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Why More Visibility Might Just Be More Noise · Business Roundtable

0:14
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Business Roundtable podcast. I am your host,
0:17
Speaker 1: David Carr, founders Ward Your Business, where we help leaders
0:20
Speaker 1: and business owners scale with clarity, alignment and really sustainability,
0:25
Speaker 1: long term sustainability. And I'm really excited today we're going
0:28
Speaker 1: to talk about a subject that many business owners think
0:31
Speaker 1: they know about, but in reality they often get wrong, and.
0:34
Speaker 2: That is public relations PR.
0:37
Speaker 1: And my guest is going to be unpacking this because
0:40
Speaker 1: what I found is a lot of people in PR
0:43
Speaker 1: are they're thinking about PR's placements, if they about getting feature,
0:46
Speaker 1: getting visibility.
0:47
Speaker 2: But I'm going to pose the question.
0:48
Speaker 1: I'm going to have our guests break it down a
0:50
Speaker 1: little bit more for us, but what if the issue
0:52
Speaker 1: isn't just you.
0:53
Speaker 2: Know, visibility.
0:53
Speaker 1: We all like visibility, but what if that message isn't
0:56
Speaker 1: really clear enough to be amplified. And that's where we're
1:00
Speaker 1: what we want to unpack today. And I'm really enjoined
1:02
Speaker 1: with a fantastic new guest for the podcast, Ronica Cleary,
1:06
Speaker 1: founder of c and CEO of Cleary's Strategies, and she
1:12
Speaker 1: is actually a former White House correspondent. She's somebody helps
1:14
Speaker 1: leaders not just get the media, but actually build the strategy.
1:18
Speaker 1: Behind it, and so Ironica, I want to welcome you
1:20
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm super excited to have you here,
1:23
Speaker 1: and I want to just ask you right out of
1:24
Speaker 1: the gate.
1:25
Speaker 2: Like, what do you see? Why are people what are
1:27
Speaker 2: the people getting wrong about PR?
1:30
Speaker 3: Well, thank you so much for having me.
1:31
Speaker 4: That introduction was awesome, and you know, we try to
1:35
Speaker 4: not open with the negative things, but let's just dive
1:38
Speaker 4: in and because you know, you want people to feel
1:41
Speaker 4: good and obviously you know some things you said.
1:44
Speaker 3: Of course you want increase visibility, you want placements. But
1:47
Speaker 3: if you have that without a strategy behind it, and
1:50
Speaker 3: without a real direction and focus on what the end
1:53
Speaker 3: goal is, it can just become noise. Right, And there
1:56
Speaker 3: are called booking agencies out there, and a booking agency
2:01
Speaker 3: will just book you placements without strategy or purpose or
2:05
Speaker 3: vision behind them. And I think there's no difference when
2:08
Speaker 3: you have a PR agency and who is building a
2:11
Speaker 3: strategy for you as you navigate those placements and features
2:16
Speaker 3: and opportunities, you can have an end goal in mind
2:19
Speaker 3: that you are working towards. That of course is visibility.
2:22
Speaker 3: But what does increased visibility mean for you as a leader,
2:26
Speaker 3: and what is the goal you're hoping to get out
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Speaker 3: of it. So I think the idea of sure, you
2:32
Speaker 3: want some bookings, you want to maybe be on a
2:34
Speaker 3: podcast yourself, you want an opportunity to speak on TV
2:37
Speaker 3: or be quoted in a magazine, but without any direction
2:41
Speaker 3: or purpose or vision behind it. As I said, I
2:44
Speaker 3: really think a great way to think of it, it's
2:46
Speaker 3: just more noise. And that's the last thing that you
2:48
Speaker 3: want to be as a founder and CEO is just
2:51
Speaker 3: creating noise.
2:53
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, absolutely, so, Yeah, what I heard you say
2:57
Speaker 1: is people are maybe coming to you they think they
2:59
Speaker 1: need that. But what I'm hearing you say is you're, hey,
3:03
Speaker 1: think a little differently about this, and and probably they're
3:07
Speaker 1: coming to people, like you said, getting placements, are going
3:08
Speaker 1: out there and they're spending a lot of money and
3:11
Speaker 1: maybe not getting what they really want. They're like, well, hey,
3:13
Speaker 1: this isn't this is not the right answer I want.
3:15
Speaker 2: What.
3:15
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you credit because you and your team
3:18
Speaker 1: reached out to me and you're like, hey, we've identified
3:20
Speaker 1: a business roundtable podcast as a way of reaching business
3:23
Speaker 1: owners and leaders, and and I really appreciate you guys
3:26
Speaker 1: coming on and you Ranica coming and leading your organization
3:29
Speaker 1: because you took the time and the effort and we
3:31
Speaker 1: even had a pre call. We're like trying to make
3:33
Speaker 1: sure we're in alignment. And it speaks a lot to
3:36
Speaker 1: how you show up. But what would you say is
3:41
Speaker 1: to that business owner then, like I said, where they're
3:43
Speaker 1: you know, where you're seeing them come to you, is
3:47
Speaker 1: there other things that they're missing? They're asking you like
3:50
Speaker 1: they haven't thought through this, Like they're like, oh, come
3:53
Speaker 1: help me get that message.
3:55
Speaker 3: I love what you just said, though, I mean just
3:57
Speaker 3: you sort of saw us work and you know I'm
4:01
Speaker 3: a client of the agency, if you will, right, because
4:05
Speaker 3: r for our agency all the time and I'm the spokesperson.
4:08
Speaker 3: So what we are doing on behalf of me as
4:11
Speaker 3: the founder is often what we do for our clients.
4:14
Speaker 3: And so the idea is you're not just there's an
4:17
Speaker 3: expression in pr like it's the old school pr It's
4:21
Speaker 3: called spray and pray, and the idea to just pitch
4:24
Speaker 3: hundreds and hundreds of dollars and you pray that it lands,
4:28
Speaker 3: and that while you do need to send a lot
4:30
Speaker 3: of pitches, right, there is value in reaching a lot
4:34
Speaker 3: of people with your pitch and idea because it is
4:36
Speaker 3: hard to match. The idea is that there is a
4:39
Speaker 3: real thoughtfulness and strategy behind it, and that's what we
4:42
Speaker 3: really help our clients understand. I think a big misconception
4:45
Speaker 3: when they come in is that they feel, and this
4:48
Speaker 3: is really hard to say to people, they think that
4:50
Speaker 3: their business alone is newsworthy or interesting. And so the
4:54
Speaker 3: conversation that we have to navigate with them is to
4:56
Speaker 3: help them understand that it's very rare and difficult to
5:00
Speaker 3: get news and press for your business alone. Right there
5:04
Speaker 3: has something really unique, kind of a Cinderella rags to
5:07
Speaker 3: riches story and an incredible amount of success that gets
5:11
Speaker 3: a business press coverage on its own. And so what
5:14
Speaker 3: a great PR agency can do for you is figure out, Okay,
5:17
Speaker 3: if it's not going to be just my business alone,
5:20
Speaker 3: what is the expertise that I have, what is the
5:22
Speaker 3: mission that we deliver on, What is the way that
5:24
Speaker 3: we give back, What are the things that we do
5:27
Speaker 3: as an organization that give us a distinction besides just
5:31
Speaker 3: being a business. Right that you might be very successful,
5:35
Speaker 3: you might be growing, but unfortunately those things are not
5:39
Speaker 3: newsworthy in and of themselves, unless they are so extreme
5:43
Speaker 3: that you can deny the newsworthiness of it. So I
5:46
Speaker 3: think that might be a misconception that people come to
5:48
Speaker 3: us with, and so we help them figure out and
5:52
Speaker 3: understand that there is so much more to making yourself
5:56
Speaker 3: an interesting and compelling guest and making yourself newsworthy that
6:02
Speaker 3: we can help you navigate and understand the news cycle
6:05
Speaker 3: and how the newsrooms work. And that's why we lean
6:09
Speaker 3: into my background as a former journalist and a former
6:11
Speaker 3: White House correspondent. A lot of the people on my
6:13
Speaker 3: team are former journalists as well, and we all have
6:16
Speaker 3: that understanding of how newsrooms work. We're sending those when
6:20
Speaker 3: we're building those pitches, when we're crafting the strategy, when
6:22
Speaker 3: we're reaching out to newsrooms and bookers and producers and
6:25
Speaker 3: whoever it may be, and writers and all of the
6:28
Speaker 3: different all of the different things, we understand what it
6:32
Speaker 3: is that they need to make that connection and be
6:34
Speaker 3: more successful on your behalf. And again, like I said
6:37
Speaker 3: in the beginning, keep in the back of our minds
6:39
Speaker 3: and what's not just the goal of what the newsroom needs,
6:42
Speaker 3: what's your goal as a founder and a CEO to
6:44
Speaker 3: get to the next level and to be that meaningful
6:47
Speaker 3: thought leader that you you know that you are capable
6:50
Speaker 3: of being you know, you have interesting and compelling things
6:52
Speaker 3: to say, but you can't figure out how to get
6:55
Speaker 3: someone to listen. And so it's putting all of those
6:58
Speaker 3: pieces together on their behalf and helping them navigate the
7:02
Speaker 3: chaos that is modern media, because it really is it's
7:06
Speaker 3: so different than it was even five to ten years ago.
7:10
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I totally see that.
7:11
Speaker 1: And to your point, I mean you mentioned that leader
7:16
Speaker 1: getting clarity and what's important how.
7:18
Speaker 2: To how to get that into the world.
7:20
Speaker 1: If I see that even internally in organizations, I work
7:23
Speaker 1: with it so that there's a breakdown of like how
7:25
Speaker 1: do we communicate that? So if you can't get that internally,
7:27
Speaker 1: you're gonna have a difficulty doing that externally. And I
7:30
Speaker 1: like how you brought up the whole news cycle and
7:33
Speaker 1: people think, oh, I'm newsworthy, and fortunately what usually what
7:36
Speaker 1: I find is what becomes newsworthy is the bad stuff
7:39
Speaker 1: that you know, something went wrong, And that's that's important too,
7:42
Speaker 1: because you have to have a strategy and be clear like, well,
7:46
Speaker 1: what's our.
7:48
Speaker 2: What's are our unique approach? How are you addressing this?
7:51
Speaker 1: And I'm having a flashback run back in the COVID
7:54
Speaker 1: days where everybody's line items were the same, almost as
7:57
Speaker 1: mimicking each other, and like we're doing this, we're doing
8:00
Speaker 1: being safe and all this stuff. I'm like, Okay, we
8:02
Speaker 1: get that, I've heard it from a zillion times, but
8:05
Speaker 1: how is it unique to your business or how are
8:07
Speaker 1: you handling it? And to your point, I think you're
8:10
Speaker 1: stepping back. What I hear you saying is, yes, we
8:13
Speaker 1: want to exposure, we think we're news worthy, but let's
8:15
Speaker 1: get clarity as to what resonates. And especially when you're
8:18
Speaker 1: talking about the people that are making the decisions, does
8:21
Speaker 1: that make sense to them? Like does it like oh
8:24
Speaker 1: I can see and why would I want to prioritize
8:26
Speaker 1: that story or that message over somebody else's And you
8:29
Speaker 1: guys have lived this.
8:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, there's a couple of things. So you know,
8:34
Speaker 3: just thinking through the strategic nature of what you want
8:36
Speaker 3: to comment on is really important. So I pitch myself
8:41
Speaker 3: and my team builds lists for me, and we have
8:43
Speaker 3: a strategy for myself as a founder. And another thing
8:47
Speaker 3: to think about is sometimes you think, Okay, we need
8:49
Speaker 3: more things that we can pitch the founder on, We
8:51
Speaker 3: need more ways to make them interesting and compelling. Well,
8:54
Speaker 3: sometimes there are things that we deliberately and specifically don't
8:57
Speaker 3: want to pitch the founder on. And so there was
8:59
Speaker 3: an operaportunity to provide some commentary. Having like that they
9:03
Speaker 3: were looking for former attendees of the White House Correspondence here.
9:05
Speaker 3: Now this was before the tragic events that occurred. This
9:09
Speaker 3: was in anticipation of it. There's going to be news
9:11
Speaker 3: coverage around it. And as I read a little more
9:13
Speaker 3: about the opportunity, I stuffed myself right, even myself, I thought, oh,
9:17
Speaker 3: I would like to be on this program. I want
9:18
Speaker 3: to provide commentary. I've been to the dinner. I would
9:20
Speaker 3: have been a member of the White House Corspondence Association.
9:22
Speaker 3: And I said, wait a minute, this is really not
9:24
Speaker 3: strategically aligned with what I do today. It's actually not
9:29
Speaker 3: I don't want to do this, even if maybe I
9:31
Speaker 3: am a fit. And it's that pod with the strategy
9:35
Speaker 3: in mind that we can do on behalf of all
9:37
Speaker 3: of our clients. Because it is easy to get wrapped
9:39
Speaker 3: up in the moment and the excitement of the media,
9:41
Speaker 3: which is like very valid. I mean, it's fun to
9:46
Speaker 3: take a moment to say okay, and that's actually a
9:49
Speaker 3: red flag when an agency will say, like we guarantee
9:51
Speaker 3: X number of placements. Well, maybe you're in a crisis
9:54
Speaker 3: situation and there's a month where you don't want any
9:57
Speaker 3: placements and you really smart people to help you navigate that.
10:01
Speaker 3: And so that's why there's no like cookie cutter mole
10:05
Speaker 3: that's perfect or a black and white answer. And you
10:08
Speaker 3: know you did bring up crisis and helping your clients
10:11
Speaker 3: also think about crisis and advance through the lens of
10:15
Speaker 3: the that that can be such an important exercise and
10:18
Speaker 3: I'm writing a piece on that right now. I attribute
10:21
Speaker 3: monthly to Magazine Online, and that's a piece that I'm
10:24
Speaker 3: writing because many people say, well, we can't anticipate the
10:27
Speaker 3: exact crisis, so why you know, we'll worry about what happens.
10:31
Speaker 3: But there's so much that can be done. So it's
10:34
Speaker 3: a whole pie. I guess of different ideas and things
10:38
Speaker 3: that support the person or the company through. But the
10:42
Speaker 3: real distinction for us just to really bring some clarity
10:46
Speaker 3: home because these things, these ideas in terms kind of
10:49
Speaker 3: get tossed around and things get much together. The real
10:51
Speaker 3: distinction that we provide though, is it's all through how
10:55
Speaker 3: you interact with the media alone. Right, So, because there's
10:59
Speaker 3: also really important crisis communications for internal comms, right your employees,
11:07
Speaker 3: how do you communicate with your stakeholders? Those are all
11:09
Speaker 3: very different things to navigate, and so our expertise that
11:13
Speaker 3: we bring to the table is how do you how
11:16
Speaker 3: do you communicate that crisis or that wonderful announcement whatever,
11:20
Speaker 3: or that expertise or your mission brand, whatever might be.
11:23
Speaker 3: How do you communicate that effectively with and through the
11:28
Speaker 3: media to the viewer or the consumer on the other side,
11:32
Speaker 3: who knows you didn't pay for this. It's not an advertisement,
11:35
Speaker 3: it's more prestigious. We want to do that really effectively
11:38
Speaker 3: for you. So that's really our distinction and differentiator.
11:42
Speaker 1: Well, I definitely want to unpack that because I like
11:44
Speaker 1: how you said, these correspondents to dinner White House Corresponds
11:48
Speaker 1: is a great example what we're getting as business owners
11:51
Speaker 1: or a leader. We're getting sometimes we're getting pissed or
11:55
Speaker 1: people saying, hey, we can get you exposure, hear this,
11:57
Speaker 1: that and the other. But to your point, isn't in
11:59
Speaker 1: alignment with your overall strategy and vision of an organization
12:03
Speaker 1: And it may or may not be. And so having
12:07
Speaker 1: like you said, thinking through this is really really important,
12:10
Speaker 1: and so I'd love for you to maybe unpack a
12:12
Speaker 1: little bit more ironica about your discovery process. How do
12:16
Speaker 1: you actually get this all set up and going in
12:19
Speaker 1: the right direction, because, like I said, you may have
12:21
Speaker 1: clients coming to you and thinking one thing and you're like,
12:22
Speaker 1: hold on, We've got to slow down a little bit
12:24
Speaker 1: and unpack this and walk us through how then you
12:27
Speaker 1: can figure out like what are these themes or what
12:30
Speaker 1: are tucking points?
12:31
Speaker 3: No, absolutely, and the thing too. I'll just close the
12:35
Speaker 3: loop on the White House Consenter thing because it can
12:37
Speaker 3: be extremely nuanced because on the surface, one of the
12:42
Speaker 3: key things in my bio when I pitch myself to
12:45
Speaker 3: a client or to a podcast wherever it might be,
12:47
Speaker 3: is a former journalist and former White House correspondence So
12:50
Speaker 3: then you think, well, speaking about that should be you know,
12:54
Speaker 3: a no brainer, But it's not, because then if I'm
12:57
Speaker 3: speaking about it, then we're getting into, most likely a
13:00
Speaker 3: political conversation about all that's going on today with the
13:04
Speaker 3: White House Correspondence Association and the administration. And I think, well,
13:08
Speaker 3: that's not aligned with our agency values to political and
13:12
Speaker 3: so funny how you think, well, it seems obviously connected,
13:16
Speaker 3: but really and that's where having that third party it's
13:18
Speaker 3: it's sometimes it's hard to do that for yourself, right,
13:21
Speaker 3: So having that third party help you think through how, oh, well,
13:27
Speaker 3: this seems like it could be a fit, but actually
13:28
Speaker 3: it's not.
13:29
Speaker 1: That.
13:30
Speaker 3: That's where you can really avoid maybe and like could
13:32
Speaker 3: I don't want to go on TV and get in
13:34
Speaker 3: a political conversation. We're not a political agency, right and
13:37
Speaker 3: so and so that's where we help and that's where
13:41
Speaker 3: to answer your next question about the discovery can be
13:45
Speaker 3: extremely helpful because you didn't always do a period of discovery.
13:48
Speaker 3: You've been in business now for almost eight years, and
13:51
Speaker 3: in the beginning we would kind of just kind of
13:52
Speaker 3: get to know the client and hear what they could
13:54
Speaker 3: talk about and send pitches. And what can happen when
13:57
Speaker 3: you do that is you can think something is obviously
13:59
Speaker 3: a fit. I realize it's not. Okay. The period of
14:03
Speaker 3: discovery is formal, it is it is outlined, and it
14:07
Speaker 3: is deliberate, and the idea is we are going to
14:09
Speaker 3: sit down with the client and we're going to ask
14:12
Speaker 3: them lots of questions. We don't want them to know
14:14
Speaker 3: the answers we just want to hear about what do
14:17
Speaker 3: they talk about, what are the experts in story? How
14:20
Speaker 3: did you get here? And we're going to take that
14:22
Speaker 3: apart right once we finish that first onboarding call, we're
14:25
Speaker 3: going to take that apart for them. We're going to
14:27
Speaker 3: turn it into what we think of as visually, like
14:29
Speaker 3: if you want to visualize it, pillars on a home,
14:31
Speaker 3: and we want to make sure we have at least
14:32
Speaker 3: four to six pillars for a client. We don't want
14:34
Speaker 3: one hundred, you know. And so I've had potential clients
14:37
Speaker 3: say to me, oh, you you would want me as
14:39
Speaker 3: a client, I can talk about everything that. We don't
14:43
Speaker 3: want that. We don't want to jugg about everything, right,
14:45
Speaker 3: so we want like a nice solid group of topics.
14:48
Speaker 3: And then what we're going to do is we're going
14:50
Speaker 3: to say, Okay, does your bio need to change or
14:53
Speaker 3: adjust it all for these four to six topics key
14:58
Speaker 3: talking points that you would bring to the table for these,
15:00
Speaker 3: and then what are potential questions you can answer related
15:03
Speaker 3: to these topics? And so what that does is then
15:06
Speaker 3: we send that to the client. We say, let's talk
15:08
Speaker 3: about this. Does this feel aligned? Does slight adjustment to
15:12
Speaker 3: your bio feel fake, does it feel incomplete? Or does
15:17
Speaker 3: it appropriate to maybe adjust or highlight a certain feature
15:21
Speaker 3: in one and not in another, right, and so all
15:23
Speaker 3: of it is. Then when all that's completed and you say, oh,
15:26
Speaker 3: I could answer those questions. And you know, side note,
15:30
Speaker 3: we can't force a journalist to ask the questions that
15:32
Speaker 3: we suggest, but suggesting questions is a great way to
15:35
Speaker 3: set the tone of what you can talk. Right. So
15:38
Speaker 3: so you think to yourself as a client, you say, oh,
15:41
Speaker 3: these feel aligned. These feel like questions where you know,
15:43
Speaker 3: I can't go on air and advertise my business for
15:47
Speaker 3: three to four minutes, but man, these questions would allow
15:50
Speaker 3: me to speak to my strengths maybe naturally mention my business. Right.
15:54
Speaker 3: These are all questions that set me up for success
15:57
Speaker 3: with my strategic goals in mind. And then us as
16:01
Speaker 3: a team, we all agree to them, and then we say, okay,
16:04
Speaker 3: let's build lists of specific reporters that would talk about
16:07
Speaker 3: these topics, that would these areas podcasts that would have
16:11
Speaker 3: these conversations.
16:12
Speaker 1: Right.
16:12
Speaker 3: So that's where that period of discovery is extremely valuable.
16:17
Speaker 3: And that idea of like a red flag for the
16:20
Speaker 3: agency that says guaranteed like x placements a month like, yeah,
16:24
Speaker 3: well first month, we should not be rushing to get
16:27
Speaker 3: you placements if we don't even know what the strategic
16:30
Speaker 3: vision of the account is. We don't know the full
16:33
Speaker 3: range and breath of what you can do. And also
16:35
Speaker 3: we might uncover what you don't want to talk about, right,
16:39
Speaker 3: It's like, let's avoid that, right. So that's where the
16:42
Speaker 3: period of discovery we have found clients actually love it,
16:45
Speaker 3: they find comfort in it, they feel more aligned. And
16:49
Speaker 3: then when we hit the ground running and we do
16:52
Speaker 3: get regular placements every month, which is fantastic for them,
16:56
Speaker 3: they can look at them and say, wow, I know
16:58
Speaker 3: exactly the content theme that we talked about, or if
17:01
Speaker 3: something is slightly off, we can go to them and
17:03
Speaker 3: say we want to pitch this. It's similar to this,
17:06
Speaker 3: what do you think we can make adjustments. It's not
17:10
Speaker 3: set in stone, but at least a strong foundation for
17:13
Speaker 3: the account so that there we don't want surprizes, we
17:16
Speaker 3: don't want chaos. Yes, to feel aligned and focused on
17:24
Speaker 3: this end goal when you're navigating media, which is this
17:28
Speaker 3: crazy wild West space, and so at least we can
17:32
Speaker 3: give you the comfort to know that everything you're bringing
17:35
Speaker 3: to the table has been agreed upon and feels aligned
17:39
Speaker 3: and is with your vision absolutely.
17:41
Speaker 1: Well, you mentioned a few different things. Number One, I
17:43
Speaker 1: want to make sure everybody that's listening in you guys
17:45
Speaker 1: can definitely connect with Ronica.
17:47
Speaker 2: We're going to make sure all of these links.
17:50
Speaker 1: If you guys want to find our articles on inc
17:53
Speaker 1: or whatnot, we're going to put that in our show notes.
17:55
Speaker 1: And I really appreciate it, like how you said Ronica
17:58
Speaker 1: coming in as a third party, because I do the
17:59
Speaker 1: same thing as your your business where we come in
18:01
Speaker 1: and this I'm looking at the people organization all but
18:03
Speaker 1: the same thing of like sometimes they're so close to
18:05
Speaker 1: what I heard you say, they're so close to things
18:07
Speaker 1: they don't even realize like how to differentiate this and
18:10
Speaker 1: so there it sounds to me like they're just chasing
18:12
Speaker 1: down maybe opportunities. But what I hear you saying is
18:15
Speaker 1: you're really building a strong foundation that we can then
18:19
Speaker 1: plug into the opportunities that come in. And to me,
18:24
Speaker 1: you know, I'm going to break down and I ask
18:25
Speaker 1: you a little bit later here on the podcast, because
18:27
Speaker 1: I want, as we're going through these problems, but what
18:30
Speaker 1: does it look like to invest in the time, because
18:33
Speaker 1: it is not cheap. It's an investment, and we want
18:36
Speaker 1: to get the most out of this investment. This front
18:38
Speaker 1: end work that you're talking about, you know, to me,
18:41
Speaker 1: it sounds much in alignment with what I do and very valuable.
18:44
Speaker 1: And sometimes people just want to go fast. But the
18:47
Speaker 1: fact that they're slowing them down and they're like, I'm
18:49
Speaker 1: looking after your best interests here, Ronica, that's what I hear.
18:51
Speaker 2: You and your team, we really want you.
18:53
Speaker 1: We're not just trying to get you just placements, placements
18:55
Speaker 1: here and there, get you a booking, but really understand
18:58
Speaker 1: what are those core themes. And I'm actually just talking
19:01
Speaker 1: to client about this yesterday round about what are their
19:05
Speaker 1: core values? What does that look like? Because if you're
19:07
Speaker 1: bringing people into organization, then it's not clear. You're kind
19:12
Speaker 1: of a misalignment.
19:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's true for bringing media opportunities, right, whether
19:19
Speaker 3: it's people or opportunities or you know, whatever it might be.
19:24
Speaker 3: If you don't have a clear vision, then like what
19:27
Speaker 3: are you doing? You know? Just again, I can't say
19:30
Speaker 3: it enough. It's just noise, and we don't need more noise.
19:33
Speaker 2: Right, noise more than ever, right.
19:37
Speaker 3: And we want our clients to be able to take
19:39
Speaker 3: the opportunity and repurpose it and use it on newsletters,
19:42
Speaker 3: media platforms and LinkedIn and all these things. Well, you're
19:44
Speaker 3: talking about something that's not even aligned with what you
19:46
Speaker 3: want to talk about that it's like you can't even use.
19:49
Speaker 2: It right, You're like, come on, come on, you know.
19:52
Speaker 1: Where do you see the leaders themselves digging a little
19:58
Speaker 1: deeper struggle when it comes to messaging?
20:01
Speaker 2: Where do the like, where do.
20:02
Speaker 1: You see them like, like you said, is they think
20:05
Speaker 1: I can speak to every topic or they're just not
20:07
Speaker 1: clear or they can't you know, they don't there's not
20:10
Speaker 1: enough depth there, or you know, where do you feel
20:12
Speaker 1: like they're they're struggling? Because I figure if I talk
20:14
Speaker 1: with leaders too, and I'm trying to understand like how
20:17
Speaker 1: they can get it clear so that when they come
20:18
Speaker 1: work with you they'll be in a better place.
20:20
Speaker 2: Obviously, you work with them and you discover, but what do.
20:22
Speaker 1: You commonly see problems or challenges that we can kind
20:26
Speaker 1: of help them be aware of or look to.
20:28
Speaker 3: I think the hardest, the hardest conversation to have would
20:34
Speaker 3: be when a leader maybe thinks that something is aligned
20:40
Speaker 3: to be promoted. That's not right. So sometimes they think
20:45
Speaker 3: their founder's story is maybe a little more compelling than
20:47
Speaker 3: it is. Sometimes they think they have an expertise in
20:52
Speaker 3: something where we don't have the bio to back up
20:55
Speaker 3: the expertise. So I think that I think that's where
20:59
Speaker 3: I think that answers your question. It's helping them. And look,
21:03
Speaker 3: we don't want to take a client where we can't
21:05
Speaker 3: build out the four to six pillars. That's that's a
21:07
Speaker 3: bad business for us. It's not a good thing. So
21:10
Speaker 3: we want to find them. But it's it's a relationship
21:14
Speaker 3: with your publicist has to be built on trust, and
21:18
Speaker 3: sometimes it's not a good idea, right and so and
21:22
Speaker 3: for us it's a balance, right. And I know you
21:24
Speaker 3: have business owners listening to this too.
21:26
Speaker 4: So some of this can be that just in terms
21:28
Speaker 4: I call it like stakeholder management, right, You're.
21:31
Speaker 3: You know, sometimes you can I might say to them,
21:34
Speaker 3: I'm not sure this is going to land, but if
21:36
Speaker 3: this really feels important to you, I don't think it's
21:40
Speaker 3: against your brand, I don't think it will hurt you,
21:42
Speaker 3: and we can certainly give it a try, right, And
21:44
Speaker 3: so maybe it's just kind of setting the tone and
21:47
Speaker 3: letting them know that we're we don't really think this
21:49
Speaker 3: is going to be a big enough, wow enough thing.
21:52
Speaker 3: But if you're like, can't sleep at night because you
21:54
Speaker 3: didn't get to pitch this thing and you really want to,
21:58
Speaker 3: maybe it's just that conversation to say, all right, we'll
22:01
Speaker 3: give it a shot, but this is why we're concerned
22:03
Speaker 3: about it. So that's how I can sometimes navigate those
22:05
Speaker 3: conversations because pr is a really interesting thing to invest
22:10
Speaker 3: in because even if it's on behalf of your business,
22:12
Speaker 3: there's always a face, right, and so whether that person
22:16
Speaker 3: stays with the business or leaves the business, it follows
22:18
Speaker 3: that individual forever. So we as publicists, we have to
22:22
Speaker 3: understand we are no matter what, we're dealing with a
22:25
Speaker 3: little bit of ego, a little bit of you know,
22:28
Speaker 3: personal feelings right that you can't separate. It's not like
22:31
Speaker 3: I made a widget and the widget doesn't work right,
22:34
Speaker 3: And so I think that is those are the hardest
22:37
Speaker 3: conversations to have, and I have learned that it's important
22:43
Speaker 3: that we're not just like, you know, too hard and rough.
22:47
Speaker 3: It's not a value add because what that does is
22:50
Speaker 3: when you get in someone's head and give them that
22:53
Speaker 3: feeling of well, if my story is not good, then
22:56
Speaker 3: maybe nothing is good when that's not what you meant.
22:58
Speaker 3: But people in interpret things very personally, then it destroys
23:02
Speaker 3: their confidence, and you need confidence to do these things,
23:06
Speaker 3: and so that is very challenging. I don't even remember
23:09
Speaker 3: what your question was, but I think.
23:12
Speaker 1: The messaging wrong. Yeah, absolutely, Yeah.
23:15
Speaker 3: So's it's it's about guiding them towards here, I can
23:18
Speaker 3: close the loop with the question. It's about guiding them
23:21
Speaker 3: towards messaging that will resonate with the media, right, And
23:25
Speaker 3: so that is very important. And that's where you know,
23:29
Speaker 3: there's a lot of publicists who don't come from newsrooms,
23:31
Speaker 3: but I do think hiring people with back with experience
23:35
Speaker 3: and newsroom helps us do a better job of guiding
23:39
Speaker 3: our clients to choose pillars and agree on pillars that
23:43
Speaker 3: we see an opportunity to resonate with the media, right,
23:46
Speaker 3: And so that is very important. When we're building that messaging,
23:50
Speaker 3: we're like, Okay, well maybe that's a cool story, or
23:53
Speaker 3: like maybe you do this cool thing, but I don't
23:54
Speaker 3: think newsrooms will care, and so it's it's figured that
23:58
Speaker 3: out and making that connection.
24:00
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yes, yeah, I think you're you're getting the
24:04
Speaker 5: the the what I want to say, you're you're getting
24:07
Speaker 5: those key pillars that dialed in really tightly, because what
24:11
Speaker 5: comes to mind.
24:12
Speaker 1: I don't know, it isn't necessary directly follow up pr
24:16
Speaker 1: to this, but what came to mind as you were
24:19
Speaker 1: saying that Ronica was the whole controversy if you followed,
24:22
Speaker 1: but the CEO of McDonald's, he like ate this hamburger
24:25
Speaker 1: and he showed up, but it didn't look like he
24:26
Speaker 1: really enjoyed it or whatever. And I just recently came
24:29
Speaker 1: across this, but there's some follow up outfall. So if
24:31
Speaker 1: you're not authentically like leaning into this full force and
24:35
Speaker 1: you're trying to put a theme or an emphasis, people
24:39
Speaker 1: kind of see through that.
24:40
Speaker 3: So I actually, in pitching myself, I did some comment,
24:43
Speaker 3: like some a quote in an article about that, providing
24:47
Speaker 3: thoughts on how he should kindle that and what you
24:50
Speaker 3: do next. And so I'm very familiar with it, and
24:55
Speaker 3: you know, I mean, I advise that you have some
24:57
Speaker 3: fun with it, like something with it to laugh at
25:00
Speaker 3: himself because and I also learned in researching it he
25:03
Speaker 3: does this all the time, and he's like constantly criticized
25:06
Speaker 3: and made fun of. And so that was very interesting
25:09
Speaker 3: to me because I thought, maybe he knows. But then
25:12
Speaker 3: that one happened to go viral, right, you know it
25:15
Speaker 3: just as it was a really interesting case study. But
25:17
Speaker 3: that was an example where there was a call for
25:21
Speaker 3: you know, commentary, and I thought, oh, I'm this is
25:23
Speaker 3: a great fit and this is very aligned with what
25:26
Speaker 3: we do. I said, the one in the White House Correspondent,
25:29
Speaker 3: which seems so obviously right. And so that's like a
25:33
Speaker 3: perfect example in real time with myself as the you know,
25:37
Speaker 3: the skate whatever, you know, whatever I am choose like
25:43
Speaker 3: what really makes sense. And that's why you really need
25:45
Speaker 3: to be thoughtful and strategic, and you can't get caught
25:47
Speaker 3: up in like a numbers game of like, well I
25:50
Speaker 3: didn't get this. Well, every placement, every placement we do,
25:54
Speaker 3: is dependent on the news cycle and decision makers like
25:58
Speaker 3: we don't, we don't can troll the most. The biggest
26:02
Speaker 3: piece of the puzzle is the news, right, And so
26:06
Speaker 3: that's where getting swept up in just results, results, results
26:11
Speaker 3: can do you a disservice in the long run, right,
26:14
Speaker 3: and the short term you're like, look, I'm getting X
26:15
Speaker 3: for my investment. I have this, but that's not the point.
26:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well, that's a great lead into my follow
26:24
Speaker 1: up question then, is like, how do I know I'm
26:26
Speaker 1: actually ready for PR?
26:28
Speaker 2: To your point, if they're like, hey, there you go,
26:30
Speaker 2: what should they be? What should be a business owner?
26:33
Speaker 1: Or if they're responsible for their company the marketing and
26:36
Speaker 1: business development, what should they know so that they are
26:39
Speaker 1: ready with the questions? Is they'd be asking themselves Ronica,
26:41
Speaker 1: They're like, now, I should probably be looking and talking
26:44
Speaker 1: to somebody like Uronica cleary strategies so that they can
26:48
Speaker 1: say because they're not getting pick because they're being pitched
26:51
Speaker 1: all the time.
26:52
Speaker 2: I'm sure they're getting different people. They're like, hey, you.
26:54
Speaker 1: Know, they don't know who I am, they don't know
26:56
Speaker 1: what I'm about. So what would you say to that person? Like,
26:58
Speaker 1: how do I know? How do I I'm even ready
27:00
Speaker 1: for PR?
27:02
Speaker 3: Yeah? For sure, I get that. I mean I think
27:04
Speaker 3: I think most businesses could benefit from the service, but
27:06
Speaker 3: not ready for it and certainly a more obvious priority
27:11
Speaker 3: to focus on than others. So a couple of things.
27:15
Speaker 3: I mean, this is really basic, but you need to
27:17
Speaker 3: make sure that you have the time or you have
27:20
Speaker 3: someone on your team as the time to support you
27:22
Speaker 3: with talking points. Quote whoever might be, because not all
27:25
Speaker 3: the CEOs write all their answers, but they then have
27:28
Speaker 3: the resources to have someone else do it for them,
27:31
Speaker 3: or if one of the resources they know they can
27:33
Speaker 3: carve out the time. That's very important. It's the news
27:36
Speaker 3: cycle moves very quickly, and so if you want to comment,
27:39
Speaker 3: like on the CEO of McDonald's awkwardly eating up Burger
27:42
Speaker 3: or wherever it was, the story is over in a flash, right,
27:45
Speaker 3: and so of course there'll be another one. But that's
27:48
Speaker 3: why our slogan is, don't miss the moment. The idea
27:50
Speaker 3: is we will make sure you don't miss the moment
27:53
Speaker 3: in the news cycle that you would be a great
27:55
Speaker 3: fit for. Okay, so time and resources of course, and
27:58
Speaker 3: then of course resources to pay the services they're usually
28:01
Speaker 3: you know there they do. You do not need to
28:04
Speaker 3: pay New York City like retainers of fifteen thousand dollars
28:08
Speaker 3: a month to get good PR but it still cost money,
28:12
Speaker 3: you know, even if you if you don't need that
28:14
Speaker 3: kind of investment, which we're not. And then I guess
28:17
Speaker 3: the other thing that we actually decided to offer because
28:22
Speaker 3: I do think some people have a little trepidation about
28:24
Speaker 3: signing on to like a six month or one year contract.
28:27
Speaker 3: We offer that period of discovery as a one off.
28:30
Speaker 3: So if you say, like if you say, I just
28:33
Speaker 3: don't know, I need to see the pillars, I need
28:36
Speaker 3: to see where we go with this investment. I'm not
28:39
Speaker 3: sure what they are, we will do it for you
28:41
Speaker 3: for one for just the month, and then at the
28:42
Speaker 3: end of the month you can say, let's dive in
28:45
Speaker 3: I love this or wow, that's what I'm going to
28:47
Speaker 3: talk about, Like I don't like any of that, right,
28:50
Speaker 3: and so you could do that. So that's not an
28:52
Speaker 3: answer that's broad ranging, but that's how we've sort of
28:54
Speaker 3: responded to that because we realize it is kind of
28:59
Speaker 3: a scary unknown investment. It's not so like a bookkeeper
29:03
Speaker 3: where you know what the result is. And so that's
29:06
Speaker 3: how we meet people where they are and give them
29:08
Speaker 3: that option.
29:09
Speaker 2: I love that run well.
29:10
Speaker 1: It's similar to my business model Studd Business, where we're
29:13
Speaker 1: lowing and doing an organizational health assessment and we're kind
29:16
Speaker 1: of seeing what's going on, what are the real pain points.
29:18
Speaker 1: And to your point, that's why I wanted to have
29:19
Speaker 1: on the podcast because here, having guests like yourself here
29:22
Speaker 1: is creating value and the folks that you guys are
29:24
Speaker 1: listening in. You're getting here from somebody that's been doing
29:26
Speaker 1: this for years. This is a seasoned expert and you
29:29
Speaker 1: can pick her brain. And again I want you guys
29:31
Speaker 1: to make sure you reach out connect with her. Whether
29:34
Speaker 1: it's on LinkedIn or through our website. We're all connected
29:37
Speaker 1: on our YouTube channels as well, so there's lots of
29:39
Speaker 1: different ways you can connect it and learn more. But
29:41
Speaker 1: I think that's such a value that you bring on
29:43
Speaker 1: little different angle to it. The other thing I wanted
29:46
Speaker 1: to dig into with you is you mentioned this earlier,
29:49
Speaker 1: but you come along your clients for the six months
29:53
Speaker 1: or a year, which is great, you build this foundation,
29:55
Speaker 1: but you bring not everybody has this when I think
29:57
Speaker 1: is really unique is this journalism edge And I would
30:01
Speaker 1: call it kind of your superpower fuel and the team.
30:03
Speaker 1: But how has that shaped your approach? Maybe if we
30:08
Speaker 1: haven't talked about this earlier, but you know, because I
30:10
Speaker 1: feel like that is unique and there's some folks that
30:12
Speaker 1: do PR that have never.
30:14
Speaker 2: Been a journalist, they haven't done this.
30:16
Speaker 1: This work in that space before, and you know and
30:19
Speaker 1: you have that, So yeah, I just share its a
30:21
Speaker 1: little bit more about your particular of course.
30:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're primarily going to find people with backgrounds in
30:27
Speaker 3: like a big agency, right, they start there, or they
30:30
Speaker 3: start in journalism. I am very partial to those who've
30:33
Speaker 3: started in journalism. You know, we might have a bigger
30:36
Speaker 3: hill to climb to learn about the best like reporting software.
30:40
Speaker 3: But boy, do we understand like the cadence of a newsroom.
30:44
Speaker 3: And it's it's not even just being on the receiving
30:48
Speaker 3: end of a reporter's inbox with hundreds of pitches a day.
30:51
Speaker 3: It's simple things like when when do assignment desks meet
30:56
Speaker 3: for weekend shows? Like when do these when does the rhythm?
31:01
Speaker 3: When does a newsroom go into overdrive and we know
31:03
Speaker 3: the whole show is going to be thrown away and
31:05
Speaker 3: everything is over. It's like there's just an understanding of
31:09
Speaker 3: the heart and soul of a newsroom, which is very ruthless,
31:15
Speaker 3: very competitive, and very hard working. Right, And so it's
31:21
Speaker 3: I just think it's I think it's essential we have
31:24
Speaker 3: people on who don't come from newsrooms, but really not
31:27
Speaker 3: many because I just think it's you just understand. I
31:33
Speaker 3: can't explain it. I would have never I remember when
31:36
Speaker 3: I first walked into news. It blows your mind, right,
31:40
Speaker 3: It's just a really kind of wild experience and understanding
31:44
Speaker 3: how quick it moves, how fast it moves, Like you
31:46
Speaker 3: can't get anything after it's happened. It's old news. You
31:48
Speaker 3: need to anticipate things. But how can you know what's
31:50
Speaker 3: gonna happen if it hasn't happened yet, Like, it's really bizarre.
31:53
Speaker 3: And so I just think that that's one of those
31:57
Speaker 3: skills that Sure, I'm sure there are great out there
32:00
Speaker 3: that have never worked a newsroom and have figured it
32:02
Speaker 3: out over time, but I do think the skill is
32:06
Speaker 3: deeper and more intrinsic if you've lived it and you
32:09
Speaker 3: can guide your clients in that way. And you know,
32:12
Speaker 3: the news world is a huge part of our identity
32:16
Speaker 3: as an agency, and in our mission statement, we actually,
32:19
Speaker 3: when I built the mission statement, our mission is not
32:23
Speaker 3: just to serve our clients. Our mission is actually twofold.
32:27
Speaker 3: We serve our clients and we serve the media. And
32:30
Speaker 3: that was that was a very deliberate choice, and that
32:33
Speaker 3: came from early on in our agency founding because I
32:38
Speaker 3: don't come from agency life, right, and I do remember
32:42
Speaker 3: being on the receiving end of thinking, stop nagging me,
32:47
Speaker 3: you didn't read my bio like I'm a political journalist,
32:50
Speaker 3: Like why are you sending me a pitch on the flowershelf?
32:53
Speaker 3: You know, like it's just like what is going on?
32:55
Speaker 3: And so my mindset when I started was like call
32:59
Speaker 3: your friends and ask for favors because I was sort
33:03
Speaker 3: of used to that, right, and so suddenly really well,
33:06
Speaker 3: suddenly like clicked one day was like, wait a second,
33:09
Speaker 3: we are actually doing them a favor. We are actually
33:12
Speaker 3: making our lives easier by understanding what they do, understanding
33:15
Speaker 3: how newsrooms work, and then presenting our clients in a
33:18
Speaker 3: way that can actually do their job for them. And
33:20
Speaker 3: so so that I think is the biggest sort of
33:24
Speaker 3: like left like news leftover. That's like in my day
33:29
Speaker 3: to day life every day, like I'm a let me
33:33
Speaker 3: think like a producer, let me produce this segment for
33:37
Speaker 3: the newsrooms. We're going to pitch it to let me
33:39
Speaker 3: this pitch with all the elements in the newsroom, would
33:42
Speaker 3: need to do it as easily as possible on behalf
33:47
Speaker 3: of my client, with their pillars in mind, with their
33:49
Speaker 3: you know, with their rules, and then send it to
33:53
Speaker 3: a newsroom that needs that. And boy, those that's what
33:56
Speaker 3: magic is mean plastic because we're serving the client and
34:00
Speaker 3: the newsroom is getting the pitch going, Oh thank god,
34:02
Speaker 3: you just filled my Saturday morning show. This is what
34:05
Speaker 3: I needed. You you knew what I needed before I even
34:08
Speaker 3: opened my inbox, right and so, and that's helping a
34:12
Speaker 3: journalist really helps us do our job.
34:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're your help. So it's it's not just getting
34:17
Speaker 1: the stories out there. But what I hear you say,
34:19
Speaker 1: it's it's helping them tell the stories that survive this competitive,
34:23
Speaker 1: crazy environment.
34:24
Speaker 2: Does it can actually can it survive?
34:26
Speaker 1: Can it make it to the actual show or the
34:29
Speaker 1: publication because it could just dial it die there in
34:32
Speaker 1: the you watch enough of TV, I mean you can,
34:35
Speaker 1: you've lived it. But if you watch enough TV shows
34:37
Speaker 1: or movies where we're like, oh, got this great story
34:38
Speaker 1: and it just dies, it never makes it there. Right,
34:40
Speaker 1: everybody's got something. It's like, how is it compelling enough
34:44
Speaker 1: to get to get there through that environment? And you've
34:47
Speaker 1: lived it and you were on the other side, and
34:49
Speaker 1: I love that you brought that to your age. You know,
34:51
Speaker 1: you brought that to your company in Cleary Strategies Ronica.
34:55
Speaker 1: And it's the same thing I do as a a biologist,
34:58
Speaker 1: project venitor for years, is a subject matter expert. I realized, Okay,
35:02
Speaker 1: how can I bring this into helping teams now in
35:04
Speaker 1: organizations to your point, because we lived it, and that's
35:10
Speaker 1: that's something you can't even you've got technology and the
35:12
Speaker 1: add that just that that can't be replaced.
35:14
Speaker 2: It's it's so valuable. And so those are you guys
35:16
Speaker 2: that are listening in.
35:17
Speaker 1: If you don't have somebody like Ronica that has lived it,
35:22
Speaker 1: then you're missing out.
35:23
Speaker 2: I think having I love that you have.
35:24
Speaker 1: For that thirty day exploratory, you know, period where we
35:27
Speaker 1: can get clear on the themes and see if that
35:30
Speaker 1: works and you you keep going and then you know,
35:33
Speaker 1: come alongside them and and to me, once it sounds
35:36
Speaker 1: to me is once we get there, we get that clear.
35:40
Speaker 2: One of the things you mentioned, I think even in our.
35:41
Speaker 1: Pre our pre call was like if we can get
35:44
Speaker 1: this set up, then you can have it kind of
35:47
Speaker 1: systematized and you can build this and then like you said,
35:50
Speaker 1: you don't miss that. That's what I heard you say,
35:51
Speaker 1: don't miss those moments because now we've got something going,
35:55
Speaker 1: you know, is that where you see the clients really
35:57
Speaker 1: have success over the long haul.
35:59
Speaker 3: And absolutely, yeah, I do run my agency like an
36:02
Speaker 3: assembly line. The whole thing is systematized stereotype like PR
36:08
Speaker 3: is chaos and blah blah blah. The only time PR,
36:12
Speaker 3: even when you're prepared, might be chaos, would be in
36:15
Speaker 3: like a horrible crisis, right, But really, day to day PR,
36:21
Speaker 3: when you're doing pitching on behalf of an organization where
36:23
Speaker 3: you're trying to generate positive press, is not be chaotic. Didn't.
36:29
Speaker 3: And so we build those pillars right in that period
36:31
Speaker 3: of discovery. And then what we do on the round
36:33
Speaker 3: the fifteenth or the twentieth of every month, we sit
36:35
Speaker 3: down internally, we look at the client roster. We can
36:37
Speaker 3: keep the pillars in mind, we look ahead at the
36:39
Speaker 3: month ahead. We're like, Okay, what's happening on the calendar?
36:42
Speaker 3: Is it nurses Week is in May? Okay, Like we're
36:44
Speaker 3: just thinking about that. So we know we have a
36:47
Speaker 3: client who works, you know, tangentially to the space. Can
36:51
Speaker 3: we align them with the themes that exist already? So
36:54
Speaker 3: then we say, okay, we have these set of talking points.
36:56
Speaker 3: I think they align with nurses Week. We're going to
36:57
Speaker 3: check with them. They're already written. What we need to
36:59
Speaker 3: adjust how do we open it? And that's where and
37:02
Speaker 3: then they say yes, or they say we want to
37:04
Speaker 3: make a small adjustment or whatever. But that's where it
37:06
Speaker 3: starts to just work very smoothly and simply and with
37:11
Speaker 3: just organization. Like we all have lives. I like the
37:15
Speaker 3: expression that says, I didn't leave my nine to five
37:17
Speaker 3: to work a six to six, right, So nobody's like
37:20
Speaker 3: winning the award for working the most.
37:22
Speaker 6: Chaotic schedule and life right, and my team, excuse me,
37:26
Speaker 6: our clients, they don't hire us to make their lives
37:29
Speaker 6: more difficult, right, And I think that many times like
37:32
Speaker 6: PR can feel like a thing that suddenly made your
37:35
Speaker 6: life more chiotic.
37:37
Speaker 3: And so it's very important to me that they feel
37:41
Speaker 3: like they're a part of something that works and flows.
37:45
Speaker 3: And of course, once in a while, like something's going
37:47
Speaker 3: to happen and it's going to be a little stressful,
37:49
Speaker 3: Like I often refer to the example of when Silicon
37:52
Speaker 3: Valley Bank fell, and I remember like I had goosebumps,
37:55
Speaker 3: like all over my body because I thought, this is huge,
37:58
Speaker 3: this will be national, and anybody on our client roster
38:01
Speaker 3: who can talk about money or banking is going to
38:05
Speaker 3: be needed. And so it's gonna be twenty four to
38:07
Speaker 3: forty eight hours of chaos, right, So of course it happens,
38:11
Speaker 3: but generally speaking from day to day, that's not how
38:14
Speaker 3: it should be. And so systems in place, the pillars
38:18
Speaker 3: as a foundation, all of that allows us to attempt
38:22
Speaker 3: to work into your lives. I always say, like, I
38:23
Speaker 3: don't want you to spend if you have so much
38:25
Speaker 3: time for PR, what the majority of the time you
38:27
Speaker 3: spend once we onboard, I want it to be with
38:29
Speaker 3: media opportunities, not with me, like talk about what you know.
38:33
Speaker 3: And so it's just very important that we kind of
38:36
Speaker 3: build these systems so that our clients just feel like, wow,
38:40
Speaker 3: that time I invested, that money invested was the majority
38:43
Speaker 3: of it was with cool opportunities where I shared my story,
38:46
Speaker 3: where I talked about my vision, where I added some
38:49
Speaker 3: value to the discourse, and I could then use that
38:52
Speaker 3: and send it to my social team and have cooler
38:54
Speaker 3: LinkedIn posts and have better opportunities to touch base with clients.
38:57
Speaker 3: Like that feels great, Not like we're meeting every week
39:01
Speaker 3: to come up with ideas and we're all going crazy
39:04
Speaker 3: and this one didn't land and we're really around like
39:05
Speaker 3: you know, like it's like, what what is that? You know?
39:09
Speaker 3: So that's very important to me that our clients have
39:12
Speaker 3: that energy that we have that we take to their
39:14
Speaker 3: accounts and that it feels really great. Oh my gosh,
39:19
Speaker 3: this is a big burden of times.
39:21
Speaker 1: No, no, it sounds it sounds to me like you said, so,
39:23
Speaker 1: really the only distribution this disruption, if you will, would
39:27
Speaker 1: be the opportunity. Hey, here's your opportunity that we've been
39:30
Speaker 1: looking for to get on. And that's It's not the process,
39:33
Speaker 1: it's just, hey, the opportunity is here. Fantastic.
39:36
Speaker 3: Love how you summarize it. Shouldn't the disruption to your
39:38
Speaker 3: life shouldn't be the process. That's crazy, right, Like, it.
39:43
Speaker 1: Just shouldn't the opportunity here. Yeah, I working so hard
39:46
Speaker 1: for getting all these things lined up. You're like, great,
39:48
Speaker 1: it is now aligned. Fantastic. We can step right into it,
39:52
Speaker 1: you know. I know we're getting here, Ronica. This has
39:55
Speaker 1: been so powerful and we're gonna to the podcast. And what
39:58
Speaker 1: really stands out to me is that PR really isn't
40:00
Speaker 1: just about getting attention, but it's being ready for that attention,
40:04
Speaker 1: like we just talked about and for those of you
40:06
Speaker 1: that are listening and maybe you're thought, oh, it's just.
40:09
Speaker 2: A bit about visibility.
40:10
Speaker 1: Maybe you should be looking in saying would my message
40:13
Speaker 1: actually hold up? And I should talk to Ronica and
40:16
Speaker 1: her team at Cleary Strategy Clear Strategies. Roonica is as
40:21
Speaker 1: we're listening, as we're sharing with us our listeners, and
40:26
Speaker 1: I always like to ask our guest to share, what
40:30
Speaker 1: would you empower our listener, whether they're the business own
40:32
Speaker 1: or a leader to do we cart a lot of ground,
40:35
Speaker 1: but what could they do a kind of a self
40:37
Speaker 1: assessment of self check to say, take what we've just
40:42
Speaker 1: listened to, what we shared, and apply it to themselves,
40:46
Speaker 1: apply to their company, and you know, hopefully move them
40:50
Speaker 1: in the right direction forward, whether they're working with PR
40:52
Speaker 1: now or they want to get in a place where
40:54
Speaker 1: they would be having somebody help them with their PR.
40:57
Speaker 3: One thing I think that is a great step is
41:01
Speaker 3: not in like a weird competitive like gross way, but
41:06
Speaker 3: look at what your competition is doing, and look at
41:09
Speaker 3: how they're putting themselves out there. And this isn't to
41:11
Speaker 3: feel threatened or competitive or ugly or mean spirited. But
41:15
Speaker 3: there's usually room in the media landscape for more than
41:18
Speaker 3: one expert in exor y or Z and you can
41:22
Speaker 3: learn from where they're putting themselves out there. You can
41:24
Speaker 3: also say like ooh, I wouldn't do that, or oh
41:27
Speaker 3: that feels great, you know, And so I think that's
41:30
Speaker 3: a great kind of first step. And it also look
41:33
Speaker 3: a PR agency might come up with ideas that have
41:35
Speaker 3: never been done before. Of course, with creatives, that's really
41:38
Speaker 3: the fundamental core of public relations is actually creativity. And
41:43
Speaker 3: so it doesn't mean it can't happen, but I do
41:46
Speaker 3: think it's it's super helpful to see where people are
41:51
Speaker 3: in the media landscape who talk about what you could
41:54
Speaker 3: talk about, and I gives you an idea, if that
41:57
Speaker 3: would feel exciting, does that feel impossible? Why does it
42:01
Speaker 3: feel impossible? And so asking yourself those questions and just
42:05
Speaker 3: having kind of been honest style with yourself, because at
42:07
Speaker 3: the end of the day, I mean, if that's a
42:09
Speaker 3: great If doing an interview like makes you want to
42:12
Speaker 3: throw up and six to your stomach and you you
42:14
Speaker 3: don't function for three days, maybe this isn't the right thing, right,
42:19
Speaker 3: but maybe you never thought that through until you watch
42:21
Speaker 3: somebody and you imagine yourself there. But if you out
42:24
Speaker 3: there and say, oh my gosh, I have so many
42:26
Speaker 3: better things to say. I could have done that. Yes,
42:29
Speaker 3: one that's like a little signal internally that says maybe
42:33
Speaker 3: it's time you maybe yeah about this, So that would
42:35
Speaker 3: be my suggestion.
42:36
Speaker 1: Rom It's great, promp Veronica, real pleasure of having you
42:40
Speaker 1: here on the podcast and sharing your insights with us today.
42:42
Speaker 1: It really was great And I'm hoping the listeners have
42:45
Speaker 1: gotten some value hair because I think I got some
42:48
Speaker 1: great takeaways today, but really wonderful having you here.
42:51
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
42:53
Speaker 2: Yeah.
42:53
Speaker 1: Absolutely, you guys are listening in here. If you found
42:58
Speaker 1: value in today's conversation, of course we shait you subscribing
43:01
Speaker 1: following like long leave any comments. We'll make sure Ronica
43:03
Speaker 1: and our team get it at Cleary Strategies. Make sure
43:06
Speaker 1: you guys follow and connect with her as well. You know,
43:10
Speaker 1: if you're looking to build a business with stronger alignment,
43:12
Speaker 1: clearer messaging, a team that can actually support growth, that's
43:16
Speaker 1: what we do is through with your business. We love
43:17
Speaker 1: working with folks like Roonica at Clear Cleary Strategies and
43:21
Speaker 1: thank you guys for being a part of this conversation today.
43:24
Speaker 2: Until next time, be well, Thanks everybody for listening in