Why You Should Be Contemplating Publicity as a Business Owner

It’s a funny old world sometimes.   We know what we should be doing and even when we have people to show us and guide us what to do, we still shy away.  Oh the conundrum!

Publicity and media exposure for businesses is one of those things that people shy away from, for many reasons and many of them are unfounded such as:

• Lack of personal confidence.
• The belief that is costs too much money to seek and gain publicity.
• The crazy belief (in my opinion) that the media wouldn’t want to talk to you.

I can tell you that all of the above are a load of bullocks!

Having been interviewed over 400 times by the mainstream media with my former business, FIFO Families, I can assure you that media exposure is something that ALL business owners should be seeking. It is powerful.  Super powerful and here is why:

• Media exposure builds your profile (both business and personal).
• It builds your
• It creates a greater sense of trust with potential and existing customers (let’s face it, when we see people in the media for business purposes we immediately perceive that they “must be good” because they’re in the media).
• The more media interviews you do, the more the media want to speak with you
• It is the cheapest form of advertising
• You can get directly in front of your ideal customer
• One media interview has the potential to put you in front of thousands, even millions of people!

Now I know some of you will read this and you are overwhelmed.  Heck, you haven’t even got past the point of thinking, “But why would the media want to speak to me?

Well let me share a couple of little secrets with you;

• The media are ALWAYS looking for stories…some may even say they are starving for stories. I mean, look at some of the guff that ends up on our nightly news! Car chases and meaningless things that tell you they have nothing better to report on. It’s true!
• The media love talking to business owners.Yep, that’s true as well.  Why? We live and breathe our business day in and day out.  We are experts at what we do and we understand our business and our particular niche extremely well…. to the media and many around us we are “experts”.  Yes, you are an expert! I want to you to embrace and embody this.  If you are to be successful in business and in the media, own it baby because if you don’t, some other mad, bad ass will and you’ll be left sitting in the corner contemplating the fact that you might have to wind up your business and go back to the world of submission and get a job! Excuse me whilst I vomit in my mouth! YUCK!

Now you will have a unique story about why you got into business and why you are passionate about your business.  Here’s another fact, no one else will have the same story as you.  Unbelievable isn’t it? No one out there will have the same words and experiences to explain your set of circumstances as to why you got into business.  No one else will have the same stories to share about clients either.

HANG ON A MINUTE!! “We have to share stories about our clients!!” I hear you gasp.  Don’t sweat the small stuff sweet!   You don’t have to share any confidential information – I promise!

Our brains are hardwired to learn from stories.  It’s how we learned prior to having books and technology…you know, sitting around the campfire sharing stories about why we need to stay away from tigers, lions and snakes or anything else that is dangerous.

That’s why when we hear stories we generally find them interesting and engaging.  So remember this as the media love to tell and share stories and as business owners we all have stories to share.

If you are still stuck on the confidence and self-belief, that’s ok too.  My advice is to think big and start small.  What are your big, fat, hairy, audacious business goals? Bring them into sharp focus, as getting publicity will manifest these goals quicker than you can say, “Help! I’m a celebrity. Get me outta here!!”  Begin with your local newspaper and build it up from there.  You don’t have to have 60 Minutes or The Project as your first media wins, they ‘re something you work up to.

How about the money thing? Doesn’t it cost gazillion dollars to get into the media? Nope! It doesn’t have to cost cent if you know what you are doing and how to do it effectively.

One of my clients, Debbie Stewart, recently said to me “The most expensive thing about the media is not having known about it sooner!”

You can get media exposure for free.  I am testament to that and those I work with are testament to that it too.

My question to you is, what is holding you back?  What is stopping from you from going out there and building the business you desire and letting your potential customers know of the amazing and incredible work that you do?