I always feel blessed and honoured whenever I have the opportunity to share my story in publications like Addicted to Success and Black Ballad. But, what brings me greater joy is the opportunity to share how I’ve done it with women like yourself
So, keep reading to learn how to get your foot in the door and, ultimately, be a consistent feature in major publications
SPOILER ALERT: the secret to your success is something you already possess because...
Last month my dad turned 70
As he dropped me off to the station after his celebration dinner, I asked him 2 questions: "How does it feel to be 70?" and "what advice do you have for younger people?"
Listening to his answers, captured in this video, it was really apparent to me that he was answering this question with his younger self in mind.
This got me thinking about what I would tell my younger self about getting started with PR and I think it would be this:
Last year, I went on a retreat to Panama. It was a really great trip. Apart from the fact that I made really great friendships and learned a lot of things from the influencers and people who spoke, one of the greatest things to come out of that trip was a conversation I had with two of the other attendees (Natasha and Christina) on the last day. We were sat down at breakfast and Natasha asked us whether we had any good book recommendations.
I recommended one of my favourites, We Should All Be Millionaires by Rachel Rodgers, while Christina recommended The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. What's very interesting about The 4-Hour Workweek is that ever since I've been an entrepreneur, I feel like, I've been hearing about that book- but I always kind of dismissed it as being too gimmicky. But as she broke it down and talked about some of the concepts in the book, I thought "Oh! Actually, this sounds really, really interesting!" and so, pretty much as soon as I arrived back in England, it was one of the first books that I read.
One of my favourite lessons from The 4-Hour Workweek is The 80/20 Rule or the Pareto Principle, which explains how 80% of all effects or outcomes come from 20% of causes.
With this in mind, according to Ferriss, we should 80/20 our lives. For example, you can find the 20% in your business that makes you the most money or the 20% in your life that brings you the most happiness, and focus on that because that 20% will bring about the results that you want more effectively and efficiently than continuing to do #allthethings.
Let’s bring this back to content marketing
How many of us create TikToks, IG story content, feed content, weekly blog posts and more to draw an audience that will hopefully turn into customers? We've all heard that content is king but nobody talks about how much time and work it is or how demotivating it feels to get zero to no engagement when you've given it your all. How can we reach an audience, create know, like, and trust with them, and turn it into sales without having our reach limited by a pesky algorithm? Well, by creating a solid PR strategy because that's your 20%.
PR has many benefits including:
Positioning you as an expert in your field
Increasing your authority and credibility
Giving you a larger platform to share your influence, thought leadership and message on
Increasing your followers, subscribers and fanbase
Exposing you to your ideal clients- keeping you booked, busy and making bank
Shrinking from media opportunities is not only holding you back from these benefits:
It's stopping you making the amount of money that will allow you to have the kind of lifestyle and freedom that you want.
It's stopping you from living out your purpose and feeling fulfilled in life.
But- more than that- it's robbing the people that you are called to serve of achieving the breakthrough that only you are uniquely designed to give them.
Not sure where to find media opportunities so that you can stop this negative cycle? No problem!
If you follow me on social media, you would have seen that I recently went to Germany for my friend's beautiful wedding.
In the few weeks leading up to her big day, my dear friend and soon-to-be bride, Kelly, asked if I could read a prayer at her ceremony. I was honoured, and of course, I said YES!
My first thought when she asked me was that all I needed to do was read a verse from The Bible. I was a little mistaken and would soon realise this, thanks to a message from the best man. Fast-forward to a couple of messages later, and worry starting to kick in (lol), I learned that it wasn't a reading of the word that Kelly needed from me. She wanted me to write a few lines that I would say in front of the congregation!
I won't lie; I was a little nervous because I was wondering what I could possibly say to the bride and groom. So, I took a few days to think about it, and these are the words that came to my heart and landed on my page:
I remember when I was in secondary (or high) school and my chemistry teacher, Mr Williams, practised something called “peer teaching”.
So, what this would look like is, if I managed to solve a problem or really impress him with my work, he would have me come up to the board, write out how I solved the equation and talk both him and my classmates through my process.
But the reason that he wanted me to do this wasn't because he thought I was a science genius, but because he wanted to:
Check my understanding (or that I didn’t cheat!)
Give the class the opportunity to hear an explanation in language that they could understand and relate to
I say all of this to say that a lot of the time, when it comes to PR, we tend to feel that it’s for people who have “arrived”- making us feel that we we need to wait to:
Become more of an expert
Gain more experience
Jump through a bunch of hoops to prove ourselves before diving in (or further)
But my teacher was calling me to the front of the class to help my classmates, that wasn't an issue or what he was even looking for.
He didn’t wait for me to get a degree or years of experience in his chosen field.
What he wanted was someone who knew just a bit more than his other students and could share it effectively. And that's all you need when it comes to PR too!
In other words…
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a HUGE Disney fan!
The film that started it all? The Little Mermaid, which I got for my 5th birthday.
One of the things that I love about Disney movies is that they typically have deep, inspirational messages that can be applied to everyday life. The Little Mermaid is no exception.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the story, here’s an example of that:
Ariel (The Little Mermaid) dreams of being human.
When she falls in love with Prince Eric, she goes to Ursula (the sea witch) for the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone:
Become human forever
See Eric again, get him to fall in love with her and seal it with a kiss
Ursula agrees to help Ariel, but the gag (catch) is that:
She wants Ariel’s voice as collateral
Ariel will only have 3 days to find Eric and experience true love’s kiss
Without that kiss, not only will Ariel not get her happily ever after, she’ll be Ursula’s prisoner forever.
I know what you’re thinking, “How do mermaids, sea witches and having magic spells broken by true love’s kiss relate to my life, Nina?”
Well, the truth is that we all have Ursulas in our lives- even you
Your Ursula may not be a plus-sized purple octopus with a powerful singing voice like Ariel but, as a woman, there are plenty of things vying to sabotage your visibility dreams and steal your voice.
In fact, there are 5 voice stealers that personally stopped me showing up before I learned the tools needed to overcome them.
I recorded a video (below) about them because I don’t want the same things that stopped me from stepping out into the spotlight to also stop you.
If you’ve been rocking with me for a while then you’ll know that I have a background in Speech and Language Therapy.
In the UK, the route from a NQT (Newly Qualified Therapist) to becoming a specialist means you have to serve your time as a “generalist” where you’d treat a bit of everything either in schools or a clinic.
Once you’ve paid your dues, usually about 2 years, you get to specialise in one specific area.
Now this is a really simplified explanation but I’m telling you this so you can see why a lady called Miriam Levine was such an angel to me during this period of my life.
You see, just before I graduated I’d applied for a job at a clinic in the London Borough of Brent. I managed to get an interview and Miriam and another lady, called Fiona, were the ones who interviewed me.
I remember coming out of that interview feeling like it had gone really well.
I’d answered the questions as best as I could but —most of all — I felt like I’d made a personal connection with the ladies (I had determined to be authentic yet professional, making them laugh more than once in the process).
A few weeks later, I received a call from Miriam but my hopes were crushed when I heard her say that- although they really liked me- there had been other candidates that suited the position better.
A few weeks after that call, I’d continued attending my last few lectures and applying for jobs but still was having no luck even securing another interview.
Then, one day, I got an email from a lady from a school that I’d never heard of- let alone applied to- saying that she wished to speak to me about the possibility of working for them.
Long story short, Miriam had recommended “a lovely girl that they had interviewed recently but weren’t able to take on”-
Me!
The best part about this job that plopped into my lap?
I’d be working in a language unit attached to a primary (elementary) school which would mean that I would bypass the 2 years of general practice and end up specialising in language disorders straight away!
As you can imagine, I took the job and it completely fast tracked my career development, saving me (years of) time!
The only other thing that’s fast tracked my career like that has been PR
Here’s how PR can do the the same for you:
