Why You Need A PR Strategy To Close The Recognition Gap And Get Yourself Seen with KJ Blattenbauer

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Have you ever looked around at the people in your industry and thought, how are they getting all of this attention when I'm out here doing so much better work? If I hit a nerve with you, it is probably because you are not positioning yourself and getting yourself seen in the places that you want to be seen in. And you're not alone.

Unknown

And this is something I see all the time with the woman that I work with, our brilliant at what they do. Their clients love them, their work delivers, but yet they're not being seen. They're not being talked about. And they're definitely not being recognized as the expert that they actually are. And I will tell you now, it is not because they're not good enough, it is simply because they're not visible enough and their messaging is off.

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It is how your business is going to grow. It is how people are going to make decisions on whether to buy from you. It is how strangers are going to become clients or customers and why they choose you. It's just someone else. Because PR is a way to build trust. It is a way to nurture an audience or be introduced to an audience that maybe before didn't know what you did.

Unknown

And the problem is, most people don't actually know how to talk about what they do in a way that actually lands. Their messaging is fuzzy. That's gestures reactive, and they're throwing things at social media hoping that something sticks. And I understand that. And you've probably already like 1,000,001 things that you're doing with your marketing strategy that the thought of adding PR and on top of that, and pitching yourself to get seen in places that aren't your own, feels like just another thing on your to do list.

Unknown

But in reality, if you want to be taken seriously this year, you are going to need to start showing up in places that have already got credibility built in so that you can feel credible as well, and you can be seen as credible as well. And the thing is, when you are pitching yourself to these podcast, these publications, in these platforms, you're getting seen by a new audience and automatically that is a way to build trust with that new audience, not just engagement or likes on your posts, which is what you're going to get if you're just doing it through your own means.

Unknown

Marketing channels. Now, marketing and PR are two very different things in this episode of the podcast. Today we are going to be talking about PR and getting yourself seen. So if you're ready to step into that next level of visibility and authority, you're going to really love this episode. Because today I am joined by K.J. and the founder of ASAP PR and someone who spent nearly over 30 years actually helping entrepreneurs, experts, and brands go from credible to completely recognized.

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CJ's worked with everyone from bootstrapping founders to big name beauty brands, and she knows how to craft a message that lands where to pitch it and has a turn your voice into visibility that actually converts and gets you revenue in the bank. She's going to walk, you say, through the difference between marketing and PR, how to find the right press opportunities for your business.

Unknown

And the one thing that most people get wrong when they try to get themselves featured. If this episode lights you up and you're ready to get seen and put your idea and build it into a fully functioning business, then I want you to go and check out the Freedom Model Method Foundations program that I have recently launched, which is a program where I'm going to help you build an online business that's simple, scalable, and built for freedom with message in the super clear systems to support you and the smart use of AI to save you time and create more space to grow.

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This isn't about building another business. This is not about you getting busier. The program really focuses on you building business in a way that is going to support your lifestyle. And within that, there actually is a module on pop because fun fact about me I actually used to work in PR when I was right in the beginning of my my fashion industry career, but as a 17 year old in the PR industry, I wasn't taking very seriously.

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So I actually have quite a bit of a link to the PR industry, which I also really appreciated about this website, because I really understood well all of the things that I was saying, and I really love some of the strategies and advice that she was giving. So if you are thinking about doing PR in your business or you are launching a new business and you want to make sure that you're doing PR for that and getting yourself seen from day one, make sure you go and check out this episode.

Unknown

Make sure you listen to this episode. Let's get stuck into it. I would love to hear a bit more about yourself, and how you've spent nearly 30 years helping other business owners and experts get seen, get heard, and taken seriously through PR. So if you want to give us a bit of an introduction to your background. Sure, sure.

Unknown

I'm CJ Blattner, I'm the founder of hearsay PR and like you mentioned for nearly 38 years of work, behind the scenes helping experts, founders and brands move from credible to completely recognized. Some of them have gone from unknown to totally iconic. And I started long before the internet was even a thing. And social media made visibility noisy. So back when reputation actually had to be earned the hard way without the clicks, the likes, all of that.

Unknown

So my work's always been about positioning, shaping the narratives, identifying what's genuinely newsworthy, and making sure the right people, not just more people, but the right people, are paying attention to what my clients want them to do. And so my clients don't want to be internet famous, per se. They want to be taken seriously. They want to be trusted quickly.

Unknown

They want to be chosen confidently and that's that's the work that I do. That's amazing. And I actually fun facts about me. My first job was in PR, so I from quite a early age, I started interning in the, in a press office when I was like 17 years old. And then I had one of my first jobs, was like a press intern, essentially, for a I worked in-house at an agency.

Unknown

So I understand, like how that industry worked back then. This was 15, 16 years ago. It was quite a while ago, but I would love to hear it from you in terms of if anyone's listening and doesn't really understand what PR is, because what I have seen with many clients and people that I work with, they know not always fully familiar on what that term actually means.

Unknown

So do you want to give us a bit of a breakdown around what we're talking to when we're speaking about PR and publicity? Sure. Yeah. PR is really just the way you want people to think, talk and speak about your brand. You're training people the messaging around how do I describe what K.J. does? How do I describe what Sophie does?

Unknown

What does this brand do? It's introducing people to the language. How do you want to make them feel when you're not around? How do you want them to introduce you in rooms you're not in? And then it's using borrowed lines like this podcast or the local news station, your local newspaper, a national or international, website, those sorts of, reputable media tiers.

Unknown

I call them borrowed lines, but they help boost your credibility more than just me shouting on social media that I'm a great PR expert, right? Like I might say it, you might say it and confirm it. But if someone says it like Forbes or Entrepreneur and then they're like, oh, she really does know what she's talking about. And that's the benefit of PR.

Unknown

Yeah, I agree, I think it's I think a common misconception about PR is that you get publicity and that equals sales. I haven't always seen that to be the case, but it has been like a really good credibility builder. It's getting your name seen by people that may not have been able to see you before. Do you work more with product based businesses, or do you work more with that service and people getting them, seeing?

Unknown

I have I have a pretty healthy mix at my agency lately. I've seen a huge influx in expert PR people who are the authority industry, whether they produce a product or whether they have a service, but they are tired of letting the work speak for itself because it just doesn't. In this day and age, with social media, with internet, with everything and all the noise out there, so many people want to be the known person.

Unknown

They're tired of seeing their peers get recognized, their peers get press. And so so you want to be the expert in your industry? I think PR is the quickest way to grow that authority. Definitely a great way to to be seen as that credible voice that people listen to. Because let's just say, for example, I've been featured in Vogue magazine, I've been featured in Forbes, I put that on my website.

Unknown

People be like, oh, well. Forbes in Vogue magazine trusted her to comment on this, so clearly she's got something good to say. So that's the kind of thing that we're talking about here, isn't it? Like that credibility piece of like, well, this, this publication, this podcast has, has spoken this person's voice for them. So amazing. They must be a very credible person to work with.

Unknown

Right? Right. And like you mentioned before, it doesn't exactly equal to sales. Right? Like you're not going to go on one podcast and then sell 15 things. But what public relations does really well is it closes like a visibility gap. It also builds trust. So if it takes eight, nine, 18 touches before you can close a sale, showing up repeatedly on people's podcast in the news, having those credible mentions on your website, it gains the trust faster.

Unknown

It shortens that sales cycle. But it also builds trust exponentially. So I might be on one podcast and I'll probably see a 34% increase in revenue, right? Like I have a beauty brand client. They were just in that cut. We saw probably an increase of 200 to 400 sales in the first 24, 48 hours from when that article read, did it did the article make those people immediately buy some of them?

Unknown

Probably. It's the first time they've heard of us. For others, it was probably the fifth or 6 or 17 hundredth time they've heard and they're finally like, oh yes, now I need to buy that. Now. I trust those people. And so it builds that visibility. It builds your authority, but it helps boost you. People could be thinking of hiring you, wanting to work with you, go to your website, mess around, look at services, see the prices, maybe get sticker shock.

Unknown

But the second they start to see those proof points, here's where you've been featured. Here's who's talked to you here. Here's who views you as an expert. Then they're going to be like, oh, I get it. It's just like when you go to a restaurant, you might see a new restaurant. Think that's a good place to go? You might read the Yelp reviews and be like, okay, everyone's giving that four out of five stars.

Unknown

That's a fantastic restaurant. And I have to try them. But if your neighbor or your best friend's like, that is the best place to get Thai food, you're going to 100% go. And that's the benefit of PR and media credibility in your corner. It compounds. Right. So if one if you've been featured in one place and another place in another place, and someone like you said it's already been on your website, has had your name, you're circling the nest in this field if you like, and then you're positioned in a way that's like, trust this person.

Unknown

They're going to then come back to you. And I think that's when you obviously start. Since I was the one who said, yeah, of course you might get the odd sale from a really big piece that that kind of blows up and explodes and you get a lot of traction within that, like first 48, 72 hours or something.

Unknown

But the idea is that you're compounding. You're not just going to one podcast, you're going in the podcast, you're writing an article, you're you're going to be seen in different ways. Maybe you're guesting on somebody else's podcast, that kind of thing. So you're you're compounding and then that's what gives you the impact. It's in my experience, and from what I understand about the industry.

Unknown

Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. Exactly right. And how many times do you think somebody needs to be seen for them to be recognized as a leader and in what they're doing from a publicity standpoint? I don't think it's a number of times they have to be seen like, I can't say, oh seven is the magic number. It's the clarity of your message.

Unknown

It can be one time. You can nail it in an article. You could nail it on a podcast if you know what you do and who you serve and why it's important to them. And you can clearly communicate that in succinct sentences in a way so your target audience understands you're going to close that gap faster. You're going to see that you don't have to do 500 press interviews.

Unknown

You could do five, you could do two, you could do one. It's the clarity of the message. I think that's going to help your credibility. And, and have you seen any specific types of PR work better than others? Like is it better to be featured on the podcast? Is it better to be seen writing an article for a publication like, where should somebody invest their time if they want to start out with PR?

Unknown

Well, I think the first thing is to know what your main goal is, right? Like, if I want to sell a book, then who do I want to sell that book for? So I know my main goal is to sell a book, and I know I want to sell a book to entrepreneurs. What type of entrepreneurs? Where are they?

Unknown

What are they reading? What are they watching? What are they listening to? Okay. They're busy. They're probably not sitting down to read magazines. They're probably maybe perusing social media but not paying attention to it. They might be reading a magazine here and there online, but not pay attention to it. But they're multitasking. They always have something going on in their ears.

Unknown

So if I want to sell a book to busy entrepreneurs, I'm only going to go the podcast route because that's my quickest way to get in. Their ears are multiple podcasts get the lift or the repetition of my name, them hearing me getting the book out there. I'm not going to waste my time with all of the other things.

Unknown

Now, if I had a beauty product or a launch, it would be different. It's a different target audience. It's what are they doing? They need to see things. If it's fashion, that's usually something tactical or something visual. Podcasts are going to be the way. So the best answer to that, the best way to get press is to be where your audience is.

Unknown

So you have to know what your goal is, and you have to be very honest with yourself about who your target audience is, because so many people would be like, well, everyone can use this. It benefits everyone. And that's not really true. There's a specific audience for every single thing you do, and for some products that you offer, it might be different than other products.

Unknown

For some services, totally different lanes just have to be very clear about that. And I think that's going to move the needle faster than just picking the, you know, oh, I want to be on Oprah today or oh, I'm an entrepreneur. I have to be in Forbes sometimes you don't have to be in Forbes. And actually it's probably the worst place for you to be.

Unknown

Yeah, because maybe audience isn't actually reading that. Like if you're if you're, for example, for myself, like, I don't work with like multi million, coaches, entrepreneurs, for example, I work with people that are just starting out that probably not reading folks like in in reality. So yeah, I can say that I've been featured in Forbes, but it's probably not what someone's finding me.

Unknown

For me, that would be more like, oh, I just want that name on my website to say that I've been featured, but the ideal customer probably isn't actually, at this moment in time, it'll be more beneficial for me to go on podcast, like. Like you're my focus right now and somebody hear me, hear my personality, hear me talking, be like, I really resonate with this girl story.

Unknown

I would love to work with that. Like, that would be way more beneficial for me than to be in these like high, high end publications, I guess. Right? Right, exactly. And also there's there's a huge push now where I see a lot of my clients, if they want to be experts, they want to be on stages and want to say, why do you want to be on the stage?

Unknown

They're like, well, I want people to hear my expertise, which is fabulous. But like you just mentioned, most of your clients are so busy in the weeds trying to grow their business, trying to do their business, trying to save every penny that they can to fund their business and their dream. They're not spending a ton of money on expensive conferences.

Unknown

They don't have the liberty to go for four days to learn something they wish they did, but they don't. They might be attending virtual things that have a lower price point, or they don't have to travel, but for you to go on a huge stage speaking tour, it's not going to move the needle the way that I think some people do.

Unknown

And so it's it's truly public relations is great. It helps us visibility. It compounds your credibility like you mentioned. But you have to be very careful. What am I doing for my ego things I think I need to do or things I want to do to feel important, and the things where where is my audience and where they truly are.

Unknown

Because if you're just doing the ego stuff, you're wasting your time. You need to be focusing your efforts where your audience. Absolutely. I agree, it's really important, and I think the ego can definitely get in the way when we're talking about PR because it's like, oh, I can see myself, you know, these places. Yeah, but why? What's the purpose?

Unknown

Like what? You're you're actually just wasting your time if it's just to get your name spread across the media. Okay, cool. But like if you're going to do that, be strategic about it and make sure that it's going to come back around for you at some point and it's going to have some benefit to you and your business.

Unknown

Otherwise, it really is just a time and energy sucker, to be honest. Yeah, exactly. And one thing I'm interested to talk to you about is about the seasonality of public, like getting published in getting featured in places, because I think something that puts a lot of people off and something a mistake that I see quite a lot of, a lot of small businesses do, especially because I used to work, particularly in the e-commerce space, and obviously a lot of, publications as talk specifically, I like about print magazines.

Unknown

They work a few seasons ahead. Right. And then they, they get all of the information that they need, and then they obviously publish it later on down the line, particularly around Christmas period. And many businesses leave it too late. They'll leave it till like November and be like, I want to be your Christmas gift guide, for example. But it's too, too late at that point, so you need to start thinking about it a little bit earlier on.

Unknown

But obviously, being an entrepreneur, you're not always thinking that far ahead. You generally tend to just get through that moment in time. Obviously, as you develop in your business, as you've got more experience, you land a little bit further ahead. But I have seen it that most people don't. So talk to you about ality of of R, and when should you be starting to pitch something to somebody?

Unknown

How do you pitch something and like what are most people getting wrong when they're doing that when it comes to seasonality? Well, I think I think first of all, most people get it wrong as they think they need to wait, like they think PR is an afterthought, like, oh, when I get bigger, when I get to 6 or 7 figures, when the product does launch, when I have this many people on my social media following, when the truth of the matter is, public relations is a top of funnel for all businesses.

Unknown

They can't go to your restaurant if they don't know you exist. They can't buy your service. If they don't know what's out there, they can't shop for your product if they again don't know what exists. So PR should be something you're doing when you're picking your social media handles. When you're figuring out your LLC, you should be thinking about how to promote your business.

Unknown

I think that's the first. You know, so many people wait to be ready for PR, but PR has to. Your expertise has to start building day one. I think the other part of the other biggest mistake is once you have things rocking, rolling, you're treating PR like a last minute marketing tactic instead of a long term asset. Like you mentioned, visibility does have cycles.

Unknown

It is seasonal, but credibility is always going to compound. And I think people miss that. There are going to be moments where PR is more responsive, launches, pivots, cultural conversations, timely expertise, but waiting until there's like you need attention to start building or oh no, it's November for Christmas. Most long leave publications are four months ahead, so a lot of people are already, you know, planning for July things.

Unknown

Unknown

But I think PR works best when it's already in motion before you're desperate for the results. So seasonal thinking? Yes, gonna create spikes for you. But I think strategic visibility is going to build momentum. So when you're laying out your launch plan for the year, your sales cycle for the year, or your content calendar for the year, you should also be incorporating all those things instead of recreating the wheel like, oh no, what am I going to pitch now PR wise?

Unknown

How do I promote myself? Make those all want things? Okay, here's our sales cycle. I'm going to tie that into my social media posts. I'm going to tie that into my media pitches. And if you have it all laid out ahead of time, you're never going to have a stroke. You're never going to worry about a lull. You're always going to have something to talk about.

Unknown

And I think that helps get people through the ebbs and flows and not worrying about being too far behind, like, oh, I missed this opportunity. Yeah, it's a shame because and in some cases, like I said, you have to wait until the next the next year or the next opportunity comes up. And actually it's a constant thing. It's not like you've missed.

Unknown

This is just like the opposite. The narrative shifts. Essentially, you're just going to pitch for something different. And it's something that you've spoken about that I've seen is the recognition gap. And from what I understand is that the gap between how good someone is and how known they are, which is so true for every business, because like you just mentioned, you could have like a business that is literally on the street like a pizza shop or something.

Unknown

But unless you are spoken about, unless somebody knows why you exist, no one's coming to your pizza shop, right? So how do we bridge that gap? Like how do we how do we marry those two things up? Because they could be amazing. If pizza at this place could be the best pizza anyone's ever eaten. But they might not be getting the customers.

Unknown

But then this crappy pizza place down the road might be. I know the people because they've got better marketing or better publicity. So how do we bridge those two things of like making sure we are known to be great at what we do? I think. I think too often people are worried about speaking up. They think if they talk about what they're passionate about or what they're good at or what they're selling, that they're bragging or they're boasting, or that it's going to be annoying to people when the truth of the matter is you find your people that way.

Unknown

You repel the people that don't matter, that will never be customers. But by talking about what you're good at, by showcasing your expertise, by coming from a place of service and speaking to people like we have the best pizza, or have you heard about this great pizza place? Or I'm the expert, you know, on e-commerce, I know all of these things.

Unknown

If you say it in a way, a service in a way to be helpful, in a way to show people the way forward to help improve their lives and make it about them, not about you. That helps you move away from just letting the work speak for itself, right? Like the greatest pizza place on the corner that no one knows about is the greatest pizza place on the corner no one knows about because they're just busy making pizzas.

Unknown

All they need to do is have a few people post review. Have a few people talk about on. The problem with the recognition gap is that service based businesses, product based businesses basically just say, I know I'm good. No one seems to notice. Oh well, they'll figure it out when I if I keep doing good and doing the work.

Unknown

But in PR it looks like pitching without clarity, like chasing any platform like we mentioned before, was one earlier one. It doesn't matter. Instead of worrying about your positioning or just assuming that your talent alone is going to carry the message and that's being good, is it the same as being legible? It's not the same as being, someone ready for sales.

Unknown

PR is going to close that gap for you because it's going to translate your expertise into relevance for your audience. So the market is going to understand quicker. Not that you're just capable, not that you're just the best pizza place in the market, but why you're the obvious choice. And so it's it's simple. It's just really, really simple things for the pizza place.

Unknown

It's inviting people in. It's posting on your social media. It's sharing your story. Like why do you have a pizza place? Why are you the best pizza? Is it different ingredients? Is there something at this point in time? Is it National Pizza Day? Reach out to your local TV station. Easy little list like that could make a huge difference.

Unknown

Yeah, but I do think, a lot of people do do that, but they don't. It doesn't land in the way that they want it to land. And I think there's so many different elements as to why that could be. But what do you see is the difference between, like somebody that's doing that really well, because there's one thing like being able to portray your message and get the things that you want somebody to know about you across in a really clear, obvious way, and then another way where it's like, it's all a bit confusing.

Unknown

You're like, hey, I know they do pizza, but they also do pasta and they do this and they do that, and it's like a bit muddled. So how? Well, one thing I see this happen with a lot is particularly in fashion brands, when they start adding on all of these products, they don't really know what they're meant to be known for anymore.

Unknown

Right. So you could have an amazing dress brand, but then suddenly there are niches, handbags, all of the accessories, and it's like, okay, what is the message? What are people come to you for? So where do you see people go? Do really well with putting the message out there. And people, what do they get wrong when they're trying to attract the right people into their world?

Unknown

Well, I think too many people try and do too many things all at once, like you mentioned, like if you're a dress brand, you lead with the dresses. We make these dresses for these people. Here's why they're different here. Here's why they matter now. Like you keep the message to think for that. And then if you also want to capitalize on bonus things like selling accessories, then you just lead with the dresses and on your website style.

Unknown

The looks on your social media show different ways to wear the dresses, but always be pushing the dresses and letting that be your lead message. I think too often people worry, see, is marketing a PR like marketing is putting everything out there promoting, promoting, promoting, promoting, not really caring about your audience. You're selling the benefits of what you're selling, right?

Unknown

Public relations is looking at it through a different lens. It's how can this improve the customer's life? Why does this matter to my target audience? And it's putting that information out there. I think a lot of people pitch in. They send out a press release that's literally just jargon marketing speak paragraph after paragraph, when the truth is, you need to know three things.

Unknown

You need to tell the journalist, the reporter or the audience who you are, what you do, why you matter to them. Right? The second, and if you can succinctly say why I matter to you right this second, that's when everyone's going to start picking up what you're putting out. You mentioned about that. I want to touch on that as press release and I because again, I worked in PR, like at the very beginning of my career was a long time ago, but press releases were very much like the thing that we did, whereas like I've seen, I don't know.

Unknown

So I'm not in that world anymore. So I'd really like to understand, does that have to have a place like, is it more important to have a press release or pitch? Like how does that process begin now? Because I have been out of this industry for a long time, so I don't really know how that looks anymore. But what's the first step?

Unknown

Do you need to create a pitch document, like the press release and then send it out to those people, or do you need to pitch on specific stories? I think it depends on what your goal is. So if you're a tech company, if you have investors, you're going to always be putting out quarterly launches, press releases, that sort of thing.

Unknown

If you're in a real person, like a service based business, like I am, if you have a local shop, if you're an influencer that wants to get brand deals, you're going to worry about pitches. You're going to look at, okay, here's 12 things I can pitch January through December. I'm going to pick one a month and I'm just going to send out really short 5 to 7 cent is, pitches like, here's who I am, here's what I do, here's why it's important to your readers, here's why it's important to your viewers.

Unknown

Here's why it's important for your listeners. Right this second, I'm going to send that pitch off. I'm going to worry about that. I'm not going to worry about press releases. I'm not going to make it long. I'm not going to include my whole bio. Going to be very brief. 5 to 7 sentences, and I'm just going to send that pitch.

Unknown

And if I send it, I don't hear anything the first time. I'm going to wait 5 to 7 days and then I'm going to literally forward on that same year, I'm going to change the to follow up in the subject line. I'm going to write like one, maybe two sentences and say, hey, wanted to follow up on what's below.

Unknown

Here's one more fact or one more reason why they will, why it's relevant to the audience right now that they cover what I'm pitching. Send it off if I don't hear anything again, follow up in like seven days. One more step, one more sentence. If I haven't heard anything after three tries in my mind that says it's either not the right time, it's not the right angle, or they're just not interested in my business, maybe I have the wrong person.

Unknown

So I'll try a different angle, a different story, a different person, and just keep at it until I get the story that I want out there. And how are you finding the right person? Because I think that's another barrier to entry that a lot of people see. It's like they have to do a bit of research to get the contacts right.

Unknown

So how are you finding those people if if it was just me trying to get myself pressed, where would I start? I would Google what you want to be known for. I would literally as your e-commerce expert, I google e-commerce and then in Google where it says all images shopping, there's a news tab. I click on that news tab, and it starts telling you every single outlet that's covering e-commerce right now and how they're covering it, and angle the story that can help you with story ideas.

Unknown

It can help you with publications and outlets to reach out to you. It can help you with journalists. When you click on it, you'll see the names of who's written about something, and I would just reverse engineer my way through that. You can start building a media list that way. You can also do, and I know that this is just going to repel so many people.

Unknown

You can also get up and go to your local newsstand or bookstore, and where there are tons of magazines, you can pull them off the shelf that you open on. By law, they have to have a masthead that lists everyone who's working on the magazine and what they're covering. You can start making a media list from there. You can also go on threads across social media, see who's talking about things that are relevant to you.

Unknown

A lot of reporters and journalists are going to have their contact information right in their bios, but you don't need to build a media database that's 30,000, 40,050 thousand people deep. You don't even need to have 100 contacts. Start with five, do ten. If you feel really ambitious and just reach out to those folks. Yeah, that makes sense.

Unknown

It's just about like choosing wisely on the personally, the case that you're trying to pitch and then just finding the means to get to that mass and the right person, ideally because they need a chance of getting that. You don't have to be everywhere if you're a business or a brand or you want to be an expert, you don't have to be the person that's on every single podcast all the time.

Unknown

You need to be on 1 or 2 really good outlets, or be in 1 or 2 really good outlets where your target audience is. That's all you truly need, 1 or 2 really good pieces of media to help bolster your credibility. It makes sense, it makes sense. But as we are messy humans, we like to complicate our lives and try and get our good everywhere you can be.

Unknown

It can be confusing. And for somebody that's like brand new to this, they've never got, they've never tried any PR before. What would your best advice be for somebody starting out? My best advice would be to focus on clarity, consistency and your context. Get clear on your point of view, then choose 1 or 2 platforms where your audience is already listening, reading, watching, wherever they're hanging out, and then add the context, you know, contextualize your expertise through commentary.

Unknown

Not content for content sake, not posting just a post, not spewing stuff to spew stuff, but thoughtful interviews, smart violence, strategic partnerships those are going to build authority faster for you than posting daily without any direction is going to. And you don't need to do more. You need to be better with being clear and where you're being clear, and then where you're placing all of that messaging.

Unknown

Yeah, it's so true. It makes a lot of sense. I would love to hear from you in terms of like, you know, obviously about your agency, I assume it's it's something that, has given you some freedom in your life. And freedom is a really big value for myself. Talk to me a little bit about what freedom looks like for you in your current day to day.

Unknown

And if you've achieved, like, your ultimate freedom goals. Oh yeah, freedom. For me, it's like a choice. I get to choose the clients I want to work with. I get to choose the projects I want to work on. I get to choose the pace that I work. If I don't want to work one day, I don't have to.

Unknown

I think visibility on my own terms is giving me has just given me freedom. I think that's what it needs to me. I think when people understand who you are, what you stand for, opportunities come to you pre-qualified, and the ones that are qualified, you can identify them right away. So I've been able to build the life that I love.

Unknown

I get to do the coolest things every day and work with the coolest people, and I don't have to chase them. They come to me and I think it just, you know, when you're happy and what you're doing, when you have the freedom to make those choices, it feels very blessed that it also gives you the confidence. You know, you know, your work speaks before you enter the room because you've I've worked to build my authority, and I now get to see the business is lighter, it's easier, it's more fun.

Unknown

It's not heavier because I don't have to work as hard. Now that I've built my reputation and I've established here's who I work with and who I'm going to work for, and I think that that's freedom for me. Absolutely. Now, I think the same power and having that option, having the choice and I think you've explained in a nutshell exactly what freedom is.

Unknown

I is cool, which is incredible. And if someone is about to start in the journey or, it's already in PR, but they are looking for some support. Like what kind of services do you do, offer through your agency? I offer mentorship and one on one coaching. If they're knpr and they need assistance, I offer. Most people struggle with their messaging.

Unknown

And so I have a one day where we sit down and we get all your messaging ironed out, and you walk away with a 12 month plan that shows you how to think, talk, speak, pitch everything about your business or brand. That's pretty popular. And then I have a lot of clients that want me to come in and do every single thing for them.

Unknown

So 24 over seven, I have White Glove PR service where I manage everything from crisis to their day to day to social media and all of that amazing NFL. I was looking for that service work and they find you. They can find me at hearsay dot Procom. It's sky pr.com or on Instagram at K.J. Blanton Bower. Amazing.

Unknown

Well, thank you so much for sharing. I want to be here with some today. I can tell you, you do this for a living because you've been super good with your answer. Like kept it really clear and it's like amazing because no, everyone does that. So I appreciate that. Thank you. I know it's the thanks so much for joining me today.

Unknown

I really enjoyed our conversation. Thanks for having me. If you listened to this episode and realized that you've been sitting on the sidelines quietly hoping that your work will speak for itself, let this be your sign that it is time to start speaking for yourself and get yourself sane to the right people. Because, as CJ said, being good at what you do isn't the same as being known for what you do.

Unknown

And we need to bridge that gap here isn't about chasing your ego. It's about building clarity, trust and helping the right people find you faster. If you are in the process of building your online business right now, you can check out the Freedom Model Methods Foundations, which is a program that incorporates a whole module on PR to make sure that you are incorporating this from day one in your business.

Unknown

We're going to clean up your messaging, simplify your systems, and help you build a business that feels really spacious, strategic, and feels like something that you actually want to wake up and run every single day. So if you're ready to be known for what you actually do and not just buried in the busywork, I'm going to put the link in the show notes to that, and I'm also going to put the link for all of CJ's services, because she's got some amazing offers for brands that want to position themselves and put themselves out there in a better way.

Unknown

Go and check those out if you feel the call. And if you love today's episode, please make sure you like, subscribe and share it with a friend or leave a review. It really helps us get this message into more is a freedom focused women just like you. Thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time.