Pitch Podcasts & Avoid Getting Ghosted with Gloria Chou

But she is a PR Expert and since she's such an expert , in a moment I'm gonna let her introduce herself and all the fabulousness that she is . But I actually know her . We sat in one mastermind together in Phoenix , arizona , right , gloria ?

So thank you for coming back on the podcast and thank you for talking about how to get PR , as in , how to reach out and get somebody to respond to you when You're trying to be a guest on other people's podcasts . But before we get to this cool conversation , can you share a little bit about yourself , because I love how you came into this whole thing ?

I am a small biz PR coach , and I call myself a PR coach and not an agent or a PR expert is because I've never worked a Day in a PR agency . My whole ethos , my mission , is to make PR accessible for the everyday Entrepreneur and , as of current , there really is no one serving them .

It's usually you hire an agency , you give away your power or you don't get seen , and I believe that media access , media representation that is a sacred thing . We all need to confidently pitch ourselves so that we can make the media landscape more inclusive .

I grew up as a daughter of immigrants and growing up , I never saw anyone who looked like me in the media . All the images of success looked very different from me .

So this is really my secret calling is to make sure that all small businesses , especially ones from all lived experiences , can equip themselves with the confidence and strategies to pitch themselves for podcasts , for TV , for speaking , for anything that involves getting them visible , because otherwise , how are we gonna make an impact with our story ?

And then it comes from the fact that I literally grew up Looking at media representation that I had to never saw myself being reflected . I'm a five-foot one , chinese American female and I don't I don't really see a lot of myself in media even to this day . So I really went .

But when I look at Especially my group of small business owners , from all lived experiences , I'm not seeing that reflected . So I think the work is is my sacred mission and duty to do that work to equip Diverse small businesses to feel confident . And we're gonna talk a lot about this .

But PR is really simple and I think the industry really profits off of it being this Complex thing where you have to know someone and you have to be at a certain stage of business and it's all BS .

It's absolute BS because I've literally cold-called and made one , one billion organic views for my unknown bootstrapping small businesses without any PR connections , without any journalist connections .

So we're gonna break it all down on this episode because we need to just make it simple and as long as it's simple then people can understand and take action for themselves .

So tell me about you , how you would help someone or what you would advise somebody to do if they wanted to be featured on a podcast .

I Want you to practice just sending , pressing the send button and getting rejected as much as possible , because it's not so much about the fact that we can't get PR is that we stop ourselves from getting PR is Because we're not taught to advocate for ourselves . We're taught to delegate and outsource that when really we are the ones that are our best advocates .

We care about our story more than anyone . So I would say it's 90% mindset and you know this , you know from the coaching and online course industry . As long as we know that we can go for those stages , for those Spaces and be invited to those tables , we will do that . So that's a mindset part .

One thing I want to say is that there is no such thing as a newsworthy company or a person or an individual . I have written pitches for Fortune 500 CEOs , but I've also written pitches for people who make basalts and pillows , and they all get featured . So there's no such thing as , yeah , everyone gets featured .

So it doesn't have anything to do with how many years you've been in business or what your revenue level is . It's really about framing the pitch in a way that is going to be a value add for the person who's receiving it . And guess what ?

This is not something that we are taught , because we are taught what how to market , how to sell the features , how to sell the benefits , how to make a sale , and so it's very unnatural for us founders to turn that marketing pitch into something that is going to be relevant for a podcaster or for a journalist , and so I've developed a framework which helps you

do this mental exercise to turn something that's very salesy and you focus Into something that leads with and value add for the audience .

So it's a difference of saying , well , I'm a wellness practitioner and I have three tips for your you know your podcast listeners on how they can improve their wellness and it's like , okay , that's not a great pitch , why it's not specific and it's not relevant .

And here's the thing your pitch needs to have these two ingredients they need to be specific and relevant . Write this down , everyone . Specific and relevant . So if you take that pitch , I have three tips for your audience for improving their wellness . How can we make it more specific and relevant ?

Okay , maybe it's about I can help part of women Improve their wellness for 20 24s Q1 season , which is the winter seasonal effective disorder when it's the winter time . Do you see how that's Specific and that's relevant

? So a lot of times we want to talk very fluffy about our pitch . We want to talk to everyone . We want to be , you know , the expert in this one big topic , but I have found for years of pitching goal pitching that the more specific and relevant your pitches and more likely that that person on the receiving end will say , yes , I .

What are people facing this year ? Are they facing a downturn in the market ? They're facing their jobs replaced by automation . What's happening with AI ? Set the stage and then I would go into five bullet points of saying here are five specific questions I can answer for you on your podcast .

That's a much better way to pitch than three , four , five paragraphs and you attaching your resume for me , which has no relevance to me whatsoever .

Or how would you tweak what I just told you ?

C stands for credibility , which is just one or two sentences at the end of your pitch saying I am a founder and here's what I've noticed . It doesn't mean that you need to be featured or you have to have any awards . That's credibility .

P and CPR stands for point of view , and that's usually the three to five bullet points that you're going to add in your pitch . Three questions , three tips , three things , three things you don't know dos and don'ts . Those are kind of what I call , like the points of view , usually a bullet points .

So for pitching to a podcast , it would be five specific questions I can answer on your podcast . And our in CPR stands for relevance . It's the most important part of the pitch because you need to make it relevant to right now .

What is going to allow you , the person receiving it , to say I'm going to do this right now instead of putting this in my one day someday inbox . So you need it to be relevant . So I'm talking about what's happening in the news right now . Is there a data point ? Is there a TikTok trend ? Is there something happening ? Is it winter ? Is it certain season ?

There's always a season for certain themes . So end of year we're talking about family , mental health . End of year , recap Q1 . We're talking about new habits , tools , things , roadmaps . So there is a seasonality to these things and if you don't take that into account , then your pitch just is not relevant enough and you need to have that relevance .

So that's my CPR method Credibility point of view and relevance . And it works for pitching for podcasts , it works for pitching for panels speaking for awards , it works for getting into a magazine and it's just a value-driven way to have a conversation , to get that other person who's on the receiving end to say yes .

But before we get to those two answers subject line and what to do when you don't get a response before we get there , can you tell us like what's on the other end ? What kind of success is on the other end of like getting featured in a bunch of podcasts ? Cause I know , since you help people do this , you have a course to help people do this .

I know you've got some good stories and I thoroughly believe in motivating the listener and letting them know , like why they should jump into this , like yesterday .

Am I creating something that can be leveraged in multiple ways , or am I spinning my wheels and making one reel on social media that maybe five people will see ? When I think about a podcast , I think instant credibility , I think authority , I think reach searchability . Here's what I mean .

If you make one ad or one Facebook reel , instagram reel , that's not searchable . It's not SEO optimized . But , if I can get onto one podcast , that is 20 pieces of content I can take from that one podcast alone .

I can spice it up , I can edit it , I can do reels , audiograms , quotes , graphics , carousels , youtube , long YouTube shorts , blog posts , newsletter . So for me that is a much better way of leveraging my time with authority and credibility . Ads don't give you that credibility . Ads give you maybe visibility but not credibility .

But to be on a podcast , especially a podcast that is notable in your industry and I don't mean getting onto the Tim Ferriss show , I just mean what is the industry that you're in ?

And there are so many podcasts , even in the mid-range , that have really engaged listeners that is one of the most direct ways to assail Because you're leveraging that person's audience that have already built trust with their audience .

And to be in someone's ear for 30 minutes means that if they're gonna give you 30 minutes of your time , they're probably gonna wanna take the next step with you . It's a much higher commitment than clicking on an ad or scrolling through a reel .

So I actually have an episode on my podcast , small Business PR , called why your Q1 Strategy Needs to have Podcast Guessing on there . So I would say every single person needs to get on a podcast and then repeat , repeat , repeat , repeat .

There's no better way to build your audience organically , there's no better way to build your SEO , there's no better way to check off all of the buckets that you want . So , again , it's credibility , it's your ability to pitch for future collabs , it's your visibility , it's content for social , it's content for your marketing , and so it fills all the buckets .

And so , for me , that's a win , win , win on top of a win .

So we got to solve for the first problem , which is getting the email open . So , yes , the subject line is the key to that . It's the first problem we have to solve for .

But , unlike marketing subject lines , which can be a little bit more catchy or maybe a little bit , maybe sometimes even sounding spammy , you want your subject line to be very clear and specific to what you're pitching . It should almost read like a title of a podcast episode .

So , for example , three easy ways to get visibility for your business is much better than Gloria Chow shares hers Famous secrets . You know what I mean , like no one knows what the second one is . So you don't want to include your name , you don't want to include your company .

You really want it to be about what is a topic , almost as if you're searching it in your Apple podcast . So think about that , think about how you can provide the language , the questions , the subject line in a format that almost looks like the finished episode product . And we all do this right .

We can just train our brains and you can start going through your podcast app and seeing what it looks like and and and . Then that way you can have better subject lines . And here's a . Here's a little trick for everybody .

I don't want you to send any emails at all , I don't want you to pitch at all until you install an email tracking device which means that you know whether or not your email is being opened . Because here's the thing it is so difficult for small business owners and course creators to even fathom pitching . A lot of times we make up a drama in our head .

We very , very , very shakily press that send button once and then we kind of retreat into the closet like , oh , but a lot of times it's just like your email is not even being opened and so it's not this drama about this person hates you , it's just .

Maybe it's a deliberate the deliverability issue , maybe it's just not open because the person doesn't work there anymore . So let's get some data on that before we make it all emotional . Let's make sure that the emails are being open . If it's not , let's troubleshoot for that .

And then if it's being open multiple times and you know that there is interest and they're looking for a place for it , and that's when you can keep that person warm by maybe commenting on their social media link , maybe leaving them a review or doing something that shows that you are trying to build a relationship with them .

And when I email the third time , she was like just so apologetic and she's like , actually , you know , I want to work together , let's keep talking . It's just at the end of the year . It was the end of the year , you know . We had all those stuff to wrap up and everything and I'm like , oh , I thought it was just you didn't like me .

My little feelings were hurt and she was like it wasn't about you , it was just busy work . So the next yeah . Respond to you . I kind of hinted keep going , but do you have ? Have you seen , better follow-up emails than others that get a response ?

It's not like oh , today I have three minutes , I'm gonna send an email , no , get your pitch super solid using of a CPR pitch , and that way , you know you can use that pitch for multiple different Podcasts , because it's one topic that you keep talking about .

I've been talking about this top pop topic of PR and visibility and you know how to how to hack your PR for years on 50 different podcasts .

So I am not going back and reinventing my pitch every single time , and so you can get your pitch right and then schedule it all on Gmail so that it can schedule , send and then what I would do is then Follow up with each podcast host Individually in the DMs with something like hey , I love your podcast .

I think we have a really aligned audience and with what's going on right now , with how expensive ads are or how difficult marketing is , I really hope that what I can share about organic PR and visibility strategies can help your audience . I sent you an email titled this on this date . Let me know if you haven't received it .

You see how that's a much better way to DM , because it's basically telling them to go back and check their email . A lot of times they just get so many emails . I know I do and I know you do too , and so that gentle reminder is really good .

What do you say to somebody who's listening right now and it's just kind of burnt out , Like they're hearing it and they're like Gloria sounds good , but you don't know my story and I maybe just can't seem to hit the keys on the keyboard to hit a few more sins .

So it's very hard for us to get out of our current mindset of doing the quick and easy thing and get into the what our coach Rick calls the $10,000 an hour things , where you're building a long-term asset . It's hard because if it was easy , everybody would . It requires a change of mindset .

It requires you to break through your current state of inertia to think about something else . But I'll promise you this if you can master your message and if you can confidently pitch it , you have transformed what you thought about yourself , your marketing strategy , and you've learned a new skill that can carry you through the rest of your

messaging . I really don't think about PR as , oh my God , I'm so busy . It's one more thing to add to my plate because we're all busy , we all have the same number of hours in the day , but it's about doing that high ROI thing .

That maybe seems intimidating and not so simple and , by the way , I hope this episode has made it more simple but breaking it down and really doing that , because you're gonna get way more ROI .

It might take some time , but if I can get onto one podcast , that's going to be the snowball effect on getting you onto 40 , 50 different podcasts and then you have all the content for social media marketing .

I would rather do that all day than start from the bottom , which is making one Instagram post and then reposting it and then hoping that somebody likes it .

I wanna bring my attention , or the listener's attention , back to one which was and I'm not even going to do it justice , but when you talked about you've been doing this and talking about this one topic on over 50 different podcasts and that when you pitch you're not going back to the drawing board each time , but that you're using like the same well-crafted pitch

. And then you also said something else , which is that you don't just like hop in , write an email and then hop back out to your other business task , but you go in like at a specific time and draft a bunch of emails and then schedule those to go out Like .

That spoke to me as somebody who leans I'm more on the visionary side is then I get tons of ideas and then I get the urge to do one of those things .

So I fit that in and do it versus I'm learning and this is why it hit so much is or so well as I'm learning to be a lot more systematic , especially with this like 100 K months and the 100 days challenge I was doing .

I was learning to be a lot more consistent about doing my outreach , my lead gen , same time every morning in advance , like in a well-planned systematic way , so like thank you for sharing that .

It's so much easier for me to go on Instagram and make something and get five likes , but I know , like we all know , if we really look in the mirror and dig deep down , you know that that's not gonna move your business forward , especially with the Albert . You know that's not . I can make 50 reels , it's still not gonna move my business forward .

So again , it's simple , but it's not easy and a lot of things in life , a lot of things in business , are that way . But it's just a matter of reframing it and saying I know that this is not the best dopamine head that I can get . I'm not gonna get immediate satisfaction , but I will learn a valuable skill .

I will know how to get myself invited to tables . I will know exactly how to get a yes from somebody . That is a lifelong skill , but yes , it is a skill . So it takes practice , it does take work and hopefully , throughout the course of this , I've given you something to think about . So I'm not saying that you have to do this all on your own .

The methods that I'm teaching you right now . You can delegate it to an intern or virtual assistant , but you are the one that needs to master the message . You know your customers , you know the stories , you know the insights , you know the seasonal angles , you know how to pull your audience Once you get your pitch super dialed in .

Yeah , you could delegate it in-house . Here's the thing about having it in-house , by the way , is that you send emails through your own email address , so you're not depending on a PR agency to tell you oh , we were successful this week or not .

You own those relationships , because what we don't want is to pay someone to get us to the podcast host and then , once you stop paying them , boom , you have no idea what to do anymore and you're out of water . We want to take things in-house .

We want to build assets , that's , skills systems , and hopefully , with this CPR method that I taught you , you'll be able to delegate that to someone in-house so that you can get even more ROI for your time .

So , like , please , like you're listening to this episode and you're hearing Gloria talk , like , please , move and do the thing . Gloria , you said inertia , so I had to go to my notes and pull up this thing that I wrote about Newton's first law . If I may , please , newton's first law , newton , the guy under the tree with the apple that hit him on the head .

I think that's Newton . That is Newton , right ? Yeah , all right , that's Newton . We're keeping that one in the podcast .

We're objects at rest and staying at rest it's the law of inertia , but once you get into motion , then you get the law of momentum working on your behalf , and so I just wanted to encourage you listening to Gloria talking .

If you're at rest now and you're not sending out those emails to do the thing that you know is going to skyrocket your reach and your influence and your impact and even your sales , by getting on other people's podcasts and delivering value . Unbalance yourself and send some emails , gloria , you wanna say anything else ?

And also , how can people get more and work with you ? Like , where do they go ?

Right , this is hard to kind of pack it in there , but I hope I can give your audience just a simple way to start and not feel like these crazy prices that the agencies are charging is the only way , because we've been able to do it for hundreds of founders , course creators , service entrepreneurs and product-based entrepreneurs . So PR is really simple .

Here's a reminder PR is literally writing a pitch and sending it out . That's it . And if you know what to write which I've given you with the CPR method if you know who to send it to and , by the way , in my PR course I have a database of all the journalists you can also start to populate that yourself by just Googling some articles and copy and pasting .

Then you have PR . It's just a matter of writing a pitch and sending it out .

You can find me on all the social media , at gloriachowpr , that's gloria-chou-u-pr , and if you DM me the word pitch , I will send you a pitching freebie as a gift and you can watch my full length PR masterclass where I actually show you the CPR method and action , word for word structure of a pitch that got someone featured in Well and Good Refinery 29 and

Forbes . You can watch that on demand at gloriachowprcom slash masterclass . And I also have my own podcast . It's called Small Business PR . You'll see me on the cover of it and you'll be able to hear directly from journalists , and we really don't hold anything back at all .

I mean , I am grilling them on what their inbox looks like , on what's the right etiquette for followup All of the questions that you can't Google . I have it in that podcast , so I look forward to hearing from you .

on YouTube . But that was gloria-chow-chou-u-pr . All one word on Instagram and then to see the masterclass , which dives into more detail on all the goodness that somebody heard today , they need to go to gloria-chow-prcom forward slash masterclass , right .

Gloria , thanks for being here again and until you hear me or see me on the next podcast , be blessed , take care and goodbye .