consistency

What to do if you’re frustrated with your PR journey

What to do if you’re frustrated with your PR journey

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "It's not the destination, it’s the journey” that counts. Now, I’m sure we’ve all heard these wise words before, but how many of us really and truly apply them to our lives and businesses?

Often, we get caught up in wanting to see the results of our efforts without taking time to enjoy the journey and the getting there. I was reminded of the danger of this way of thinking when I listened to one of my favourite podcasts, The R&B Money Podcast, with Tank and J. Valentine, recently. In the episode I tuned into, they were interviewing someone by the name of Adrian Marcel, and he said something quite powerful and similar to Emerson's quote which was, “A lot of people get frustrated and they quit on their dreams [in this case becoming R&B artists] because they make the date the destination”. I.e., they start saying stuff like, “Man, I’ve been doing this for [years] and I’m not making the kind of headway that I would want to; so I give up.”

Even though we’re not all trying to be R&B stars, we can all relate to having a plan for our careers and lives that hasn't panned out by the time that we thought it would. This expectation of success and the frustration of failure is something I see a lot in PR especially when people end up hearing nothing back or they get a “no” after sending a few pitches. This makes them quit on themselves because when they’ve put in the time and effort with no result, they start thinking that no one wants to hear their story.

If this has been your experience; if this has been your frustration, I want to encourage you…

How to stay committed to your PR Goals

How to stay committed to your PR Goals

If you follow me on social media, you would have seen that I recently went to Germany for my friend's beautiful wedding.

In the few weeks leading up to her big day, my dear friend and soon-to-be bride, Kelly, asked if I could read a prayer at her ceremony. I was honoured, and of course, I said YES!

My first thought when she asked me was that all I needed to do was read a verse from The Bible. I was a little mistaken and would soon realise this, thanks to a message from the best man. Fast-forward to a couple of messages later, and worry starting to kick in (lol), I learned that it wasn't a reading of the word that Kelly needed from me. She wanted me to write a few lines that I would say in front of the congregation!

I won't lie; I was a little nervous because I was wondering what I could possibly say to the bride and groom. So, I took a few days to think about it, and these are the words that came to my heart and landed on my page:

What Tetris taught me about PR Success

What Tetris taught me about PR Success

One of the things that I like to do to de-stress is play Tetris.

For ages my high score was in the high 6000s and I spent ages trying to beat it until one day I stopped and just went back to playing for pleasure.

A few days ago, I opened up the game to play it again and had to laugh. My new high score was 7032 and I had absolutely no idea when I'd done it!

3 PR goal-setting mistakes (and how to avoid them)

3 PR goal-setting mistakes (and how to avoid them)

One of my favourite things to do during the Christmas period is binge watch Christmas movies like Elf, Home Alone, The Grinch (Jim Carey's version, of course), Love Actually and Mean Girls

If you frowned in confusion at the mention of Mean Girls, you clearly don't remember the iconic talent show scene

If you've never seen it before (or simply not as recently as me) it's basically a comedy about a girl called Cady who tries to sabotage the most popular girl in school, Regina George

Because needless to say Regina's really not very nice

One of the many plans that Cady hatches to take Regina down (with a little help from her friends) is giving her these "protein bars" that actually make people gain weight while telling Regina that it does the opposite. And, as you can see from the gif below, she succeeds

How to leverage your current content for PR success

How to leverage your current content for PR success

I always say that when I was a little girl I was a hybrid between girly girl and tomboy. Like on one hand, I adored Disney, dressing up and playing with my Barbies. Yet on the other hand, I loved WWE wrestling, got hurt climbing things or jumping off them all the time and adored superhero cartoons like Spiderman, Xmen and more.

Not much has changed as an adult either and I love that Disney+ literally allows me to satisfy both sides of me. Like, all my favourite Disney princesses and Marvel movies all in the same place? Yes please!

My favourite thing about both types of movies is seeing how the heroes in these stories came to be (their origin stories). Do you know who else loves a good origin story? Podcast, radio and conference hosts. So much so that "how did you first get started in business?" (or a variation of it) is always asked in interviews.

If you're anything like me, your business started as something that you did naturally for yourself that people:

  • Saw that you had a talent for

  • Hated doing/could not do for themselves

  • Were willing to pay you to do for them or coach them through so that they could learn to do it too

and then it just grew and evolved from there.

Well the same is true for PR, sis…

4 mistakes people make when getting started with PR

4 mistakes people make when getting started with PR

I love quotes....so much so that I have a whole notes section dedicated to them, which I update every time I come across a new one that inspires me. Although the most recent update was "Boundaries are not about saying no to other people. Boundaries are about saying yes to yourself" (Rachel Rodgers), some of my favourites are about success e.g.:

  • "Success is when preparation meets opportunity"

  • "Success leaves clues"

One that was recently dropped into my spirit is: "success requires systems" and when I shared it via social media this week, I added in the caption "PR is no different". So, with that in mind, I wanted to share 4 reasons why that's true by discussing mistakes that people make when getting started with PR and what systems you can put in place to avoid them. For example:

2 common brand clarity mistakes (and how to avoid them)

2 common brand clarity mistakes (and how to avoid them)

When we hear the word "branding" it can be tempting to reduce it down to things like logos and colours but it's much more than that, sis.

Your logo and colours on pretty graphics etc are the superficial things that might initially attract people to your brand but your content is what will make people stick around and, ultimately, want to work with you. This is why brand clarity is so important- it ensures that you not only attract leads but can retain them and convert them to customers.

This is also why it's super important to make sure that you don't make these 2 brand clarity mistakes:

How to have a Successful New Year

How to have a Successful New Year

Last week we talked about 3 disempowering life and business beliefs

Remember that, sis?

As we stand at the beginning of a new year, I think it’s important that we discuss how to make it a success

If you’re anything like me, you’ve entered this year with a set of goals and things that you would like to achieve

Here are 4 lessons that we can learn from the widow in 2nd Kings 4:1-7 about how we can do that: