If there’s one thing that really pisses me off at the moment, it’s a message that’s being perpetuated everywhere you look online. It goes something like this:
➡️ You’re shit
➡️ What you’re doing is shit
➡️ Unless you change, this shit won’t change
➡️ I have the secret formula that you’re looking for
➡️ Once I started following this formula, my life improved dramatically – and yours can too
➡️ Pay me £££ and I’ll help you become less shit and you too can follow in my footsteps and live the abundant life of your dreams
Ugh!
I know the gurus tell you to focus on pain points in your marketing, but this takes the piss! This isn’t pressing your pain points, this is making you question your existence as a human being.
😩 It’s making you question if you can do what you say you want to do.
😩 It’s making you question if you’re actually good enough to achieve what you want.
😩 It’s making you question if what you want is achievable for you.
When someone else tells you how easy it was for them, it makes you feel like a failure in comparison. “I’m going to make you feel really shit and then I’m going to make you feel a million times better”.
Erm, no.
Not for me, thank you. I am unsubscribing from this bullshit and removing myself from the barrage of abuse that’s wrapped up as marketing.
Honestly, running a business while juggling life is hard enough, I don’t need to be reminded that I’m not where I want to be. I don’t need to be bombarded with the message that you’re better than me because you earn millions while only working one hour per week. IT’S BULLSHIT. It’s also unethical.
As a brand, it’s not my vibe to make money from making you feel like shit. That doesn’t feel good to me. In fact, it physically repulses me. But it must work, otherwise millions of people wouldn’t fall for the empty promises and the fabrications.
THE TRUTH?
NO-ONE is working one hour per day and making millions. NO-ONE. They’re latest Reel would have you believe that they are, but they’re not. Their BUSINESS may be generating millions. THEY may only work for one hour per day, but their TEAM is probably working 40 hours per week minimum.
The thing that really crushes me? The sheer volume of people who get sucked in by their messaging. People with hopes, dreams and aspirations. People with belief. People who know their potential but still seek external validation. People who happily run into the arms of these empty promises with their wallets wide open.
I’ve been there.
I’ve been there, done that and bought the T-Shirt.
I’ve committed the crime and done the time.
I’ve invested in coaches who slid into my DMs and said the right thing at the wrong time, catching me at a time when my morale or self esteem was low (essentially telling me that they see my potential and can help me get there. Once upon a time, not too long ago I needed external validation, so I’d happily open my wallet and watch thousands of £££ disappear – again!)
The hardest lesson to learn?
That none of these people actually care about my business, or my success. Not really. They care for me to do the work so that they can shout about my successes that they’ve helped me achieve.
ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD
There’s a reason why you’ll only ever see a highlight reel of what’s achieved when clients work with them. There’s a reason why you keep seeing the same faces popping up when it’s time to promote their programmes again. It’s because they’re the only ones who were able to take what they were taught and create a fraction of the success of the programme creator (if they were able to make over 6-figs then all the better for it)
I sound like a bitter old hag. And in a way I am, because I’m sick and tired of the bullshit. I’m sick and tired of ‘well-respected’ people continuing to make us all feel sick and tired. And skint. It’s why I decided to sell Get Featured! LIVE ‘Pitch Like A Pro’ Bootcamp for a no-brainer price, because I’m sick of having to pay for an extra few zeros to be able to access the information that will help my business grow.
More often than not, I don’t need to pay £15,000 to be in a 12-month container to learn one teeny tiny little thing. In fairness, if there’s one thing I learn in coaching containers it’s that I already know a tonne of stuff and that I’m further along the business journey than many others in the group.
And don’t even get me started when it comes to ‘charging your worth’. Honestly, fuck off and get in the bin 😂 😂 It’s RIDICULOUS. As a PR Consultant and Reputation Manager I’m making sure that you don’t fuck up and ruin your business faster than you can say ‘whoopsie’. The value of that? Multiple millions. Are you paying me that? No. Is anyone paying me (or other PR Agencies) that? No.
Most of the time people don’t value what they have until it’s gone (or slipping through their fingers at a rather rapid rate). Until your reputation is in tatters, you’re *probably* not paying what your PR Agency is worth, and even then you’re going to begrudge paying the extra zeros because you could (should) have hired a PR Agency a long time ago and avoided the threat of reputational damage in the first place. But hindsight is a wonderful thing, as my Mum likes to remind me on the regular!
A PERPETUAL CYCLE
If you do feel like you’re playing small, I want you to know that it’s not your fault. Actually, I want you to go one step further and feel that it’s not your fault. Because it’s not. Yet you’re made to feel like it every single day when you’re scrolling through social media (which is why I’ve banned myself from doom scrolling – it’s been an incredible experience btw)
When you’re constantly bombarded with the same message, it starts to have an effect. It starts to have an impact on you. It will go undetected at first, but the more times you’re exposed to something, the greater the impact will be. It will alter your state, infiltrate your brain and then influence your decisions.
(It’s fricking genius when you think about it. But sadly, like most good things, it’s been abused. And now it’s being used against you.)
❓When you’re watching an advert on TV – how are you made to feel?
❓When you see an advert on social media, how does that make you feel?
There’s a huge difference in how things are marketed and the channels they’re marketed on.
Even if a service is being advertised on TV, the focus is on the positive things you will experience as a result of using the service, not the negative things that got you to where you are, to make you buy from a place of guilt or shame.
So why is it so rife in the coaching world?
THE SLIPPERY SLOPE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
This is why I have such a massive issue with modern day marketing on social media channels. You’re constantly made to feel like shit. Your pain is poked to a point that you’ll do anything to make it stop. You’re provoked to a point that you’ll part with your hard-earned cash, believing that what you’re investing in will magically melt away the problems.
From my own experience, it often unravels even more problems along the way, so the likelihood of you getting to the promised end point is low. And if you do get to the promised end point, it’s not without twists, turns and turbulence along the way.
There’s one thing I’m always mindful of when communicating about what I do, and that’s speaking the truth. PR is not the answer (I’ve written an entire blog post on this topic, which you can read here). PR is not going to solve all of your problems. But it is a piece of the puzzle that you’re currently missing – you can’t ignore it forever!
WHY PR IS THE O.G OF BUSINESS GROWTH
PR is the fastest, most effective way to share your message en masse. An article that’s about you, has been written by you, or features you, is infinitely more powerful than posting on social media.
Being featured in a media outlet is going to get more eyeballs on you, your business and your expertise, compared to posting on social media.
Contrary to what you may be thinking, I don’t have an issue with social media, but I do have an issue with how it’s portrayed as the saviour in your story. It’s not. It’s part of your success story, it’s not the only part of your success story.
✅ If you want to reach more people and get more eyeballs on your business, being featured in the press will do that for you
✅ If you want to entice people to find out more about you, then being featured in the press will do that for you
✅ If you want to secure your place as the go-to expert in your industry, then you need to be focussing on the tactics that will elevate you to that place. If you’re using the same tactics as everyone else, how do you stand out? Being featured in the press helps with that
When you combine PR with Social Media, you’ll create the impact you want to create, you’ll grow your audience, you’ll become their #1 trusted source and over time they’ll choose to buy from you 🙌 🙌
I love an analogy, so here’s one that you help you understand how PR and Social Media together create 🔥 🔥 🔥
PR is akin to inviting someone to a party, while, whereas Marketing is making sure they have a bloody good time at the party. If they have a bloody good time at the party then those people will post about it on social media and tell their friends,/audience, and then their friends/audience will do what they can to get on the guest list next time. This is referral marketing (or word of mouth marketing)
IT’S TIME TO CHANGE….
If you feel like you’re playing small, you are. But it’s not your fault. You’re constantly being bombarded with messages that ‘this next big thing’ is going to solve all your problems. All that happens is that you get pulled off track and veer off in a different direction.
⛔ STOP! ⛔
Take a breath.
And ask yourself:
Is this going to get me closer to my growth goals? Or am I allowing myself to get distracted by shiny objects that take me away from doing what I need to be doing to reach my goals?
(This is a question I’ve had to start asking myself because I’ve made some questionable choices and I’m the only person who can make it stop – it’s an ugly realisation, so brace yourself!)
Radical responsibility is tough, but you owe it to yourself to stay true to what you want and not get distracted by the empty promises along the way.
SHOW UP & SHINE: YOU’RE DESTINED FOR MORE
Being featured in the press is not going to get you to where you want to go if you haven’t got a clue how to leverage your media opportunities and coverage wins.
Being featured in the press requires you to do the things necessary in order to be featured in the first place. Sadly, you can’t just sit on the sofa and expect a journalist at Stylist or Forbes to find you online and ask to write about you.
You need to show up and shine a light on how incredible you are. That could be in an interview, it could be a guest article that you’ve written, it could be a case study, a tried and tested review, or sharing your expert comments.
😲 Yes, it will feel uncomfortable.
😲 Yes, it is a new skill that you need to master.
😲 Yes, you will need to make time for it.
BUT: if you take some time away from creating content on social media, and dedicate that time to securing media features, your business (and your nervous system) will thank you for it in the long run.
Posting on social media everyday isn’t sustainable. You didn’t set up your own business to spend the majority of your time in CapCut and Canva, second-guessing how attention-grabbing your image is, or if you’ve got the right hashtags, or if you can get your point across in only 120 characters.
As an example…..
It usually takes me around 30-minutes to write copy for a social media post (and yes, I’m a long-form content girly so I could be quicker). In that same amount of time I can create an email pitch and send it off to a journalist, which could result in me being featured inn the press and be seen by hundreds of thousands of potential clients.
Then I can use that one piece of content and create multiple pieces of social media content. Which then frees up my time to either go for a walk, go for a swim, or enjoy a snuggle on the sofa with the dogs 🐶
You only have so much time in the day, why spend it on activities that aren’t getting you where you want to go anytime soon?
Invest your time wisely
Invest your money wisely
Focus on the activities that will genuinely get you to where you want to go – life’s too short to spend your time building someone else’s dream life – focus on building your own
If you really are sick and tired of posting on social media and getting minimal results from your efforts, then this is my invitation to explore PR and what being featured in the press can do for you.
I offer a complimentary Growth Audit, which helps me see what tactics you’re currenty using to raise our profile, and then suggest the best PR support package that will enhance what you’re already going.
To schedule your free Growth Audit, you can access my online diary here
