21 July 2021|Latest Posts, Marketing, PR, Promotion
How to get visible without the ‘ick’ – taking a holistic approach with the media to up level your brand on your terms. By Sarah Lloyd, PR Alchemist.
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 in, listening to the heart and using your intuition as a guide, you cannot fail. It is also a much gentler and more 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. Readers desire a more truthful and meaningful connection through storytelling.
The pandemic has seen a lot of fear-based reporting, mainly in the news segments of shows and publications, scaring us into submission, ensuring we are doing as we are told. However, where there is fear in the news, the features and stories often in the same publications are carrying balanced, happy and motivational messages.
Unfortunately, society has become a slave to fear and sharing a message of fear. Working in the corporate world amongst suits who only understood or cared about 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, make your sales, beat the competition.
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 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.
The good news is, consumers are smarter than ever before. They are waking up and smelling the bullshit. Some are switching off the news or choosing to limit the types of information they are consuming; some are doing their own research comparing and contrasting before making a decision. Thanks to the Pandemic, we don’t mindlessly buy things we don’t need – not after toilet rolls and pasta became like gold dust… remember that?
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 are 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 three key ingredients are the same in both cakes.
Saying this I am not trying to bring fear into publicity, it is actually the opposite.
Love and embrace the fact that there are always going to be the same ingredients in a service, 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 person’s entire WORLD!
When we get caught up in the push around something, we get into our masculine energy (sorry chaps) and can forget why we started out on that road in the first place.
We get caught up in the mindset of ‘keeping up with the Jones’’. ‘I want to appear in that publication because she is’. The wrong kind of #metoo.
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 and on your terms! I have a membership group who I am working with who are securing amazing results because they are working with their energy and their flow.
Checking in with every opportunity to ensure that it feels good and matches what they are doing in their business. Recognising that if something isn’t flowing, it may not be the right choice or time for you.
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 your story from the right place.
About the Author
Sarah Lloyd, PR Alchemist, PR agency owner, author, and radio show host.
In the media and PR business for 24 years, Sarah Lloyd quit her global corporate role in 2017, in a bid to be a master of her own and to bring a better balance to her life, which led her to setting up her own PR and Brand Consultancy – IndigoSoulPR.
An intuitive and Reiki Energy Master herself, she specialises in working in ‘flow’ so has thrown the rule book out the window. Her mission is to teach and guide others to share their stories, without fear, on their terms.
Specialising in her own brand of magic based, conscious PR and communications – her Alchemy strategy sessions help to ignite the fire within, acknowledge blocks, and help to transmute all that has held clients back from stepping up and sharing their mission and purpose.
She classes Merlin and Mary Magdalene as her spiritual counsel; and is a graduate of the SEED Network – led by author and Women’s Empowerment Guru Lynne Franks.
She has worked with a mix of clients – including authors and entrepreneurs as well as small and large businesses – to build awareness of their brands and products in a magical and purposeful way.
When not working, Sarah can be found at the bottom of the garden pottering about in the greenhouse, dropping crystals at sacred sites, attempting to practice Yoga, or outside enjoying the countryside with her two girls.
You can find Sarah on instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook and in the Connecting the Dots community on Mighty Networks
