If My Cat Can Get PR, So Can You
How to get featured without a publicist, a huge audience, or years of waiting.
I once got a 20-pound shelter cat on the COVER of the local newspaper.
His name was Woogie. I owned a hair & nail salon at the time and collaborated with the other stores in our strip mall to help our local animal shelter.
I pitched the paper a Save a Pet Day fundraiser with one good PR angle of how I adopted Woogie from the shelter and wanted to give back and help other animals there get adopted too. I sent them an email, my story and this photo of Woogie below. They didn’t just cover it. They put my enormous cat on the front page.
No publicist. No connections. No media training. One pitch, one angle, one photo.
If my cat can get PR, so can you.
I’ve since had a press release picked up in 441 media outlets, been on TV & featured in major news outlets and host my own TV Talk Show in Hollywood. And I’m telling you the barrier is not what you think it is. So let’s break the five myths keeping you invisible.
THE FIVE VISIBILITY MYTHS
Myth 1: You need a huge audience. You do not need to be an Influencer , celebrity or well-known figure to get PR. What you need is a great story with a compelling hook and angle.
Myth 2: You need an expensive publicist. Agencies run $5K to $20K a month with zero guarantee. I got every piece of media I have without one.
Myth 3: You must be a polished speaker. You need the right angle delivered clearly, not a perfect performance. Talking in “sound bites” that are quick and answer the question are what journalists are looking for.
Myth 4: You need to have media connections. Having relationships with people in the media is great but you do not need to have connections to get featured. What’s more important is pitching the right person who covers the type of stories your story fits into.
Myth 5: Wait until you’re ready. Waiting is like having a fancy car that you keep polishing it in the garage where nobody ever sees it. The media is looking for real people and real stories. Done is better than perfect.
The fact is that the media needs interesting stories for their shows, publications, magazines, podcasts etc.
THE SYSTEM: GET QUOTED, GET FEATURED
Step 1: Prepare three talking points per topic you can speak on. Spoon-feed the media exactly what you can talk about. Make their job easy.
Step 2: Make your quote copy-paste ready. Two to four sentences with one proof point. A stat, a result, a data point. Journalists use what requires zero editing.
Step 3: Start “Newsjacking”. Tie yourself to trending stories, holidays, awareness days, and evergreen hot topics. Every hot topic has two sides and BOTH sides get booked. Set Google Alerts on your name and your topics.
Step 4: Create the news. Run a simple survey and the stat becomes the headline. Offer one outlet an exclusive first look. Outlets want to own stories, not repeat them. Or do something shocking and unusual. I once threw the World’s Largest Divorce Party. About 400 people came, a local news van showed up to film and do interviews and we were picked up on national and even international news.
Step 5: Start local. Local papers, local TV, chambers of commerce. Everyone overlooks them and they are all hungry for stories. That’s how a cat makes the front page.
Step 6: Pitch the person, not the outlet. LinkedIn shows you exactly who covers what desk at every publication. Start finding the Linkedin pages of the media outlets and publications you want to target. Check out who works for the company and make note of the journalists who cover stories in your areas of expertise. Start commenting and liking these journalist’s posts and then send a connection request, followed by an email and/or message.
THE CHECKLIST (SAVE THIS)
1. Write your three talking points.
2. Draft one copy-paste-ready quote with a proof point.
3. Pick one trending topic or awareness day this month and write your angle.
4. List three LOCAL outlets and find the actual journalist who covers your beat.
5. Send one pitch this week. These do not have to be perfect. An authentic and genuine message or email sharing your story and why it is perfect for their publication beats a hardcore salesy pitch ever time.
Even just one newspaper article, TV appearance, podcast episode or magazine feature can instantly give you immense credibility, trust and authority in the eyes of the exact premium clients you want and change their hesitation in hiring you to an immediate YES.
Next week: I will show you how I use AI to do the research part of all of this in minutes instead of hours, including the trick a brand-new member of my community used to pull 1,000+ comments on a single post.
Subscribe so you don’t miss it.
xoxo,
Christina
Ps…We have an opportunity right now for women who want to share their story on a TV Talk Show filmed on a movie lot in Hollywood. To learn more, go here: https://www.standoutonline.ai/hto
Want to see what it looks like? Watch Christina Rowe's TV talk show, filmed with members of Women Helping Women Entrepreneurs®.
Want help getting seen by more of your ideal clients? Stand Out Online is an online marketing membership for women entrepreneurs who sell coaching, programs, digital products, and services on Facebook. It's created by Christina Rowe, founder of Women Helping Women Entrepreneurs®, the free Facebook group with 980,000+ members. See how Stand Out Online works →
Want more visibility right now? Promote your business to the Women Helping Women Entrepreneurs® community.
Originally published on Substack: https://christinarowe.substack.com/p/if-my-cat-can-get-pr-so-can-you
