463: Creating and Promoting Your Brand

SHOW NOTES FOR EPISODE 463: CREATING AND PROMOTING YOUR BRAND

Everyone has a brand whether they realize it or not!  In today’s podcast, expert publicist and CEO of Walker + Associates Media Group shares insider information on creating and promoting your brand so you can have deals chase after you instead of you chasing after deals.

What You Will Learn

• Why everyone, not just businesses and celebrities, have a brand
• How to get started in a field when no one will hire you
• Launching a business is not just about doing something you love – you also need to know how to successfully run a business
• How public relations and publicity can help your public relations business
• What steps you need to take to launch a successful publicity campaign
• How social media can be used to find new business
• Why publicity is more effective than advertising
• The three steps you need to take to promote your real estate activities and attract new deals
• How to get new business to chase you instead of you chasing after new deals
• Do-it-Yourself PR

About Our Guest

Lindsey Walker

Lindsey is CEO of Walker + Associates Media Group, an elite public relations agency for innovators, creatives and tastemakers in beauty, lifestyle and entertainment.  With a commitment to driving visibility and cultural clout through digital media, she and her top-tier team deliver results for clients worldwide, from Atlanta, GA to the UK.   Having worked with top brands in media, including Interscope Records, National Geographic and FX Networks, Lindsey has done in a few years what some publicists don’t do in their entire careers.  Her campaigns have been seen in The New York Times, Forbes, CBS This Morning, ABC and InStyle Magazine, to name a few. Lindsey was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer at 27.  She defied all odds by fighting pain with passion.  Relentless about her legacy, Lindsey emerged with an even gutsier vision for her life and to change the publicity game.  Driven by an energy of excellence, Lindsey created a company that has mastered the art of bringing must-know brands to the forefront.  Lindsey has a Bachelor of Arts, Summa Cum Laude, in Mass Communications and Marketing from the Jackson State University.  As an author, she penned her personal testimony, Thriving Through the Storm, to inspire women to listen to themselves, their bodies and God to find their way through life’s toughest tragedies.  She currently calls Saint Louis, Missouri home..

More About Lindsey

• She is a publicist
• Works with beauty, entertainment and lifestyle brands
• She helps her clients get into the media
• Has always had a strong love for journalism, writing and connecting with people
• Before that, she was part of a minority journalism program in her senior year of high school
  • They had an opportunity to choose journalism or public relations (PR)
  • She fell in love with PR
    • They taught her how to write press releases, pitch the media, and develop a press conference
• She went to college got a degree in Mass Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations
• When she graduated, she wasn’t able to find a job so she decided to start her own business

Starting Her Own Business

• At age 21, turning 22, she launched her business in St. Louis and also in Atlanta
• She never planned on being a full-time entrepreneur but because she couldn’t find a job, she felt that she didn’t have much of a choice
• She knew she had the skillset to be a publicist but she really didn’t know anything about how run a business
• She had to learn proper business practices, how to set up her business model and what things should look like
• Today, she is still trying to sharpen her general business skills
• In the beginning, she had to know how to do everything

Finding Clients

• She found her first clients through social media
• Two on Twitter and one on LinkedIn
• She also sent out cold emails and made cold calls
• Today, people find her on social media and see her company’s results there as well
• Social media has proved to be a great way to find clients and identify industries she wants to work in
• 90% of her clients were found online

Methodologies

• Before she launches a campaign, she develops a strategy that she feels will resonant with the media outlet
• She promotes both companies and personalities
• Lindsey sends news releases and does specific media outreach to help get favorable exposure for her clients
• She is very persistent as she is advocating for her clients
• She first makes sure she has a strong core message that will resonate with each media person she contacts
• Sometimes she doesn’t hear back from people right away
• If she doesn’t hear back, she often re-approaches or recrafts the message

Getting the Message Out

• She promotes companies and personalities
• She uses:
  • News releases
  • Pitching her clients to specific media sources
• Important to have a strategy in mind before you start pitching
• Using Facebook to reach key industries
• She spends 85% of her time emailing people and 15% on social media
  • She heavily uses social media to update key audiences and for her marketing efforts
  • Key Channels
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
  • Does a lot of video and stories on Facebook and Instagram
  • She is in a couple of Facebook groups in industries she has targeted
  • All channels are effective: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

How She Might Promote Someone in Real Estate

• First, present the person
  • Their story
    • How they got started in real estate
• Secondly, share their expertise
  • Establishing Industry Expertise – Tying them into current issues is a good way to get press coverage
    • For example, how is that person handling people who can’t pay rent due to Covid
    • How Covid is affecting the housing market
• Thirdly, focus on the investor’s properties
  • Showcasing the Person’s Properties
    • What makes their property different
    • Why people would want to move there

Bringing in Expertise When Needed

• If she doesn’t have expertise in a key area (i.e. crisis PR, etc.), she calls in other people with that expertise to join her team
• She knows people she can call in for these types of situation
• And she would have that person work directly with the client’s legal team

Teaching People How to Pivot

• With Covid, every business today is trying to figure out what is going on and what they should do for the short and long-term
• Covid has seriously impacted all “events” her clients may be involved with
• She works with clients to teach them how to “Pivot” (this word has become a regular part of her vocabulary since the quarantine in March)
  • When she positions a brand to Pivot, it actually has an accelerator where she teaches her people how to do this through PR
  • A lot of people have had to learn how to do this with their businesses
  • The whole trajectory has shifted
• Currently, she is helping her clients to show strength in the midst of Covid

Biggest Mistake of People Trying to Promote Their Brand

• Comparing themselves to other people or to mimic or copy what their competitors are doing instead of listening to what their specific audience needs

Biggest Branding Success

• She works with a lot of different clients that are trying to stand out in the marketplace
• She has one client in the spirits industry
• When she first came to Lindsey, she was looking for press coverage for one of their events.  To
  • Build traction
  • To be positioned as a spirits company on the rise
• Lindsey was able to push past the noise by spotlighting her uniqueness in diversity and inclusion aspect
  • The New York Times covered the event
  • She got into a bunch of other publications as well
  • They saw what the company could offer and see her unique positioning
• Many companies get lost when they try to do things just like everyone else
• You have to make sure you’re standing out ahead of your competition no matter what your industry is

Advice for Old Dawgs Looking to Promote Their Brand, Property or Self to Key Audiences

• First, look at your “Why”
  • That will help to put the pieces of the puzzle together
• Next, look at the benefits of what you are doing
  • Find the best way to present the benefits of what you are doing
• Emphasize the fact that you are 50 plus
  • You’re starting later in life but that you have the maturity and experience
  • Position yourself as a trail blazer
  • Position your age as a true advantage

Current Business

• One of the great things that the pandemic has brought is that it has caused everyone to pivot – including herself
• She had to look at whether her business could still be sustainable
• What’s everything going to look like?
• Because of Covid, she created her “Accelerator Program”
  • She works with 10 individuals for 12 weeks
  • She teaches them her proven framework on how they can get publicity and visibility for themselves
  • It’s called “Position to Pivot Accelerator”
  • She’s very excited about the direction the program is taking
  • Not only gets to work with clients one-on-one, but she can also be available to others as well
    • The program participants are able to:
      • Have access to her
      • Get feedback
      • Get strategy
      • Chat one-on-one
      • Learn how to go about creating opportunities for themselves
      • Avoid the pitfalls that most people make
  • There are 12 modules in all for the program
  • There are classes every week on such topics as:
    • Hot seat coaching
    • Q&A
    • and more
  • At the end of 12 weeks, participants in the program will know how to:
    • Know the fundamentals
    • Pitch to the media
    • Develop a PR plan
    • Get publicity and visibility placements

Attracting Instead of Chasing Business

• The power of effective PR and publicity is to get business, deals, people to chase after you instead of having you chase after them
• Having you or your business profiled in a third-party media source is more like a solid endorsement or referral
• You can draw in the ideal clients and business with the right strategic effort
• Advertising can be effective but favorable publicity can be 10X MORE effective
• Having a publication or media outlet feature you, your company or your products can be the most effective and powerful type of marketing

Rap-It-Up

• Favorite book on publicity, brand promotion, PR: The Publicity Handbook by David R. Yale
• Favorite general business book: Profit First by Mike Michaelowicz
• Most valuable web site for success (other than your own): Google.com
• Favorite app: Instagram
• Favorite quote: “Fear will be present but do it anyway.”
• If you had to start all over, knowing what you know, and you only had $1,000, how would you use PR to rebuild your business? I would write a few press releases to share what I currently have going on in business and I would use the $500 to distribute the news releases and use the other $500 to place ads to drum up more cash.”

How to Reach Lindsey

• eMail: hi@walkerassocmediagroup.com
• Company Website: http://walkerassocmediagroup.com/
• Her Accelerator Program: Position to Pivot

DISCLAIMER:  Many of the above strategies take knowledge and have a higher degree of risk.  You need to do your research and/or work with someone who is experienced to reduce your risk.

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