How to Get More Free Media Opportunities

Video Transcription:

If you’ve ever been in a situation where you are perplexed about your perceived competition being everywhere or you know that you’re the expert in whatever industry you happen to be in but the phone isn’t exactly ringing the way it needs to in order for you to feel like said expert, this post is for you. Today we’re going to be talking about how to land or get free opportunities to promote your business media opportunities. I don’t mean promoting your business in the sense of like you’re going to hop on your dog and pony show and sell your product or your service, but more so about positioning you as an authority in your space.

We’re going to be talking about a number of ways that you can do that because I believe that any professional out there who is dedicated to educating people, providing value, who really are committed to learning more about their industry, they can certainly plug into any of these opportunities to help expand their presence. It just requires you to have a little bit of skin in the game and it challenges you to think about how you’re positioning your brand a little different than what you’re probably doing right now.

I know from firsthand experience how frustrating and overwhelming it can be when you’re doing your darnedest, spinning your wheels, doing whatever you can to position yourself as an expert in your field and those results aren’t necessarily giving you what you need in return. I know just how challenging it can be in terms of getting all of that stuff figured out and you knowing that you’re working so hard and it’s not coming back to you in a way that you thought you were positioning yourself.

Here’s how this shakes down for you – When you’re thinking about doing anything different, it’s going to require you to have a different attitude, a different skill set to do the things that you need to do and it’s totally fine to feel fearful about it. In fact, if you don’t feel fear, you’re probably doing it wrong. You’ll get better at it but there is going to be a little bit of a fear factor cause it’s going to feel different. You may have even seen your perceived competition doing these strategies I am going to share with you and found yourself wondering how they did it.

Before I dive into the strategies, I want to share a quick story to put them into perspective.

I used to teach principles back in the day when I was in my former life that was all about growing your network and making it super huge because the more people you know, the more sales you’re going to get. Back in 2015, when I launched my coaching and consulting business, I had a phenomenal network. I knew a lot of people. I still do know a lot of people today but my problem was that when I left my previous organization and wanted to do this different thing, not everybody was on board with that. There were a lot of people that still remembered me from what I did before instead of what I wanted to be known for. So for you right now, who might be in that position of saying, “Okay, look, I’m wanting to expand but I don’t really know where to start.

I want people to know me, but I’m not in that position.” I’m here to tell you these strategies that I am about to share gave me the freedom and flexibility to now be able to teach, train, consult, and have my brand presence felt in 23 countries worldwide. So it’s powerful stuff. You just have to get into the habit of it. I am going to discuss why you might be fearful of some of these strategies and how to get over some of those fears and which strategies are going to be the most appropriate for you and your goals. 

Strategy, number one – how to get more free media opportunities.

First off, we have to know what our stance is. If you are either a creative or entrepreneurial in spirit, you might have a lot of things that you represent but if you’re going to pitch yourself for media opportunities and are going to go out there and start putting a stamp on what it is that you do, I highly recommend you pick a stance and stick with it. Nothing infuriates me more than somebody showing up and saying, “I do this, I do this, I do this, I do this and I do this.”

I mean, love to do a number of things too, but I’m never going to have a conversation with somebody to say I sing and I podcast and I coach and I volunteer for this org, etc. It’s distracting. For those who have multi-passions, you do a lot of different things and it’s tripping you up. It’s keeping you stuck and in this complacent cycle of people not knowing how to the next step with you or help refer you. 

If you’re in a networking scenario or if you’re going to hit yourself with a media opportunity, I highly suggest focusing on one thing that you do, not two.

strategy Number two – get very specific about who you’re trying to get in front of.

There’s a couple of like fear factor things that typically come up with this. You need to move through these first in order to get you on the right track before you start going out there and doing this incorrectly and end up not getting the results that you want. 

You’ve got to figure out ‘where do I want to position my message?’ Is there a specific audience that I’m wanting to position myself in front of? So if we’re thinking about positioning our brand out in front of the publications we want to be on, or if we’re thinking about podcasts opportunities, we have to know who we’re trying to get that message in front of. We have to know that those media opportunities are going to land in the ears or eyeballs of the people that are meant to take action and take the next step. 

So let’s talk about some fun things as it relates to positioning yourself out there. 

Free Opportunity #1 – guest blogs.

If you currently write for your own blog, this might be something that will seem a little counterintuitive for some of you because you’re wanting to put a lot of content onto your website for SEO purposes. However, guest blogging allows us to align ourselves with other publications and help write for their publication as opposed to writing just for ours. If you put your thoughts, your energy, your beliefs about something, etc in front of other people that don’t already know you and you align yourself with people that already have a following, it allows you to get your message in front of those people and it really helps you establish yourself as another authority in their eyes.

Guest columns work the same way. There’s a number of local publications that I write for that is in my market. There have been some other national publications that I’ve had the opportunity to be featured in as well. One of the things that you can start doing today is to find out in your local markets what publications are catering to people in your target market.

If you are a business professional, use Google to search business publications for your target market. For example, I search for things like “Fort Myers, business newspaper”, “Fort Myers, business magazine”, etc..

Free Opportunity #2 – podcasts.

This is actually my favorite one because just in the last 90 days, I have been featured and interviewed over on 15 podcasts. So how the hell do you get that happening? One of the things that I did earlier this year was join a directory called podcastguests.com. 

It is literally a directory of all the people that want to be on podcasts so it gives people an opportunity to either solicit for guests to interview or find a podcast they want to get in front of and featured on.

Keep in mind that not every opportunity that’s on this podcast list is going to be appropriate for you. Be sure that the podcasts you pitch to, your message going to be congruent and in line with the audience that’s meant to serve. Making sure that your message is clear and consistent with the audiences listening to is how you’re going to be effective in this game. 

If you get these opportunities, you are definitely going to want to make sure that you are promoting that podcast after the fact. You want to be sure that you’re sharing on your social media platforms and with your email audience.

Free Opportunity #3 – Host your own podcast. 

This is a great way for you to do your own media. You get to be the disseminator of that information in the way that you want to put it out there. It requires you to have a little more tech-savviness skills but don’t let technology get you out of the game on that.

There are a plethora of people that are dying to hear what you have to say as long as you can make the message about the listener. Your message isn’t about you. Your message is about your audience. You can tell your story. I want people to know that you’re a credible, viable resource in whatever you’re wanting to accomplish in whatever market you’re trying to position yourself in front of it, but you have to be in it to win it for your audience, be in it to win it for your potential customer. So don’t make the message all about you, really make it truly about the wins that you’re wanting to provide for the people that you want to get in front of.

Free Opportunity #4 – Virtual summits.

Virtual summits are a great way for you to position your brand. It’s teaching, it’s training, it’s providing good quality content and it’s opening you up to a new audience. 

How I have found them has generally been by sharing the publications I’ve been featured in and using them digital assets on my social media channels. When you let people know that you were on such and such podcasts and that you just were featured in such and such blog on your social media platforms, people that are booking virtual summits, will find you.

You’re going to get somebody looking for people just like you because they know that you have spoken on such and such podcasts or they know that you spoke at this event or you wrote a really compelling article about fill in the blank topic and they saw that on Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, etc. 

One more final tip I’m going to share about this whole thing before we wrap it up today is, you know, utilize this search bar.

When it comes to podcasts, you can literally go to iTunes search your industry to find out what is out there as it relates to the podcasts that are seeking guests in your target market. You can then find out if they’re accepting guests submissions by heading to their website and use their contact form to contact them. When it comes to searching for these opportunities, use Google to search for other publications in your industry. 

If this was helpful, all ask for you to do is share this with people that you think would find value in it as well. Also, I would love for you to drop a note in the comments section letting me know what the biggest impact was for you. What was the biggest takeaway and what action are you going to take?