Affordable PR Mastery: Crystal Richard Unveils Modern Techniques

You can find Crystal Richard at:
PR Website: https://www.crystalrichard.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eastcoast_mermaid/
Website: https://eastcoastmermaid.com/

Crystal Richard Podcast Transcription

[00:00:00] Kris Ward: . Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Win The Hour Win The Day, and I am your host, Kris Ward. And today in the house, we have Crystal Richard and she is a publicist and a digital creator.

[00:00:12] And she’s going to talk to us. We’re going to lean in and we’re going to discuss about PR. I love to discuss that and she’s got a whole refreshing angle on it. So let’s get right to it. Welcome to the show. Crystal.

[00:00:25] Crystal Richard: Thank you so much for having me, Kris.

[00:00:27] Kris Ward: Oh, I’m excited. Okay. So when we chatted, the first thing you said is, Hey, I want to bust the myth of PR. That was your out of the gate. Let’s get to it. So what does that mean and what myth do we need to bust?

[00:00:40] Crystal Richard: I think the biggest myth that we need to bust about PR is that it needs to be heard, that it needs to be expensive, that you have to work with a fancy agency and spend a lot of money to get great media coverage, and that’s absolutely not true at all.

[00:00:56] Kris Ward: Okay. Okay. So what is true then? So where do we start?

[00:01:02] Crystal Richard: So I guess I’m extra fired up about this because I’ve had a few meetings lately with different business owners and marketers that have worked with big agencies that have just said, we had an okay experience, but we paid a lot of money.

[00:01:14] We were sold this very fancy PR strategy. We were told we needed to spend 10, 000 on a media kit. And we just feel We didn’t get what we paid for.

[00:01:28] And right out of the gate, let me tell you, I’ve been doing this over a decade. The amount of times I’ve been asked for a media kit for any of my PR clients, 0.

[00:01:39] Kris Ward: Okay. So I have what I would call, here’s my tip to you. So I don’t know to the world, I’m sure you might have something even better. A media kit can be anything. So often what happens for me, cause we’re all about, my clients tell me all the time they get 25 hours back a week within the first month of working with us.

[00:01:57] And often I will say to people, no matter what you do, no matter how specialized your work, there’s pre and post work and things get redundant, right? You’re copying and pasting. So when I’m a guest in somebody else’s podcast, lots of times there’s forms. Can you give us your LinkedIn? Can you give us, give that whatever.

[00:02:11] So I have a folder, a Google docs folder. I call that my media kit in there is my bio, my headshot. Oh, you know what? Here’s 10 topics we can discuss. Here’s questions you can ask me. Here’s the link to my book. Here’s the link to my podcast, whatever. Now, I just say everything you need in this folder, everything you need in this folder.

[00:02:30] And then I shared that folder with them. And here’s a fascinating part that I teach to my clients, because it’s all about efficiency and you guys can use this. Everyone listening is if I’m on a show today, sometimes that show may not air for four months because they, They’ve got, I’m on their list of shows to be aired.

[00:02:48] And so what happens with the power of that folder is I can change anything in it at any given time because it’s not Oh, I did that show when I was doing this thing. And now we’re doing this, we’re promoting, our quiz, it’s not updated. So I just go in and change something on the sheet. And when they go to reach for it, it’s all there.

[00:03:05] So I guess to me, I never, I think I’ve, I just thought media kit is a collection of information, but I think we can get seduced in. Oh, if you’re here and you want to be at this next level, you got to pay to play.

[00:03:18] Crystal Richard: So what you have is a publicist’s dream. I love that you have that. That is absolutely perfect.

[00:03:23] But that is a Google folder with everything that they could possibly everything. Yeah. What a lot of people I think I come across, they think they need to have this very beautiful designed PDF document. Let me tell you what journalists absolutely hate a PDF attached or anything attached to an email.

[00:03:42] So if you have a Google folder or a Dropbox folder with your headshots and you have a specific folder that says headshots and they say, please send me a headshot and you link to that is perfect. What they don’t want is this fancy zip file or download or PDF that you have paid a designer a lot of money to make that they’re not going to ask for that.

[00:04:01] But I see so many people that think I’m not ready for PR because I don’t have a fancy media kit. I don’t have the budget for a 10, 000 media kit. And they think that’s, that right there is the barrier to entry in the PR game and it’s not at all. Okay. So really sending emails.

[00:04:17] Kris Ward: We are on the same page because yeah, it didn’t cost me a hundred dollars to do this, but I will add to this, to your point, Crystal is in the beginning I did finally make a one page and it’s all, a PDF and looks pretty and there’s my picture and there’s whatever.

[00:04:30] Cause everyone said, Oh, you have to have a one page, right? And then I realized when other people were sending me their stuff to be on my show and they send me one page, this is a proper nuisance because I can’t copy and paste off of it in the show notes. So I do have the one page in there, so it looks fine.

[00:04:42] But then I have a document that is just raw and here’s the title, nothing pretty. And here it is because that’s where they can copy and paste because to your point, they need to be able to copy and paste and move on quickly. All this pretty stuff is useless.

[00:04:56] Crystal Richard: It is. It’s the same thing as press releases. I remember back in my agency days, we used to just, we would do a PDF and now they literally just want that pasted in the email, which is very confusing because out there you see, you hear a lot of journalists saying, please keep your pitch short.

[00:05:10] I like to honestly try to keep most of my pitches under 200 to 300 words at most, you can elaborate later. So if you’re thinking, okay, I need to keep this super short and sweet, but then you’re also telling me I need to paste my, my, Press release into this email, the email is going to look huge, but if you just do it in a way that’s here’s the personalized pitch and then do a line break and then here’s the press release.

[00:05:35] I’ve pasted the press release down below just saying I’ve pasted the press release so that they don’t have to download that out of a PDF is music to their ears.

[00:05:43] Kris Ward: Yeah. And I’m certainly nobody like, I’m not a journalist in any capacity, but when people want to be on my show and then they send me a list of all the, here’s all the shows I’ve been on.

[00:05:53] It’s that’s great. But do you think I’m going to go listen to these shows? And then I go over there and they give me the wrong link and I have to find, yes, they were on so and so show, but I have to find their episode, get I’ve got stuff to do. Okay. Which is really helpful because I see all that now when I’m the receiver of it, but it just reminds us, I think when we’re talking about journalists, you tend to go, Oh my gosh, but I have to look professional. And that professional, as you’re saying is a barrier to

[00:06:16] entry.

[00:06:17] Crystal Richard: Exactly. Journalists are people too. And that’s what I like to try to tell people There’s a lot of agencies and PR people out there who are selling systems and frameworks and all of that, which there’s a time and place for systems and frameworks.

[00:06:29] But at the end of the day, some of my best coverage I’ve gotten for clients was just sending a super scrappy email. Obviously, try to keep, no spelling errors, no typos, but very short and sweet to the point, giving a journalist exactly what they need, what they know that their producers are going to love, and that’s all it takes to make it happen.

[00:06:47] It doesn’t have to be this very beautifully written, thought out, it still has to be thought out, but I just feel like there’s so much pressure on us to write these perfect pitches and to follow these perfect templates and systems. It’s just an honest email from one person to another saying, Hi.

[00:07:04] This is who I am. This is what I do. I have a story that I think your viewers or your readers would love. Here’s a quick, short blurb about what that could look like. Would you be interested? And you’re not wasting anyone’s time.

[00:07:18] Kris Ward: And I think we all get stuck in this with being professional and going to school and going, all that ex post secondary education.

[00:07:26] And then you think shoulders back, let’s be professional, make it sound academic. I’m polished when the reality is if we had, if they were sitting beside us at a business luncheon, you’d be having a conversation with them. And it’d be so much more effective. And people will say that, Oh, if I was just in front of them and it got to talk to them, they’d want me.

[00:07:45] And it’s yeah, cause then we’re conversing instead of blah, blah, blah. I’ll be boring. And then I’ll be a little bit more boring, longer winded and la la la okay. So short, tight, concise, effective. Who are we sending these to?

[00:07:59] Crystal Richard: So it really depends on what your goals of PR are. So some people want immediate sales.

[00:08:04] They want traffic to their website, which I will always tell people. That’s another big myth. PR is not necessarily going to get you a flood of traffic and sales. We are in it for the visibility were in it for the credibility. I like to say being able to put those logos on your website is your credibility storefront.

[00:08:21] I always use the example I worked with a company years ago that had these incredible retreats for digital nomads and entrepreneurs in South America and Peru. And there was a certain component. So you would book a trip with them. They would pick you up at the airport. beautiful apartment with great Wi Fi, which is one of the number one hiccups when you’re doing the digital nomad thing, you need reliable Wi Fi and you would get this amazing Peruvian experience.

[00:08:43] You would surf, you would do Spanish lessons, dance classes. It was awesome. So the first year they did it, they hired me to work together. They had never done this before. They didn’t have a single customer or testimonial. So we started to get them PR talking about the experience and what they were trying to accomplish.

[00:08:59] And as they started getting different logos like Inc and Forbes and Condé Nast that they could add to their website, that started bringing in people that wanted to be part of the experience. So these people who’d had absolutely no testimonial, no five star reviews to go by, but because they saw that a publication that they admired and loved like GQ, Jet Setter was writing about this company.

[00:09:22] That was enough for them to spend thousands of dollars to fly to another country and have a person they’ve never met before pick them up from the airport and hang out with them for the next three weeks. So those logos, if that’s what you’re after, you want to think about, obviously, where your customers are hanging out, but also what ones would give you street cred, which ones can you brag about that would to any person that lands on your website, they would see that recognize it and think, oh, wow, if this person was in Forbes or the New York Times, they’re obviously doing something really cool.

[00:09:54] And so that’s where you want to start going after. And those are the types of outlets you want to start with is where your customers are hanging out. And I like to throw in a few that would just make you feel really great about getting covered in those publications. The feel good ones, the brag worthy ones.

[00:10:08] Kris Ward: And you find nowadays, hello, children, grandma talking here nowadays I find sometimes it can be overwhelming to find out where these people are hanging out. Like we know, okay, ink or wired for business or whatever, but where we are less I don’t remember the last time I held a magazine. So you think, see things scrolling by you online.

[00:10:30] And I guess it’s just start digging and Googling which magazines serve entrepreneurs and just start that way because the whole, I hate to say this, but look at the ceilings like okay, I can list a couple, but I’m not as exposed to magazines. I know when I see, Oh, that looks like they’re, they’re a big boy or girl.

[00:10:47] Cause they’re in that magazine, but I don’t have those names at my fingertips. So just start the Google search there.

[00:10:53] Crystal Richard: Honestly, that’s my go to is Google. So one of my clients right now is in the menopause space in Canada. So I, every single morning we’ll type in menopause Canada into Google to see what articles are out there right now, who’s talking about it so that I know what publications I should be looking at, what writers I should be looking at.

[00:11:11] So some of the best opportunities that we’ve gotten that client thus far are because I saw someone already talking about it. I had something new to add to the story. So I reached out to them, introduced myself, said loved your article, here’s someone I think we should have a conversation with because I think they can add a lot of value to what you’re already talking about.

[00:11:28] Simple as that.

[00:11:29] Kris Ward: Oh my gosh. Okay. Hold on. Stop the truck. Back it up. Okay. That is simple because you know what? Everyone else I’ve ever talked to talks about, okay, find the journalist. So this journalist works for this magazine, engage them on Twitter, do all these things, build a relationship. And that’s all well and good, but it sounds ridiculous, but of course you’re right.

[00:11:47] I would be looking, I would have made that much harder, much more academic. Okay. Find the journalist law, right? But here, what you’re saying is if they’re writing about it, they’re already talking about it. And you can add to that and the things are written and they’re right there for you. So that is a much more direct, clear path.

[00:12:04] Crystal Richard: And the other thing I want to put out there, magazines are great, and there is a certain level of excitement about holding a print magazine in your hand. But I want to caution that magazines are great, but people can’t click magazines. And oftentimes, if you have an article in a magazine and a print magazine, that article might not be online for months until after that’s out.

[00:12:26] And so it’s really hard, especially if you’re caught up in ROI and wanting to know the exact impact of an article that you’ve placed and how, paying a publicist to get that article might translate to sales. It’s next to impossible to do in anything print. So I definitely specialize more in digital because I love that it’s immediate.

[00:12:44] It happens faster. Print, you have to be pitching anywheres from three, four, five, six months in advance to get into a print magazine. And digital’s right there on the internet. It’s accessible via Google.

[00:12:55] Kris Ward: So what’s the difference to you? Because I guess I was thinking, I guess I was thinking one in the same.

[00:13:00] If you’re a magazine that’s going to be printed, you would also in this day and age have a digital version. So I never saw the difference. Are there some that now you’re saying yes, you’d be in this magazine. It’s great, but they wouldn’t have it online. Like it never occurred to me that would be the issue.

[00:13:14] Crystal Richard: Some of them are behind paywalls. So I know Chatelaine, for example, in Canada is a great example. They are behind a paywall. So I can go to the store and I can pick up the issue, but I can’t actually get the whole issue online unless I subscribe to, I think it’s Apple News, that you have to have a subscription to.

[00:13:29] And then you get access to all of these. And so that often becomes a barrier. Another thing is that sometimes they just don’t end up publishing those articles online. Oftentimes they do, but just like newspapers, so Globe and Mail or New York Times, they might run a story in the print edition and then within 24 to 48 hours it’s online. Not always the case with magazines.

[00:13:50] Kris Ward: Okay, so when we’re looking online, then we want the test litmus test is, can we click it? If we can click it, then it’s clickable. And that those are the people we would be pursuing on that topic, right?

[00:14:02] Crystal Richard: And that’s another important thing that we need to talk about in 2023 and going into 2024 is that a lot of content is now behind paywall.

[00:14:09] So I’ve had clients before. That have said, I could care less about this publication because if people can’t actively just click on the link that I share and go see that article, I’m not interested. I still tell people publicity is publicity. Even if it’s behind a paywall, you can still add that logo to your website.

[00:14:24] Yeah, you can still say that you were in that publication, but that’s a hot topic right now, especially in smaller areas. Here in, I’m in Atlantic Canada, so a lot of our news outlets, you have to have a subscription if you want to read the local newspaper articles online. If you want access to some of the content after it’s aired on TV, you have to have a subscription.

[00:14:44] So that’s becoming a really interesting addition to this landscape is that you now have to decide, do I want this even if it’s behind a paywall? And these are all things you need to think about.

[00:14:54] Kris Ward: And don’t get me started that you could spend. 10, 000 a month on subscriptions that are 2 to 5. Like you’re like, this is, you got to get control of that.

[00:15:02] That’s another discussion. Okay. You also, what I feel I missed the boat on, and and I’m still doing it and I’m going to figure this out. I’m going to get to this is I know when everything started with the lockdowns. And then I said, here’s the thing. And I have it on shows that I’ve said this, but dammit, all the hell I should have reached out to somebody.

[00:15:22] I said at the time when everything started going crazy, cause I had a friend who some, she’s in HR, human resources, and a number of the people in her agency wanted to be able to work from home. And they’re like, it’s too much infrastructure. It’s too much cost. La. Cut to all of a sudden when everything started with the lockdowns in one week, they now had something like 400 employees working from home.

[00:15:42] And I said at the time. This will be like in wartime when the men went off to the war and the women came to the workplace. It will never be the same. It, this is a change in how we will work forever, right? Because I had people that I have a cousin who is an accounting firm. He kept saying, Kris, how do you work virtually with your team?

[00:15:59] I have to be in the office. I’ll make them work hard. I’m like, if you have to, you have, you’ve got a bigger problem there. Cause all work comes through the computer now. It no longer do they write it out on a piece of paper and hand it to you. So I’m like, that’s an issue of another level. So I could have been out there.

[00:16:14] Talking about the trends of virtual and all this stuff at that time. However, my limitation was I’m like, Oh, but I don’t work with big corporations, nor do I want to, I work with entrepreneurs, right? Not understanding. It doesn’t matter. I could have been on different talk shows talking about corporations and how it’s now going to grow like the entrepreneur community and had those locals on my website.

[00:16:37] So I also think my narrow vision was, Oh, but that’s not my audience. But I could have still shown my expertise in that. And as you said, get the locals and the social proof and been a voice there.

[00:16:50] Crystal Richard: And that’s the thing. I think we put too much weight on PR wins, translating to sales. And I know myself, whenever I have sales calls, I, if I get the sense that this person wants to hire me strictly to increase sales, to save their company, I used to work with a lot of startups way back in the day, and there’s no worse feeling than hearing a founder talk to you and you can tell that they’re banking on a Forbes feature.

[00:17:13] Solving all of their problems. I hate to say it, it’s probably not going to solve all the problems. We are literally goldfish right now. I think the stat used to be something like, you had to see something eight or nine times before you would make a buying purchase. Think of how that relates to a PR win.

[00:17:27] So they read about you in one publication. That’s their first encounter with you. That’s just one blip on your radar. They need to see you in more publications, or they need to see you popping up on social media or hearing their friends talk about you. Even eight pieces of media coverage won’t necessarily translate to a sale or a potential customer.

[00:17:46] So I like to encourage people to stop thinking about PR as the way to get all of the sales and to get all of the customers and to attract the investors. think about it as a way to just get that street cred and that credibility and to be able to add those logos to your website because that in itself when people are hearing about you through the grapevine and they go to your website and they see wow they’ve actually been featured in all of these publications it just reinforces their decision to buy because people want to buy from people they feel like they know and that they feel like they trust it’s not about the products it’s about the people

[00:18:17] Kris Ward: And I also, to add to that the experience that I’ve had some opportunities where, I’ve been in different, whatever articles and logos on my website.

[00:18:24] And then when somebody is reaching out to me that has checked my social proof and has done this, and then I connect with them, they feel like, Oh my gosh, like this is great. I can afford to work with her. And yet she’s been on all these big platforms, right? So it does. I don’t think it brings you direct sales, but it warms up the lead when they come to you.

[00:18:46] It’s Oh, these people have verified her and I’m lucky to get to work with her. And I just, my biggest, I think sometimes we’ll come up as, Oh, can I afford to work with her? Yes, you can. It’s very affordable. Oh, that’s amazing. Cause you’ve got all the street cred, right? So I think it validates more than anything.

[00:19:01] So I’ve never saw it as a direct correlation to getting more sales, but it confirms your sales potential of the other sales that you could the warm

[00:19:10] leads.

[00:19:11] Crystal Richard: And something that you touched upon that I want to stress that is so important as we go into a new year is social proof in 2024. I think it’s something like 78 percent of journalists will actually, the minute they get a pitch, go creep you on social media.

[00:19:25] So they’re going to check out if you’re active, and you don’t have to be on every platform. That’s not me saying you have to be on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitter, the whole works. But they will go see if you do have a community, if you are sharing your brand and sharing your authenticity somewhere else.

[00:19:42] So if you pitch them and you’re not active on social, that could be a red flag. That could, it doesn’t matter how great your pitches, if they see you know what, they’re not actually hanging out online. They don’t seem to have people engaging with them. Maybe they’re not a legit company, it’s very easy for someone to create a company that looks legit.

[00:20:00] And have fake founder photos and everything. We need to see that these brands are out there and that they actually have people in a community around them too. So that’s a huge part of PR going forward is making sure that you are active online in some capacity, wherever your audience is hanging out. If that’s Instagram, if it’s Facebook, if it’s LinkedIn, make sure that you as a founder and you as a business owner are also, on the internet and reel.

[00:20:28] Kris Ward: Forgive me for saying this, Crystal. Do you think you need to tell people that this, is anybody out there thinking that they could be running a business and not be online with social media at this point?

[00:20:38] Crystal Richard: Oh, there are definitely still people who don’t want to, don’t want to be online and don’t want to have their face out there.

[00:20:43] It’s crazy. Okay. Cause I’ve had experiences where just saying, can I just get a photo of you so that when the media calls, I have a beautiful photo to share. Oh yeah. Yeah. I’ll do that next week. I’ve got to get a haircut first.

[00:20:56] Kris Ward: Oh my God. Oh, don’t even get me started. That’s my hot button. That makes me insane because you know what?

[00:21:01] We used to have it. I thought it would be better to profile the guests, like when you’re on my show, I would have your picture on the cover. It gives you something more to promote it. I love it when I’m on the cover of other podcasts. It just it takes it up a notch. And we just had to stop doing it because people would send me pictures of like functioning freaking adults who’ve been in business 10 years.

[00:21:19] And then they got a picture of them with a hat on in the backyard. What the hell am I supposed to do with this? Like you’re bringing my brand down. No, I’m making you sound like a really great guest and you sounded intelligent on the show. Why are you looking like this is your first 45 minutes in business, right? Oh, it makes me insane.

[00:21:35] Crystal Richard: That is such another key takeaway when talking about PR is I see so many people that get caught up in, okay, we need to invest in a really great PR strategy. We need to invest in the 10, 000 media kit. We need to do all these things. You know what you need to do first. You need to make sure you’re showing up on social media and you need to make sure that you have a headshot, a high res.

[00:21:55] Both portrait and landscape mode, because that’s another thing, if we’re looking at an outlet and you have a portrait, that’s great, but that’s not going to fill the header on that blog post or that article. Make sure you have photos. And it doesn’t, that’s another thing where then people get into the whole I have to hire a photographer and that wasn’t in the budget.

[00:22:12] No, an iPhone takes a fabulous headshot, just get some good natural light. Yeah.

[00:22:19] Kris Ward: And you can take pictures till the sun sets, you can take a hundred pictures and pick the best one out of that. So if you’re not even good at just keep going, you’ll trip into something. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay. What are some other big things that we’re missing as far as PR goes? Because these have been some really solid takeaways.

[00:22:38] Crystal Richard: I think it’s just, it comes back to strategy. So I know there’s a lot of agencies out there that they will have a sales call with you and they’ll say, okay, we’re going to create the PR strategy of your dreams, and now we’re going to disappear for at least four to six weeks, and we’re going to work on this.

[00:22:53] And we’re not really going to know what we’re up to, but we’ll have a discovery call, but then we’ll disappear. And then we might check in once or twice, and then we’re going to send you this elaborate strategy. And then you have, as a business owner, have just wasted time and spending four to six weeks getting this strategy that’s supposedly mind blowing created when in reality, if you want to get coverage, it can be as simple as just identifying. Okay. What are 3 to 5 outlets that I would really love to be in? If you’re a small business and you’re thinking, okay, I want to be on my local news station or my morning show. Morning shows are such a valuable PR opportunity, or you have something very timely.

[00:23:30] And so you think, you know what? I should be on the 6 o’clock news in my region or in my country, whatever that looks like for you. I want to add a TV outlet on there. Here are two business publications that I think I would be a great fit for that. I have a lot to share. Here’s a lifestyle publication for that segment of my audience that might be more into the lifestyle publications.

[00:23:48] Start by identifying three to five outlets. That would be fantastic for you. Go to those outlets. Look up who is talking about the topic that you want to speak about, because that’s the great thing about strategy or the thing about strategies. People go and create these strategies and they say, okay, we’re going to create this huge media list.

[00:24:06] And then we’re going to create all these themes and angles. But at the end of the day, when the time actually comes to execute on that strategy, which could be anywhere from a month or 2 after that kickoff call. Those outlets and those writers that you’re pitching, maybe they’ve actually already covered that topic or maybe they’ve done something so similar that they can’t explore the topic.

[00:24:23] I like to start with what are the outlets you want. And then what are the stories we’re going to tell at those outlets and then who is the right person to reach out to and that reach out can be as simple as saying, hi, I’m the founder of this company. I know you write about this a lot. I have a lot of thoughts.

[00:24:39] I could share about starting a business in a rural community or menopause, whatever it might be here a few ideas that I think we could discuss, but I’m also open to just being on your list as a source. Because that’s one of the most valuable things you can do introducing yourself to the outlets that you want to be in.

[00:24:56] And not putting any pressure to be on the news next week, but just saying, here’s who I am, here’s my expertise, here are some of the topics that I could be an expert source for you. Call me if you need me. I can move fast and I love to share stuff on social media. So if you do decide to interview me, I will blast that all over the internet.

[00:25:14] That is the best way to just make a connection.

[00:25:17] Kris Ward: Oh my gosh. And you know what? That’s all what we’re all about. Cause I call it, we have these power personalities and it’s a quiz to figure out your entrepreneurial type. And it takes 30 seconds. And one of the personalities is what I call a perfectionizer and you start to fuss with things.

[00:25:32] Oh, I’ll fuss and make this media kit and do all these. And really it’s just an option to delay and you put all these things in place, but it’s really everybody, it’s really saying, let’s do this for the next six weeks and then go to that. And then it doesn’t work.

[00:25:45] So you’re, what you’re talking about is what we love to talk about here is let’s just put boots to the ground and let’s get going and course correct as we do it and meet these people and say, “Hey, I’m here. I’m an expert in this. I can be a source for you” and just start networking that way and see what happens instead of having all this strategy on paper and finding out six to eight weeks later, it just doesn’t work.

[00:26:10] Crystal Richard: Here in Atlantic Canada, so we have live at five, which is our rite of passage television. Six o’clock, five o’clock news thing. I’ve been on live at five, four times in the last six months. Most of those I had absolutely nothing to do with. It was right place, right time. Or they knew that they could they said, okay, Crystal’s an expert on this subject.

[00:26:27] We should interview her or Crystal’s here. We follow her on social media. We know that she’s great on camera. We know that she can deliver a great interview because she’s a publicist. We’re going to interview her about this. I was literally at a holiday market and got pulled into doing a CTV news interview because I was there and the reporter knew I do great work.

[00:26:45] I would give a great interview. I know how soundbites work. It’s only because I’m out there and I’m getting to know these people and making these contacts that when the time comes that they have something that’s a great fit for me, they call me and the same thing that applies for a founder, you do not have to have a publicist on retainer.

[00:27:01] And people are always shocked to say that I’m telling people you don’t have to pay for PR, but honestly, just a founder or someone on the team sending an email to the local news or to your newspaper. National news outlets, whatever it might be and just saying, here’s what we’re up to. I think this could be interesting for your viewers.

[00:27:19] Is this something you would like to talk about? And you can figure out the logistics after that. That’s right. Simple, easy pitch.

[00:27:26] Kris Ward: Get back to your other point. These are people that need to like my show. I need to have guests on my show. We need to fill this space or it’s not a show. No one wants to listen to me rail on by myself.

[00:27:36] So they need content. And then if you make it easy for them, and I think we do all get into that formula and template and all this other stuff, now, this is another thing. My, my pet peeve is you think, Oh, I need this. And what happens? You often think, Oh, let’s say I need PR, but then you end up start moving in the wrong direction.

[00:27:54] Oh, but first I need a media kit. Then I need this. And then you’re going way back 10 things that you, I should be moving forward and I’m 10 paces back. So I think it’s just make it easy. So you’re accessible and show that there won’t be a disruption and admin noise between the two of you so that when they need, like when they needed you on that show, they called you quickly.

[00:28:14] Great. We’ve got space. She’ll do this. Great. Done. What else do we need today?

[00:28:18] Crystal Richard: And it’s simple. If you have a bunch of events coming up, if you’re in a space where you’re having events, just sending an outlet or an email to your local journalists, video journalists, and saying, here’s what’s coming up this month.

[00:28:30] Yeah. Putting this on your radar, because what people don’t realize, especially with TV is a lot of these journalists will not get an official green light until the morning of so they’ll bring it to a pitch meeting and say there’s this happening later today or this news just came out yesterday. Do we want to do a story about it?

[00:28:47] So you always have to be ready to move fast, but if they know who you are, and they know that you give great interviews and that you can be trusted to answer their emails to pick up the phone, you will continue to get repeat coverage from those outlets. And the other great thing is the journalists love to talk about people that are great with the media.

[00:29:06] So if you do a great media interview and you share it, which again, I cannot stress enough, please share those media wins when they happen, whether it’s TV, podcast, interview, whatever it might be, please go online. That’s the nicest thing you can do for that person that took the time to interview you.

[00:29:19] But if you do all of that, then those journalists, when they talk to other journalists who are looking for sources for stories that they’re working on, they will mention you and they will introduce you. And it just, it has a ripple effect.

[00:29:30] Kris Ward: And when you share it, like the other people see, oh look, she’s on that show. Like why would you not share it? Oh my gosh. Don’t get me started there. Alright, crystal, where can we find more of your brilliance? ‘

[00:29:39] Crystal Richard: You can find more of my brilliance at crystalrichards.com, which is my PR company website. And if you are interested in following all of my life adventures in Coastal Adventures here in Atlanta, Canada, you can also go to eastcoastmermaid.com or at East Coast Mermaid on Instagram, which is where I hang out as a digital creator and publicist.

[00:29:59] Kris Ward: Fabulous. All right. Everyone else, please share this episode with a business buddy because they need to know this stuff and business buddies do not let others suffer by themselves. We’re all in this together. So fantastic, Crystal. Thank you so much. And we will see you in the next episode.

[00:30:14] Crystal Richard: Thank you for having me.