How to Promote Yourself in the Media

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Welcome to Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass. Jon is the founder and CEO of image group international and award-winning image consulting and personal branding pioneer established in 1989. This podcast will bring you old school wisdom, inspiring ideas, strategies and hacks for the new tech world. Here you will learn everything about personal branding: the system, the techniques and the right mindset to have a successful personal brand, image and reputation.

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Hello, today I will share about how to promote yourself in the media. Before I started, I kindly asked you to subscribe to the podcast on a platform you're listening to. So every time we have a new episode, you will be notified. Cheers. 

0:44
Okay, so let's get started. First, you need to understand that this episode is not about social media. Yes, the internet is a great way to promote yourself. In fact, we spoke about this in episodes three and five. But in this episode, I will share about traditional mainstream media. 

1:04
So what is traditional mainstream media? Well, basically, it's the media before social media arrived in the scene. So it's the media that you consume by television, radio, newspapers, magazines, etc. And it's a media that still has a lot more influence at the times we think, with the prevalence of social media, in the last 10 odd years or so, it is important to get in the media because specifically, it's an opportunity for you to promote your ideas to promote your voice to promote your products, your service and why you exist. Traditional media plays a very important part, as I noted earlier because it gets key messages out especially to target markets and demographics that at times you might not be specifically connecting with on social media. So the relevance is very important. It's a perfect tool, of course, in today's market, just as it was pre-COVID. And of all these corporations that do spend millions, if not billions of dollars annually, in mainstream media, if it didn't work for them, they wouldn't be doing it. So obviously, there's a lot of good opportunities for smaller firms and individuals to be able to leverage on a similar opportunity media does make a big impact when done. And of course, you as well, what I take this opportunity right now to share my own experience with you how I got my name in the media. And that started a long time ago. 

2:43
And if you recall, I mentioned a few episodes back how I originally discovered the media in my early 20s. When I became a young designer of the year and won an award and was featured on the front page of the Age newspaper. That was like the big aha moment in reference to the power of media. Of course, since then, many years later, I also utilize media consultants, PR people, and others, in reference to getting stories and creating pictures for the media and spent hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of 1000s of dollars doing that. Over the years now with that. And of course the relevance of that, that investment has paid off over the years, because it landed me a lot of positive media, and specifically some of the biggest media in the world. So it could not have happened without, you know, a campaign of outreach to speak to the relevant people, journalists in this case, and media professionals that could then specifically put a story together after they decided to do an interview with me. And you know, and that obviously, in getting some of the key messages out that I wanted to get. 

4:05
So some of the tips regarding that are you know if you want to promote yourself to media, the first thing you want to ask is why you. And if you're clear about that, it's about also what do you want to say. And then specifically, if you can get clear on it, the How then becomes which media to use, specifically to your personas. So the tips would be around, obviously reach out to a target list of journals that cover your subject. Don't go to a business journalist, if you would normally have to speak to a moms magazine as an example. Get your pitch right and make it interesting because nothing undersells, like boring. And finally, if you're successful, you'll end the interview and get published. If you don't, what you've got to do is pitch again and never give up. Just go to your next choice. 

4:59
I have some Additional practical tips for you. You can write a piece on an online platform or newspaper, you can put yourself out there and start becoming searchable on Google. And how I basically landed my Forbes columns is because we pitch to different media over the years. And of course, overtime or selected over the years, we've also been regular riders in the Australian entrepreneur, Finn review, and of course, Boss magazine, among others. So what you've got to do is never stop, if that's part of your strategy. Because as I've noted earlier, it's a positive credibility builder, and also an authority builder. 

5:44
Another tip is to get quoted, journalists like quotes from experts. This builds credibility and authority for you and helps the journalist in completing their story. And I can find you through your professional experience, you know, contacts, or your writing books, publications, or LinkedIn. And of course, the Google search. And even on Google Images, if you've got the right quotes there, there'll be also found when people are searching for your name. The more quality content you have online, the more that supports your credibility, your authority building. 

6:23
A further tip is to make yourself available to speak publicly. and identify opportunities to formally share your expertise and thoughts. Think about topics in which you would be fairly comfortable speaking about, and who needs to know about you, and what you have to offer. And what I mean by that is, you know, concentrate on subjects that you'd love, for example, think of three subjects that you can be really good at communicating a message of authority. And then from that point of view is go out and target where you want to communicate this, of course, public speaking is definitely an important vehicle for building your personal brand. And of course, you can do this online as well, you know, and in the last 18 months with COVID, zoom has been fantastic to actually communicate to different audiences around the world. Another way to do that publicly also is to get on to podcasts, create your podcast like we're doing today, and certainly gives you the opportunity to build your specific audience, your specific tribe that has a deep interest in your subject matter. And this way, you're creating a sincere following that is waiting a week to week to hear some of your comments.

7:47
So let me share with you how I attracted a client of mine in the media and the consequences it had on his career. So what happened was via a media story, a client contacted me and part of the brief was to build their personal brand, build my personal brand getting noticed, so I can get my story out to the world. Well, we started off in personal branding. And that also then, eventually migrated to the business brand, because that's actually what happens when people feel safe. And they trust you, they start to open up more opportunities with you. So from that perspective, we created at the end of his personal brand plan, a media campaign. And this real campaign included a combination of media that we would want to place him in, and that attract the three prime spots in mainstream media. plus an additional six stories in associated media. That was a lot of attraction for the campaign. And what that actually gave him as results was extraordinary. It landed him three major clients, and a venture capitalist that in time invested over $12 million in the business. 

9:03
Well, the show is almost over. Thank you for your attention. Please email me if you want my help to promote yourself in the media. The email is on the description of the episode. As always, if you liked this episode, please share it with your friends, family and colleagues. You can also share it on your social media. You can follow me on Twitter at jon_michael or LinkedIn as Jon Michael and on Facebook as Image Group International.  If you like the show, I'd like you to write it on Apple Podcasts. For this, you just need to click on the link in the episode description. Thank you all see you next week and wishing you abundance in all you do, cheers.

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Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass" Podcast is sponsored by Image Group International, a global team of practical, digitally savvy personal brand and image strategists, based in Australia, committed to maximizing your impact, influence and authority in the business world.   To learn more and apply for your personal coaching, seminars and group workshops please visit imagegroup.com.au or call 1800 631 311.