People often ask me if there is a secret sauce to getting yourself out there in the press. I wouldn’t say there is a secret sauce, but to quote an old boss of mine ‘there is the traditional way of doing it, and Sarah’s way’. In the past I wasn’t sure how to take this, but now I get it. My way is not new, it is not actually my way. In fact, PR Guru Lynne Franks, has been talking about tapping into our intuition in business for nearly 20 years. When you are tuning into, listening to the heart and using your intuition as a guide, you cannot fail. It is also a much gentler and feminine way of ‘doing business’.
When an individual or brand steps out of their comfort zone, they are widening their immediate sphere of influence. Contrary to what some coaches will have you think, gaining awareness through publicity is a slow and continuous journey. It is all about connection, chemistry and providing relevant content. It will invariably take many twists and turns. And we are moving away from the ‘witch’ hunt reporting style that has been favoured in the past. We are seeing a shift from the old. We are seeing and desiring a more truthful and meaningful connection through our storytelling.
The most recent copy of TIME magazine has Greta Thunberg – a 16year old girl – on the front cover – bravely and successfully taking a stand to try and change our world. She most likely hasn’t fully developed her ‘Ego’ as yet – so you know she is speaking her authentic truth and it is the most powerful message. She has been on her road to build awareness for many years, and it shows if you truly want to make a real difference, then be prepared to invest your energy and know and love yourself wholly and fully when you step out into the public eye.
Luckily the media market is also subtly tuning into this change. We are seeing newspapers and news channels who are focusing on happy and good messages.
Unfortunately, we have become a slave to fear and sharing a message of fear. Working in corporate, amongst suits who only understood ‘numbers’ your driver became that – a numbers game… We invest X$ equals XX amount of results. We tell ‘them’ what we think they want to hear. Equals sales and getting ahead of the competition. The fear that you wouldn’t meet your numbers.
It gets you so far – of course it does. It is the way we have always worked. But this way is killing our world slowly. We are celebrating #MentalHealthAwareness this week. Which is ironic because our way of life is what is causing people to be ill. We are mentally ill. We are consumed, we are all junkies, we all want more, our phones are designed so we would rather fall off a cliff taking a selfie than god forbid leaving it at home for one moment.
It is never enough. It has to stop.
But times they are a changing.
Consumers are smarter than ever before. They can smell bullshit.
Some are so clever they can see brands and copy-cat marketing campaigns a mile away. Crudely, if you were to strip it all back, there is normally one or two tiny things that make the products you are comparing different. It’s like when you make a cake – some taste amazing and melt in your mouth, others not so much, but essentially the same 3 key ingredients are the same in both cakes.
Saying this I am not trying to bring fear into marketing or promoting a product
– in fact, the opposite –
Let’s for once love and embrace the fact that there are always going to be the same ingredients in a product or an offering. And yes, there are things that set your offering apart from the others – because what you have created is needed for at least one person – which essentially will change their world. I mean how powerful is that if you can change ONE persons entire WORLD!
When we get caught up in the push around something, we get into our masculine (sorry chaps) we often forget why we started out on that road in the first place. We get caught up in the current of ‘what everyone else is doing’. ‘I want to appear in that publication because she is’. The wrong kind of me too.
Publicity plays to the Ego, and people often ask me how I can provide a PR service which doesn’t play to the Ego and is more conscious.
Easy. You check in with yourself A LOT.
- You open yourself up to vulnerability. You are Brave.
You must ask the questions…
- What is driving me to make this phone call?
- Why am I chasing this feature opportunity?
- Why do I want to be in this magazine / on that sofa?
If the answer is something along the lines of,
- Because they are my people and my people watch that show or read that magazine.
- I will make a difference to those readers / viewers
Then you are in alignment with your purpose and truth. And it will become easy to get results.
If it’s because someone else is having an impact on your why, you are in Ego mode.
‘I want to be in that magazine because ‘x is’ or ‘she did it’
You are in comparison, jumping into someone else’s lane and out of your own alignment. And most likely it will be hard to get results.
If you are thinking about telling your story or promoting a product through the media, you can do it gently, slowly and with purpose.
If you have set the intention you wish to share your story often that is all it takes, and opportunities will spin towards you that you never even dreamed of because the universe has a sense of humour.
You don’t have to go into full on ‘hard’ launch mode. Really you don’t!
Whatever is meant for you – will never pass you by – in fact by being pushy sometimes means you push it away until you are ready to share.