Why you need to overcome the limiting beliefs holding you back from PR success

Why you need to overcome the limiting beliefs holding you back from PR success

Did you know that this year's Women's History Month theme is: "Women providing healing, promoting hope"?

Well, according to The National Women's History Alliance, it is!

In honour of that, I will be spending this month talking about healing as it relates to PR success

Because the truth is:

I can give you my whole winning formula to pitching the media so that you can get more visible, attract your ideal clients and get paid what you want, but- in the words of Lauryn Hill- "How you gone win if you ain't right within?" *In other words...

3 common networking mistakes and how to avoid them

3 common networking mistakes and how to avoid them

There are many old adages attached to networking and how it can help you to thrive in life and business, including:

#1 Your network is your net worth

Because the people in your network can help seed, invest or support your business ideas. They can also refer clients to you, recommend you for business advancing opportunities and so on.

#2 You are the sum total of the 5 people that you surround yourself with

As the people in your network help expand your ideas about what is possible for you (financially and otherwise), especially if they’re doing better than you in that area.

#3 People only do business with people that they know, like and trust

Meaning: to have a profitable business you must learn how to build and leverage profitable business relationships.

In other words, networking is one of the best ways to increase your authority, your bank account and- most importantly- your impact.

You know,

That message that you want to share with the world

That legacy that you want to leave

The reason you believe God put you on the earth

That’s your impact or your “why”

However, networking is an art that not everybody gets right. Here are 3 things to avoid to ensure that you do:

How to network for PR success

How to network for PR success

Recently I wrote about what attending Tiwa King’s first in person event since the "panoramic" taught me about how to do purpose-driven PR

You can read that here if you missed it, sis

Here's the thing, though, when I first started going to networking events by myself, it used to make me so nervous and fill me with so much anxiety- mostly because I had no idea how to break the ice so that I could form connections with the other attendees.

Can you relate?

Well, although going to networking events on your own can be daunting, your network really is your net worth.

In other words, to have a profitable business you must learn how to build and leverage profitable business relationships.

Here are 5 tips to help you do this through live events:

How to overcome fear of success with visibility

How to overcome fear of success with visibility

We often hear the phrase "shattering the glass ceiling" in terms of the invisible barrier that stops women achieving their goals and progressing towards top positions in both the work and business sector. But what about the internal glass ceilings that we impose on ourselves? The limiting beliefs systems rooted in culture that have been passed down to us from generation to generation and now threaten to hold us back if we do not unlearn them?

Well, I recently wrote an article for Black Ballad, called "Are These Toxic Cultural Beliefs Holding You Back In Your Life & Business?" that explores 5 common toxic cultural beliefs and how we can overcome them according to a cognitive behaviour therapist (Amanda Bakare) who I interviewed along with 4 other black business women to get a greater depth of perspective and expertise.

One of the toxic cultural beliefs that I mention in this article is the fear that friends will become enemies and, as Michelle Shaw (event planner and stylist) put it, “put their mouth on you,” if we share our ambitions and successes publicly. This is something that is definitely a factor as we start to manifest our PR goals and become more visible. If this is something that has been stopping you from putting yourself out there (more or at all), I want to share this excerpt from the article

3 PR goal-setting mistakes (and how to avoid them)

3 PR goal-setting mistakes (and how to avoid them)

One of my favourite things to do during the Christmas period is binge watch Christmas movies like Elf, Home Alone, The Grinch (Jim Carey's version, of course), Love Actually and Mean Girls

If you frowned in confusion at the mention of Mean Girls, you clearly don't remember the iconic talent show scene

If you've never seen it before (or simply not as recently as me) it's basically a comedy about a girl called Cady who tries to sabotage the most popular girl in school, Regina George

Because needless to say Regina's really not very nice

One of the many plans that Cady hatches to take Regina down (with a little help from her friends) is giving her these "protein bars" that actually make people gain weight while telling Regina that it does the opposite. And, as you can see from the gif below, she succeeds

How to set PR goals

How to set PR goals

About 5 years ago me and my (then) best friend spent a week or so in France

Mainly in Paris

One day we decided to take a day trip to Calais that almost ended in disaster

We had spent a lovely day at an art exhibition and exploring the city a bit before we finally made our way back to the station

As soon as we arrived we looked at the board and could see our train; then, about 5 minutes later, we noticed that it started flashing

Not knowing what this meant and also concerned that none of the others were flashing...

We finally decided to ask one of the station employees what this meant

The issue was that, unlike in Paris, most of the people in Calais didn't speak English

The train guard spoke very little English; so called over 2 of his colleagues

Between our broken French, their broken English and a lot of pointing to our tickets and the board, we were finally able to get them to understand that we wanted to go back to Paris but the train that we wanted was flashing and we needed to know why?

"Aaah," the original guy answered, "c'est supprimer!"

Me and my friend looked at each then back at him in confusion

"Supprimer?" We asked in unison

"oui, c'est supprimer" he repeated again

Sensing that we didn't understand, he turned to his 2 companions to see if they knew the English equivalent to "supprimer". One of them thought for a second and then said "cancelled". "Cancelled?!" We echoed aghast. "Oui, cancelled". He asserted again

I about passed out with visions of us being stranded in Calais. We were counting on that train to connect us to another. If we missed that one, how would we get back to Paris? We didn't have enough money for a hotel in Calais...

My spiral of panic was then interrupted by the guards pointing to the board and then to the map to show us another route that we could take back to Paris

We remained nervous about getting kicked off the train for being on the wrong route throughout the journey but, lo and behold, their instructions came in very handy and we didn't have to sleep in the street in a strange city where we didn't know the language.

Knowing where you want to go but not knowing how to get there has to be one of the most frustrating things ever! This is something that I remember feeling at the beginning of my content marketing journey as well

You see...