When I talk about this topic you might think…..“Well Caroline has been doing PR for 20 years, she knows exactly what she was doing…”
And yes that is very true, BUT I hadn’t done PR for myself before (well apart from having a profile on LinkedIn and a great network of contacts developed over the course of my career).
When I started Cheerleader PR, I was a combination of excited and petrified….. I am sure you know how that feels like! I had been freelance for 5 years previously (trading under the name Caroline Joynson PR), but I knew I wanted to work with people to train them to do their own PR.
As much as I can do people’s PR for them, they really need to have those skills to promote themselves.
Why?
Whenever you put yourself forward and market yourself, you are essentially doing your own PR.
You are showcasing you and how you do business to the world and potential clients and customers.
So as much as outsourcing can be right for some, the basics of promoting yourself need to be understood and appreciated so you can do your own marketing and PR, day in and day out when you show up in the world.
In order for you to understand the best place to start with your PR, then why not review how I got started after 20 years in the business!
I PRACTISED TALKING ABOUT MY OWN BUSINESS
The online world was fairly new to me at the time and I was in various groups with other female business owners. That is where my online journey began as I started to meet other people who were wanting to build an online business like I was.
During this time, people would offer their Facebook groups and online spaces to people in order to promote themselves. So I took them up on the offer!
This enabled me to practice talking about my business, who I am, what I offer as well as seeing myself ‘live’ online, hearing my voice and seeing my face.
If you look back at some of the posts/videos I did, they were not perfect by any means, but the purpose was to get my face out there and show myself unscripted and real – and become comfortable and confident with that.
Being able to introduce yourself with confidence and clarity is crucial for getting known – so go on! Give it a go!
I NETWORKED AT RELEVANT GROUPS
I was very active in different Facebook groups, memberships, went to events and got to know other people in the online business space. So many of my clients have found me either from my own networking event that I run or other networking events that I have been to, so this has been crucial to my business success.
People are looking for experts all the time, so if you have been showing up, introducing yourself and your business, people will know who you are, what you have to offer and how you can help them.
You want people to remember you – so the clarity and confidence that you gained from practising step one above will enable this to be so much easier.
99% of all the guest expert slots, podcast interview or networking presentations I have done, have come about from someone recommending me as the ‘go to’ expert in PR. That wouldn’t be possible without that networking and getting seen and building those relationships.
I WROTE MY MEDIA BIO
In my free Facebook group, I ran a media bio masterclass, where I taught people how to write their own media bio. Up until that point, I hadn’t really looked at my story, my expertise and my life experience that had got me to that point. Going through that exercise and pulling out the key threads of my story and key topics I could talk about, suddenly I had that clarity on how I could help people and what I wanted to be known for. This in turn gave me the confidence to approach the right people at the right time, with the right stories to boost my visibility and credibility.
Are you looking to get more visible in the year ahead? Then sign up for a 2-hour Cheerleader PR Strategy Session with me 📣.
Book now here.
To see my live video talking about ‘Where I REALLY started with my own PR’, click here.
