Episode 65

full
Published on:

3rd May 2022

Public Relations 101

Public relations is about putting yourself and your business in the spotlight. It is an arm of marketing many people don’t utilize to the fullest extent — or at all! It is incredibly valuable and the only investment you need to make is time.

Transcript
Kimberly Beer:

The Business Animal podcast is proudly

Kimberly Beer:

sponsored by WP Engine your resource for managed WordPress

Kimberly Beer:

hosting, and Keap the premier CRM software for small business.

Kimberly Beer:

Head over to thebusinessanimal.com for the

Kimberly Beer:

best deals on these two amazing products.

Jaz:

Welcome to The Business Animal podcast. Saddle up for a

Jaz:

gallop to the top of the animal industry. Where you'll learn how

Jaz:

to tame your wild business beast, with tips, techniques,

Jaz:

and tools that will take overwhelm to obedience school,

Jaz:

and have you wagging your tail with joy. And now your hosts,

Jaz:

Kim Beer and Cara Taylor Swift.

Kimberly Beer:

Hey there business animals, it's Kim with

Kimberly Beer:

Be More Business

Cara Taylor Swift:

and Cara with Fast Horse photography.

Kimberly Beer:

Welcome to The Business Animal. Today's subject

Kimberly Beer:

is public relations. And here's a little known Kim fact. I

Kimberly Beer:

actually did public relations for two community colleges

Kimberly Beer:

before well, actually kind of an in between my college career and

Kimberly Beer:

becoming an entrepreneur. So I don't talk a lot about my public

Kimberly Beer:

relations experience and I think it came as a shock to Cara when

Kimberly Beer:

I brought this episode up.

Cara Taylor Swift:

It did I feel like the things that you have

Cara Taylor Swift:

done in your past are just endless. And you know, you're

Cara Taylor Swift:

not that much older than me. So like you've just had this

Cara Taylor Swift:

expansive history and endless stuff that you've done. And here

Cara Taylor Swift:

I am. And, you know, I've had a couple of careers and you've had

Cara Taylor Swift:

just a plethora of them. Always amazed. I'm like what you did

Cara Taylor Swift:

that too?

Kimberly Beer:

Well, I think that's a function of not knowing

Kimberly Beer:

what I wanted to be when I grew up. And I just basically went on

Kimberly Beer:

a smorgasbord buffet of let's try it all and see what sticks

Kimberly Beer:

to the wall. So

Cara Taylor Swift:

It's just given you a great bag of tricks

Cara Taylor Swift:

too, I mean, like you've learned so much by dipping your toes in

Cara Taylor Swift:

all of the different waters. You know, I just think it's such a

Cara Taylor Swift:

cool thing that you bring to the table.

Kimberly Beer:

I love it, too. It definitely has been helpful.

Kimberly Beer:

And I'll tell you these few years that I spent doing the

Kimberly Beer:

public relations stuff for the community colleges. It

Kimberly Beer:

definitely taught me a lot about how to utilize this incredible

Kimberly Beer:

opportunity we have for what some people consider free, I

Kimberly Beer:

don't consider it free, but basically free publicity or free

Kimberly Beer:

marketing. By utilizing public relations, which is where you're

Kimberly Beer:

getting out into the world and making yourself known. And

Kimberly Beer:

there's a lot of different ways to go about this. In this

Kimberly Beer:

particular episode, we're really going to narrow in and focus on

Kimberly Beer:

a unique aspect of it that I struggle with knowing how many

Kimberly Beer:

people do not do this. So they don't even consider it a

Kimberly Beer:

possibility. But we're going to be talking about news outlets

Kimberly Beer:

and public relations that you're going to do in partnership with

Kimberly Beer:

another organization or another resource that you may not have

Kimberly Beer:

considered before. I know that like Cara when we brought up the

Kimberly Beer:

topic, Cara immediately thought of social media as a public

Kimberly Beer:

relations tool. And to an extent I agree with that. But this is

Kimberly Beer:

not what we're going to talk about today we're going to talk

Kimberly Beer:

about PR in a little bit of a different way. So it's important

Kimberly Beer:

to utilize this very valuable resource in your business, which

Kimberly Beer:

is you and your business. So our big three, let me dive into that

Kimberly Beer:

because I'm going to get off topic. So our big three for this

Kimberly Beer:

episode is, first of all, define your PR possibilities, what is

Kimberly Beer:

available out there for you? What kind of outlets can you

Kimberly Beer:

approach, what resources what things would really work for you

Kimberly Beer:

and what is currently available to you. The second is to really

Kimberly Beer:

establish what you can bring to the table? How can you serve and

Kimberly Beer:

be part of this partnered relationship with the

Kimberly Beer:

possibilities that you come up with in big three number one?

Kimberly Beer:

And then finally, how do you reach out to these outlets? How

Kimberly Beer:

do you go about taking that first step into creating the

Kimberly Beer:

public relations that you would like to have out into the world?

Kimberly Beer:

What are your thoughts around PR?

Cara Taylor Swift:

I think this can be really scary, Kim. I

Cara Taylor Swift:

think it can be really scary for animal and equine, pet based

Cara Taylor Swift:

business owners. I just I think if you're a small business

Cara Taylor Swift:

owner, sometimes you have a tendency to think about the work

Cara Taylor Swift:

that you do and your business and the problems that you solve

Cara Taylor Swift:

maybe as not being newsworthy if that makes sense. Like you can't

Cara Taylor Swift:

it's really difficult sometimes to compete with the bigger

Cara Taylor Swift:

stories that are happening in the world or even with just

Cara Taylor Swift:

bigger businesses. So I know for me sometimes it's a it's a

Cara Taylor Swift:

struggle to really kind of flip that script and think to myself,

Cara Taylor Swift:

Okay, what problem am I solving? What can I share about what part

Cara Taylor Swift:

of my story would be something that's newsworthy? And I think

Cara Taylor Swift:

that is what you and I are hoping is to encourage small

Cara Taylor Swift:

businesses like ours to consider this an option for your

Cara Taylor Swift:

business.

Kimberly Beer:

Absolutely.

Cara Taylor Swift:

It's like you said, I don't think many people

Cara Taylor Swift:

take the time to actually do a lot of these things. So I'm

Cara Taylor Swift:

excited to hear your take on it as someone who's worked in this

Cara Taylor Swift:

field for a while, and also, you know, just kind of discuss ways

Cara Taylor Swift:

we've done this in the past.

Kimberly Beer:

Yeah, I want to approach what you said about it

Kimberly Beer:

being scary or not feeling like you're newsworthy when we take a

Kimberly Beer:

look at what is the news really about? It's about people, and

Kimberly Beer:

you, my friend or a person and your business serves people. And

Kimberly Beer:

so when we look at the bigger scheme of what is what is

Kimberly Beer:

newsworthy, anything that's a story about an individual is

Kimberly Beer:

newsworthy, because that connects us all. If we look at

Kimberly Beer:

our base human desires, it's to be part of this larger

Kimberly Beer:

community. It's to feel like where we fit in and to kind of

Kimberly Beer:

assess where where we are in the bigger picture. And the news is

Kimberly Beer:

really there to help us be part of that. And the stories of

Kimberly Beer:

humans are often the best stories on the news, because

Kimberly Beer:

those are the ones that we can relate to. So every one is

Kimberly Beer:

newsworthy, everyone is worthy of public relations and being

Kimberly Beer:

featured on different outlets. So let's dive into that first

Kimberly Beer:

one, like what the heck are we really talking about here in

Kimberly Beer:

concrete terms? Because I know people banter around the word PR

Kimberly Beer:

and then it's like, well, what does that really flippin mean?

Kimberly Beer:

It means newspapers. It means podcasts. It means YouTube

Kimberly Beer:

shows. It means morning TV shows. It means speaking

Kimberly Beer:

engagements. It means becoming an influencer or being featured

Kimberly Beer:

with being an influencer feature on an influencers program. It's

Kimberly Beer:

guest blogging, it's 100 different ways for you to reach

Kimberly Beer:

an audience that another outlet has. And for that outlet to

Kimberly Beer:

bring you to their audience for enrichment and enlightenment. So

Kimberly Beer:

what's available to you out there? If you're in a small

Kimberly Beer:

town, I live in a small town, our newspaper is still kind of

Kimberly Beer:

important. We still have a newspaper, and the newspaper

Kimberly Beer:

features stories, right? And In my, our newspaper is a small

Kimberly Beer:

town newspaper, it's not going to put in information about the

Kimberly Beer:

major political events taking on in the world. It's that's not

Kimberly Beer:

its job. Its job is to serve the community that it is in and my

Kimberly Beer:

business is part of that community. And your business is

Kimberly Beer:

part of the community wherever you live. So does your town have

Kimberly Beer:

a newspaper? If you're in a big city, this is a little bit more

Kimberly Beer:

of a difficulty. If it's in a small town, trust me, believe

Kimberly Beer:

me, you it's mostly slow news days. In Adrian, Missouri. It's

Kimberly Beer:

just there's very few big news days and Adrian, Missouri. So do

Kimberly Beer:

you have a newspaper in your to St. Augustine is pretty big

Kimberly Beer:

isn't it?

Cara Taylor Swift:

I would say we're considered a small town,

Cara Taylor Swift:

we're probably I mean, we're bigger than the the average,

Cara Taylor Swift:

like tiny town. I don't remember what our population is. But I

Cara Taylor Swift:

mean, growing by the day over here, but we do have a

Cara Taylor Swift:

newspaper, we have a local newspaper. And we also have some

Cara Taylor Swift:

local magazines that are in our community that are geared around

Cara Taylor Swift:

community events, and those types of things. So we

Cara Taylor Swift:

definitely have options. One of the things that I try to think

Cara Taylor Swift:

about when I think about PR possibilities and confidence

Cara Taylor Swift:

level as small business owners is that all of these outlets,

Cara Taylor Swift:

the newspapers, the podcast, I mean, we know as podcasters, the

Cara Taylor Swift:

YouTube shows, they need the content. They need it as bad as

Cara Taylor Swift:

we need them to use us. They need to fill space, they need to

Cara Taylor Swift:

entertain their audience, they need to be read and to be

Cara Taylor Swift:

watched whatever they're listened to. And they and they

Cara Taylor Swift:

need the content, and we are content for them.

Kimberly Beer:

Absolutely. And content is hard, right? For

Kimberly Beer:

those of you who are doing social media, you know, the day

Kimberly Beer:

after day after day after day after day grind of coming up

Kimberly Beer:

with something to say on your social media channels is hard.

Kimberly Beer:

Now imagine that if it's your only your job to be able to put

Kimberly Beer:

out information into your community or to your your

Kimberly Beer:

resources. We talked about newspapers as part of a local

Kimberly Beer:

town, but there's also news sources that serve industries or

Kimberly Beer:

communities that are outside of maybe a location based

Kimberly Beer:

community. So there's trade magazines, if you serve a trade

Kimberly Beer:

audience with a product or a service. Wow, that's a big

Kimberly Beer:

opportunity for you. Let's say your pet or animal based

Kimberly Beer:

business is building websites for dog grooming businesses.

Kimberly Beer:

There's specific news outlets, information outlets that serve

Kimberly Beer:

the community of dog groomers in the world. That's a place you

Kimberly Beer:

need to have a featured story on you or you need to bring

Kimberly Beer:

something to them that can be established. Now we're going to

Kimberly Beer:

get more to that in the second step of this and the second of

Kimberly Beer:

the big three. But that's a way to think about it too. There's

Kimberly Beer:

industry stuff, there's communities that are interested

Kimberly Beer:

together. So, and nothing is too big or too small, so you can

Kimberly Beer:

approach big news outlets. And sometimes if you have a good

Kimberly Beer:

enough story, and it's a slow news day, you can find yourself

Kimberly Beer:

on the morning cable TV talk show, or even maybe something

Kimberly Beer:

bigger than that. Or you can find yourself on a podcast that

Kimberly Beer:

serves a certain community featured in a magazine that

Kimberly Beer:

serves a certain community magazines now are no longer just

Kimberly Beer:

in print, they're also digital as well. Becoming a guest

Kimberly Beer:

blogger or being able to speak at an event where your expertise

Kimberly Beer:

is showcased to a group or an industry or a community

Kimberly Beer:

audience. All of these are places that you should be mining

Kimberly Beer:

as a good business person, to get your business represented

Kimberly Beer:

and to serve the community that you're serving.

Cara Taylor Swift:

Are you looking to bring awareness to

Cara Taylor Swift:

your equine based product or service, or create a unique way

Cara Taylor Swift:

for your audience to feel connected to your brand? Quality

Cara Taylor Swift:

horse photos, tell your story and breathe life into your

Cara Taylor Swift:

marketing. They draw your customers in and create an

Cara Taylor Swift:

emotional connection. Powerful images, communicate your core

Cara Taylor Swift:

values and highlight the benefits your product offers.

Cara Taylor Swift:

Ultimately, proving your business is a voice your

Cara Taylor Swift:

customers can trust. It's time to use dynamic images that

Cara Taylor Swift:

define your small business and separate you from the rest of

Cara Taylor Swift:

the herd. Fast Horse photography's professional photo

Cara Taylor Swift:

library features 1000s of searchable images available for

Cara Taylor Swift:

businesses just like yours. And guess what? 100% of those images

Cara Taylor Swift:

are horse related. Now finding the right horse images for your

Cara Taylor Swift:

website, social media and marketing needs is easier than

Cara Taylor Swift:

ever. Help your audience see that your brand offers the

Cara Taylor Swift:

answers they are looking for. Search for the perfect images

Cara Taylor Swift:

for your equine business right now! Spur your customers into

Cara Taylor Swift:

action with FastHorsePhotography.com. That's

Cara Taylor Swift:

fasthorsephotography.com.

Cara Taylor Swift:

Yeah, I really liked that idea of starting, you know, you don't

Cara Taylor Swift:

have to think like primetime news. But you can even think

Cara Taylor Swift:

like, what is my industry? Like? What are some of the leading

Cara Taylor Swift:

news outlets or places that I get information for my industry?

Cara Taylor Swift:

And how can I reach out to them and provide something of value

Cara Taylor Swift:

that they'd want to write about or talk about or that their

Cara Taylor Swift:

viewers or listeners would want to hear about? And I think start

Cara Taylor Swift:

even just starting small with something in your local area or

Cara Taylor Swift:

in your industry is a great place to start? If you're like

Cara Taylor Swift:

me, and you get anxious about like, Oh, what do people want to

Cara Taylor Swift:

do they really want to hear from me, you know, start small start

Cara Taylor Swift:

with those folks that you know, are your audience and have an

Cara Taylor Swift:

interest in what you're talking about?

Kimberly Beer:

Well, the truth is, is that we're talking to

Kimberly Beer:

animal and pet based businesses primarily in this conversation.

Kimberly Beer:

And almost every family, almost every human has a pet in their

Kimberly Beer:

life, pet industry is huge, it is huge. And so you have the

Kimberly Beer:

ability to bring in to that newspaper, or that podcast or

Kimberly Beer:

that magazine, something that serves a very large number of

Kimberly Beer:

people, which is really what they want. They're looking for

Kimberly Beer:

things that can bring readers or viewers or participants into

Kimberly Beer:

whatever it is that they're promoting out into the world.

Kimberly Beer:

Because the more people that get in there and like it and engage

Kimberly Beer:

with it, the happier their sponsors are going to be who pay

Kimberly Beer:

their bills. So that's a big thing. And so you've got a lot

Kimberly Beer:

of reasons to do this. So what do you do first? The very first

Kimberly Beer:

thing you need to do is you need to establish what you can bring

Kimberly Beer:

to the table. So public relationships is a partnership,

Kimberly Beer:

it has to be beneficial to all parties. In other words, you

Kimberly Beer:

have to get something out of it, but so does the outlet that is

Kimberly Beer:

featuring you to their audience. In this case, what you're going

Kimberly Beer:

to do is you're going to bring your expertise to the table and

Kimberly Beer:

your host is going to use it to enrich their audience's

Kimberly Beer:

experience. When you go to approach a potential PR source

Kimberly Beer:

for you are become a source. Technically you are a source and

Kimberly Beer:

they are the outlet. But when you go to approach their outlet,

Kimberly Beer:

you want to know ahead of time, what is it that you can do for

Kimberly Beer:

them, don't just go in blindly and say I would like for your

Kimberly Beer:

newspaper to write an article on me or I want to be on your

Kimberly Beer:

podcast or you know, I have me as a guest on your YouTube show.

Kimberly Beer:

You want to eventually ask those questions, but you want to tell

Kimberly Beer:

them what it is that you can do for them. And I know for us as

Kimberly Beer:

podcast hosts, one of the things that we look for when people

Kimberly Beer:

approach us to be featured on the show is what can they bring

Kimberly Beer:

to our audience like what is it and we're much more apt to get

Kimberly Beer:

excited about a guest when they have a very clear idea of what

Kimberly Beer:

they want to share with our Our listeners, because it's our job

Kimberly Beer:

as podcast hosts to make sure our listeners get the best

Kimberly Beer:

possible information. And so that's what we're looking for

Kimberly Beer:

from our guests. Wouldn't you agree, Cara?

Cara Taylor Swift:

Yeah, absolutely. And it's funny

Cara Taylor Swift:

because I think you and I think about this from both sides of

Cara Taylor Swift:

it, because we are actively working both sides of it both

Cara Taylor Swift:

for our small businesses, but also because we have audiences

Cara Taylor Swift:

with the podcasts, both this one and cowgirls with cameras that

Cara Taylor Swift:

we need good content for that will help and will be

Cara Taylor Swift:

entertaining for the people that are listening. So it's

Cara Taylor Swift:

interesting when you think about it from both sides, and I can

Cara Taylor Swift:

really see the clear picture for me, what are the things that

Cara Taylor Swift:

helps make reaching out about PR, which I know we're going to

Cara Taylor Swift:

talk about next. But one of the things that helps me, you know,

Cara Taylor Swift:

get excited about putting myself out there and putting myself out

Cara Taylor Swift:

into the world is thinking about building those relationships in

Cara Taylor Swift:

advance so that I feel like I already have a connection before

Cara Taylor Swift:

I reach out to try to get PR out into the world. So I think about

Cara Taylor Swift:

things like Who are those people in my industry that are writing

Cara Taylor Swift:

about it? Or that are talking about it? Or doing interviews?

Cara Taylor Swift:

And how can I how can I connect with them in some way? You know,

Cara Taylor Swift:

they're out there already routinely covering my industry.

Cara Taylor Swift:

So how do I connect with them, and then that way, when they're

Cara Taylor Swift:

looking for a story, or they're seeking ideas, that may be my

Cara Taylor Swift:

business will be on the forefront of their minds, when

Cara Taylor Swift:

they're putting that out there. There are some people in my

Cara Taylor Swift:

industry, I feel like that do this really well. And because

Cara Taylor Swift:

they do it really well, because they've done the work and made

Cara Taylor Swift:

those connections. A lot of times, they're the people that I

Cara Taylor Swift:

see getting picked up to be on podcast episodes or to be

Cara Taylor Swift:

featured on YouTube channels or on the network. So I just I

Cara Taylor Swift:

think that piece of it can be really big.

Kimberly Beer:

Absolutely. And that brings me to a big

Kimberly Beer:

suggestion for people do your research know what, like when

Kimberly Beer:

you pick an outlet? Get to know that outlet? I can tell? I don't

Kimberly Beer:

know if Cara can too. But I can tell when somebody approaches us

Kimberly Beer:

to be a guest on the podcast, and they haven't listened to our

Kimberly Beer:

podcast?

Cara Taylor Swift:

Absolutely.

Kimberly Beer:

I can tell by what they say it's a huge red

Kimberly Beer:

flag to us, right? So,

Cara Taylor Swift:

Right

Kimberly Beer:

you know, do your research, read it. And for all

Kimberly Beer:

of those years that I worked in getting things put into

Kimberly Beer:

magazines and getting featured stories, and all of that kind of

Kimberly Beer:

stuff done. For other people. It's one of those things where

Kimberly Beer:

you really do have to pay attention to what that

Kimberly Beer:

particular outlet has done in the past. And when you make your

Kimberly Beer:

pitch or when you decide what you're going to bring to the

Kimberly Beer:

table for them, you have to look at what will really benefit them

Kimberly Beer:

in their audience. And if you don't do your research ahead of

Kimberly Beer:

time, you're not going to know that knowing what hole to fill

Kimberly Beer:

is really good like identifying a gap in that particular outlets

Kimberly Beer:

coverage of something and saying I could fit it right into that

Kimberly Beer:

gap right there. And this would give a bigger picture to your

Kimberly Beer:

audience. That's a huge benefit. Now, here's what I know is going

Kimberly Beer:

to happen for you, you're going to look and go, oh my gosh, but

Kimberly Beer:

that hole got filled by somebody else. And you've got to stop

Kimberly Beer:

that thinking right then and there. Because holes can be

Kimberly Beer:

filled in different ways. So your way may be unique, it may

Kimberly Beer:

be a different approach, it may be contradictory, or adds

Kimberly Beer:

another layer to somebody else's approach to filling that same

Kimberly Beer:

gap. So definitely look into going ahead and filling those

Kimberly Beer:

holes when you need to.

Cara Taylor Swift:

So one of the things that I think about when

Cara Taylor Swift:

I'm trying to identify how like a hole could be filled, or how

Cara Taylor Swift:

my journey as a business owner can be beneficial to one of

Cara Taylor Swift:

these outlets. As I start with my story, as a business owner, I

Cara Taylor Swift:

don't think that any of us out there are probably going to get

Cara Taylor Swift:

a lot of PR just by being really, really good at our

Cara Taylor Swift:

business or being really good at what we do. A lot of times,

Cara Taylor Swift:

that's not what they're looking for. It's our story that will

Cara Taylor Swift:

get the attention. It's the story of how we got started, why

Cara Taylor Swift:

we felt the need to be in this business, focusing on the

Cara Taylor Swift:

problem that we're fixing or helping with and really

Cara Taylor Swift:

identifying those people out there and or animals out there

Cara Taylor Swift:

that we're trying to serve in bringing the issue around that

Cara Taylor Swift:

to light. So you know, in it could be something like how do

Cara Taylor Swift:

you get back to your community? And of course, what problem do

Cara Taylor Swift:

you solve? But really, really thinking about that type of

Cara Taylor Swift:

thing. And bringing that to light is a great place to start.

Cara Taylor Swift:

What do you think about that? Kim?

Kimberly Beer:

I think that is a fantastic place to start.

Kimberly Beer:

Because remember what I said at the beginning of this episode,

Kimberly Beer:

all of these outlets need to share human stories. News is

Kimberly Beer:

news because it's about human beings and the personal stories,

Kimberly Beer:

the ones that are the closest to that industry, they're the ones

Kimberly Beer:

that are going to make the biggest impact and that's what

Kimberly Beer:

these outlets are looking for is they're looking to make impact.

Kimberly Beer:

So yes, sharing your story focusing on what's unique about

Kimberly Beer:

you talking about the problem that you solve and giving back

Kimberly Beer:

are all pieces and sharing your own personal story. And we did a

Kimberly Beer:

whole episode on why you should share your story more here very

Kimberly Beer:

recently. So if you haven't listened to that one, maybe go

Kimberly Beer:

back and listen to it because I think it is really important for

Kimberly Beer:

people to understand and hopefully it'll waylay a little

Kimberly Beer:

the those fears that you have about reaching out to these

Kimberly Beer:

outlets. Trust me on something these people want to hear from

Kimberly Beer:

you. This is not you pestering them or bugging them or asking

Kimberly Beer:

for a freebie or a handout. This is you really stepping up to the

Kimberly Beer:

plate for helping your community, whatever community

Kimberly Beer:

that is that you serve. So it's almost what I would consider an

Kimberly Beer:

obligation in part of your mission to be able to do this.

Kimberly Beer:

Every small business owner wants to gain traction in their

Kimberly Beer:

marketing. After three decades of working with small business

Kimberly Beer:

owners just like you, I have developed what I call my four by

Kimberly Beer:

four marketing method. In just one-90 minute session, you'll

Kimberly Beer:

discover the four major focus areas of a successful marketing

Kimberly Beer:

plan. And together we'll uncover where your business is getting

Kimberly Beer:

stuck. You'll leave the session with an action plan of next

Kimberly Beer:

steps that engage your revenue engine. Drop by

Kimberly Beer:

bemorebusiness.com to request your session today. That's

Kimberly Beer:

B-E-M-O-R-E business.com. See you there.

Cara Taylor Swift:

And I would add that we need to be world

Cara Taylor Swift:

aware, like what's happening in the world around us? And how

Cara Taylor Swift:

does your little niche in this world fit into that? And how can

Cara Taylor Swift:

you contribute to things that are happening in the world

Cara Taylor Swift:

around us, like a great example I like to give is when I think

Cara Taylor Swift:

about like the holiday seasons, for example. So an article that

Cara Taylor Swift:

I did for a local paper that was focused on the horse industry

Cara Taylor Swift:

was something really simple. It was coming up on the holidays,

Cara Taylor Swift:

and I wrote an article five ways to photograph your horse better,

Cara Taylor Swift:

for your Christmas card this year. And it's a very simple way

Cara Taylor Swift:

that I could contribute. And you know, Kim mentioned at the very

Cara Taylor Swift:

top of this episode, you know, this is not where you are

Cara Taylor Swift:

selling something, and I wasn't selling something I was

Cara Taylor Swift:

providing some information, I was giving some tips, I was

Cara Taylor Swift:

putting myself out there kind of as an expert in the industry by

Cara Taylor Swift:

putting that out into the world and making it available. So try

Cara Taylor Swift:

to think about what you do, how it relates to things that are

Cara Taylor Swift:

happening in the world around you. And then because remember,

Cara Taylor Swift:

if there's something happening, people are reading about it. And

Cara Taylor Swift:

if you can be a voice in that in some way or connects yourself in

Cara Taylor Swift:

a positive way, that's a great opportunity to get picked up.

Cara Taylor Swift:

Because if it's something that is big and outlets are wanting

Cara Taylor Swift:

to write about it, they're going to be looking for stories that

Cara Taylor Swift:

are related to it.

Kimberly Beer:

Absolutely. So are we ready to move on to let

Kimberly Beer:

people know how to start this process?

Cara Taylor Swift:

Yeah, I think that's a good, I think we're in

Cara Taylor Swift:

a good place for that.

Kimberly Beer:

Awesome. So a lot of you may be wondering, how do

Kimberly Beer:

you actually get this to work? How do you put yourself out

Kimberly Beer:

there for this to happen. And the best thing to do is once

Kimberly Beer:

you've established what it is that you're going to bring to

Kimberly Beer:

the table and you've thought about the outlets that you would

Kimberly Beer:

like to reach out to you can use some very traditional methods to

Kimberly Beer:

do this. Press releases are a very traditional way for you to

Kimberly Beer:

do it. Traditional news outlets still kind of expect those press

Kimberly Beer:

releases. And I'm gonna say "kind of expect" because I think

Kimberly Beer:

they understand that when you're a small business and you are

Kimberly Beer:

reaching out, you may not know all of the ins and outs of how

Kimberly Beer:

to present yourself professionally in public

Kimberly Beer:

relations. And most small businesses are not going to hire

Kimberly Beer:

a PR firm, right? So I think they offer you a lot of grace.

Kimberly Beer:

So don't feel like super uncomfortable. If you don't know

Kimberly Beer:

how to write a press release, it's okay, send an email or pick

Kimberly Beer:

up the phone and call the reporter or the host. I mean, I

Kimberly Beer:

think there are great people that approached us about being

Kimberly Beer:

on the podcast that they don't send us any kind of like a

Kimberly Beer:

formal offer. What they do, however, is send a heartfelt

Kimberly Beer:

email that says I've listened to your show, here's what I see

Kimberly Beer:

that I could bring to your show and to your listeners. Would you

Kimberly Beer:

be interested in having a deeper conversation? That's all you

Kimberly Beer:

need to do. Don't overthink this because if you get to

Kimberly Beer:

overthinking it, you're never going to put your toe out there

Kimberly Beer:

in the water. So don't overthink it if what you need to do is to

Kimberly Beer:

just simply reach out with an email to the morning TV host and

Kimberly Beer:

say I have this really cool business that we serve this

Kimberly Beer:

certain audience and I know that your listeners or your viewers

Kimberly Beer:

would be interested in what I have to say around to this and

Kimberly Beer:

hey, I've got animals and believe me you news outlets are

Kimberly Beer:

really aware that pets bring people to the to anything that

Kimberly Beer:

they do. Right? Animals are this natural attractant for humans

Kimberly Beer:

and trust me, that's who they're trying to get into there. A

Kimberly Beer:

couple of tips that I do have for this, if you do you want to

Kimberly Beer:

do speaking like on a large stage basis, you're gonna have

Kimberly Beer:

to have a speaker kit and I think we'll try to do an episode

Kimberly Beer:

about this in the near future about how to dip your toe into

Kimberly Beer:

speaking it's some thing that I have a lot of knowledge around.

Kimberly Beer:

And I absolutely love to do. So we'll grab on to that at a at a

Kimberly Beer:

point in the future. But more than that, it's about being a

Kimberly Beer:

good partner in this relationship. So be aware that

Kimberly Beer:

these places these outlets that you're reaching out, they have

Kimberly Beer:

deadlines that they have to meet. And those deadlines, they

Kimberly Beer:

don't have a ton of wiggle room. So if it's a magazine or a

Kimberly Beer:

newspaper, it's got to be at a press at a certain time. And

Kimberly Beer:

it's got to go through this whole process of designing and,

Kimberly Beer:

and planning and all of those kinds of things. So be super

Kimberly Beer:

deadline aware. Also be aware of the fact that many of them plan

Kimberly Beer:

their content months or a year in advance. So you need to be

Kimberly Beer:

aware that you may not be like right on the immediate

Kimberly Beer:

publication side of things. So reach out, don't don't try to

Kimberly Beer:

time a reach out. If you have an idea, go ahead and reach out

Kimberly Beer:

with that idea. And then be be very cognizant of taking this

Kimberly Beer:

seriously. I understand for a lot of people that there's fear

Kimberly Beer:

around it. But there's also sort of this mindset of this is a

Kimberly Beer:

free advertising piece. And I really want to kibosh that take

Kimberly Beer:

it really seriously be on time to your meetings, pay attention,

Kimberly Beer:

listen to what the outlet is asking you to do. If they edit

Kimberly Beer:

your stuff, you know, be conscientious about saying

Kimberly Beer:

that's okay, or whatever, whatever they ask you to do. Do

Kimberly Beer:

it with grace and on a timely manner. Because believe me, they

Kimberly Beer:

will love you for it. And they will ask you to come back. And

Kimberly Beer:

that's the best part, right? Because once you build the

Kimberly Beer:

relationship, then you can come back again and again and again,

Kimberly Beer:

and reach that same resource. And then you become a trusted

Kimberly Beer:

resource for whatever outlet it is. And you don't even hardly

Kimberly Beer:

have to work. They'll be knocking on your door saying,

Kimberly Beer:

can we feature you? Can we talk more? So yeah, be professional?

Cara Taylor Swift:

Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing. I

Cara Taylor Swift:

mean, you are a business owner, and you need to represent

Cara Taylor Swift:

yourself as a professional in all of your communications. And

Cara Taylor Swift:

they're business owners as well. They're on deadlines, just like

Cara Taylor Swift:

you've got deadlines. So if you want to be respected, and you

Cara Taylor Swift:

want to be asked to do it again, you want to make sure that you

Cara Taylor Swift:

take their deadlines seriously and try to work within them. So

Cara Taylor Swift:

that makes a lot of sense, Kim, good point. Now you have

Cara Taylor Swift:

something here where you're talking about helping a reporter

Cara Taylor Swift:

Out? Can you explain that for us?

Kimberly Beer:

Yes. So it's basically a service is what I

Kimberly Beer:

guess I would call it, it's called a HARO, H-A-R-O and that

Kimberly Beer:

stands for Help a Reporter Out, if you just Google that, you'll

Kimberly Beer:

be able to find them. And they send out a daily digest of

Kimberly Beer:

emails. So outlets and organizations like magazines,

Kimberly Beer:

news shows, documentaries, all kinds of things. They're always

Kimberly Beer:

looking for experts in certain fields. And so they'll put in a

Kimberly Beer:

request into HARO, and then HARO sends out a daily digest to you

Kimberly Beer:

based upon the criteria that you say I'm an expert in this, this,

Kimberly Beer:

this and this. And so if anybody requests an expert in those

Kimberly Beer:

areas, you'll get a digest from HARO that says, we're looking

Kimberly Beer:

for this person. So it could be maybe there's a magazine, a

Kimberly Beer:

women's magazine that wants to talk about grooming your dog,

Kimberly Beer:

right. So they've got you know, pet care or something is the

Kimberly Beer:

focus of a certain article. So they'll be looking for dog

Kimberly Beer:

groomers to talk about grooming tips, that kind of thing. So I'm

Kimberly Beer:

not going to tell you that every single day is going to be filled

Kimberly Beer:

up with things that would be pertinent to you. But joining

Kimberly Beer:

HARO, or putting yourself on the list is really a good first step

Kimberly Beer:

into starting to even understand what these news outlets are

Kimberly Beer:

looking for, and how you might be able to tailor something to

Kimberly Beer:

fit what they have. So I suggest you go check that out. Another

Kimberly Beer:

place that I want to mention, if you're in the equine industry,

Kimberly Beer:

there's the American Horse Publications, membership. So

Kimberly Beer:

this is a place where a lot of the news and magazine and those

Kimberly Beer:

kinds of outlets, they are members of American Horse

Kimberly Beer:

Publications. And the AHP, as it's called, has a service where

Kimberly Beer:

they will push your press releases out to their email list

Kimberly Beer:

so that you get seen in that area. So if you have those

Kimberly Beer:

formal press releases, and you're speaking to the equine

Kimberly Beer:

industry, this can be a great place for you to be able to go

Kimberly Beer:

ahead and publish those out and offer yourself up. That said,

Kimberly Beer:

you can't just it's like any kind of marketing or advertising

Kimberly Beer:

for your business. You can't just like stick it out there and

Kimberly Beer:

think that people will just automatically do it you

Kimberly Beer:

oftentimes if it's the place you want to have your stuff done.

Kimberly Beer:

You've got to chase the person down and send the private emails

Kimberly Beer:

and find out you know who's in charge of what do your due

Kimberly Beer:

diligence and getting yourself on the radar for them.

Cara Taylor Swift:

I would add that there's some options out

Cara Taylor Swift:

there for people who want to be on podcasts as well on social

Cara Taylor Swift:

media if you go onto Facebook and just do a simple search

Cara Taylor Swift:

podcast guesting, there are multiple groups that are

Cara Taylor Swift:

dedicated to finding podcast guests or being like being a

Cara Taylor Swift:

podcast guests looking for podcast guests. So if that's

Cara Taylor Swift:

something that you think might be a good fit for your business,

Cara Taylor Swift:

there are a lot of great groups that are a great place to start

Cara Taylor Swift:

for that too. Absolutely. So one other little tool that I just

Cara Taylor Swift:

want to throw out there. Some of you guys may have already heard

Cara Taylor Swift:

about it, but it's called Google Alerts. And I have a little like

Cara Taylor Swift:

a Wikipedia definition of it here. It says Google Alerts is a

Cara Taylor Swift:

content change detection and notification service that's

Cara Taylor Swift:

offered by Google, this service sends emails to users when it

Cara Taylor Swift:

finds new results, such as web pages, newspaper articles,

Cara Taylor Swift:

blogs, research that matches the user's search term. So what that

Cara Taylor Swift:

actually means is that you can go into Google Alerts a simple

Cara Taylor Swift:

search on Google Go figure, it will take you right to Google

Cara Taylor Swift:

Alerts. And you can actually set up alerts to be sent to you when

Cara Taylor Swift:

something that you're interested in like a topic or even your own

Cara Taylor Swift:

name, or your business's name is written about or mentioned

Cara Taylor Swift:

online. So this is a really easy thing to do. I've set it up for

Cara Taylor Swift:

myself, you can go in, you can type in the name of your

Cara Taylor Swift:

business and add that as a search parameter you can put

Cara Taylor Swift:

your name in, you can also put in things in your industry, if

Cara Taylor Swift:

you want to, if anyone's writing about a particular topic, you

Cara Taylor Swift:

can put that in and it'll send you directly to your email kind

Cara Taylor Swift:

of a compiled list of recent articles that have come out. So

Cara Taylor Swift:

it's kind of a neat way to monitor your brand's reputation

Cara Taylor Swift:

if people are writing about you. And also you can monitor your

Cara Taylor Swift:

competitors that way, potentially, as well by putting

Cara Taylor Swift:

them in a search parameters. And what are they up to? What are

Cara Taylor Swift:

they talking about? What are other people in your industry

Cara Taylor Swift:

talking about or writing about? Who are the people that are

Cara Taylor Swift:

doing all the speaking so it's not perfect, I will tell you in

Cara Taylor Swift:

the time that I've been using it. And sometimes the search

Cara Taylor Swift:

results send me really weird things that feel really off

Cara Taylor Swift:

topic, but it's a computer system, and they're doing the

Cara Taylor Swift:

search, but it has also caught other things that I found really

Cara Taylor Swift:

interesting. So it might be worth giving it a try, for some

Cara Taylor Swift:

folks that haven't done that yet.

Kimberly Beer:

The off topic cracks me up. Because when I put

Kimberly Beer:

in Kimberly Beer, can you guess what kind of results I get?

Cara Taylor Swift:

Well, my last name is Taylor Swift. So if that

Cara Taylor Swift:

tells you anything, I feel it to my core.

Kimberly Beer:

I love it. I love it. Yep, I bet you do get some

Kimberly Beer:

Taylor Swift stuff in there. That is fascinating. Yeah, I get

Kimberly Beer:

a lot of things about beer.

Cara Taylor Swift:

So you got to play around with it, I think

Kimberly Beer:

You have to give it a lot more parameters when

Kimberly Beer:

you have something in your business name or your name that

Kimberly Beer:

is commonly associated with something else such as Taylor

Kimberly Beer:

Swift and beer drinking. So before we wrap up today, I want

Kimberly Beer:

to give you a couple of things that I consider red flags and in

Kimberly Beer:

public relations. And the biggest one is when a magazine

Kimberly Beer:

or an outlet asks you to pay to be a featured story. Paid PR is

Kimberly Beer:

not public relations. It's an ad. So I don't say there's

Kimberly Beer:

anything wrong with purchasing this. I also say that it's not

Kimberly Beer:

really public relations, which is not what we were talking

Kimberly Beer:

about today. So just be aware of when you do this, that there,

Kimberly Beer:

there are sometimes repercussions. News outlets are

Kimberly Beer:

always hurting for money. And so a lot of times they do offer

Kimberly Beer:

this ahead. And if you just decline and say No, they'll come

Kimberly Beer:

back with a different offer, right? Because they're always

Kimberly Beer:

looking for more advertisers. That's their that's their

Kimberly Beer:

paycheck. I don't think there's as much of a stigma to this as

Kimberly Beer:

there once was, but I would still consider it a red flag.

Kimberly Beer:

And I would really question whether or not it is an

Kimberly Beer:

appropriate source for you if they're asking for money in

Kimberly Beer:

exchange for them either writing about you or publishing

Kimberly Beer:

something that you've written. And I would take that really,

Kimberly Beer:

really seriously as something I would not step forward at least

Kimberly Beer:

without a lot of thought around it. And by the way, it may be

Kimberly Beer:

come in package of something like if you buy 10 ads will do

Kimberly Beer:

an article on you. And that's a little sketchy too. I think you

Kimberly Beer:

have to weigh those things situationally to know. The other

Kimberly Beer:

thing is that I would bring up as a red flag is if you have a

Kimberly Beer:

reporter or an interviewer who asks you to state some things

Kimberly Beer:

specifically, especially that you don't want 100% agree with,

Kimberly Beer:

I would decidedly have some pushback against that. So that's

Kimberly Beer:

another red flag that I would say you need to take a deeper

Kimberly Beer:

look at.

Cara Taylor Swift:

Those are some really good points Kim. I

Cara Taylor Swift:

hadn't even thought about that in terms of you know, the PR

Cara Taylor Swift:

work, so that's a really, really great thing because I've

Cara Taylor Swift:

definitely had magazines reach out to me and also news outlets,

Cara Taylor Swift:

just local news outlets reach out to me trying to get me to

Cara Taylor Swift:

pay to be in the publication and there was just something that

Cara Taylor Swift:

felt kind of icky about it. So I could see it being a great thing

Cara Taylor Swift:

if you want to pay for advertising but I understand

Cara Taylor Swift:

what you're saying about it not being PR. So I think that brings

Cara Taylor Swift:

us to a really good place to wrap us up for today. So just a

Cara Taylor Swift:

recap our big three, first of all, just spend some time

Cara Taylor Swift:

learning about what the PR possibilities in your community

Cara Taylor Swift:

already are, or even in your industry are. So start looking

Cara Taylor Swift:

for things like newspapers, podcast, opportunities,

Cara Taylor Swift:

magazines, YouTube shows, all of those things that are out there

Cara Taylor Swift:

that you might be interested in participating with, think about

Cara Taylor Swift:

all the things that you can bring to the table, you know,

Cara Taylor Swift:

where can you educate? Where can you share your expertise? Where

Cara Taylor Swift:

can you have really great conversation topics that the

Cara Taylor Swift:

folks out there that want to, you know, learn about you, but

Cara Taylor Swift:

also the folks out there that are accessing those outlets that

Cara Taylor Swift:

they might find entertaining. And third, actually work up the

Cara Taylor Swift:

courage to reach out to those outlets. For me, I was always

Cara Taylor Swift:

super nervous. So hopefully talking through some of this

Cara Taylor Swift:

today and giving you guys some ideas will give you guys some

Cara Taylor Swift:

new options around creating some PR for your business. So I think

Cara Taylor Swift:

that's it for us today. Just a reminder, we are on social media

Cara Taylor Swift:

at The Business Animal on Instagram and Facebook. We'd

Cara Taylor Swift:

love to hear from you guys, it can be really quiet over there

Cara Taylor Swift:

sometimes. So come hang out. Let us know what you think about the

Cara Taylor Swift:

show. If you haven't already rated and reviewed, please do

Cara Taylor Swift:

that on the listening app of your choice. This really does

Cara Taylor Swift:

help us out and helps the show get listened to by other folks.

Cara Taylor Swift:

So thank you so much.

Jaz:

Thanks for listening to this episode of The Business

Jaz:

Animal. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And

Jaz:

if you learned something today, leave us a review. To learn

Jaz:

more. Find us at thebusinessanimal.com. We'd love

Jaz:

to hear from you. Until next time, keep your business well

Show artwork for The Business Animal

About the Podcast

The Business Animal
Tame Your Business Animal
Saddle up for a gallop to the top of the animal industry where you’ll learn how to tame your wild business beast with tips, techniques and tools that will take overwhelm to obedience school and have you wagging your tail with joy.

About your host

Profile picture for Kimberly Beer

Kimberly Beer

Think of me as your Entrepreneurial Wisewoman, I optimize the most important asset in your business: YOU! I do this through knowledge earned from 30 years of my own entrepreneurship helping my clients ideate, build, market, and automate their small business. I have a unique toolkit of skills that address the toughest aspects of entrepreneurship fall into the gap between your therapist and traditional business coach. I am known for my out-of-the-box approaches including drawing on the wisdom of nature and horses to inspire you in the changes you seek. I lead an active and supportive community of like-minded business owners who are creating a business that supports the life they want to live.