Latest / LET'S MAKE WAVES with Rana AlBasri Mouawad / Why Journalists Don't Care What You Know, and What They Care About Instead

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Why Journalists Don't Care What You Know, and What They Care About Instead · LET'S MAKE WAVES with Rana AlBasri Mouawad

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: I know so much about what I do.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: I just don't know what to pitch and how to pitch.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: If I had to choose the one sentence that I hear most often from experts when we start talking about publicity, that statement would be it.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: The second one that would come to place is around things like I have nothing new to pitch to the media for coverage.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what is interesting in my story.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: And to double down on how much this sentiment is common, not just me hearing it.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Last week, when I asked my community on Instagram, where do you feel stuck when it comes to publicity?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: They said it too louder than anything else.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want you to walk away with today.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: The reason the story angle feels so hard to find is that most of us go looking for it in the wrong place.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: We basically search inside our own business, our services, the results that we have, our credentials, who we are, and we kind of hope that the story is hiding somewhere there and we pick things together and we create something.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is a story angle doesn't start with you, the expert, the entrepreneur, the founder.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: It actually starts with the audience of the media outlet that you want to be featured in.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And with the way that media outlet tells its stories, only when you understand these two things do you really go back to your business and then you start picking out what fits, and that is what you pitch.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, this is what I'm gonna ask from you.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Please get your notebooks, get ready to take some notes, or save this episode to come back to it later if you're unable to take notes right now, because by the end of this episode, you will have a way of thinking about story angles that actually works, whether you're pitching to a magazine, a podcast, a radio show, or even your local newspaper.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: I will share with you three questions to answer before you write a single pitch email at the end of this episode.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to get ready because we're gonna go deep on this topic as much as possible.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna take you through a journey of four lessons that you need to keep in mind for you to know how to pitch and what to pitch.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get started.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Let's Make Waves Podcast.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Rena, and if you're new here, this is a show where we talk about reputation, personal brand, and communication for people who have built something real as a business but want the world outside their immediate circle to finally notice.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to talk about media relations, publicity, and how to identify a story worth pitching.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: The topic of publicity is really big.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: So one episode is not gonna be enough.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it is definitely a topic that is worth tackling from different angles, and that is where I can go through the biggest obstacles that stop experts and business owners from getting featured in the media.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: However, for today's episode, you chose where we start.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: So this is how it started.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: The poll.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: I asked on Instagram, where do you feel stuck when it comes to publicity?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I gave you four options because these are the four bottlenecks I see again and again and again with the founders and experts that I work with.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: The first was a media identification problem, meaning you don't know which outlet is right for you.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, only 8% of you voted for that.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: The second was a pitching problem.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: So basically not knowing how to write or send the pitch itself, and 15% of you voted for that.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Then it was the media relations problem, which is basically building and keeping relationships with journalists, editors, and producers.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: That one came at 31% of the vote, which is a really big number, and I think it deserves its own episode.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: But the clear winner with 46% of the votes was the story angle problem.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: So almost half of you.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And to be honest, that did not surprise me at all.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because when I think of you, my listeners on this show, for example, you are not short on expertise.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Not even a little bit.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Most of you have been in business for a few years.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: You have clients who trust you, you have amazing results that you can point to, and definitely opinions that you've earned the hard way.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: You've earned it because you've done the work.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is not that you have nothing to say.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: That is not even close.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: In my opinion, and what I've seen through my work, it is that you have so much to say, and none of it has been shaped in such a way that someone else's audience, which in this case is the media, is interested to know about this opinion.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the translation work that we're gonna do today in this episode.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna take you on this journey to better understand how the media thinks and what are they looking for, and how do you find a story angle that you can pitch and definitely hear from the media about it and make sure that the media is interested in it and for you to get featured.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'll start with lesson one.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: A topic is not an angle, and I'm starting with this because it's the most common mix-up, and once you see it, trust me, you can't unsee it.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what happens: when I ask an expert what she'd like to be featured for, the usual answer I get from her is a topic.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: So something like I can talk about leadership, or I can talk about retirement planning, or I can talk about gut health, I can talk about interior design for small spaces.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, don't get me wrong, all of these are amazingly good topics, but from a journalist's perspective, they cannot publish a topic.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: A topic is basically a subject area, and the journalists or the producers or the editors, they need a story.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: So they need something with a reason for them to say that it deserves to exist on the page in the magazine or sound bites in that episode or podcast, and it has to be a good reason for it to exist this week or in the coming issue.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the simplest way I can put it: a topic is what you know, but an angle is the reason this particular audience reached through this particular media outlet should care about what you know right now.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so a topic is something that you know, but an angle is a reason why an audience from a particular media topic should care about to hear from you, the expert, right now.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Let me put it in a concrete example.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say you are a financial planner and your topic is retirement planning.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine you're pitching to a magazine that is read by women who run their own businesses.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: An angle for that audience from your topic, which is retirement planning, might be something like: why do so many women founders pay themselves last?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: And what does that bad habit quietly cost them when it's time for them to stop working?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: So you see what I did there.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's the same expertise, but now it speaks to a specific reader about something that she recognizes in her own life.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: So to that journalist that you're pitching to in that magazine, your angle is exactly what they need.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not vague in a topic subject like retirement planning.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're the same expert, the retirement planning as a topic, and you're a financial planner, but now you're pitching the business section of your local newspaper, the angle would definitely change.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the angle could be it's a tax or a pension change that came into effect this year and what it actually means for families in your city.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Again, it's the same expert, same knowledge, but it's a completely different story because the audience and the moment for that media is different.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, do you notice that neither of these two examples starts with I'm pitching this because I'm a financial planner with 15 years of experience?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, your credentials matter.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: It matters a lot, but it doesn't matter the way you think it matters.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: It matters only as a reason for the journalist to trust you once they are interested in your story angle.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not a reason for them to get interested in the first place.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the anchor that will help you to get them to be interested.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: It is a supporting reason for the journalist to trust you because you have expertise.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's when your credentials matter, but it's not the reason why they will feature you.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm saying all of this because it honestly matters more than ever before.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: I want to show you that this just isn't my opinion from doing this for years and years, because the people on the receiving end who are the journalists, the editors, the producers, they have been clear about this for a long time.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what I can tell you when it comes to research.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: So every year, two of the big media intelligence companies, Scission and Mukrak, they survey journalists about how they work and what they want from people like us, the experts or business owners, or even from PR agencies.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in Scission's report, the 2026 State of the Media Report, they surveyed 1,900 journalists across 19 markets in North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: And out of that report, two numbers from it sit honestly side by side, and I want you to hold them together.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: So the first number was that 66% of the journalist surveys say that they rely on content from PR, which means pitching, and content from press releases or media kits for their story ideas.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean for us?
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: It means the door is open.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: The journalists need people like you and me, especially now when newsrooms across the world are smaller and they're actually stretched really thin more than ever before.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: In the same report, almost half of the journalists surveyed said that because of these shrinking resources, okay, these particular challenges are the reason why they rely on content from pitching.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the second number that I want you to hold close, it's a bit of an uncomfortable one, but we need to talk about it because it's really important.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: In the survey, it says that 72% of the journalists who were surveyed said that fewer than a quarter of the pitches that they receive actually is relevant to them.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is huge.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: 72% of saying that fewer than a quarter of the pitches are relevant.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: What happens to the rest?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: They just they just delete them.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in Mukrak's 2026 State of Journalists uh report, in that report, they surveyed a smaller pool.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: So they surveyed nearly 900 journalists, and it tells the same story but from a different angle.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: So in that survey, they say that 86% of journalists say that at least some of their published work came from a pitch, a PR pitch.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: So 86% of them rely on pitching for some of their stories, and 88% of them they say that they delete pitches because they completely fall outside what they cover.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: They don't even think about it.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's that without giving it a second thought.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: So this is what we get from these research and what I'm about to tell you today.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Journalists are open to pitches, they actually depend on them.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, most of the most of the pitches that land in their inbox are absolutely useless to them.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the gap.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: The gap is exactly where the story angle lives.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the pitches don't fail because the expert is not good enough.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: They simply fail because nobody asked what the journalist's audience needed before they hit send on their email when they're pitching their story angle.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the first lesson that I want you to keep in mind.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: It really matters for you to understand that pitching is actually, I'm not gonna say easy, but the door is open for pitching.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: The journalists are asking for you, the expert, the business owner, to pitch.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: They want it, they need it because it is part of how they do stories.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: The lesson here is to remember that they receive a lot of pitches.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: So unless it is relevant, unless it is timely, they're simply going to delete it without a second thought.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: The second lesson is start with the outlet's audience.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: This brings me to a shift that I really hope that you make today.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you're serious about publicity for yourself as an expert, I want you to think about this.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Before you think about your business, you have to think about the audience of that media outlet that you are approaching.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: And here's why.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: And there's gonna be some tough love coming to you.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: A journalist doesn't work for you, they don't work for me.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And in a way, honestly, they don't even work for themselves, they answer to an editor, and the editor answers to the reader, and of course to the publisher, but mainly to the reader, to the listener, to the viewer of that media outlet.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: So we need to really get our heads around this.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Every outlet has some kind of a promise to their audience, and the promise is usually rotates around that we will tell you what matters to people like you when it comes to this topic.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, you, the expert, when you're pitching, you need to help the journalist, you need to help the editor keep that promise to their audience, and that's how you become useful, and that's how your pitch is accepted.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: When you don't do that, you're just another email that they're going to delete.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: And there's like a detail in the muckrack report that I just mentioned that I really find very telling.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: They asked the journalist what makes a pitch feel relevant, not just that it's great for their audience.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: 78% of them said that the pitch has to directly affect the community the media outlet serves.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: So 78% is confirming this.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Your pitch needs to be relevant in such a way that it actually affects the audience that this media outlet is serving.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: So when they asked how often do these pitches actually show awareness of that community, only 16% of the journalists said they usually do.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: So 44% said it seldom does, and 16% said they usually do.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: So there you have it.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Three out of four journalists are telling you and telling me and telling all experts exactly what they want.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the only small fraction of the pitches that they receive actually give them what they want.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: So if you get this one thing right, you're already ahead of most of the people pitching to that same journalist, the same producer, including PR agencies.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Trust me on that, including PR agencies that is specialized in PR.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the logical question is how do you get to know the outlet's audience?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: I want to start in this lesson two with you really understanding how everything starts with the outlet's audience, and how do you get to know who are the audience of the outlet?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: There are really very few practical ways, and they're really simple for you to do.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is to actually consume that media outlet.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: So read, listen, watch, like really intently, not just headlines.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: For example, if it's a if it's a magazine, read the last 10 or the most recent pieces from the section that you would like to be featured in.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: And like really ask yourself who would really benefit from the topics that have been published in that section?
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: At what kind of stage of life would people be so that they would find this information in that section relevant for them?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: What are they worried about?
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: What do they want to be able to do after reading this information?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: So consuming the media that you are interested to be featured in is very important because it gives you a lot of information, not just about the audience, but also how these journalists actually tackle these stories to make it interesting for their audience.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: The second way to do it, the second practical way to know more and to research the outlet's audience is to look at who the media outlet sells to.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: So let me explain this.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Most magazines, newspapers, and so many podcasts also publish what is called a media kit or an or they have something on their website called an advertising page.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's written for the advertisers and it usually describes the audience in a lot of detail.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: So you have the age, the profession, the income, the interest, the whole nine yards.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it's one of the most useful documents that you'll ever read when you're pitching.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: And most experts, to tell you the truth, they kind of ignore this, they overlook this.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: The third way for you to research the outlet's audience is to look at what the audience says back to that media outlet.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is where you go and you read comments under the articles, the reviews of that podcast, the questions that people send, let's say, to the radio call-in show.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's the audience telling you and telling the media outlet in their own words, what do they care about?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: And especially for broadcasts, whether it is like a radio or a TV station, think about the moment.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: Who's listening to a morning radio show?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Usually people who are driving to work or people who are, you know, getting their kids ready for school.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Who is watching an afternoon TV program or an afternoon radio show?
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's a completely different person because the timeline can tell you so much about the audience, as much as the channel's name or the channel's advertising page or media kit, or even the um you listening and reading and watching and consuming the media.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: So this is how you get to know more information about the audience of that media outlet that is interesting for you to be featured in.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Lesson three is to study how the outlet carries its stories.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: So once you understand who the audience is, the next layer is how does this media outlet speak to them?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because two media that can serve the same or very similar audience still carry stories in completely different ways.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: So let me explain this.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Some media they love trend pieces, and this is where the journalists spot something that is happening across the industry, and they need two or three or even four experts to explain that that thing that is happening, this trend that is happening.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Some media they run first-person opinion columns, and this is where basically the experts write in their own words and in their own voice, and they get featured in an expert column.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Some media they do practical how-to pieces and numbered pieces and checklists.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, do you see how they carry the story?
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: Each one, they do it in a different way.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Some media they do profiles, and this is where the story of the expert, the person's journey is important.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: And other media, they only cover things like fresh data and information.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: They're really heavy on that.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: And if we look at the different types of media, for example, podcasts, they have their own format.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Some are long and conversational, and they go around the guest's story and experience.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: And some of them Some podcasts, they're a much tighter uh episode.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: They that's how they do it, and it is comparatively short to the big conversation, and they kind of focus on one topic.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Some podcasts they build around a theme for the season that they are, you know, publishing in.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: So there is a theme to that season.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: The important thing is that when you're studying this media outlet, I want you to look at the container as a whole, if you you know, if you will, not just the bits and pieces of the content inside the container.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: So think about which sections exist in that media that I'm interested in.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Are there any recurring columns?
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Do they have something like a weekly QA with an expert?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Or do they have sections like how I did it features, for example?
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, look look at it also in depth in terms of how long are the pieces?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: Who gets really quoted in these pieces?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do they only profile celebrities?
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: And if that's the case, then you know you need to take that media outlet uh out of your media list.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to go as much in depth about this media outlet for you to study how does this outlet carry its stories.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know that probably some of you listening to this will think, oh my god, this sounds like a lot of work.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: But trust me, it's not much when your media list is tight.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean that you are really specific on which media outlets that you want to be featured in, and that you have tiered your media list into tier one and tier two.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: So basically, when you're hyper-focused, you are able then to research a very specific number of media and study them really well.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because once you study them really well, everything after that becomes super easy.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: So the the important thing here is not to go wide and have a huge media list, but actually to go deep because the kind of coverage that you will get when you're featured has a bigger impact.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I did a lot of research for this episode because I want to try to give you as much as possible numbers from the industry and not depend uh my tips only to depend on my 20 plus years experience in communication and public relations.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want this episode to be completely on my expertise, and I wanted to show you that what am I sharing with you is also exactly what the research shows us and what the media themselves telling us as experts, you know, of what they want and what they're looking for.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: So while I'm doing that research, there is a well-known piece, a research in journalism studies, that I really found really fascinating and I want to share it with you.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: This happened in 2017.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: There were two academics, Tony Herkop and Died O'Neill, and they analyzed the front page and the leading stories in UK newspapers so that they wanted to understand what actually makes something newsworthy today.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in that research, they came up with a list of what they call news value.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: So basically, news value is the qualities that make the editor pick one story over another story, or pick one pitch over the other.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: These news values include relevance to the audience, surprise, conflict, the size of the impact in that piece, is it good news, is it bad news, or is it a follow-up to something that is already huge in the news that week, or is it something big in the industry or something big in pop culture?
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm saying all of this because it's important for you to know why it matters.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: It matters because when you understand which of those values an outlet really leans on, you can actually shape your angle to match it.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it all works together.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: A business media outlet might lean into impact and data, but a lifestyle magazine, for example, they would lean into relatability and good news and positivity, for example.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: A program, a news program, it will lean into timing and you know, quick news and follow-ups.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: So you have the same expertise, but what happens when you understand all of this, you start recognizing the different doors that you can walk into.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: So your expertise is the same key that you can use in these different doors.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: What is also important, and you've, you know, you've probably identified this in all of the information that I already gave you between lesson one and lesson two and all of these research, is that timing also plays a very important part of when the outlet carries the story.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: For example, a monthly print magazine, it often plans the issue months ahead of the issue.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have a story about back to school, for example, which is it it needs to come out in September, okay, you need to pitch it in June or July for a print magazine.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a story about the holidays in December, let's say Christmas and New Year, that would be pitched sometime in September and October.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: So this is really important about the timing of when do you pitch it when you understand those media outlets and you research them.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: A daily news site or a daily newspaper or even a radio show, because it is daily, they might receive your pitch today, and if it's a really good story angle, they will run it the next day or by the end of the week.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it's that's another thing that I hope you can keep in mind.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: If your angle is right, but the timing is wrong, the pitch will be deleted.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: So the angle has to be right because of your understanding of the media outlet, because of your understanding of the audience that media outlet serves, and the timing has to be right.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so lesson four.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Go back to your business only when you've done lesson one, two, and three.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: So only now, once you know who the audience is, how does the outlet carry its stories, what are the timings that are important for the outlet, do you then turn back into your own business, into your own expertise, and find a way to use that and create an angle out of it.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: And trust me, this is then the right time because you are not searching blindly.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're not looking in the dark, you're not um thinking of pitches, angles that is like throwing spaghetti on the wall and you don't know which one will stick.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: You're actually going to be searching with a very specific question in your mind.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: You already know so much about this outlet and about their audience.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're basically looking into what you know and your business, and you're answering this question: what do I have that this audience for this particular outlet needs?
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I know how to shape it so that the journalist or the editor or the producer can actually be interested in it because they can actually use it.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's relevant to them.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: And when you do that, turn inward and look into your business and look into your expertise and everything that you've done and even your story.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: Here are places that I would definitely suggest for you to look into.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is look at patterns that you see across your clients.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: So you've worked with a dozen clients, maybe you've worked with a hundred clients.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: What do you see over and over and over again that the people outside your work they really don't see it?
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: That is a trend angle.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's how you have a trend angle because you have basically recognized a trend based on your experience with a set of clients and you have your expertise to add into it.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: The second way to look inward is to look at what you disagree in the industry.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is the advice that is that everyone is repeating and that you think doesn't necessarily need to be wrong, but it could be outdated, or maybe it is half true.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because a well-argued point of view is exactly what opinion pages and so many podcasts are looking for.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is your opinion angle.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: The third way to look inwards is to look at numbers that you already have.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: So you've worked with a bunch of clients.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you can run a small survey within your community, or you've tracked results across your clients for the years that you've been in business.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is what journalists call original research because you are the experts that they have access to and you have valuable information based on original research.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: So that is original research with data-driven angle.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: Another way to look inwards is to look at what has changed recently that your audience is confused about or not aware about.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say in your industry there was a new regulation or there was a shift in the market, or let's say there was a piece of news that everyone is talking about.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like trending news, but very few people are actually explaining it the way it needs to be explained.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: That is where your expertise becomes timely.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: So that is a timely expertise angle.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: And the last suggestion of story angle that that you can think of when you're looking inwards is to look at your own story, your founder's story.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: But don't look at it from what you think is important, look at it from the angle of what serves the reader of the media outlet that you're trying to pitch.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: So your journey can absolutely be an angle, especially if you are pitching for profile pieces or for podcasts.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: But it also works when you give the audience something that they can actually try it themselves, something like a lesson, a warning, maybe permission to try something themselves.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: So you can have your story become an angle, okay, an expertise angle, whether it is for something like long-form content, like a podcast or a profile piece, but also as additions to certain topics that you are pitching to other types of media outlets that you can include a warning or a lesson or a permission or a new mindset shift or any of that.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: Once you do that, once you go in inwards into your business and into your expertise, then comes the matching.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: So you have in one hand you are holding what you know about this media and their audience and how do they tell stories, and on the other hand, you have everything that you just pulled out of your business and out of your expertise and out of the years that you've worked in this industry.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: Your angle is basically the place where these two overlap.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that was where the information is.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: I want to put it into a really good practical example.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let me walk you through that example where you can see and hear how this actually looks like in real life.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give you an expert and I'm going to give you three different outlets that the same expert is going to pitch her story.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say this expert is a woman.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: She is an HR consultant and she mostly works with family-owned businesses.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: The first media outlet that this HR consultant is interested in is the business section of her national newspaper.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: The audience of that national newspaper are executives and business owners.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: And this newspaper usually tends to carry uh trend stories, and they love having numbers to back these stories.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: Her story angle, this HR consultant, her story angle might come from a pattern that she sees in her client work.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the pattern.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: What happens to staff loyalty when a second generation takes over a family business and she backs it up with figures from the companies that she has supported.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: So she's not pitching herself as the expert.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: What she is offering the journalist is a trend with evidence, and she is the credible voice to explain it and explain why this is important for the readers of that local newspaper.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: The second media outlet that she's interested to pitch to is a women's lifestyle magazine.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: The audience of that women lifestyle magazine are women in their 30s and in their 40s.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: And this magazine, they love a first-person story and practical advice.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: So our HR consultant, her angle might be about daughters stepping into family businesses and how to earn authority with employees who watched them grow up.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that is a story the reader will recognize, maybe because it comes from her own family and she experienced that, or it could be from stories of clients that she had that that they have gone through, and she is able to give them practical advice that this audience can use immediately.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: The third media outlet that this expert is interested to pitch to is a morning radio show in her city.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this radio show they have this short segment, and within this short segment that is very interesting for her, it's very conversational, and it's usually tied around what was happening this week in the city.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: Our HR consultant, she is going to pitch her story by keeping the timing very relevant.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it's late October, it's early November.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: Her story angle might be the three hiring mistakes that small local businesses make when they bring on seasonal staff for the holidays.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's quick, it's useful, and it's timely for the people listening to that station, that segment on their way to work.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see what I did there?
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's the same woman, it's the same expertise, but it's three completely different story angles.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: And no one of them starts with credentials, with I'm an HR consultant with X number of years and I'd love to be featured.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: None of her pitching started with that.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: It started with a story angle, and her expertise and who she is backed it up.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's the credibility that comes as a backup.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: Each one of these pitches started with an audience that is very clear, and it took shape of how the outlet tells those stories in the format that they like, and then it pulled those stories from her own work.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the part that I really don't want you to miss.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need one perfect angle.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: What you actually need is one right angle for the right media outlet that speaks to that right audience.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's as simple as that.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: And when when you kind of shift your thinking when it comes to publicity, especially how do you find story angles to pitch, it becomes very clear for you how you can participate in that conversation.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: Before we wrap up, I want to name a few traps because there are a lot of traps in publicity.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I see smart, accomplished people, they always fall into those traps all the time.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I think by naming them, it will help you basically avoid those traps.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: The first one it's the announcement trap, and this is really common.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: So you have a launch or an anniversary or you have a new service, or maybe you moved from an old office to a new office.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is big news, and definitely it is big news to you, and this is something that definitely you should celebrate.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: But to the journalist's audience, this is not a big news.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: So your big news, your announcement, that's the announcement trap.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: Your announcement doesn't necessarily become news or important for the journalists or for their audience.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because such type of news, they only carry something for you.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: They do not carry something for the reader or for the listener.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have any kind of announcement, ask yourself what do you need to reveal about this big news that actually creates a bigger shift or a story or something of an interest that then becomes a relevant story angle to pitch.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that's the first trap.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: The second trap is the credentials trap.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I talked about it a lot in this episode, and that is when you're pitching by leading with your bio, with years of experience, with the awards that you have received.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: Your credentials belong in the pitch, of course, but they belong as a proof that you are the right person to tell the story.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: Your credentials cannot be the story itself as a business owner who is trying to leverage publicity to build their personal brand.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the third trap is the copy paste trap.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a lot too, and I'm sure you've seen it around.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is when you find one angle that you like and you basically send it to 20 outlets.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: There are so many, sadly, PR agencies who use that machine gun approach.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, you know, we machine gun the same story into a very, you know, we write it as a simple press release and we give it to everybody and let's see what hits and what misses.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um this is something that might have worked 20, maybe even more years ago.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: This doesn't work anymore.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's working, or if someone gets published when they send this random press release to 30 media outlet, they get a small mention somewhere, and the coverage or the quality of that uh coverage is actually something that is almost with no impact.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: So please let's go out of this mentality of the copy paste trap.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, everything we said about the audience and the formats, and that's how an angle written for everyone doesn't fit anyone, and that's why writing an angle once it is very clear the media and who their audience are will give you a bigger chance of actually this journalist not only opening your email and you know reading it, and even if they don't run the story immediately, they will email you back and say, I'm interested.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: Give me more info.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: Can we get on a call and discuss this further?
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't get that story through, they already have your contacts.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: They now have you on their radar and they will connect with you.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is how journalist relationships work, and this is how you earn their trust by actually respecting their work and not sending them this copy-paste random press release that you most probably distributed to 30 other media outlets.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let me add another trap here.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: I just thought of it, and that is the too big trap.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, what is this?
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is when the topic, because you know, we talk about topics versus angles, and that's why topics they don't, journalists don't care about topics.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is when people use topics.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's this too big trap.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: The future of leadership, branding matters, you know, these are like really vague, fluffy big words.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: They are great for maybe something that you're publishing on social media or a book title or something, it's not a story angle.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I mean, I'm I'm sure I've already gave you tons of examples and I've shown you how a story angle is much more relevant than just these big, big names, big words.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: The more specific you get about what it's um what this topic is for and who.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Who is it for and why it matters, the easier it is for the journalist to say yes.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we've reached to the part where this is what I promised you at the beginning of the episode.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: I promised you three questions that uh you need to ask yourself every time you have a story angle and you're writing that pitch email to the journalist or the producer or the editor.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so this these questions I honestly suggest that you write them down, maybe on a sticky note, put them close by in your office so that every time when you're on a campaign and you're you know you want to pitch to different uh media outlets and you really want to put a lot of effort into publicity for yourself for your personal brand, you always have these questions top of mind and it's right there for you.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: The first question is who does this media outlet serve?
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_00: Who is their audience, and what do they care about right now?
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: The second question is, how does this outlet carry their stories, stories like mine, where do they put it?
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_00: Which section, which format, what is the length, and what is the timing that I need to pitch that story to them so they are able to publish it based on their publishing schedule?
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: The third question is, what is in my expertise, the clients that I have served, the data that I have, my own story as an expert, a founder, a business owner that I can use to give that audience something that they don't already have or they don't already know, or they haven't looked at it from this angle yet.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to notice the order of the questions that I've put.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you can't answer the first question, who do they serve?
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_00: This media atlet, who's their audience, who do they serve, and what do they care about?
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_00: And if you can't answer the second question, how do they carry the stories, the section, the format, the length, and the timing, then you are not ready for the third.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: You won't even be able to answer the third properly in such a way that your pitch becomes so compelling and the media will say yes to it.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's the whole shift in these questions that I really hope that you put it top of mind every time you are ready to pitch an angle and you ask yourself these questions.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_00: The angle shouldn't come from you, it has to come from them, from the audience, through the media that you are interested in.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that is when you then bring yourself to it.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is where you meet them.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_00: Your expertise and your story and your clients and your successes rises and meets them to where they are.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I told you it's gonna be a long and in-depth episode, and I really hope that it answered this big question and this uh in the poll that I did.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: I want to bring this all together.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: Let's wrap it up.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you voted for the story angle problem, I really hope that you can see now that it isn't a lack of your expertise or anything that you have done.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: You have plenty, my friend.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: And what was really missing is the starting point.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: So start with the outlet's audience, study how the outlet outlet carries its uh stories, and then go back to your business, your client patterns, your opinions, your data, your story, and find that overlap.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's your angle, and it will definitely be different for every different media outlet you approach.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: I promise that I will look at the other three bottlenecks that uh came out in the poll that I put on Instagram, and I'm gonna start with another episode, which is um about media relations and how to have those relations, because 31% of you said that that was your bottleneck and this is where you get stuck.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'll definitely do that because building relationships with journalists and editors and producers is honestly where publicity becomes something that these media keep coming back to you, to you specifically.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to go deeper in between the episodes, that's where my newsletter, Built Not Branded, is for.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: It is where I go in depth on everything about communication, reputation building, and personal brand, and also the thinking behind what we talk about here on the podcast, and any other examples that I didn't have time to mention on the show, so it's not three hours long.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, um, I also talk about research that shapes how we work as business owners to build our reputations that actually impacts our business and actually attracts opportunities to us.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: You will find the link to Built Not Branded My Newsletter in the show notes.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you as always so much for listening.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_00: If this episode made you think about someone, maybe a friend, who knows so much and has a lot of expertise but has never been featured anywhere in the media, please send it to her.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: And as always, I'll see you in the next episode of Let's Make Waves.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_00: Bye for now.