't have the $5,000 to $10,000 a month for six months minimum, which is what they charge in New York. So then we think, OK, well then we don't get seen, and I just absolutely refuse to accept that. I think it's time for the rest of us to be seen. So from all the times that I've pitched and gotten phone slammed in my face and rejected, I picked up on cues on when the journalists would respond.

Speaker 2: 0:27

And so let's talk about how to write a good pitch. Welcome to Tried and True with a dash of woo, where we blend rock solid tips with a little bit of magic. I'm Renee Bowen, your host, life and business coach and professional photographer at your service. We are all about getting creative, diving into your business and playing with manifestation over here. So are you ready to get inspired and have some fun? Let's dive in. To get inspired and have some fun, let's dive in. Hey friends, welcome back to Tried and True with a Dash of Woo. I am your host, renee Bowen.

Speaker 2: 0:52

I am back from my little two-week hiatus that I had with the podcast and we are into season three. I needed a little bit of a break. My son also graduated college. He graduated with a performance degree from Berklee School of Music out in Boston, so we spent a little over a week watching him play, watching him graduate, spending some time there, seeing some family from the East Coast, and it was just all around an amazing little getaway. So I appreciate you guys sticking with the podcast and listening to some of my past episodes. While I was away, I heard some feedback from you guys over in my DMs and I had sent some links out to some previous episodes because, yeah, we've got two full seasons for you to devour. If you haven't listened to some older episodes, it might be a good time to dig back in and see what I have in the archives for you.

Speaker 2: 1:43

But today is a new episode and before we get into my amazing guests today, I want to touch on two really important things, because I have two really awesome resources for y'all in very different sort of like niches, but they're equally amazing and I need to tell you about them. All the info on them is going to be below in the show notes, but I want to make sure I give you a little bit of insight into why I'm involved with each of them and tell you a little bit more about what each of them entails. So, like I said, two completely different topics One is AI and one is photography. You know that I don't like to fit into one little box. I'm never going to. So the first one is AI Unlocked. It is an amazing summit that you don't like to fit into one little box and I'm never going to. So the first one is AI Unlocked. It is an amazing summit that you just absolutely have to check out. It's free. Honestly, you guys over 50 speakers talking about AI in various different ways. So if you are new to AI, this is amazing. But even if you are a seasoned AI user, you still need this because chances are you're not using it to its fullest potential.

Speaker 2: 2:47

Now I've been talking about AI literally since ChaiGPT was announced. I got it the day it came out. So I have been an active, very, very prolific user of ChaiGPT since it came out. But there's so many other uses of AI now and also a lot of people are just sort of scratching the surface and how they're using it. There's so many things you can do with AI Now I haven't spoken about a ton of it here on the podcast because I speak mostly about it honestly to my coaching students. I help them build their own GPTs, I help them craft plans and funnels and marketing all sorts of things using their own AI, and so I tend to talk more about it inside of my coaching now, whether it's group coaching or one-on-one. But I want to start talking about it more here. So look for some more guests coming up soon that are going to be talking more about this, but in the meantime, this AI Unlocked Summit that's happening at the end of May. You need to go ahead and get locked into this early bird situation because it is free, but if you upgrade to the VIP, the early bird pricing ends soon, so go check it out. The link is below.

Speaker 2: 3:54

I'm doing a presentation. This is not like your run of the mill, basic stuff. This is not like, oh, just put in this prompt. No, this is like advanced level, like amazing information on how to use AI to its fullest potential in the most efficient way, like I don't know if you're like me, but I have multiple things saved on, like TikTok Reels, even on my browser, all about AI, but I don't have time to like dive into it at the moment, so I just save it and then I just kind of like it's just there and I don't know where it is. If that's you too, this summit's going to be amazing because it's all in one place and it's short, digestible but really informative things. And I am teaching all about NLP, neuro-linguistic programming, how to use that with AI to create better and more effective sales language. So you definitely want to tune into that. I'm super excited about it. I'm really excited to just be involved in this. My friend Gemma is putting it on. This is her second year doing it and I think last year she had over like 5,000 people sign up. It is a really amazing summit that it's free, so the link is below Check it out. Just sign up for it right now and you will not be sorry, I promise.

Speaker 2: 5:09

And the other amazing resource I want to tell you about, if you're a photographer, is that this is the second year that I am going to be participating in the Milky Way Online Family Retreat, which last year was amazing. I was teaching all about editorial posing for seniors, and this year I'm going to be teaching you how to pose and shoot guy seniors. And also a little side note on how you can make this profitable if you're a family photographer and you're either not offering full senior sessions yet, or you don't want to, or maybe you just want to figure out a way to serve your clients a little bit better. I kind of walk you through how you can do this with guys, especially because guys are notorious for just like doing this for their mom, right? Like most of them don't really want to have, like this, full editorial session, like a lot of our girl clients do, but some guys do. However, most guys are just kind of like doing it for the moms, and I walk you through how you can make this quick and painless and easy for your guy client and also amazing for the parents, and also how you can make it profitable for you. So I walk you through a full session, you shoot the guy session with me, you edit the session with me and then I also give you a little bit of business education, too, on how you can actually leverage this and and make some money doing it, cause that's ultimately what I want you to do and, just in general, it's an amazing retreat, you guys. Lisa does not put on really fluffy content, she's serious about it, and it is an amazing resource for family photographers, newborn photographers and now senior photographers, because this is the second year in a row that I am teaching you guys seniors.

Speaker 2: 6:37

Okay, let's get to today's guest, because we are talking all about PR. I'm always telling you guys, you got to be your own PR agent, right, you got to be your own cheerleader, but today we're going to talk about exactly how to do that. My guest today is a powerhouse and you're going to absolutely be obsessed with her. Her name is Gloria Chow. She's an award-winning PR strategist and the host of the top rated small business PR podcast, so you can definitely go find her there. All her links are below in the show notes, of course.

Speaker 2: 7:04

Known for her untraditional yet proven approach to PR, which makes visibility and access to media accessible to anyone, gloria helps BIPOC and female founders get featured organically in top tier media without needing PR connections or a large following. Her strategies have earned small businesses in nearly every industry niche over a billion organic views and features in outlets like the New York Times, oprah's Favorite Things, vogue and Forbes, without any pay to play. And her background is super interesting because she used to be a US diplomat, which I think is fascinating, and now she is a small business advocate and she's also been on over 100 podcasts. She was also named Pitch Writing Expert of the year, so she knows her stuff, and she's also a Forbes next 1000 honoree. So we go deep into all the different ways that you need to be putting yourself out there in an effective way.

Speaker 2: 7:54

That is not going to feel gross, it's not going to feel weird. She's got some amazing tips for you guys. So grab a pen and a paper, take some notes and get ready, because here we go. Hey Gloria, thanks so much for being here with us today. I'm really excited about this conversation because I don't feel like it's one that we talk enough about, especially in the photography and creative worlds. That is PR. But I kind of want to start with how did you even get to this place, right? How did a US diplomat end up teaching small business owners entrepreneurs how to pitch themselves? How did a US diplomat end up teaching small business owners entrepreneurs how to pitch themselves? How did you even get into this?

Speaker 1: 8:28

Yeah, I'm really not your typical PR gal. I actually never worked a day in my life at a PR agency or marketing agency, so I call myself an outsider in many ways. But I always loved communication. I was writing speeches for the ambassador. I just was always that. I always say in my previous life I was a hip hop emcee because I just love being everyone's hype gal, I love seeing people win, and I thought PR was pretty natural for me because I was always connecting people and I really just loved it when people felt seen, I think there's something magical and sacred about that. But when I got into the diplomatic corps, I was bilingual, growing up bicultural. I think there's something magical and sacred about that. But when I you know, when I got into the diplomatic corps, you know I was bilingual, growing up bicultural. I've always loved all things international relations.

Speaker 1: 9:11

I studied abroad, in South Africa, but being in it is a whole other story right being in the government, being in bureaucracy and I realized very quickly that I'm really just not meant for bureaucracy and I'm really more of a creative, and so that really was a bit suffocating for me. Even though I had a pension, I had a really stable career in front of me. It just wasn't a personality fit for me at all. So I just had to kind of have a midlife crisis and move back home and kind of give that career up and start from the bottom. And I remember one of my friends was like well, you know, if you want to do PR, you know you can get PR for us. Like we're an early stage FinTech firm and, by the way, at this point I applied for over a thousand jobs in communications and PR and nobody would hire me because they were all very confused and they were like you know, we're looking for a very traditional PR agency experience.

Speaker 1: 9:58

And that's when I realized that this industry was really gatekept and really traditional. And so I was like, wow, there really is a very straight path for it and I'm just not fitting in the box. So my friend was like we have early stage FinTech. It's just me and the founders, we don't really have a budget, but we'll pay you $250 if you can get us in the news and $500 if you can get us on CNBC or a primetime TV. And I didn't have the contacts, I didn't know anybody, so I had to literally I kid you not put in the Google search bar, new York Times Newsroom, and I had to just start to dial from zero the operator with sweaty shaking palms and just get rejected a thousand times until I got them finally onto all the different networks and TV and I started to pick up on patterns, on when the journalists would actually give a damn, because, again, I don't know them. And now I turn this into a cold pitching method that I teach to founders all around the world to really start to advocate for themselves.

Speaker 2: 10:53

Okay, that is so cool. There's so many pieces of that that are so cool. I love the fact that you literally had the awareness of like yeah, this isn't for me, I'm going to do something else, cause like that, right, there is really hard for a lot of people to even get to, right, I mean, I'm sure you see it too in our world, right, like of people who just they stay in these, in these places, because they feel like either that's what they should do Okay, this was what my degree is or whatever, and it was like no, you were like, nope, I'm not willing to do that. And that's so interesting because, like, I know you from online, right, like I didn't know that you had that background until after we talked about you coming on the podcast and I was like what? Like I would never have thought like you just seem like you are so made for what you're doing. Right, like you just shine so bright online, and so I found that so interesting and I love that.

Speaker 2: 11:46

Just the takeaway for people Like, first of all, before we even get into the PR aspect of everything, like you can kind of do whatever the hell you want to do. You just need to like act on it. So that's. That's a cool thing. I know it was scary too. Obviously, as you know, things are like you said, but like also, you didn't like take no for an answer, you kept going. So that's a really big piece of it too. And I mean, just before we even get into the PR chatter, that is something that a lot of people deal with, just whether they're photographers or not, creatives. Just in general, pitching yourself, putting yourself out there, starting a business right, getting a lot of these no's, getting a lot of rejections how do you deal with that? And what was that mindset piece for you? Like to keep you going?

Speaker 1: 12:36

essentially, yeah, my husband always says that I'm just really like shameless and relentless and I always had it in me and I just, you know, I just I don't really think that it's ever a no, I just think it's just like not right now and you find a different way and I think my threshold is just a lot higher than most people, where people would feel embarrassed or they would say, okay, this is, and I would just keep going. And it doesn't always work in your favor, right, it hurts, but I just think that once you kill your ego which is the process I had to go through, you know, I was a US diplomat. I had certain rights and privileges, it was a prestigious quote unquote job, and then to go from all over like the bottom again, you know, you had to go through a period of death and grieving your ego. And I think once I realized that I'm going to be okay, like I'm not going to be on the streets, I can't, you know, I don't have a lot of the luxuries that I used to, but I'm going to be okay, and then I just started building from there and I just became like, okay, then it's fine, because what else could happen? What's the worst that could happen.

Speaker 1: 13:33

A journalist says no, I get a phone slammed in my face, but what's the upside of it Is that they say yes, and my client lands on national TV and that I can keep building.

Speaker 1: 13:42

So I think at any point in time we have to weigh our pros and cons, and I always say this to all of our PR members is like everything you want in life is on the other side of the send button. So send, just keep pressing that send button, whether it's to an editor, whether it's, you know, to a client, and the worst they can say is no. And you know, I haven't had a journalist like ever like blacklist me or any of my clients, and I just really think that we need to lean into that, because we're so far on the other side we're like pitching ourselves as a radical act, especially as women right, especially as women of color too, that a lot of times we either don't go there or we kind of stop. But if we just push a little bit more and have that gumption, that confidence, then you know, I think that so many opportunities would.

Speaker 2: 14:27

Yeah, okay, you guys definitely soak that in, because that's a really, really powerful message. It's true, it's really true. You got to just show up. I love that. So one of the things that you do, and one of the things that I love that you do is that you teach people how to be their own PR agent, basically Just how to do this, how to stand in that, and I would love for you to kind of walk us through what that really means, like, maybe, how a photographer, an artist, a creative, can even kind of start showing up that way, especially when they feel who am I, you know, like maybe they have a lot of this underlying, maybe let's call it imposter syndrome, whatever you want to call it but like this resistance to doing that for themselves.

Speaker 1: 15:13

Yeah it's, it's so natural. So don't feel like. You know. If you're listening to this at home you're like, oh, there's no way I can do it. Like it's, it's not your fault.

Speaker 1: 15:20

I think it's the conditioning from the, the industry, that tells us we cannot pitch ourselves or somehow that you know it's. It's kind of like scammy, like for celebrities and politicians, or you only need it if you're in trouble. And so I think that because no one has ever made it accessible and it's been shrouded in secrecy and complexity, that of course we don't know how to pitch ourselves. So it is unnatural. But I promise you, journalists want to hear from you. They don't actually want to hear from a PR rep. So let's just remove that middle layer and teach you how to do it yourself and you know, with an intern or assistant to take it in-house, and you're going to feel not only that you're a better writer, but that kind of like tangential benefit of like pitching yourself. You're going to feel so much more empowered and confident. It's going to transform and ripple into every aspect of your life. So that's one thing I've noticed is that journalists don't actually need to speak to an intermediary, right? Everyone that I've helped. They just pitch themselves and actually journalists like that. And another thing is that there's no such thing as a newsworthy person or a story or a company. I've written pitches for candles and bath salts something really boring and something really esoteric and they get featured. So it's really about pitching the right way for the news cycle. And so instead of thinking about, am I newsworthy, let's transform that into how can I pitch for the season, how can I pitch for the relevance of what people are covering.

Speaker 1: 16:33

So if you are in spring, summer, what are the angles for outdoor shoots? Bridal graduation, right? If you're in Q4, maybe it's something wintry, warm, like family portraits, something about mental health, whatever. That is Valentine's Day. We had someone who is a bourgeois photographer and she got featured in well and good for a spread, for why a bourgeois photography is the best self-care gift this Valentine's day. So there's a blue ocean of opportunity. You just have to know that it's out there for you. So that's kind of the mindset part. And when you boil it down, pr is really simple. It's two things it's writing a pitch and sending it to the right person. And so if you know how to write and I don't want to say a newsworthy pitch, but a relevant pitch, and if you know who to send it to you, put the two and two together. You can create a system in your business and I can go into like the nuts and bolts of exactly how do you find your angle and then how do you actually find these journalists online.

Speaker 2: 17:26

Yeah, oh, that's awesome. I love that story too. It's so true you got to use what's already there, what's going on in the cycle, so taking yourself out of it and making it not about you necessarily. And how can what's so special about me? Quote, unquote but like, well, okay, no, what does the story really mean to the new cycle? That's a really interesting thing that, I guarantee you, a lot of people are probably not thinking about on their own. So I would love for you to kind of talk about this three-step process that you talk about, about getting PR, like you know, without hiring an agency necessarily. I mean, it's so empowering, like. Can you share a little bit more about that?

Speaker 1: 18:04

Yeah. So you know people always say, like you know I love to hate on agencies. It's not that I'm hating on agencies, I just think agencies are not built for small businesses. They're built for big corporations that have tons of money. That you know can kind of just throw money at the problem, right. But if you are a photographer or creative, chances are you don't have the five to $10,000 a month for six months minimum, which is what they charge in New York. So then we think, okay, well then we don't get seen, and I just absolutely refuse to accept that. I think it's time for the rest of us to be seen.

Speaker 1: 18:36

So from all the times that I've pitched and gotten phone slammed in my face and rejected, I picked up on cues on when the journalists would respond. And so let's talk about how to write a good pitch. It's my CPR method, which stands for credibility point of view and relevance. A good pitch needs to have relevancy and specificity. So you start with the subject line. The subject line is not going to be your name, your company name or the word pitch. It's not going to be something gimmicky like oh I have something for you, claire, right, it should read something like you know five photography trends for, you know, in the Midwest, or like you know best tools for creatives doing XYZ. So you see how it kind of subject line reads like it's almost like an article. Right, it gets to the point. You're not burying the lead. And then the email pitch is really simple. So you start with something that's relevant because, boom, right off the gate, you want to catch them with the relevance. So talk about what their readers are looking for, as your readers are looking for creative Halloween photo shoot ideas, right. Or, as we head into, mother's Day as we head into. So whatever that relevance is, it could be a season, it could be a holiday, it could be weather related, it could be something happening in pop culture. For example, we have a lot of people in bridal. So I know that Sophia Richie's wedding you know that kind of minimalist glam was really popular, so maybe it's something about that. So think about how you can talk about a pop culture trend, whether it's in movies, whether it's in celebrities, whether it's on TikTok, right.

Speaker 1: 19:56

I also love something that's data informed. So if you have some data, you can use a third party data. We have someone who is a speaking coach for introverts and she pulled up a third party data and she started her email with you know, I've actually seen that research shows that certain introverts are actually better suited for leadership positions than extroverts. So I love that, because that's both a contrarian point of view that goes against what we think, and also using data. So those are all the kind of different ways you can start to think about your industry.

Speaker 1: 20:24

Another way to think about relevancy is what's changed in your industry? Right, with AI, with so many things happening, I don't care what industry you're in, but we are having an incredible amount of change on every level socioeconomic, mental, relational. What is that right? So those are all the ways you can think about relevancy. So put that in the first paragraph.

Speaker 1: 20:42

And then the point of view in CPR stands for three things. So it's either bullet points or lists. It could be tips or ideas or insights, and then you wrap the email up with credibility one or two sentences about how long you've been doing this, whether or not you've been featured, why this is important to you. Don't go crazy with your biography here. Right, being a mompreneur is not enough, but you have something that is super interesting, then talk about it, but don't go crazy Again, one to two to three sentences. You can put a hyperlink. I love hyperlinks because it saves you from their spam filter. Don't attach a huge attachment. If you have something visual, feel free to put up to three low res photos, but again, you don't want it to be like crazy amount of download because it's going to.

Speaker 1: 21:25

So that's kind of the anatomy of this CPR pitch. I call it pretty golden. You're not writing the article for the journalist, right? That's a contributor piece. You're giving them just enough to say that you're an authority in this niche and that you have ideas for them. And that's really the point of the pitch is for them to say, okay, well, tell me more, and so that's really how you have it. I can go into more, but we obviously don't have time for that. But like follow-up etiquette, that's really kind of a CPR framework of how you can pitch to anyone who doesn't know you and get a yes from the other side. I have people use this for speaking for awards, for selling their stuff to retailers, wholesalers. So the CPR framework is really kind of the foundation.

Speaker 2: 22:04

Yeah, I was going to say, I bet this can be used for various things. I'm glad you brought that up. But what's standing out to me too a little bit, and I kind of want to like backtrack just a little bit and even kind of talk about all right so why is this even important? Right Like so, a lot of photographers, especially like in my world as a high school senior photographer right Like so, I have, you know, a lot of people in my audience who work with high school seniors, which is a very like sort of specific niche within a niche, I would say, and you know, you'll see a lot on their, their profiles.

Speaker 2: 22:36

You know, nationally published or okay, they're being nationally published in, like senior photography magazines. Okay, and I've been talking about that for years Like that's not, that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about, like you know, actual publications. Why would someone, why would someone as a photographer, even want, like what could they do with that piece of PR and how could they leverage? It is kind of like what I want people to be thinking about too.

Speaker 1: 23:05

Yeah, I always think, as a CEO of your business, you need to think about how do I work smarter and not harder. We know that Instagram algorithms are down. Even our maybe 15% of your audience sees anything that you post. Ads have gone up by 400%, and so when I'm talking about how do I get simultaneously that credibility, that SEO traffic, the long-term searchability, and how do I get more sales, pr is the only activity that checks all of those boxes, and so I would much rather get on a podcast or get featured and turn that into a social media post. So I just think it's about working smarter, not harder.

Speaker 1: 23:39

And also, if you have a very saturated Photography is one of those quite saturated industries. How do you stand out from your competition? How do you convince that person of your portfolio? And that stamp of approval is sometimes the reason why someone might work with you, right, or that how you can justify higher prices. So, for all of those reasons, I think there's no better marketing activity than PR, and it really just starts with you stepping into that frequency of like I deserve to be featured, and I don't care how many years I've been in business. I have a unique point of view and I'm going to pitch it.

Speaker 2: 24:13

Yeah, and I think that so many people like, okay, for instance, my, my husband's an actor, right Like. So for me, you know, even like when I started my business years and years and years ago, I didn't necessarily think like, oh, I need PR, because in my mind, pr was someone we hired on a monthly basis to get them on red carpets, right, and so, like, I had a different sort of like idea about PR. But then I think it was about probably three or four years into my business and I was like I need a PR agent, Right Like. So I started thinking about it in different ways and then I was like, wait a minute. I obviously, like we were talking about before, like that's not built for these small business, like solopreneurs, right, I can't afford that monthly payment to somebody. And also, what are they going to do with me? Like, it's not like I want to be on the red carpet or white Lotus, I want to be seen where my clients can. Like, what are they searching for? So I'm glad that you brought up this SEO part, because I kind of scream about that a lot, and it is this like path of least resistance, really, if you do it in a right way. So you know your opportunity to get featured, let's say, in an article, a news article, whatever. That is an opportunity for some really awesome SEO, for you to show up and widen that audience for people who are already looking for services that you can offer. That's the thing, and I love that.

Speaker 2: 25:41

You even said, like, okay, thinking about seasonal stuff. All right, as a high school senior photographer, we are coming up on like, and I talk about this every year at this time. I'm like you guys, spring, april and May are like the best time to market your high school senior business, because it is just naturally the time of year that, like you're going to just hop on that train. Basically, you know we've got proms, we've got end of year stuff, like the energy is already high, everybody's already thinking about it, graduations on the mind, like just on TikTok alone.

Speaker 2: 26:12

Like you see tons of these videos of these girls and they're what dresses am I wearing for my graduation? What am I wearing under my cap and gown? Well, okay, why are you not talking about that? And also, I love the idea of pitching, so, like if you were going to tell some high school senior photographers, I would love to know, like, some of your ideas. Um, with all of that in mind, right, and all of the things that we do, what are some of the things that they could even like be doing to pitch themselves, to get on that PR train and to just like hijack it?

Speaker 1: 26:45

basically so, so many. So you know white Lotus is trending right now. So can you do a white something? White Lotus themed so many. So you know White Lotus is trending right now. So can you do something White Lotus themed? Right, there's also this trend for like nostalgia. So can you do something that's like 80s theme. So what is the trend that's happening? Because here's the thing, like we're sitting on a goldmine, right.

Speaker 1: 27:02

Journalists aren't like tapped into every single trend and so if you pitch something that you're seeing, that's happening in your community, you're basically a vessel of information and you're telling the journalist hey, here's something that's happening, here's something that people really want and so they would write about it. So don't think that you're powerless. You actually are really tapped into your people. So you know, pitch that trend, do that trend, and I think that would be really interesting. One of the things I love to do is to figure out what's trending on social media. So you know, like TikTok trend or Instagram trend, those also really do well, and you can really substantiate your pitch by just saying again in the CPR method, the relevance part, and say this you know, challenge or hashtag has like X million of you know views, and so you're substantiating that right away. You're saying this is relevant because just look at the number of views.

Speaker 2: 27:51

Yeah, no, I love that there's so many ideas honestly, so like if somebody's listening and they're kind of fired up, whether they're like you know, you can be about any niche, really like I just kind of wanted to use that as an example, because it's been on my mind too and it's, you know, just kind of been things I've been talking about with my audience. But the other piece of that, too, is that that's kind of why we need to know what is going on as well. Right, and so I know that there's a lot of I know it's a lot to be online. I hear this often from people in my audience like, well, you know, I'm not a content creator, like I'm, I'm an artist, right, like there's that whole vibe Okay, so what?

Speaker 1: 28:37

do you have to say to people when they say that, yeah Well, I will say that if you're an artist, you're already putting yourself out there, probably more vulnerably than anyone else. So to me, pr is a less stressful activity. You know you're already putting your art out there. So if you're going to pitch yourself and talk about your art, that seems to me like a natural extension and not as intimidating. So it's like you already have done the hard part. You've already put your stuff out there, so why not just get out there more? You know. So I think that you know it's up to us to really be our number one advocate. A lot of times I get it we tend to throw money at the problem. Right, we want someone else to do it. But learning how to pitch ourselves, learning how to truly take up space especially if we've been taught culturally or societally just to be kind of quiet, that is sacred work. It's really powerful work.

Speaker 2: 29:26

Yeah, I agree, and I do wanna like mention too that one of the things that I see a lot of the resistance comes from not knowing how, and that's because they don't really know what they're about. Like, okay, yeah, you might be doing this, you might be a photographer, you might be a creative, but like why? Right, like people, you know I am always talking about like people by why you do it, not what you do. So that's up to you. Like you really need to dig into that, and if you haven't done those pieces, then pitching yourself is going to feel really weird because you don't know. So, like, you definitely need to do that. And you know, I know, that you work with a lot of entrepreneurs. Is that a part of what you do with them in your containers as well?

Speaker 1: 30:15

It's all about mindset, right, because I can tell you that you need PR, but if you don't feel safe advocating for yourself, if you grew up culturally, for example, I'm like five foot two and I'm a daughter of a widowed immigrant who basically told me not to take up space and not promote myself, right, so culturally it's rewiring a lot of that. Um, we're taught, especially as women, to make everyone else look good. Right, we advocate for everyone else, but isn't it time we kind of gave that back to ourselves? So it's a lot there. It's so much more than just logos and seo. The more I do this work, the more I realize it's really about creating a safe container for people to take up space, because they just haven't felt safe doing that for a long time. I mean, when I look out into the media, I don't see a lot of people who look like me, right, let alone telling other people how to take up space. So that's why I say this work is so much more than PR. It's really sacred.

Speaker 2: 31:05

I love that. It's so true. Honestly, all your messaging you guys and I'll put all your links below because you guys definitely need to go follow her she will give you a swift kick in the pants on the daily. She's got some not just really good tips, but just everything that you talk about, and I think it's just really needed and necessary. So, just as a side note, I definitely want to ask you a couple of real quick lightning round questions, basically just related to kind of what we're talking about before we wrap up. Specifically about, like I mean, you've really helped small businesses get over a billion organic views, which is kind of insane. Like that's a really amazing result and I just think it's wild and I feel like everybody really needs to, like you know, pay attention here. What are some of the things that you've seen that are, like media mistakes necessarily right, Like so what are some? What are some things, or maybe even just one thing, that is something that we should be not doing.

Speaker 1: 32:10

Well, I can definitely give you some tools, but I think one of the things we should not be doing is just waiting around for someone to come along. Right, we know for sure that if you're not going to be taking up space, somebody else will, and the news cycle is 24-7. There is always a need for content, and so you're actually doing the journalists a favor. So a lot of times we think, oh well, we're pestering the journalists. They're just used to it. This is how the news works. They're used to being pitched, they're used to aggressive PR, people following up with them. That's just how it's done. So put your name in the hat. I will give you some tools digital articles, publications, stories around your keywords and it does two things. One, it trains your brain to think in terms of headlines right, you become a better writer. And second thing is that you can click on the journalist's name if it matches your you know niche and you can put it into an ever-expanding excel spreadsheet which becomes your media contact list. So you put the name and then usually their email is there, obviously in our program with an updated global database, but you can start to do it your own. Another tool that's really good is sign up for sourceofsourcescom. It's the new HARO, which stands for Help a Reporter Out, which is no longer Source of Sources. Sign up as a source and you'll get all the inquiries of journalists looking for people to interview.

Speaker 1: 33:29

I actually sent one of the things for the photographer. I think the inquiry was like looking for ideas for family photo shoots this spring and I sent it to a photographer friend. She got featured in Real Simple the next day, so that's really good as well. Another thing you can do is follow writers on Substack, which is kind of a gold mine, and I just did a training on this for my program. But stuff stack is where a lot of journalists and writers are going, because they want to start to monetize your audience and also get an email list. So they will oftentimes share what they're writing on that week before they share anywhere else. So you can go down a rabbit hole. I follow a lot of journalists and they'll tell me here's what I'm working on this week, here's exactly the magazine, whether it's apartment therapy or well and good refinery, here's what I need and here's the deadline. And a lot of times you just send it like then, right there you'll. You have a really high chance of getting featured.

Speaker 1: 34:18

Um so that's, that's the third one. The fourth tool is just to follow hashtags on social media. So you know X and LinkedIn and Instagram. You can actually search for journalists there, because underneath your Instagram profile you know how you can put like creator, entrepreneur. Journalist is also kind of a field, so if they would put that they're a journalist and you'll see what magazines they write for, and a lot of times their DMs are open. They're humans and so we're not bothering them. We're simply engaging with their content and I love a little icebreaker of saying hey, I loved your article on XYZ, it really inspired me and it makes them feel good. Right, you're making a human connection, just like you would with a sales lead, so use that. Compliment them, tell them how their work has affected you and you never know, sooner or later you might get featured.

Speaker 2: 35:02

Those are such great tips. Thank you so much. Those are amazing. All right, you guys. I hope you were taking notes. I would love for you to share with people where they can follow up. I think that you've got some other resources too, that they can grab as well. Let us know. And also, where do you like to connect with people?

Speaker 1: 35:22

Yeah, so I have a free PR training that actually gives you step-by-step the CPR method so that you can start to write your own. I give you a screenshot of exactly a pitch that I wrote that got someone featured 12 times so you can go to GloriaChaoPRcom slash masterclass. That's Gloria C-H-O-U PRcom slash masterclass. That's free. You can watch it I had so many people watch it and get featured right away. I get random DMs from people, so that's absolutely free, and I'm on Instagram. I share a lot of my story around healing and just generational trauma. So that's at Gloria Chow PR. And if you DM me the word Renee, I will give you an extra special bonus so that you can take that extra step to get featured. So DM me the word Renee.

Speaker 2: 36:02

Awesome. I'll put all that in the show notes for you guys too, so you can just kind of click below whether you're either watching this on YouTube or listening on your favorite podcast platform, so all that information will be there. But thank you so much for sharing all of that with us, Like everything from the mindset, like you said, like all of that is a piece of it right, Like so you couldn't do what you're doing without that healing part and that whole sacred yeah. It is like being in your empowerment and you're living it. So thank you so much for being such a great example for all of us.

Speaker 1: 36:35

Thank you for being a light for so many people as well.

Speaker 2: 36:37

So, if this lit a fire under you, check out the links in the show notes. Make sure you connect more with Gloria. Also, let me know how this resonated with you and what action you're going to take after listening to it, because she definitely dropped some serious tips for you guys that I hope you take advantage of. I will die on this hill. The world needs your art.

Speaker 2: 36:57

Okay, I know that times are weird and it can feel really daunting and heavy and depressing even to be a creative during these times, but if you look back on history, the thing that gets all of us through any hard time ever is always going to be art. So if you feel called to do this, there's a reason for it. Don't stop. Okay, you just need to figure out a way to get in front of the right people and I'm going to say something a little unpopular but all of those magazines and contests that you can enter as a photographer, specifically as a senior photographer, that you have to pay to be a part of, and then you get sort of chosen to be like the top, this or the top that it's always great to be recognized Okay, it really is, and I totally get the idea. I get why you would want to participate in those, but those are not going to really get you in front of your target client in the way that you hope. Now, that's not to say your clients don't appreciate being chosen and having their images featured in some of those things. It's fun, it's always fun, but I'm talking about getting you actual paying target clients. That's what I'm talking about. Those kinds of contests are good for getting you in front of your peers, but that's not who you're selling to. I haven't participated in those in years. I find them to be a little bit of a popularity contest and not anything of real substance.

Speaker 2: 38:18

I said what I said, sorry, but I really believe that you could be spending your money and your time better, and today's episode hopefully lit a fire under you to do so, because that's the kind of PR that's actually going to move the needle for your business. That's the kind of PR that's actually going to get you jobs, get you found, get you discovered and get you in front of, hopefully, your target client. So that's always what I'm thinking of when I'm thinking about marketing, when I'm working with photographers in any capacity, whether it's one-on-one, a group or just here on this free podcast that I give to you guys every week. I want you to get paid. Yes, I want you to do it because you love it, because it's your passion, that's a given.

Speaker 2: 38:56

But I want you to get paid, I want you to be profitable and I want you to have access to everything, no matter who you are Okay, no matter where you come from. Really passionate about that. So no gatekeeping here. All right, I'm going to get off my soapbox and I am going to let you guys go connect with Gloria. Thank you again for joining me here. As always, I hope you have a great rest of your week and a great rest of your day, and that you are doing something good for yourself. Love you, bye.