Lauren Cobello
Appearances
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
I don't like to say competition because I don't agree with competition. I don't see people as competitors. I see them as inspiration.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And now I'm not going to say bad on go banking rates, but we actually have a rule in our agency that we don't do go banking rates articles because I was like, I can flip a coin as an entrepreneur and get a go banking rate article. Like we all know people that write for go banking rates. Like we as entrepreneurs can get those so quickly, right? Now, some of them are really good.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And if it's like, you're just starting out with us and we need to get some quick press fast to get you some good SEO, like we'll do it because it makes strategic sense, right? Because we need to get your name out there. So I hired this publicist and that's all she sent me. And I'm like, all of my friends write for this. I'm wasting my money.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
But I realized that a lot of people in my industry, there were a couple, maybe two or three people that were on national television. And I realized that in order to set myself apart from my competition, I needed to take a step forward. And so I invested in a media trainer. I invested in a high-tier publicist and a talent coach.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And that's when I started making that big shift towards trying for national. And I would do the craziest things, Mick. Like one time I answered somebody on Twitter. This was like in probably 2011, maybe. Somebody on Twitter posted like looking for a guest and their mom with like a shocking revelation or something like that to come on a national TV show. And I had no idea what it was.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
You know, I'll do it fine. So, and it was for Dr. Oz and I didn't find that out till later. And so I flew myself to New York city and I did the Dr. Oz show. They sat me in the audience. The only reason I did that is because I was trying to break into national. And I knew that if I met the producers, I could try to convince her to have me on the show.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
That turned into a four year regular gig with the Dr. Oz show. So I invested in learning the skill. I invested the money in understanding how national television works, hired a publicist, but then I didn't just wait for the publicist. I went and did stuff like that myself. And I found out the name of the producer. And then I had my publicist pitcher.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And then that turned into a four-year relationship. So I'm a very strategic person. Like, what do I need to do to get to that next level? I need a book. I need a traditional book deal in order to break to that next level. How do I get there? How do I get that book deal? I need national television. Okay. So I need to get on national television first.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
So that's how I kind of got into national TV, then use that to get the book deal. And then the book deal helped me get more national and made me a bestseller. So like, to me, it was like kind of looking, I don't like to say competition because I don't agree with competition. I don't see people as competitors. I see them as inspiration.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And so for me, that was the strategy behind, you know, okay, I see a couple people are doing this. What did they have to do to get there? I'm going to do what they did, do it better and secure myself on there. And all of those things are, you know, what I teach our clients now. Like, how do we get you there? It doesn't have to take you flying yourself to and sit in the audience of Dr. Oz now.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Really? I didn't know that.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And I think about it this way. PR is if nobody tells your story, somebody's telling your story, just not you. If you're not the one that's doing it. And so PR is a way and a methodology of telling your story online and through TV segments and articles and podcasts, right? So it's all strategy of how do we want Mick to show up in the world? What are the things that we want?
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And it even comes down to like, what do we put on the lower third of every single TV segment that we do? What are the talking points that we put in front of TV producers, making sure that they're crafted so that you can answer the way that Mick wants to answer, right? Everything is perfectly crafted so that you can amplify the message that you need to amplify to bring in new clients.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And so it's not like we're just going to throw spaghetti at a wall and hope that you get clients. It's very strategic. And how do we put the brand story out there in a way that resonates with people in a relationship way, but also resonates with people that see you and say, oh, like, I need to go and follow him. You know, and I think that then you can turn those into marketable assets.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
But it's a it's a method of storytelling and warming up your audience and building trust and likability and like, oh, my gosh, I saw you on TV. Like, I have to work with this person over this person. And if you don't tell your story, somebody else will in a way that you don't, you know, really like probably or control or control.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
it's a way that you can control the narrative. And then we turn them into marketable assets. Like every time I was on the Rachel Ray show or the today show, I would always take the picture that I took on set and then, you know, create an ad to that audience. Like, Hey, did you see me on the Rachel Ray show yesterday or see me on the today show?
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And then create a sales funnel, you know, on the backend of that. So like, You can turn what we do in PR into those marketable assets to have an ROI on the back end that gives you some sort of, as marketers, right? We like to see those. But I think that trips some people up. It's like, well, I can't see like who clicked or who got me from this segment. And it's like, well, that's not the point.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
It's not the point. It's like, how did you see me? You found me on Instagram. That's like exactly how PR works.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Thank you so much, Rick. That was the most amazing introduction. I'm so humbled and so grateful to be here.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
So tip number one should be that they should set up a sales funnel with a free offer and get people into their email list. Tip number one. Tip number two is really clear on what their brand is and what their brand is not. Who is their target demographic? And then they're going to write a thought leadership book about that topic. but they cannot write a memoir. Do not write a memoir.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
So many, there needs to be the right book for your brand. Now, what I say about this is, and this happens all the time and people mess this up all the time and they come to me too late with their book, right? Is you need to have a book that solves the problems of your customers and clients. It can have your stories in it, but it needs to have some sort of how-to. So,
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Tip number one, do the sales funnel. Tip number two, be really clear. Tip number three, write a thought leadership book and include that thought leadership book in that sales funnel.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Okay.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
I'm going slow, too. Jeez.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Yep, exactly. Exactly.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Yeah. So you need to understand what your brand is and what it isn't, right? You need to understand your target client. You need to understand their pain points. You need to understand what keeps them up at night. You need to understand what makes them buy, what makes them not buy. You need to understand what makes them excited and what their goals are in order to make this sales funnel work.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And what this sales funnel is going to do is bring people into your email list and bring in some revenue for you on the back end. So one of my sales funnels starts with, is your brand ready for PR, actually? On my personal website, laurencabello.com, I talk about that specifically. Is your brand ready for PR?
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Because if you're not set up for PR activities on the backend, you don't even know what the goal of PR is. It's going to be a waste of your money. And so we're very specific about the clients that we bring in. Like they need to be at a certain place of their brand in order to work with us because it's very strategic in what we're doing, right?
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
So that's crucial in this whole play of knowing and being really honed in on what your brand is and what it isn't.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Exactly. Very much aligned. And the same thing with your book. It needs to be aligned in the same way. And building the brand needs to come before writing the book. and launching the book. I would say it's crucial to have some sort of personal brand before you write the thought leadership book piece. And I would say that the thought leadership book is about a topic that you wanna solve.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
But when I say write the right book for your brand is it needs to be similar to what your business goals are. So for example, if your business goals are to be a speaker, I'll use this example. Like let's say if you wanna be a speaker at dental conventions, if you're a dentist and you wanna speak at dental conventions,
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
and you want to sell this book to dentists, then you should write a book that is sellable to dentists, something that dentists care about. Maybe it's about scaling a dental practice. Maybe it's about how to scale your dental practice to eight figures or something like that. I would not write a children's book on getting how parents need to teach their kids how to brush their teeth better.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
OK, does that make sense? So like you need to match the book with the end results. Now, if you're an educator who's going to take a kid's book into parent teacher conferences or parent events and you're going to be targeting parents, then that would make a lot more sense.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
So when you're writing your book, you need to kind of have the end goal in mind of where is this going to sell and then work backwards because it's going to help with the strategy and the sales strategy. of how to sell that book a lot better in the end goal.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
It is. I love social media. I love how it connects all of us. And I love that I get to like hang out with cool people like you who are doing amazing things in the world. So totally honored to like just know you as a person and to have you as a part of leverage as well.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Yeah, thank you for giving me the platform on this topic particularly, because it's something I'm really passionate about. A lot of people don't know, but I'm actually a single mom of four. And I got divorced seven years ago. And one of the biggest reasons why I got divorced was because the more successful I got, the more difficult it was for my ex-husband to handle my success.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And not that that led to the end of the marriage, but I think that as strong, powerful women, I left that marriage feeling very down on myself. I left that marriage feeling actually like I had a lot of trauma around how successful I had been. This was at like the peak of my national television career. And I kind of resented that success for a really long time. And I said to myself,
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
I've got a son who's 19 now and I have three daughters who are 15, 13 and 11. And, you know, I looked at my kids when I sold my personal finance company and I looked at them and they were like, mom, why do you sell your business? Like, how are we going to make money? And I said, kids, I just want to, I just said, watch me. I'm going to build this to a million dollars in a year. Just watch me.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And we did it in one year, seven figure business surrounded by all female employees, a female leadership team, and me as the founder and CEO, I'm not a feminist in the sense of like, guys suck, because I don't think that at all. I think that guys, it's just happened that the best people that I've been able to find in my organization are female.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And I'm not opposed to hiring a man to come and join us. My CFO is a man, actually. So we have one guy, and I'm not opposed to that. But I just know that I... am so passionate about women feeling empowered that they don't have to sit around and wait for the people in their lives to give them permission.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And if I had waited for my ex-husband to give me permission to be successful, for my kids to believe in me instead of me just believing in myself, I would have still been waiting. And so a lot of my success has come from the concept of jumping out in faith before I believed in myself and doing the actions before they made sense.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And so I've always just surrounded myself with people that are smarter than I am. people that believed in me before I believed in myself and just believe that anything is possible as long as I just keep on moving. And so whenever I get knocked down, I get back up.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And I always believe that that is the key to success with anybody is that nobody can keep us down as long as we just believe that, you know, knock me down, I'll get back up twice, you know? that that is the path to success. And so, yeah, now, you know, at Leverage, we have seven full-time employees. They're all female. They care. I think that that's, you know, we're all, most of us are moms.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
When like somebody fires us, I'm like, oh, like it hurts because, you know, I'm not like, oh, I'll just get another one.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
I think that's where like, you know, I employ like three other single moms. It gives me such great pleasure to like support other single moms that make a great living. I pay my employees very well. I want them to make a living. I want them to have good work-life balance. I want to provide a culture that they show up to and enjoy work. And I want to provide that for myself.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
So I am so proud of like what we've built. But the other women listening that like, you don't have to wait for other people to give you permission. You can just go out and do it yourself and you can do it.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Damn right.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Yeah. I would, I would, I would be honored.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
So you were like the dream client. Just let you know, like just honored. Yeah, you really are.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
You are amazing. I'm so inspired by you and I'm so grateful that you had me on.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Yeah. So the agency is at leveragewithmediapr.com and same on Instagram, leveragewithmediapr. And then my personal Instagram is Lauren underscore Cabello. That's a C-O-B-E-L-L-O. And then that's my website, laurencabello.com as well. And you can find me on LinkedIn under my name. But I'd love to connect with people. I love talking to people and just, I mean, that's how we talk.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
We just like talked on Instagram for a couple of months.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
It's really me on Instagram. Like I don't have a team. I manage my own Instagram. So I love, just love talking with people.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Thank you so much, Mick.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
What's my because? That's a great question. So I love that we go deeper than the why, because if I would say the why, I would say, you know, I do this because of my kids. Right. That would be my why. Right. But the because is much deeper than that. And that's why I love this question so much is I've been an entrepreneur for 19 years. I started my first brand back in 2007, 2006, actually, really.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And I've been in this industry a long time. I've been a national TV personality, written the books, done the online courses, been a coach, done the lead funnels, you know, all of the things. Right. And I always struggled and being in the world of entrepreneurism and being being ingrained in all of my friends. I'm one of us, right? An entrepreneur. I struggled finding a PR firm that understood us.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Like it hurts because I do care so much, not only about them, but their businesses.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
I struggled with PR agencies over-promising and under-delivering. I struggled with hiring a publicist that I felt like understood the business mentality of what drives the needle of us as business owners and entrepreneurs and understood us as visionaries. And so after many, many years of my friends basically begging me, Lauren, like you have so much gold inside of you.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Please start an agency to help us.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
I sold my personal finance company and started Leverage With Media PR to help us entrepreneurs scale using strategic PR like I had done for all of those years.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And so it didn't come easy. Like my friends like literally begged me to do it. So that's why I do this because I've done it myself. And my friends literally, I always say hot tub therapy. Like when we go and mastermind where we all have, you know, some drinks and we're in the hot tub talking right about our deepest fears or. insecurities as entrepreneurs. And that's where Leverage was born.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And that's why I do it because I have a heart and passion for helping other entrepreneurs use strategic PR to become the number one thought leaders. And yeah, scale.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
I love the question when people come to me and they say, PR is dead. TV is dead. I'm like, I thank you for saying that because it's not. And this is why it's not.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
I'm so glad you feel that way because that's, you know, I live, breathe and care so much about you and about your brand and about where you go. And I see myself as a part of the brand and how can we take what you've already built and grow and grow. help you reach those levels, right, that you want to achieve.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And knowing that we have this amazing team that can help you reach those and bring you to those new heights and that we do it day in and day out and that I have the best team. And, you know, as a leader, like I actually just did a LinkedIn post today about how when people always say, like, you have the most amazing company, I say, well, I have the most amazing team.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
My team is phenomenal and I invest so much time in the people that I bring into my team. And we build our culture so carefully. And that means the world to me, the people that I bring into the team so that we can have our clients feel that way. Because to me, I don't want to feel like a number. And I truly care. Like, I love all of our clients, love every single one of them.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And it pains me when like somebody fires us. I'm like, oh, like it hurts because, you know, I'm not like, oh, I'll just get another one.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Like it hurts because I do care so much, not only about them, but their businesses. And so, yeah, I just appreciate any of those words. Like, thank you.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
I love this question. And I love the question when people come to me and they say, PR is dead. TV is dead. I'm like, I thank you for saying that because it's not. And this is why it's not, right? Is we still have 5 million people tuning in to the Today Show. 5 million. So you've now taken that 100 right from your email list and turned it into 5 million people. And from that 5 million, that...
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Our regulars of the Today Show that are watching through social media, we now have another 3 million, 5 million from their social media channels. So now we've added an additional 5 million from people that are watching them on Instagram and YouTube and their TikToks, right? So now we've added an additional 5 million.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Now, what's great about all of that is that we can now tag all of these audiences with these marketable assets. So I always say that PR and marketing work really, really well together, right? And I also love the saying that if a tree falls in the forest, does it even make a sound?
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
but if nobody's around it, does anybody hear it?
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Still makes a sound, but does it ever move the needle, right?
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
So when you're marketing to an audience that is dead, right, we need new eyeballs, right? And what's actually really brilliant about kind of the way that marketing is now is that everybody is so focused on social media and becoming an influencer and paying for numbers and paying for likes and paying for influence, right?
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
That what we're seeing is a rush back to traditional media for people that are smart. because you cannot pay for those appearances. You can't pay for a Today Show appearance. You can't pay for a TV segment. There's some pay-to-play segments that are out there, but everybody knows what they are. You can't pay for a GMA or a Cheddar or any of our CNBC segment.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Those are earned because you are valuable enough for your story to get featured, right? And so you have to have the combination of marketing and PR.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
But if you go to two different Instagrams or two different TikToks and you see two different platforms and you land on each of their pages and you see one that just has reels and you see one that has reels with As Seen On Today, As Seen On GMA, As Seen On CNBC, which one are you going to listen to more? The one that has a scene on Forbes, CNBC, Fox, CNN, you know, all of those things.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
So tip number one should be that they should set up a sales funnel with a free offer and get people into their email list. Tip number one. Tip number two is...
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
So you have to sprinkle in PR because if nobody knows your message and if nobody sees that you're getting these really amazing earned media segments because you are the expert and the thought leader in that, you're going to blend in with everybody else. And the goal is to stick to the top and to be the number one and to have your message number one.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
The people that are standing out right now are the people that are having that national media exposure and all of that press. It's just the way it is. It's the way it always has been. And marketers will say, well, we have an ROI. So, yeah. So do PR and turn those into marketable assets. And then we can judge the ROI of those. But there's still an ROI in PR.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
There's just a different way to measure it, you know, through what's called AVM, the average, you know, you look at the average millions of views on articles and TV segments. And, you know, our clients are getting millions and millions of views. We have one client in the past year and a half who's had over 35 million eyeballs on him, new eyeballs.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And you can't tell me that that's not worth something.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
I love that we go deeper than the why. Because if I would say the why, I would say, you know, I do this because of my kids, right? But the because is much deeper than that.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
Yeah. So for me, it was when I was, you know, I own my personal finance website. It was called Iamthatlady.com, which was the initial version of it. And I wanted to get a traditional book deal. I had already self-published two books. And to get a traditional book deal, you need to put together a pretty robust marketing plan.
Mick Unplugged
Lauren Cobello | The Power of PR: Lauren’s on Branding & PR Tips for Solopreneurs & Entrepreneurs
And it was at that time I had been doing a lot of local television in my local area, and it wasn't enough for me to get a book deal. And so... It was then that I tried to hire my first publicist and she sent me a whole bunch of like go banking rate articles.