Social media, blogging, Facebook advertising, webinar lead gen, speaking, podcast outreach…these are just the tip of the iceberg.

As if the choice of how to spend your time weren’t difficult enough, any of these marketing channels could work for you — as long as you do them consistently.

There is no one right answer, or secret to marketing your work, that once you learn it will change everything for your business.

How do you decide what to spend your time and energy on?

I recently spoke at a conference, where I met Lauren Hom. Lauren is an artist, who makes a living licensing her lettering, teaching online courses, and collaborating with major brands like Starbucks, Google and TIME Magazine.

Lauren has a real passion for launching creative projects, and as an artist, it’s only natural that her work found its natural home on a visual channel like Instagram, where she’s amassed 152,000 followers on her primary account.

Instagram is the ideal place for Lauren to showcase her work and personality. As someone working with brands, it’s important for her to be a social media influencers in her own right.

Hearing this story, you might be tempted to think, “Maybe I need to spend more time on Instagram,” or “It must be nice to have 150K followers! Of course she’s successful!”

But Lauren’s runaway success on Instagram doesn’t really tell you anything about Instagram itself.

The magic was in how Lauren found the right venue for her particular personality and skill set.

If she wasn’t an artist able to create her own images, if she didn’t have an irreverent personality that adds a dash of the unexpected to her medium, and if she weren’t comfortable putting her ideas out there, and sharing what’s going on behind the pretty pictures…

Which marketing channels play to your strengths as a CEO and as a company?

This has all come up for me, because I’ve been forced to re-evaluate what I think about podcasts.

When I first started booking clients podcast interviews two years ago, I was seeing huge traffic bumps from each interview. I was pitching podcasts based on the strength of this traffic — clients were getting 10x the traffic and leads from podcasts than they were getting from guest blog posts and traditional media coverage.

Podcasts still outperform these traditional media channels, but the traffic bump has dropped quite a bit.

So I had to take a hard reckoning.

Could I still in good faith recommend podcast interviews to clients?

This line of inquiry prompted me to review what my clients have told me about the value of their own podcast interviews.

In paying close attention to their feedback, I’ve come to see is that podcasts, like Instagram, are a very specific kind of marketing channel with a very specific set of strengths.

They are amazing for companies in some conditions, but may be a less important channel if none of these apply to you.

What kind of business owner gets the best results with podcasts?

1. When you talk about your business 1-to-1, you have a high close rate.

At the most basic level, what you’re doing on a podcast interview creates a similar set of conditions to 1-to-1 sales. You get an hour to talk to another expert about your work, company structure, and expertise.

If people are routinely sold on your work when you talk about it, podcasts give you the opportunity to have those conversations at scale. You’re still talking 1-to-1 (it’s just you and the host, or in some instances, co-hosts talking), and that conversation is being distributed to thousands of people who are incredibly receptive to hearing what you have to say.

2. You love to have deep, meaningful conversations about your work.

One thing I hear over-and-over again from my PR clients is, “I don’t want to water down my message for the media.”

The challenge with traditional media is that you get, at most, 5-7 minutes in a live interview, or maybe 800 words in a guest post or contribution to a site like Entrepreneur or Fast Company.

There just isn’t space to get into a meaningful discussion about your work.

Even on your blog, where you can write about your topic in depth, only 20 percent of people will read to the end — and these stats are for people who already follow your work.

Compare this to podcast engagement rates, where 35 percent of people who start a podcast interview listen to the entire episode, and 80 percent tune in to most of the episode.

These listeners are typically new to your work, which makes these numbers even more powerful for your company.

Podcasts are the ideal marketing channel, for any CEO who loves to have deep conversations about your work.

3. You want to network with other influencers in your field.

One of the first things you learn running your own business is just how crucial it is to build a strong network.

Other business owners and thought leaders in your industry are an important source of referrals and other partnership opportunities. I’ve had colleagues recommend me for paid speaking gigs, lucrative client projects and even my teaching on CreativeLive!

I cannot overstate this: There is no way I’d have the company I have today without these relationships.

When you go on a podcast as a guest, ultimately what you’re doing is having an hour-long conversation about the work that lights you up to another expert or influencer. It gives you an unparalleled opportunity to cut out months of networking in forming a relationship.

No worrying if they’ll have time to talk with you at a conference, or buttering them up on social media.

You just get to show up and meet them as equals.

4. Referrals are a big revenue source for your company.

The #1 question I get from people who are already lining up interviews for themselves is, “How do I leverage my interviews once they air?”

I know that most people are looking for an answer that helps them use their coverage to draw in and attract more people, so my answer often surprises them.

When you get media coverage of any kind, it’s an opportunity to check in with any open leads.

Your interviews also give your fans and clients an opportunity to share your work with their network. We often forget just how much people want to support our work when they value it. Your interviews give them an opportunity to email a colleague or two, inviting them to get to know you.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, but hopefully you can see how you can start linking your PR efforts with your sales efforts a little more effectively.

Now, let me reiterate that I’m not saying podcasts are a magic bullet for your business.

There are lots of other marketing channels out there, each with their own set of strengths and weaknesses.

Speaking can be amazing if you love being on stage, and want to get paid to generate leads. I’m lukewarm about speaking (although I LOVE panels and workshops), because it is just so much work, but I know many who love it.

Facebook ads are great for people who want to create a consistent formula for churning out leads. But you’re also at the whim of the algorhythm, and with costs rising, I know a lot of people looking to diversify.

The point is that no one channel is perfect — the trick is figuring out which one works with your strengths.

Now that you know a little more about the kinds of companies podcasts work best for, is podcast outreach a good strategy for your company?

The post How does Podcast PR Compare to Other Forms of Marketing? appeared first on B.

When I decided to pursue a career in PR, I knew that I would have to develop skills like communicating effectively and managing multiple priorities.

What I didn’t quite anticipate is how much of my initial learning and growth would be around dealing with things like your inner critic and imposter syndrome.

Even now, as I write this first blog post about trying things you aren’t sure you’ll be good at, my inner critic wants to know who would want to take advice from a 20-year-old.

But regardless of age, it’s a pretty universal experience to fear trying new things, and in taking on this role, I realized that my own fears and beliefs were the #1 thing holding me back.

As much as it can feel like there’s a secret camera crew just waiting for me to mess up, my favorite thing about not being Kylie Jenner is that paparazzi doesn’t follow me around broadcasting my worst moments.

The world doesn’t have to know when I get a tough edit or that time I fell down a particular set of very public stairs on campus and limped away with my pride more bruised than my body. Waiting to be publicly flogged/laughed at/shamed was holding me back from learning what I needed to learn to succeed in my new role.

1. Give yourself the freedom to try

When I realized that the world wasn’t waiting for the chance to laugh at me, I finally gave myself the freedom to try new things.

I used to not like telling my friends and family when I was trying something new, especially when it wasn’t going well. I didn’t want to tell them I was having a hard time with the science classes I took back when I dreamed of going to nursing school. I was afraid they would think less of me as a person if they found out I was failing at something.

Luckily, I’m often wrong, and this situation was no exception.

My friends and family completely understood that everyone has things they aren’t good at. They reassured me that it’s common to change career paths several times before settling on one.

Knowing that it was ok to fail empowered me to start saying “yes” to more opportunities.

2. Starting is the hardest part

Though I’ve grown a lot in my time at this job, starting new projects is still the hardest part. Negative thoughts run through my head and paralyze me with fear.

The support of my friends and family was helpful, but it wasn’t a magical, instant-confidence button, because my biggest critic lived inside my head.

I realized that I was the secret camera crew just waiting for myself to mess up. I was the one who was ready to publish a nasty headline about myself at a moment’s notice.

You’re often your own biggest obstacle in life. Think about some of the things you’ve said about yourself in the mirror, and imagine trying to say those things to one of your friends. You’d never speak that way about someone else.

For some reason, people tend to think it’s ok to tear themselves down.

I try to anticipate negative comments and criticism, so I can prepare myself for them. But I frequently take it too far. There’s a fine line between preparing yourself for criticism and just being plain mean to yourself.

3. Recognize when your inner critic is taking over

Your inner critic is going to put up a fight that would put Floyd Mayweather to shame, so you have to be prepared.

Practice recognizing negative thoughts and stopping them in their tracks. Don’t let yourself pile mean words on yourself.

Instead, arm yourself with truth.

It isn’t necessarily true that you’ll never reach your goal of booking 20 podcasts. What is true is that you’ve already booked 5, which means you’ve sent successful pitches before. There’s no reason why you can’t do it again.

Firmly tell your inner critic about all the times when you did a good job on something that was new to you. Remind your inner critic of how smart you are and all the useful skills you have. Push back when your inner critic tries to tell you that you’re the only person who ever feels inadequate.

It helps me to identify the lies that I find myself believing the most and having truths ready in advance to fight those particular lies.

My inner critic is pretty dramatic and likes to tell me that if I make a mistake, it’s going to destroy the business, and Brigitte is going to go bankrupt and have to live on a park bench.

But I’m prepared and ready to fight back with truth. I definitely do not have enough power to bankrupt the business. If an employee making a mistake was enough to make businesses file for bankruptcy, there wouldn’t be a single business still around.

With every word of truth and affirmation that you speak over yourself, your inner critic gets weaker, and you get stronger. Eventually, you will overpower your inner critic and overcome its destructive hold on you.

4. You can’t revise a blank piece of paper

There is freedom in knowing it’s ok not to immediately succeed at something new, and it’s ok to write a bad first draft. The fact that you started at all is progress, because you can’t revise a blank piece of paper.

This is my first “real” job, and in the beginning, I was constantly anxious, because I really thought that bosses wanted to see their employees fail. I genuinely thought Brigitte was waiting for me to mess something up and that I’d be immediately fired if I did.

After making a million mistakes and not getting fired, I realized being terrified of failure is a prison. Fear of failure will chain you down and keep you stagnant.

Once I stopped fearing failure so much, it got easier to say “yes” to projects that I didn’t feel 100% qualified for. (Pro tip: You’ll never feel 100% qualified for anything. Do it anyway.)

It’s a million times less scary to try new things when you know you won’t die if it doesn’t go well.

What gets me through the fear is reminding myself of my favorite line in “Just Give Me a Reason” by Pink: we’re not broken, just bent.

Broken feels permanent. A broken glass doesn’t get put back together. But bent can be restored. A mechanic can fix the dented exterior of a car after an accident. You can reframe your pitch and try again with new podcasts if none of the first podcasts you pitched respond to you.

5. The truth is no one wants to see you fail.

When I finally decided to stop feeding my fears, I stepped out of my chains. I could confidently say “I’ve never done this before, but I’ll do a little research and give it my best try.”

The risk of missing out on a great opportunity has become much more important than the voice of my inner critic.

The post 5 Things PR Has Taught Me About Working With My Inner Critic appeared first on B.

For me, that point of resistance has long been around social media.

Ever since Twitter started its decline (gosh, 5 years ago now?), I’ve been incredibly resistant to marketing my work on social media.

Give me an opening, and I can give you ALL the reasons why I don’t use social media to market my business.

Just for starters…

• I HATE it when people message me on Facebook instead of emailing me. If you want to reach me, just reply to one of these emails!
• I also find it weird when someone I don’t know sends me a friend request. Why is that a thing?
• Back in the day, I was a low-key lifestyle blogger, who regularly wrote about personal development. Now, the idea of turning my every move into a business metaphor gives me hives.
• My work isn’t consumer focused, so it doesn’t lend itself easily to places like Pinterest or Instagram. I don’t think photos of my cats are going to sell you PR or marketing advice. Actually, on second thought…it probably would!
• The last thing I want to do is share the same-old inspirational quotes you see everywhere. I’m not against those quotes, but I’m not setting out to be a guru or life coach.

When I sit and really look at this list with an open heart and mind, what it tells me is that the typical formula for social media marketing feels like the absolute least authentic way for me to communicate.

As a writer, I already have a tendency to narrate my life as I’m living it. I don’t care to feed that tendency by taking the things I do for myself — things like hiking or political canvassing — and turning them into marketing lessons.

For the longest time, I couldn’t think of another way to engage, especially in a space like Instagram.

I’m much more comfortable sitting down and writing an email, because I feel like I can be fully myself and not adopt a persona for likes.

I will probably always feel that email is where I show up best, and yet, I’ve also had a breakthrough that has completely transformed how I think and feel about social.

I’ve come to realize that I’ve been thinking about social all wrong…

For most people, social media is a discovery tool. It’s a way to spread your content and your work to more people.

But I’ve come to realize that the way I use social media is to deepen relationships.

There are two recent events that flipped this switch for me.

First up was my realization that I’m constantly advising my clients to share their PR wins, not to reach more people, but to energize the tribe they’ve already gathered.

After YEARS of giving this advice, it finally dawned on me.

I was not practicing what I preached…

That’s when I decided to start sharing more of my client’s press coverage, on the blog, in email but also on Instagram.

Suddenly, I had an authentic, real reason to share content on Insta…to shower LOVE on my clients and the media (mostly podcasters) we work with.

The second event was starting to tune into Instagram stories more, and messaging with friends and clients.

There is one client in particular, where a lot of our communication is through Instagram!

Here I am (in the middle) being silly with a client in stories. Experiencing the way Emily Thompson and Kathleen Shannon use Instagram has been a total game-changer for me.

In my own company, I talk about how our remote team needs to work extra hard to create “watercooler moments” — spontaneous gathering points like you’d typically see play out in an office. For the past month, I’ve realized that Instagram messages & stories are playing this spontaneous, light-hearted role for my clients and me.

It’s deepening our relationship, now that not every conversation is specifically about the work or a deliverable.

I’m still pretty sporadic on Instagram, but if you’d like to connect over there with me, I’m @brigittelyons.

I won’t even complain if you show up in my messages.

I’ve been doing some deep thinking about how social media might become more integrated into the marketing strategy we do for our clients, but in the meantime, I invite you to reflect on the role social media plays in your business.

How do you feel about social media? Do you use it for your business at all? Is your focus on discovery or depth — or both?

The post Why I’ve Changed My Stance on Social appeared first on B.

Whether your interests lean toward business tips, creative inspiration or pure entertainment, podcasts are fast becoming many people’s favorite forms of taking in new information.

I am personally a huge fan of podcasts, because I love listening to shows while I’m taking an afternoon walk, lifting weights at the gym or doing chores around the house.

Our agency has also increasingly transitioned to pitching podcasts. Whereas 2-3 years ago, we primarily worked with media outlets like Fast Company, Entrepreneur and Inc, today we’re focused almost exclusively on podcast outreach.

This is because podcasters have discovered something important — when someone spends 45 minutes to an hour listening to you share your passion and expertise, they tend to become big supporters of your work!

Tracking results for our clients, we’ve found that podcasts are outperforming other media types by large margins.

I’ve been educating our clients behind-the-scenes on this amazing opportunity, and today I thought I’d come up for air and share some of the shows we’ve been working with — and listening to! — lately.

1. Don’t Keep Your Day Job

I wish I could remember exactly how my team stumbled on Don’t Keep Your Day Job, as it’s fast become one of my go-to podcasts for inspiration on doing creative work.

Host Cathy Heller has a unique background, which helps her podcast stand out in this crowded field. She’s a leader in music licensing and has been featured in Billboard, LA Weekly, and Variety for having licensed her songs hundreds of times to film, TV and ads. Cathy went on to start her own licensing company, Catch the Moon Music, where she now pitches other artists.

Check out her interview with Christina Scalera on how to build your creative empire.

2. Creative Empire

Speaking of which, Christina actually became our client after I pitched some clients to guest on her podcast!

If you’re a creative entrepreneur, odds are you already tune into Creative Empire, which Christina co-hosts with Reina Pomeroy. If you don’t, this interview on mindfulness and self-compassion with former client Dr. Leah Weiss of the Stanford Business School is a good place to start!

3. Creative Warriors

Every so often, I get a question from someone who knows I worked as marketing director for CoCommercial and wants to know why Tara Gentile switched gears with her business model.

She recently appeared on the excellent podcast Creative Warriors to talk through just that!

If you’ve been thinking about pursuing a membership model for your business, this interview between Tara and Jeffrey Shaw offers an excellent behind-the-scenes look at what happened when Tara decided to pivot.

4. Creative Biz Rebellion

If you’re a maker, this podcast is all about you! Kelly and Caroline specifically target product-based business owners through their upbeat, frank and helpful show.

They recently released this interview with our client Megan Auman on how she uses Pinterest to grow online retail sales for her jewelry business. Spoiler alert: Pinterest is not a social media platform. It’s a search engine that thinks in images.

5. Hashtag Authentic

While we’re on the topic of Pinterest, I also want to introduce you to Hashtag Authentic, who interviewed Megan on how to use Pinterest to make your work go viral earlier this year.

I was initially introduced to this show, and its host Sara Tasker, by a team member, and I’ve since become a big fan.

6. The Rebel Speaker Podcast

Just about every ideapreneur I know wants to become a paid public speaker, which is why I was thrilled when speaking coach Dr. Michelle Mazur launched her own podcast for speakers, entrepreneurs, leaders, and change agents who love speaking both onstage and off, and yet don’t have 100% confidence that they are nailing their message and making the impact they want to make on the world.

One thing that can unconsciously hold you back from sharing your voice and ideas freely is the worry that someone will rip off your work. Can you protect your intellectual property if you share it broadly in a speech. Christina Scalera tackled this topic on Michelle’s show.

7. Your Creative Push

Switching gears a little, Your Creative Push is a podcast that focuses on the creative process itself. This is not a show about how you can grow a creative business — the focus is on how you can finally pursue their creative passion, put aside their fears and excuses and start doing work.

Host Youngman Brown is particularly sensitive to the fact that a lot of his audience has day jobs. Of course, I’m partial to his interview with book coach Jennie Nash on the importance of knowing why you want to do something creative like writing a book so that you can get through all of the resistances that you encounter along your journey.

8. The One You Feed

It takes conscious, constant and creative effort to make a life worth living. The One You Feed is a podcast that looks at how people keep themselves moving in the right direction – how they feed their good wolf.
In this interview with Leah Weiss, hosts Eric Zimmer and Chris Forbes dove into how you can elevate your experience at work.

9. Creative Writer’s Toolbelt

If you want even more of a deep dive into writing tools, check out the Creative Writer’s Toolbelt interview with Jennie Nash. She joined this writing focused podcast to talk about figuring out what your book is really about.

10. Side Hustle School

Side Hustle School is a totally unique podcast from Chris Guillebeau. Instead of sharing live interviews with business owners, Chris digs into a specific side hustle and produces a solo episode that takes you through their journey. The episodes are also shorter than many of the others on this list — typically around 10 minutes, because the show is released daily!

Chris recently shared the story of how Kathleen Shannon and Emily Thompson transformed their skype “business bestie” calls into a 6-figure podcast.

11. Being Boss

I would be absolutely remiss if I didn’t also share Being Boss on this list! Emily Thompson and Kathleen Shannon believe in building a business you love, making bank, and being unapologetically who you are 100% of the time. They have a combined experience and expertise in branding and coaching small online businesses to be more boss in work and life by focusing on “boss” mindsets, habits & routines, tools, tactics & strategies, blended with a little bit of hustle.

Here’s Leah talking about bringing mindfulness into your work with Emily and Kathleen.

12. Productive Flourishing

I’ve been working with Charlie for years, and once upon a time, he interviewed me for Productive Flourishing. I absolutely love Charlie’s interview style, which is incredibly thoughtful and often disarming. His interview with Christina Scalera on both sides of being your own boss is one of my favorites.

13. She Means Business

Carrie Green, founder of the Female Entrepreneur Association, is another business owner I’ve collaborated with a few times. She launched a podcast last year that extends the video content she’s long been producing for the FEA site.

Megan joined her to talk about how she built a successful jewelry business.

14. Hack the Entrepreneur

Hack the Entrepreneur is a podcast for entrepreneurs looking to develop their success mindset. From solo entrepreneurs to startup founders, digital nomads to Amazon FBA, Jon Naster digs into what it takes to be successful with building a SaaS company, affiliate marketing, passive income ideas, coaching and consulting, content marketing, and starting a small business.

Check out this interview with Tara Gentile on community building, content marketing for customer acquisition, and her journey from freelancer to entrepreneur.

15. WTF Am I Doing With My Life with Kristy Arnett You

The last podcast on this list is currently on a break, but I still wanted to include it, because I love Kristy! When I came across her show last year, I found it to be a breath of fresh air.

She interviewed Leah Weiss, and they spoke about the sobering through that you will spend 90,000 hours of your life working— here’s how to make it count.

Bonus Pod: Profit Power Pursuit

Right after I hit publish, I realized I missed Profit.Power.Pursuit, the absolutely incredible podcast hosted by my dear friend and sometimes client, Tara Gentile.

Which is a crime, because this is a totally unique show in that Tara asks clients detailed questions about how they run their business. If you’ve ever wondered how a business really brings in its revenue, or what’s working NOW, this podcast is for you.

Start with the totally illuminating interview with Christina Scalera on how she’s created leveraged income with The Contract Shop.

The post 15 Podcasts That Help You Stay Inspired and Grow Your Business appeared first on B.

Thanks to venues like TED and the rise of narrative podcasts, the landscape has been shifting in favor of story.

This is unequivocally a good thing — as stories are the universal language of connection.

But as small business owners wholeheartedly embrace storytelling as a marketing tool, I’ve started to see the shadow side of story.

When the story becomes all about you.

Online, there is an epidemic of business owners introducing themselves not by sharing their work, or their credentials, but by sharing a rags-to-riches story.

It usually looks something like this:

“I was broke, but now I run a 7-figure business…”

You can recognize these stories when, before you’re introduced to what the expert in front of you actually does, you’ve heard how far she’s come.

This trend has become so prevalent that I’m seeing highly credentialed, talented business owners lead with a struggle story, instead of sharing the results they get for clients.

Dr. Michelle Mazur is a speech coach and a master at effective storytelling.

She’s long railed against the struggle story trend is speech-writing, and now that it’s followed her online in the form of Facebook ads, she’s raising the alarm.

Michelle recently released a podcast on the question of whether telling your story is hurting your speaking cred.

Answer: Maybe. Probably.

Michelle is joining me on Brigitte Rants About Marketing to talk about this problem more broadly.

We’ll be covering:

• When sharing your story becomes a problem
• The fast and easy way to tell better stories
• What you should really be doing to stand out and get noticed

When you join us live for this live show, you can ask questions, participate in the live chat and leave feeling energized about ways you can achieve your goal of getting noticed online.

We go live on Tuesday, June 20th, at 11 am Eastern, 8 am Pacific.

Hope to see you there!

Click here to save your spot.

The post How and when to tell your story as a business owner? appeared first on B.

Chances are that if you run a business, you very much want the answer to this question to be a resounding yes.

Anyone who’s watched an episode of Shark Tank or picked up a business book in the past 10 years has been inundated with the idea that scaling up is the top priority of any successful business.

What they often fail to mention is that scaling too early can have devastating effects for your business.

How bad can it get?

Lost customers, a decimated brand reputation, and a shuttered business.

While a PR pro can help you work through a public crisis and help you build up a reputation, it’s better to avoid these pitfalls in the first place.

Here are 6 signs you’re not yet ready to scale, and some ideas on how to work through them.

1. You haven’t made a sale yet.

I work with a lot of digital business owners who are transitioning their business models. In other words, a lot of my clients are in the very early stages of their businesses, and they’re starting up with PR at the same time they’re refining their business model.

That’s okay — most businesses wait too long to start doing PR.

But it’s a big problem when you’re trying to scale up and you haven’t even made a sale yet.

Product bugs are inevitable. Online programs with have glitches. You’ll wish you’d added in (or cut!) some content and you’ll have improvements for the second round.

Physical products may have defects. Or maybe your shipping provided isn’t as cheap or reliable as you expected.

Consultants and service providers will refine their processes as they go.

This is all completely normal.

Being able to learn as you go is a key entrepreneurial skill.

What’s not normal or expected is to work these bugs out in real-time with thousands of users, customers or clients.

You should not attempt to scale a business model that hasn’t been tested with a core, dedicated set of users.

The risks are too great.

2. You don’t have any raving fans yet.

What do you need for those first product tests?

True fans. Also known as your tribe. Brand evangelists. Early adopters.

Whatever you call them, you know who they are when you have them

These are the customers that are the first to click “add to cart” — and to actually follow through.

They email you to check in.

They retweet or like all your social media content.

If you can’t name one, or two, or 10 true fans, you’re not ready to scale yet.

In the beginning, you should be nurturing your true fans. Giving them as much love and attention as you can stand — and then some more. Giving them reasons to rave about your business. Giving them opportunities to buy from you and engage with you.

This kind of love can’t be scaled, unfortunately.

And for a business whose long-term success relies on receiving real feedback from people who love your product, it can’t be skipped either.

3. You’re afraid to sell.

When I talk to small business owners about why they want to scale so soon, often I find out that they’re afraid to sell their products or services directly to customers.

They don’t want to go through the discomfort of having to talk up their offers face-to-face with another person, one who will maybe reject you or will make weird faces for unrelated reasons.

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but selling doesn’t get any easier when you’re doing it at a scale of 1 to 100, or 1 to 1,000 or 1 to 10,000.

The challenges just get bigger.

That’s because the key ingredient of sales is
.
.
.

Empathy.

Successful selling requires that you know your customers inside-and-out. You know what they want, and what they say they want. You know what keeps them up at night.

You understand exactly where your solution fits into this ecosystem.

And, most importantly, you know how to help them see the possibilities that you’re envisioning for them.

By the way, this applies just as much if you’re selling a dress as if you’re a business consultant or professional speaker.

There is a shop in my town that only sells high-end denim. The owner knows her product inside-and-out, but more importantly, she understands why I would rather go to her store than try to buy a discount brand at an outlet.

4. You don’t know your customers inside-and-out.

Speaking of which, do you know why your customers buy from you and not someone else?

If you can’t answer this question, you are going to waste so much money as you scale.

Mass market is expensive.

Unless your brand name starts with a C- and ends in -oke, you cannot afford it.

Which means that you have no choice but to identify exactly who you’re marketing to, and what it is about your brand that makes them want to buy from you and not some other business.

Scaling before you answer these questions is the online marketing equivalent of flushing your money down the toilet.

5. You don’t have a plan to build and protect your reputation.

As a PR pro, my first obligation to my clients is to build and protect their reputation.

Often when clients want to scale too fast, they’re still working out what they want their reputation to be.

Often I’m the first person to have even asked the question, “What do you want to be known for?”

But when you scale, not only do you need to have a plan to grow your reputation, but you also need to be prepared with a plan to respond when things go awry.

We already talked about the inevitable launch hiccups you’ll have when you first scale.

But what about negative customer reviews or blog posts written by an unsatisfied customer?

What about the true fan that has started to feel neglected and starts to warn people away from your business?

Or the fan that starts feeling a little too involved in your business for comfort.

I don’t mean to scare you away from scaling your business, but to share some of the challenges that can come up when you have a bigger platform.

Not all attention is positive attention.

There are ways to deal with mistakes (hint: the words “sincere” and “apology” have a role…).

There are ways to make your true fans feel cared for, even when you don’t have as much time to personally stay involved with them.

There are ways to create frameworks around how you engage with people that feel real and engaged without crossing boundaries.

Your reputation management plan will depend on the kind of reputation you’re hoping to nurture.

Just make sure you have one when you start to scale.

Is your business ready to scale?

Once you’ve tested your offers…

Identified the first of your 1,000 true fans…

Started feeling comfortable talking up your business…

Know your customers inside-and-out…

And have a plan to build and protect your reputation…

Now you’re ready to take on the challenge of scaling your business.

Ps…Having trouble identifying what customers love about your brand or business, and how you can intentionally build your reputation without the “ick” factor? It’s our specialty! Get in touch at brigittelyons.com/contact.

The post 5 signs your business isn’t ready to scale . . . yet! appeared first on B.

I’ve been working quietly behind-the-scenes with the amazing, patient and talented Natalie McGuire on a website update, and I’m so happy it’s finally time to share it with you.

While I know you can click around the site and see for yourself, I wanted to take a moment to welcome you and point out a few areas of interest, as there’s so much more to this refresh than a couple of cosmetic changes.

It’s a better representation of the work.

While you probably think of B primarily as a small agency that can help you with media outreach, our speciality is much deeper than that.

Where we shine is in helping forward-thinkers and purpose-driven organizations differentiate your work.

I felt this was an important distinction to make, because this is one of the top marketing challenges for our clients.

And even when an individual or organization has their positioning dialed in, it’s critical that everything we do is aligned with that market differentiation.

Because, let’s face it.

Competition for your audience’s attention is fierce.

Just as online marketing channels have made it more affordable for many businesses to launch, it’s also given your audience an abundance of choice.

This can often lead small businesses and organizations wondering how you can stand among so much competition.

This worry is natural, but it often blinds you to the opportunities that are in front of you.

What you may not yet see is just how many holes in the market there are.

Holes that your people are desperate for you to fill.

What I’ve learned working for clients across industries is that most of your competitors don’t put in the work to dig into the messages your clients are receiving in the media, through books, at conferences and from their peers.

We do.

And we use this insight to help our clients stand apart from the competition.

That’s why, even though PR is a big part of what my company offers, we don’t just pitch stories on your behalf.

We help you identify what it is about your work that makes your audience gravitate to you and buy from you.

Often, my job is reflecting back the very best of your work and using that as the starting point of our PR and marketing strategy. I love that I get to do that.

And now our website reflects what we do best.

So let’s get back to the site changes!

Two of the biggest changes you’ll see are the on the new consulting page and in our lead magnet.

On the consulting page, you can see the full breadth of our services.

We can help you with message development, getting an internal PR program up-and-running (probably my favorite thing to do), writing content, social media and media outreach.

For some clients, we even serve as the one-stop-shop for all your marketing efforts. You can outsource your marketing to B, and we’ll hire on the right team to manage all the work for you.

For a preview of our approach, you can also sign up for a new free email series on differentiating your brand in any market.

When you sign up, you get daily emails that guide you through the process I use to help my clients differentiate their brands.

I’m excited to share this with you, because the new optin gift gets to the very heart of our work. My hope is that you get a lot of value from this process and are able to better understand what draws your ideal customers to you.

There’s more to see, like new testimonials on the home page, but I’ll leave you to explore on your own.

Thank you so much for coming by today, and I do hope you’ll sign up for the new free email series, which you can also find in the footer just below this post.

Ps. I also want to thank Shelly Waldman, who staged and shot the photo on the home page and blog sidebar.

The post Welcome to the new BrigitteLyons.com appeared first on B.

But the more success you create, the more you can feel tempted to make small compromises around the message you want to put out in the world. The last thing you want to do is alienate the customers you’ve worked so hard to attract.

I’m here today to make the case that this kind of thinking is actually counter-productive. If social impact matters to you, there are some real benefits to incorporating your mission into your business.

1. The road to mediocrity is littered with small compromises.

Another thing my clients have in common is they want to be known for something. Typically that takes the form of the go-to expert in your field, or a sought-after product designer.

It’s next to impossible to get known without staking out a clear and defined position in the marketplace.

Let’s face it — there aren’t huge innovations in how much of our work gets done. This is true for your industry and for mine. No single publicist has some magical method that’s going to guarantee you better results than what I, or the thousands of other firms and independents out there, can get you.

When you think too hard on this fact, it can feel overwhelming. How are your supposed to stand out when thousands of other companies are perfectly capable, if not brilliant, at the work you both do?

For a lot of my clients, it comes to their positioning in the marketplace. It’s not always the work product that gets you hired over the other company. It’s a sense of shared values, or a strong point-of-view, or some small difference in the way you serve your customers. Sometimes it simply comes down to branding — a customer likes your style.

When you start to compromise your dedication to impact, you’re eliminating one strong avenue for creating a market positioning that’s all your own.

2. It gives your brand evangelists something to talk about.

We’ve known for a long time now that Millennials integrate their beliefs into their buying decisions. Well guess what. The Millennials are all grown up. They make up a solid quarter of the US population and they have tremendous purchasing power.

I bring up the Millennials not to say you should be marketing to them, but to show you that a huge portion of the buying consumers in the population make buying decisions at least in part based on shared values.

At no time have we seen greater evidence for how much this matters than in the current election cycle. From the CEO of Penzeys Spices accusing the Republican party of embracing racism to the politically charged Super Bowl commercials, even large, established brands know that their customers expect them to take a stand.

If you believe the Penzeys CEO, this gamble can pay off financially in a big way. But beyond that, putting your company’s values out there gives your fans something to talk about and share. It’s an excellent way to mobilize them to share your company with their larger networks.

3. It’s a time-tested way to generate PR.

Similar to giving your fans something to talk about, being vocal around a hot-button issue gives the media something to talk about. I often hear from clients who donate proceeds to charity and want to get PR for it.

Unfortunately (or happily depending on your perspective!), this is such a common thing that there’s no media value in a story like this. To get press for your advocacy efforts, you need to get creative. And often that means speaking your mind.

Now, this can be risky. Beyond any fear of losing customers or partners you might feel, there’s also a very real risk that the narrative can overshadow the work you do.

I always ask clients, “Is this what you want to be known for?” before they go public with a controversial opinion. Does this value or belief system add to the larger narrative around your company, or distract from it?

But that’s not the only risk I wanted to share with you today.

If you’re going to put social impact front-and-center of your business, you better believe in it. Consumers can sniff out inauthenticity a mile away. In the environmental space, they have a term for companies that are faking their commitment to earth-friendly policies: greenwashing.

If you’re in it for the bottom line, that’s okay! You don’t have to fake a social mission. We can use one of the other techniques to make you stand out in your industry.

Just like another company wouldn’t fake being the first to market with a new technology, you shouldn’t fake a social mission just to get known.

At the end of the day, PR is about helping your audience get to know you. Not spin. Not faking an image. But rather helping the public see what you’re all about.

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The post 3 Reasons Your Business Benefits When You Make Social Impact a Priority (and one risk) appeared first on B.

I’ve been open about the fact that I did not vote for Trump, and I don’t support his policies around the wall, immigration, or the Muslim ban. But that’s not what I’m writing about.

Today I want to talk to you about the conversations I’ve been having with other business owners around the news coming out of the White House.

From calls to boycott U.S. businesses to concerned citizens feeling they can’t or shouldn’t promote their work to anecdotal evidence that customers are slower to buy programs or products, many business owners are feeling like their position in the economy is precarious.

​Embedded in these conversations are questions like, “Is it okay to post my product to Instagram when there’s a refugee ban in effect?” or “How can I go ahead with my offer with everything that’s happening?”

That’s what I want to cover today, because I’m in a unique position to weigh in on these conversations. My job is helping you communicate with your audience, and my background is in public affairs and crisis PR. Thinking through thorny communication challenges is precisely the work I’m trained to do.
​
​​I pulled together some of the questions and concerns that have been coming up the most in the past few days, so I can share with you how I approach these questions from a PR perspective.
​
First the biggie:

​Should I respond to what’s going on, or do I ignore it and carry on as usual?

​There are two aspects to this question: your personal values as an individual, and the values and desires of your audience.  As an individual, you may or may not feel called to comment on what’s going on. I obviously can’t counsel you on that.
​
But no matter where you stand, you should also take into consideration what your audience wants and expects from your business. Different audience segments will respond differently to both public proclamations or silence. It’s easy to think that staying about the fray is the neutral choice, but that’s not always the case.
​
Let me give you examples on the opposite ends of the spectrum to help you think through this.

​​If you run an advocacy organization in the U.S., it would clearly be wrong not to comment on executive orders with such sweeping implications, because presumably helping your audience respond to events like these is part of your mission. I think we can all agree on that.
​
On the flip side, I follow a couple of makeup bloggers (don’t judge me!), and their content hasn’t referenced the election at all. I can appreciate that decision — no matter where these bloggers stand on the issues, they know their audience can get that info elsewhere and still enjoys their tutorials.
​
It makes sense that these blogs stay on mission, no matter what their personal positions are. ​​

But many of our businesses are somewhere in the middle, especially when you get into the coaching or wellness arenas. Or even art, in many cases.​​
​
In making the decision on whether you want to use your business as a forum to speak out about world events, look to your audience.
​
If you’re connected to your audience through social media, it’s easy to tell right now how people are feeling.  ​

Are your customers complaining about companies who in their orbit who aren’t taking a stand? ​​If the answer is yes, you should probably say something — even if only to post something that acknowledges how people are feeling right now. It doesn’t have to be a partisan or political statement.​

On the other hand, if your audience is saying, “Get over it,” think twice before posting a political message right now.
​
You do no one any good be jeopardizing your economic livelihood​ — and you’re not going to change any hearts or minds by posting how you feel to your business’s Facebook account.
​
There are other ways you can contribute to the resistance. Donate proceeds to the ACLU. Go to marches. Call your Congresspeople.

I’ve long felt like John Mackey, co-founder of Whole Foods and noted Libertarian, is laughing his way to the bank as he takes all that income from liberals and donates it to Republicans and Libertarians. This could be your form of protest.

Does this answer change if I don’t want to work with people who think the wall, deportations, etc are a good idea?

​Actually, yes!

​To me, the best part of running a business is that you get to choose who you want to work with. Never believe people who tell you otherwise.
​
The key to working with clients who are in alignment with your values is to be vocal about those values.

​This is the push-pull of communications. The way you choose your customers is by deliberately using language, examples and content that turns off the people you don’t want to serve and attracts those you do.
​
It’s actually why I decided to share. If a Trump supporter reads this and decides I’m not right for them, I’m 100% okay with that. I get to choose who I help through the art of PR, and I choose to help people whose values and mission are aligned with mine.
​
If you’re not in a position where you can be turning work away, then what I’d encourage you to do is start a slow transition through the rest of your messaging. What can you do to signal to your audience a little bit more about your values?

I feel weird about posting product or happy images to social media right now. Should I stop?

​When I woke up on Saturday, I saw a few launches announced on Instagram. And you know what, this didn’t bother me at all.
​
Some had been vocal about their beliefs, so I knew where they stood. Others had never posted anything, and I didn’t fault them for continuing to run their businesses.
​
But that’s just me.

​​This is another area where you should think of your customer. How does she feel?
​
If you’re not sure, it can be useful to delay, instead of cancel, your scheduled content.
​
Was a shocking announcement just made that will affect thousands of people? Maybe wait a day or two to post about your product in development.

​​Is your audience in mourning on social media? Can you post something that feels appropriate to that tone, even if you don’t feel the same way?

One last thing as you think through these questions. ​It’s important to remember that your audience is looking to your company for ideas and insight, and if you delve too deeply into politics you could distract from that mission.

What do you want to be known for? What role, if any, does responding to the Trump administration or world events play in that?​​

I know you might have questions about applying these tips to your own business, or very specific concerns I didn’t address here.

I’ve been thinking about how I could help with that. 

I’ve opened up a series of 6 mini-sessions on my schedule this Wednesday for people who want to talk through if and how your business should respond to the Trump administration.

I know this offer isn’t relevant to everyone, but I wanted to make myself available for people in that murky middle ground.

Each session is 30-minutes long and costs $150.  Not only will I donate 100% of the proceeds from these sessions to the ACLU, I will personally match them 1:1.

To make that clear, when you schedule a 30-minute session, I will donate your payment of $150 to the ACLU and match it with my own donation of $150.

Please note that these sessions are limited to questions and conversations around communicating in the midst of the political turmoil in the U.S. and are offered on a first-come, first-served basis.

If this is something that would be helpful for you, click here to sign up. You will first be able to reserve 30 minutes on my schedule this Wednesday (February 1) and then you will be directed to make the payment.

Click here to schedule a mini session this week.

And if you have a question you’d like me to address in a future blog post, please hit me up on Twitter.

The post Should Your Small Business Respond to Trump? appeared first on B.

A lot of people would rather save up to have me do their PR (and wait) then get started with their own program.

This is a real shame, because it often makes more sense to keep PR in-house than to outsource it, and you can also grow faster if you’re making media part of your promo plan from the start.

There is absolutely no reason to hold yourself back or to wait until you’re already well-known to get PR.

So that’s why I’m beyond thrilled to share DaKari (Doc) Williams’ story with you.

Doc  first approached me last year to let me know my CreativeLive class completely changed his business (his words, not mine). He went on to tell me a remarkable story of how he turned his business around using PR as a catalyst that created one success after another.

Today, Doc is a paid contributor to ESPN.com, writes for Breaking Muscle and has leveraged his heightened name recognition into a branding agency for athletes.

Doc Williams on location for Sweat RX magazine

And this is just the tip of the iceberg — click here to get the full story.

I’m not gonna lie. I teared up a little when Doc first shared his story. In no way am I trying to take credit for his success — it was all his work, his effort — but it feels amazing to know my teaching gave him tools he could use to such effect.

I’m sharing this with you today, because I want you to know:
If you’ve put off PR for “some day”…
If you’re feeling stuck…
If you don’t feel like the status quo is working…

Let Doc’s story inspire you to try another way.

The post How a Fitness Entrepreneur Leveraged PR to Build His Business appeared first on B.