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 week we talked about the fact that despite what we’re commonly told, simply setting your goals or having a clear vision for what you want for 2024 isn’t enough to keep you on track
Remember that,? If not, will you check that post out here?
Which is why as you set your goals or create that vision board, it's important to consider the why behind every goal
Not sure how?
The 5 WHYS Technique is one of my favourite journaling prompts because it has helped me and my clients stay consistent and accountable with achieving our goals - even when motivation runs a little dry
So, whether you want to start or grow your business, get PR success, or travel the world - the 5 WHYS technique can help you identify the core reason behind your aspirations. What’s great is that it’s super simple. Just grab a pen and notebook and ask yourself why you want to achieve a particular goal. Ask yourself this question 5 times to get to the core why.
Here's an example of how that works in practice...
We’re only 21 days from 2024, and IT’S TIMMMMMMME (in my Mariah Carey voice) to set our goals for the brand-new year.
Reflecting on 2023 and the goals I’d set for myself, I know there’s one thing that kept me going regardless of the challenges life threw at me along the way.
So, if you are currently setting life, business or PR goals, here's the key to helping you to accomplish them:
Whenever you use a sat nav or GPS, not only does it make you input where you want to go (your destination), it makes you state where you are (your location) so that it can direct you properly. My aim, with this post, is to do the same thing for you and your PR journey so that you can move from your current situation to ticking off all the platforms of your dreams in the new year (and beyond)! Doing so requires these 3 steps:
Typically, when would-be clients say that they don’t feel confident seeking PR they mean one of three things (if not all of them):
1. I’m not sure who would want to hear my story
2. I don’t know what stories resonate and therefore what to pitch
3. There are certain levels of PR I haven’t experienced and so don’t feel confident about pursuing
The first two statements are easily rectified through coaching, templates, swipe copy, scripts and a bespoke PR plan, as will be provided at Media Magic (my retreat for business women, experts, coaches and authors who want to uncover a quick and systemised process to pitch the media so that they can get onto more top platforms, be seen as industry experts, and start raking in larger paydays) on July 25th-29th, 2024.
The third statement is more of an inside job because “I can give you the exact steps and strategy, but if your mindset and your psychology are not in it, it’s not going to work” (Holly Haynes).
When it comes to mindset, one of the things that a lack of confidence can cause is anxiety but, as I once heard, “the opposite of anxiety is not calm, it’s trust”. What this all comes down to is this question- although you may not have experienced the levels of PR that you want now, do you trust that once you have been exposed to the tools and strategies that you need to get there, you will implement them?
If the answer is “no,” your lack of confidence will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the answer is “yes,” though, you can expect outcomes like Margaret, who said:
"If you want to learn something, read about it. If you want to understand something, write about it, and if you want to master something, then teach it." (Yogi Bhajan)
This quote from my current favourite book, The Diary of a CEO (by Steven Bartlett), essentially means that “the ability to simplify and successfully share an idea with others is both the path to understanding it and the proof that you do”. When we apply this way of thinking, it's then safe to say that I'm an expert in my field and so is every business owner who shares helpful information with their clients one-to-one, through content marketing on blogs, social media, or any other medium.
You’re probably reading this and wondering why I’m sharing this. Well, I often find that when I talk to entrepreneurs about pitching the media, I get responses like, "Nina, I can’t because I don’t feel like I’ve arrived” or “I don’t know enough yet” or “I’m no expert, why would people want to listen to me?”.
I disagree with this, and so does Bhajan.
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%.
