 Alright, so good morning. My name is Emily Brieflove, and I am so excited to be back at WordCamp. This is my fourth year, I think, speaking here, and so I already prefaced the camera guy. So there were two years that my video didn't make it because I swear a lot. This year I'm bound and determined to get my video back on WordCamp. So I'm going to slow down and try not to cuss. I may have to catch myself a couple times, so just bear with me. So my name is Emily Brieflove, and I am a serial entrepreneur here in Asheville. And we actually got one. So I've been a serial entrepreneur for longer than I knew what that was. Started as an entrepreneur when I was in high school. But then I had a brief stint where I worked for the government. I almost killed myself. Entrepreneurs can't handle that. But what it did give me was insight into how a lot of things work. One of those things is PR, of how nonprofits work, how government agencies work, how the media works, and how as entrepreneurs we're typically left out of those conversations, that we don't always get the playbook. And so when I left my government job and came back to being an entrepreneur, came back to who I really am, I vowed to bring that insight and those tools and resources to my people. And so what I'm going to be talking about today is not about the history of PR, not about what PR is, but more about how you navigate it now. And what are the things that people don't always tell us as entrepreneurs, that we tend to be left out of those conversations. So I'm trying to pull back the curtain of what is the current state and what is the future state of public relations to give you guys some insight on how to better navigate it as entrepreneurs, as web developers, as marketers, because we're in this space whether we know it or not. So who am I? Like I said I am a serial entrepreneur, I do way too many things, but there are a handful of things that are going to help frame this conversation. So I'm the director of Scale Up WNC, which is a growth accelerator here in Asheville, it's run by Mountain BizWorks, and we take a cohort of 15 existing locally headquartered companies that have the potential to scale 10x within three years. And so we send them through an intensive seven week program where we help them build their growth plan, look at their capital needs, and part of that is also looking at their communication strategy. To scale is a really intense process, and it challenges your communication verbiage, methodology, toolkit, strategy, all those things. And so we actually just finished our last cohort, our spring cohort, we're about to start our summer cohort on Friday, so we've got 15 new businesses that are coming in, and those are companies that range between 250,000 annual revenue to 2.5 million, but they can demonstrate the capacity to 10x in three years. What's exciting about this summer cohort is it's the first time that we have had infopreneurs. We've had idea-based product, we've had companies that sell digital product going through the cohort, and that's really challenged our curriculum of where you have entrepreneurs that can very realistically scale through a digital product, and what that then looks like. The vast majority of the businesses that we have have tangible product, beer, food, outdoor gear, that sort of thing. But so this is the first year, and this is one I pushed really hard because in Asheville we have a lot of idea-preneurs. We have a lot of freelancers, entrepreneurs that do specialize in passive revenue and online product, and really looking at how we teach more around scaling within that space. So another role that I play in this community is I'm the founder and director of Camp Girl Boss. You guys got postcards, we have some if you want more. And so Camp Girl Boss is a week-long summer camp that supports middle school girls in focusing on leadership and entrepreneurship. And so over the course of the week, we work with the girls not only to build a business, but instead of writing a business plan, they build a single-page WordPress website. So thanks to Boomer Sassman over there, our pre-camp trainer. So we offer a mini pre-camp for these middle school girls. Thursday afternoon of the week, we spent all week compiling the pieces that would go into a single-page site. So they're bio, they're mission statements, they get a headshot, they create a logo, they create three products. So it is an e-commerce site. And then we send them through a five-hour website boot camp, basically a miniature version of what Boomer taught for pre-camp. And that was something that I really prioritized because nowadays, if you're an entrepreneur, you need to learn about how you convey that online. The standard business plan and standard communication strategy is no longer relevant. And so even if we're supporting 11-year-old girls that won't start a business for at least a decade, at least we're giving them the foundation of to be relevant. You need to look at digital marketing, you need to look at online PR. So there is information. If you guys want to check it out, we're hosting 10 camps this summer all across Western North Carolina. And hopefully next year we can create a stronger alliance with WordCamp. So then the last piece is I also run a program called WNC PressPass. And this is an ongoing event program where we bring together the media. We also offer training and resources around how to work with the media. So the more that I got into PR, especially working with entrepreneurs in PR, the more that I realized that this is a topic that's underutilized and underserved. There's very little classes. Sarah, JB Media Institute, they do a lot of training on this and they're one of the few that do. And PR is a moving target. It is in a state of evolution. And so making sure that we're presenting classes that are not working off of the standard narrative of what PR used to be. And instead looking at how to be relevant and competitive right now. How to work with regional media outlets, how to work with statewide, how to get on the larger blogs and articles, how to look at multimedia and all of these things. So WNC PressPass, we now host an annual event in March. So stay tuned for that. You can get on wncpresspass.com or about to actually start releasing some ongoing workshops for people that are wanting to get more aggressive at looking at writing press releases and building relationships with the media. So those are three helpful resources that kind of frame who I am and how I see this world taking shape. So a little background. PR, stands for public relations, is the act of managing your public image or your reputation. So my background is actually in branding and marketing. And they're branding and PR like two sides of the same coin. Branding is you managing your reputation from being able to actually own your narrative, own your imaging, own the way that people experience your brand. PR is when you hand it over to someone else and let them tell your story. And having to actively manage how the press talk about what you do, how partners share that information, how press releases convey it, you're officially handing it off to someone else and trying to work with them on how to maintain the brand experience that you've invested a lot of time and energy around. How to maintain the integrity of your story. And so they do work closely together. But PR, the few things that I do want you to focus on is the management aspect. This is very active. Managing your PR is you need to engage and manage it on a daily basis. And the public image and reputation. So that is how the world sees you. That is how other people talk about your business or talk about the work that you're doing or your clients work. So for the history of PR, typically there were some major players that held all the power. The media outlets, journalists, newspapers, news celebrities that got most of the attention and then advertising the paid PR. What's interesting is that these dynamics have changed. Everything in PR has changed thanks to some very big pivot points that have happened over the past few years. The biggest new player is us, right? The average show, any person now can be part of that process. The power dynamics have shifted in that people, normal people can now be in this network. That we can actually have more influence over our PR and that we are actually emerging more as peers to the celebrities, to the media, to the advertisers. Individuals now have the ability to become influencers and thought leaders within this space. Thanks to all the shifts that have happened, it's given us as people more power to craft and manage our public relations, to own our reputation and our public image out in the world. So what I'm going to talk about is how we now navigate that space, how we embrace the fact that we have more power in owning our PR and in growing our presence, growing our reputation, growing our base. So the reality is that thanks to the global and the digital communication revolution that we've looked at, is it's given access to the world that we're able to get online and share our story in ways that we never had before. Obviously, we all know this. How do we do that though? We're looking at the sea of people out there, this noisy world of everyone trying to be heard. How do you cut through that noise? And how do you successfully build your tribe or grow your space, grow your footprint, grow your network? So everyday people now have access in a way that we never really did. But it also challenges the strategy that we use in navigating that. It's not just sending something, sending a press release to a journalist. Yes, that's still part of the process, but you are having to actively engage in what that strategy looks like. There's a lot of work that goes into this. There's a lot of clarity that is required on behalf of managing your own PR and really stepping into the space from a place where you are successful. So how do you do this? All of these things have helped build your base, the tools that you're going to use, multimedia, video, audio, photos. These are tools that you're able to use. Social media, obviously, is helping to spread the word. It helps level the playing field. Digital products, the standalone products that help to build your newsletter, help to build your network. And then the 24-hour news, they are always looking for stories. So the reality is that just the nature of the media has shifted in that they are constantly trying to find good stories. They're always out looking. And so making sure that you've built it in a way that fits within their space and then you get it on their radar, it's really opened up this avenue. Okay, so the reality is that we can now create our own global platform. I'm really understanding what that looks like, that we have the ability as individuals, when we build a foundation of all of these resources, all of these tools, and get really clear on what it is that we want to do. But even though we have more power, it's still a partnership. We still have to work with these players. That's one of the biggest challenges that I've found is that a lot of entrepreneurs that take initiative and that are super aggressive within this space, they can be bullish. They can plow their way through and think that if they've got a great story, it'll just be covered and it should be covered. But the reality is that you're still having to work with people. You're still having to work with organizations. You're still having to learn how to build these relationships and get them to want to run your story. So it is a delicate process that you still need to learn how to navigate. But once you do figure out what that looks like, it is a mutually beneficial exchange. Because the media needs good stories and once you learn how to generate good stories, you're able to give them what they need. People want to read good stories. Reporters want to write good stories. Media outlets want to run good stories. Good stories are hard to find. There's a lot of really bad stories out there. Most people pitch bad stories. They're typically mediocre and self-serving. They're usually flat and they're not providing enough. And so really looking at that this is a give and take relationship. And that by taking the extra steps to find a good story, to craft a good story and then pitch it in a way that they understand, the media outlet understands how it's applicable to their readership, you're serving then everybody. Yourself, your clients, their reporter, their media outlet and the people at large who really need good stories to read. So all of this is a very healthy symbiotic relationship when you understand your role in that place. Okay, so what do you do? How do you start tackling this? So I broke this up into, I actually removed the research based tactics on here and I got really real with you on what I actually see works. So first you have to live with integrity. You have to operate from a place of integrity. The reality is that once you move into this space and you become more visible, the world expects more from you. Live with integrity unless you want to be known for your crazy. If that's part of your brand, sure. But the reality is that this is still very relationship based. The people want to hear from those who they trust, media outlets want to work with people who they trust. Visibility comes with pros and cons that there is that element of transparency. When you're using these platforms like social media, people then know you. They see you. And so you really have to then be careful what you share and be calculated around the story and the brand experience that you are putting out there. So for me, I hit this clip really fast that for the majority of my career, I operated pretty under the radar that I worked with the government. I worked with grants. I worked with entrepreneurs, but it was still pretty quiet. But then a couple of years ago, I started more aggressively stepping into this space to have like a perfect storm. And I went from having a network of 2,000 people to having a network of 50,000 people in about six months. And not being really prepared for what that level of visibility entailed, that all of a sudden I had a lot of people knowing what my kids' names were and knowing where I went out to eat with my husband the night before and knowing that my mother-in-law was sick. I started becoming highly aware of the things that I was sharing because there were a lot of eyes on it. I also had to go back and look at the posts that I had shared that were still archived. So I was part of, when Facebook first launched, it was only for universities. And I was part of, I was one of the first four universities that beta test, tested Facebook. I went to the University of Central Florida and we were one of the first four. And so my Facebook account goes back to when I was in college, right? And you know, when you first start, it was just for other college kids. And so like my first year of photos were like, should have never seen a lot of day, ever ever. I had to go back and remove all of the cool with wrestling matches and all those shots from my college experience because it was still there. Obviously Facebook has evolved since then. My grandparents are now on Facebook and if they dug far enough back, they would have seen a part of me that I didn't want everyone to see. And so I not only went out and scrubbed the photos, but I also scrubbed some of the posts when I was not as professional as I want to be now because that's there and it's permanent. And so being really clear on what your line of integrity is, is really important because the more you open yourself up to the world, the more that's going to be challenged. The more that you're going to have to hold that boundary for yourself and that things will happen, bad things will happen, damage control will kick in, being clear on how you are personally going to handle crisis and that you have your crisis communication strategy in place in a place that is in alignment with your integrity. So even just 24 hours ago, I had been getting emails from Alignable. Have you guys heard of Alignable? Has anyone been getting those? For a year and a half I've been getting those. Just this week, one of my close colleagues signed up for it and it triggered and I got an email from him and I was like, okay, well if he's going to do it then I guess I should do it. Within 10 minutes, Alignable had spammed all 150,000 contacts that I had in my email list. 10 minutes, right? Because I made a rookie mistake of not reading the fine print and so I immediately had to then switch into damage control that every single scale up alumni got spammed from me through Alignable. On top of my funders, on top of my partners, on top of my clients and so I had to very aggressively delete the account, start emailing people, post on my social media, like I apologize for that. I lost PR points on that one because it rubbed people the wrong way because I didn't read the fine print. And so that's part of my integrity is that I take the privacy of my network very, very seriously. I do not abuse the fact that I have a big network. I do not abuse their trust in me. And so I've had to be very clear on what my lines are when it comes to these things. And because the more you navigate PR it can swallow you whole. Press can get really exciting and reporters can ask a lot of you and they can spin stories and you need to keep going back to what is your line of integrity and what does that look like and how do you maintain that? So the dominant currency still within this space is trust. This is still a network of people. Even in working with big time media outlets there's still people. Especially when you're just getting started you're usually working with the young people. And they get younger every year. I had one reporter call me the other day and I was like how old are you? And I actually didn't want to know. But so being highly aware of the fact that even though they have a really big name behind them they're still just a mom or they're still just a kid right out of college or they're still an overworked journalist and that's treating them with respect and treating them the way that you want to be treated as a person as a human being is really really important and really striving to maintain that trust in an ongoing way. Number two, do stuff that matters. Like I said most of the stories that are pitched are bad. They're bad stories. They're mediocre. No one wants to read them. They're very self-serving. They're about a ribbon cutting ceremony or someone who just released a new book. And these can be interesting if they're not only about you and your business. And so nowadays you know it's taken a long time. I host a lot of events. God I've been doing it for so long. My husband hates that I do because they're exhausting and they're always a risk. And for the first 10 years I bombed my events. I never made money off of them. They were exhausting. Most of them didn't work. But that was how I learned. So I estimate that I've lost over $100,000 over the course of my career in hosting events. That I personally had to make up the difference. So I joke and I say that I have a PhD now in hosting events. It's like an Ivy League PhD, the best money can buy, right? Because that's how you learn. It's a school of hard knocks. But so it took me that long to realize that people only want to go to things that really pull on certain elements. And that sell out events, the strategy behind crafting and defining an event that sells out is something that you really have to work at understanding and at mastering that craft. And so there's a few things that I've identified of how I vet what matters. And that I not only now create articles and programs around this but I also advise all of my clients to. So the reality is the world is noisy and saturated. You've got to cut to... Oh, and in general people don't care. They don't care about your stuff. They don't care about your story. They care about a handful of things. And so just accepting that, just because you write a story doesn't mean people care about it. So what makes them care? First and foremost, something that makes them feel good about themselves. That is always the biggest motivator. You've seen a thousand posts of science studies says that those who sleep in in the morning are naturally brilliant. Right? Studies say that those who swear all the time are brilliant. Studies say that those who have a dirty desk are smarter than those who have a clean desk. Who cares? But people look at it and they're like, that's me, right? I have a dirty desk. I swear all the time and I sleep in. I'm brilliant. Yay me. But it also helps people prefer to go to things and to read stories that validate who they are, have an element of exclusivity. So a lot of my events, I make people feel like I am personally inviting them to come and not everyone is invited to come. It showcases things that make people feel like I am special. I am on the inner circle, I'm in the in-crowd, I'm doing something right. And so really focusing on the angle that makes the reader feel good about themselves. That it's validating something that's either about them or that they're doing or gives them a positive way to improve themselves. The next is a curiosity factor and this is actually really hard one to pull off because you have to really understand your demographic and what they're curious about. Just because you're curious about it doesn't mean that you're talking to those people who care about it. So curiosity is very much of the novelty. This is where you write stories or host events that are like not to be missed kind of thing. So for the scale-up program, at the end of scale-up we always have a demo day event. It's the showcase event and the first one we did was like five years ago and it was the first time that there was a quote-unquote demo day and we had it at the orange peel and it was huge. It was super exciting. Now like three other organizations host demo days and so it's really weakened the brand and so we haven't really had a whole lot of like big exciting attendance. It's not like the not to miss kind of event anymore. And so this year we went back to the drawing board and I asked my team and I was like okay, are you all going to like really let me do this? Like really? Can I bring out like all the things that would make this fun? And so they hesitantly said yes. But so this year demo days is switching to the big ask pitch event. The big ask pitch. It's a rock and roll themed event. It's the scale-up throwdown. It's going to be fun. It's going to be edgy. There's going to be a band. There's going to be beer. It will sell out really fast because people are going to have a lot of curiosity on what it'll be. This is where the cool factor lives, right? That you are presenting things and opportunities that people would never miss it. That everybody's going to be like dude have you heard about the big ask pitch? That's pretty far down the line. But it paints that picture. Like the curiosity is actually one of the biggest variables to look at when you are doing PR. It's one of the hardest because you have to really know your market. And it doesn't always resonate with everybody. And so this is a challenging one to pull off. But once you figure it out it can be really successful. The next one is fear. And this comes in the fear of missing out. But also fear around the topic. So like climate change or health crisis or violence or domestic violence or gun violence or any of these things. That is a huge motivator that people want to learn as much about it as possible. But this is also a challenging one to navigate because you can take it too far. But also knowing when you do release it of who the market is that it is whatever it is that you're presenting is going to trigger that with them. But that you are presenting it in a way that it's not just capitalizing off of their fear. But it's also offering some sort of solution, remedy, support around that. So then there's the inspiration piece. And this is like with Camp Girl Boss. So Camp Girl Boss is the kind of story that sells itself. I don't have to work hard at all to get coverage. I'm actually, I, media bangs down my door. They all want their own version of the story. But it's the kind of story that everyone wants to hear about. Everybody wants to read about 11 year old girls who are over the course of a week learning to believe in themselves and finding the power of their voice. Right, so one of the most powerful stories that we got out of Camp Girl Boss is that, so last year we hosted one big camp here at UNCA. And at the end of the week, WLOS came as we were in pitch practice. So the final graduation ceremony, the girls stand up and they share their websites as well as give their 60 second pitch. And so a reporter came and right when we were in the middle of practicing and they asked if one of the girls could stand up and say her pitch. And so of course every girl was like, I want to. So we wrote their name in a hat and drew it out. And the girl that we picked, she was pretty timid, pretty quiet, but she did it. She stood up, she read her pitch, she did great. And it wasn't until the week after that her mom called me and said, so I wanted to share what happened after the camp because you wouldn't have known. She said, so she came home and over the course of the camp she had started a business around like a dog walking business. It was cute. She loves animals. I swear half the girls either did animals or they did cupcakes. Yeah, boomer kind of test. We had more stock photos of cute puppy dogs than anything else. But so the girl went home and she immediately locked herself in her room and she reworked her whole business. Because what I didn't know was that she had dyslexia and that she never wanted to speak in front of the class because she would always screw it up. And she said that the experience at Camp Robots taught her that she found the power of her own voice. And so she instead started a business where she helped other girls with dyslexia learn how to stand strong in their voice. So the mom called me and we're both sobbing, right? This story is one that everyone wants to hear. The inspiration story is tied to the making yourself feel good about yourself, giving yourself hope about the world. But again, you can't just halfway tell that story. You really have to lean into why is this inspiring? Why is this vulnerable? Why does this pull at the heartstrings? And how do I take that with a deep sense of responsibility? Because with great power comes responsibility, right? Spider-Man said that. But so really knowing with your people what inspires them and how you drop these inspirational stories in there very intentionally but carefully. And again, like with fear, not abusing it. That you can motivate people to do what it is that you want when you share stories that inspire them. Alright, so number three. Let me get a time check. Number three is that you need to tell the story better, better than everyone else. So the reality is that all journalists are flooded with hundreds of stories a day. I know Katie, who's the news director at Asheville Citizen Times, gets between 300 and 400 emails a day. A day, right? So how do you cut through the noise and get yours heard? How do you get your story run? So there's a lot of things that you need to keep in mind as you're going through this process and it's not just the standard press release. And so I wanted to kind of pull this apart, especially when we're looking at the future of PR, because this is a moving target. The media is having to adjust to this just as much as we are. We're all learning how to navigate this space and how to do it quickly. So these are the core elements. What is the story angle? So I typically, when I'm going through this process, I pull apart and make a list. So like with Camp Girl Boss, we have I think 47 story angles that my PR specialist has and every single story angle has some information on it. And so she's able to, for every conversation that she has with the media, she's able to gauge which one to take. And she can throw one out and if that one doesn't land, she throws out another one. So knowing what your angles are and that every story can have multiple angles and knowing that each outlet. So we've got like 30 something outlets right now that we're talking to for Camp Girl Boss. They're all going to want their own version of a story. Very few of them are going to run the exact same press release. And so we have to modify this. We have to have different quotes. We have to have different stories. And so knowing which outlets going to want which one, the Business North Carolina Magazine is going to be very, very different than the WNC Magazine. And so you would pull that apart and really look at what are the angles? What does it look like? What's going to make sense for who? Then you get to who. So this is where for each angle you're able to also map out who your target markets are. And this is where you're able to modify. So like for the story angles, we, a lot of them are based upon, I mean we've got 47 story angles. There's probably only eight core stories. And those eight are then modified based upon this, of who this would resonate with. Of this angle is really going to land with moms. This angle is going to land with professional men. And so really mapping out who these people are and how they tie into the core elements of the story and who this is going to land with best is going to help you really clarify the next pieces. Because then you understand how to round it out based upon who that demographic is. Why? And so this is going back to those motivating elements of the curiosity, the fear, the inspiration. Why are they going to care enough to listen to this story? Why in the sea of stories, the thousands and thousands of stories that come across people. I mean they say that right now we see 8000 ads a day. I would say that's growing. But so we are so saturated with stories right now. Why would this one cut through the noise and capture their attention? What about the language, the title, the photo? Looking at what that hook is and what the intention is with why you're presenting it and why it's connecting. That's going to help with really clarifying what the title should be, what the photo should be, what the opening line should be, what your keyword should be and where it lands based upon and it's also about timing of why now. Is it in alignment with, so for us obviously it's a bunch of moms getting ready for summer, right? So come February we know moms are stressing over summer camps. And so at that point we've got to start dripping out stories because they're looking. They're actively looking. Oh they want to hear it. So this is the piece that's really evolving aggressively right now because there are so many other mediums to keep in under consideration. A lot of demographics, especially the younger demographics, millennials, they don't just want to read it, right? They want the Cliff Notes version and they want a video or they want a podcast. And so you can't just send a 10 page article anymore unless you're writing two demographics of people who really like to read the articles. But so getting really clear on once you understand who these demographics are, why it is that they're wanting to listen, you also then need to understand the mediums in which it needs to be delivered. And so if it's a kind of story that really needs to be heard, find a podcast to be interviewed on. If it's a long drawn out story that has a lot of statistics and a lot of quotes, find a journal, an online journal that can do a long academic analysis, whatever it is. These mediums are what make or break good stories. You can have a great story that you send to the wrong channel and no one cares. And that's sad. That's sad for your good story that then gets lost in the chaos. And then where they like to find it. So the reality is that even though there are certain mediums that people want, so if you're trying to get to millennials and you've got a great video, you also need to be able to promote it in the spaces where they are. And so it's not just how they experience the story, it's where they come across it, where they're going to be most receptive. Is it via email newsletter? Is it on social media? Is it on LinkedIn versus Facebook? If it's a professional story, LinkedIn is clearly a great place to drop a professional business related story. Facebook, maybe not. And so it really just depends on understanding who the market is, understanding if it is a video or a podcast. What is the kind of channel that they're most receptive to listening to? Email newsletters are really great for podcasts because people get them first thing in the morning. They're able to just download it at home and listen to it in their car. So really thinking through the digestibility of your stories, it's going to make it easier because the press is also thinking through that. Is this the kind of story that needs to go out first thing on a Tuesday morning? Or is this a Friday afternoon kind of story? They're already analyzing this and so being able to be prepared and bring that information of this demographic, they access these kinds of stories best during the work day. We recommend releasing this between 10 and 2 on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Here's all the information that you would need in order to do that. So the secret to a lot of the things that I do is that I put the time and energy into doing it better. That I overshare with my press contacts. I give them several images to choose from. I give them links. I give them quotes. I give them stats. I give them everything that they need to create a great story. I also curate it. I do my homework. I research the reporter. I research the media outlets. I use the same exact words that they use. And so it falls in line. So as they're evaluating and they're like, alright, these are the hundred stories that we could run with. Which one fits the best? If I'm speaking their language, I'm automatically going to make it further. If I provide them more than they would need and they can then get to choose and they're not having to manually go find an image, it's going to save them time. So if you invest that, it's time and energy that they don't have to invest. And it makes it easier to run it. So number four, do the work. The reality is that when you are navigating the PR space and you make your list, right, everybody needs to have a list of all of your media outlets. It's really good to, in that list, differentiate what channels they use, where they frequent. If they're just now emerging into the video space and they're actively looking for good video. If they have a really good daily email newsletter and so they're just looking for snippets all the time, they just always are digging for stuff. Being able to, so on my media list, we have a very detailed Google Sheets that has each of the media outlets, the reporters that we personally know. Next to the reporters, we talk about the topic areas that they cover. We also talk about the channels that they prefer to use. We also note where this outlet is going, where they're trying to move into that they need help generating that material. When I look at the fact that Citizen Times just rolled out a daily email newsletter and they're trying to be more in that space, I can send them stuff that'll fit for that. This helps with your strategy because you also are able to quickly reference. The more you take your PR seriously, the longer that list is going to get. Being able to go back and even just search which of my reporters covers food in Asheville, who does food and likes videos because we've got a great food video that we want to run. From there, you're able to kind of sift through your database. So we also use Airtable, which is like the best database in the world. It makes it easy for us to cross reference and to find things quickly. So your goal throughout all of this is not to just come up with a good story, but you need to make a good story easy to tell for them. PR and working with media outlets, even though you're able to grow your base a little easier now that you're able to move more to their level, they still give you access and give you visibility that you couldn't always get on your own. So it's worth struggling through the headaches of learning how to work with these people. It's worth investing time in getting to know them and building relationships but also getting better at pitching stories. So then the reality is that you still do need a press release. It still is the standard piece that they work off of, even though now you need more than a press release. The press release is the first thing that you send. And so one thing that we at the WNC press pass event, on day two we bring in panels of news directors. And so we bring in news directors from Asheville, from western North Carolina, from all across the state. And we ask them these questions of what is it that you want from a press release? What's the best way to do that? And so one thing that's coming up really often is that they actually prefer for the press release to be copied and pasted directly in the email, but they don't want an attachment. They'd rather be able to quickly reference because typically the attachments come in a variety of different mediums. They don't want to have to dig through, is it a word doc, is it a PDF, whatever. And so they've said put some sort of description of the story the keyword description in the subject header. Don't just label it press release. And then the opening sentence or lines from you is about why you think this is relevant. And so give them a very brief synopsis of why this story would be strong for their readers and then immediately follow with the press release in the email. So they can just quickly scan through it. From a time standpoint that's the fastest way. You can then just attach the images or you can say we have images or you can put them in a drop box folder and link to the images. One of the biggest challenges is if you haven't communicated with these people before you want to try and avoid links and attachments as much as possible because you can go to their spam folder. And so usually I try to do just an introductory email that doesn't have any of those things so that we build that connection. But so then the other pieces that you want to look at and this is a pretty big list. Video as much as possible. So if you're able to do video on your own partner with people who do video try and get interviewed on people who even just like Facebook lives. Facebook lives ultimately have a standalone video. Video is hot. So is audio. Being interviewed on a podcast is a great medium. All of these media outlets are trying to move more into podcasting trying to figure out how to do this in an ongoing way. Photos are key. You can't just take Gmail or Google photos right. Everybody knows that you can't just copy and paste by stock photography or if you have photos you need to be able to cite the source of where they come from. You want to be able to provide a better photo than what the media outlets going to go find because ultimately it's going to be more beneficial for you. If it's a really compelling engaging image you're going to get more clicks. Don't leave that up to them. You can even just give them direction. Ultimately if they go find their own at least the ones you've sent have given them an idea of what you think is going to be the strongest way to engage. The content obviously so depending upon the publication some of them are going to want you to provide a press release that is a complete story that they can just run with or you're just providing the framework of a story that they would then work with you to write or there are some like capital at play they write all their stories and so you're just sending them an idea. You're sending them an idea and an opportunity and they then figure out how to slide it in where they have one of their journalists write the story on your behalf. But you have to at least give them something to work off of. And so capital at play sending them a long press release is just exhaustive. They're just going to circle back and be like well we write our own stories. Are you comfortable with this not being the actual story that we run? And so knowing what they want so that it can be quickly reviewed and assessed. Infographics are also really helpful if you work with a designer and you can do something that is polished and professional especially if you are sharing data, if you're sharing information depending upon the outlets or the medium Infographics can be really helpful to kind of convey but also make it compelling. Hyperlinks are also really good for the this is good to embed within your press release so that the reporters can go back and research and follow your tracks so that they can help kind of validate the legitimacy of the story. Stats are also helpful so you don't want to drown them in stats you want to pick the most important, the most relevant and then put them in bold if you really want them to know the numbers and then also link to the source of that information. Having partners is another element that does level the playing field. So I have found in my over the past two years I can actually release the story through my own channels through my own network and tie it to partners and get a larger number of readers than if I was to just have that story go out on Citizen Times or Mountain Express. That I've got stories that I'll have 10,000 people read it in three hours if I have the right people partnered on the release of it and so not being afraid to ask some other influencers asking other organizations that are heavyweights in this space to also release or promote the story sometimes you can bypass the media outlets with the right network and so being really clear on what is the strongest way to approach it if you have strong partners but then also if you do want to have it out in the media outlet they're going to having a wide variety of partners is going to help really strengthen the story because they're going to recognize that there are other established organizations behind what it is that you're talking about. Quotes are also really good so I set the stage for all my quotes I actually draft them first when I'm asking people for a quote I know where the story is going I know what I want them to say so I'll draft it and then say are you good with this? It's actually much easier and they prefer it especially because you can then go to the executive director you can go to the CEO, you can go to the top and say we're writing this story about this I'd really love it if I could get a quote directly from you can you just approve this? They're more likely to do that they'll edit slightly but if you ask them to write a quote odds are it's not happening you'll get a quote from their director of a program or a project manager you're not going to get a specialized quote unless you know the CEO and executive director really well so make it easy but don't build the story around the quotes that you get work the quotes into the story that you're already writing alright number five don't be a jerk you'd be surprised that I do have to say this on a regular basis especially with entrepreneurs just because you write the story doesn't mean they're going to run it just because you write the story doesn't mean people want to read it so PR is a relationship business everything is about the role that you play in the community and how friendly and honest and supportive you are to these people the reality is the industry right now is a huge target politically economically journalism is under fire the media it's fake news everybody's blaming the media they're also running out of money everybody's underpaid the biggest thing that we got out of the WNC press pass is how hard it is to be in this world right now and how being the provider of the story it's better if I am compassionate for the fact that these people are bust in their butt trying to find good stories and to meet deadlines in a space that money is drying up faster like advertising is disappearing these media outlets are really struggling which means reporters are getting paid less the other thing is that people who are in this industry tend to stay in this industry and so even if they move from one paper to another if you're a jerk to them it's really hard to shake it they also have a really big microphone don't piss off a journalist these people are your voice just like when I said how brand is the reputation that you control PR is the reputation that you're handing off to someone else and so the last thing you want to do is rub them the wrong way you're going to get a bad story even if you get one and the more you treat them with respect the more they're going to bend over backwards to get it done I've spent the past 15 years being nice to these people and sending them good stories and working hard to get them what they need and now when I call they answer they always read what I send them and even if it may not fit it may not work it may not run and so working towards that that in and of itself is a worthy cause and then the reality is is that if you invest the time and you invest the energy and start building a real strategy and you've got all these tools the possibilities are endless you can get coverage anywhere a great story can end up anywhere now and that's a great power for entrepreneurs and for storytellers and for marketers so I would highly encourage you guys taking it seriously because you do have a lot more power than you think my team is here to help so just quick shout out I'm actually in the works of opening up a shared use podcast and video recording studio in West Asheville and so part of this has been not only looking at the educational side of PR but also that there's not a lot of resources for people that are trying to to advance their multimedia generation and so having a podcast studio that you can rent by the hour as well as video and live streaming is more readily available to people who are trying to move into the space where it's expensive it's also complicated we also have editors, producers, designers in house that can help with that stuff so it'll be actualplay.com we're opening up this summer and then my team is also then in partnership with that we're launching an ongoing educational series called the Thought Leader Study Hall and looking at we started recognizing that it's not just that people need to walk in and they need to understand what that actually looks like how they build a podcast how they build a series how they structure who they interview how they sell it once it's done and so the Thought Leader Study Hall is all of the pieces that go into that looking at standalone product looking at ebooks, looking at video courses at video, at live streaming at podcasting, membership programs keynotes, all of that that come with really navigating this space and recognizing that there's just not a lot of education right now within this space so there's my contact information all my social media handles is Emily H. Breithlough so check out if you want something probably the fastest way is either send me an email or get me on LinkedIn or Facebook cool oh look there's a clock that would have been handy so we have five minutes so we have any questions yes press release is just to be just a single page mm-hmm that doesn't matter no more nope and it just depends on the outlet so like a press release going to capital at play Obi just wants an outline he wants to know what's the framework is it urgent what would we want from his team so Mountain Express is a great job of just running the press release exactly as it is and so you'd want to send them everything ultimately they're just putting it on their blog so they don't have like a firm word count they want a complete press release so yeah it really just depends yes you mentioned early on in your talk about how you had developed a PHD and hosting events yeah because of all the mistakes and stuff is training on that or helping with that still does yeah so this fall we also will have an intensive three part workshop on the events blueprint and so all that's one thing that I've started recognizing that we've now figured out how to do this and so there's a track for entrepreneurs and there's a track for nonprofits you can find out about that yeah so if you just join like my Facebook page then all of the upcoming events will be released there yeah they're all in Asheville awesome well thank you guys so much oh