Good morning and welcome to the Monday morning marketing podcast. I'm Esther.
I'm Melanie.
And today we're joined by Tracy Lemery, international award winning publicist finder of Lemery media and media mogul who founded her Empire on Kindness. Welcome, Tracy.
Hi there. Thank you so much, Superexcited.
So so today we're talking about actionable tips on how anyone can elevate themselves as thought leaders to the top of any industry using earned media. Where do we start?
The intro alone is incredible, Tracy.
It's true, though. It's easier than people think. And so I know you guys are marketing experts, so you know all about brand loyalty and all that. And we often think that PR and marketing are cousins. And so when we speak a lot to entrepreneurs just in general about how they can build their brand and how they can access different forums to have that and be interviewed by mainstream media to build that third party credibility. And when I speak to marketing people, it's about a you know, how they can build their brand, because I work with a lot of marketing people in terms of your own expertise and have opportunity to speak in media about what you do, because there's a lot about marketing that, you know, whether it's from marketing expert media or mainstream media, you'd be surprised how much opportunity there is to be quoted in your Reader's Digest I think with that. But I also speak to marketing people about how they can take some tools from the publicist to help further serve their clients in ways that we do. And again, by helping to build that third party credibility that supports their sales and marketing. So when they open their mouth and sell something, they've got that third party credibility.
So you mentioned a publicist tool there. Is that something that you do or is that sort of recognised brand that everybody does?
No, I just sort of, you know, that's sort of my language. But what I mean by that is there's all kinds of things. I mean, all publicists will use their service and some that are accessible, if at no cost, to entrepreneurs, marketing experts, to whoever things like help a reporter out that's a free service source. The matchmakers for podcast, guests and podcast. So all these different people who don't know we're talking about things like help for quarter out and fourth bottle, 80 percent of entrepreneurs do not know what are those, by myself within one week last year, I got one client alone in The New Yorker and in Reader's Digest. In one week, just utilising Haro, for example, help a reporter out. So, haro?
Oh, yeah. Right. So help a reporter out and source bottle in Australia. Those are forums where I no cost anybody, entrepreneurs or experts in any field can connect with reporters who are on deadline, are looking for expert sources for their stories. And again, I mentioned a couple of locations in one week. You enquired into it using that service free service. I've gotten clients into Reader's Digest in The New Yorker, Good Housekeeping, Oprah.com.
Oprah?
Oprah.com, not the TV show because you know. But Oprah, the magazine. Yeah. And that was a Canadian hairstyling client, celebrity style, as I mentioned like that you can ride on for a year. My one client, Good Housekeeping magazine, she's twenty six years old. She had never been in any media before. And she was a life coach, like a whole bunch of other life coaches, but with nothing to differentiate herself on paper from anybody else. So she was thinking how in the marketplace do I sell myself so people will know to come to me? So she thought, well, I share a personal story. We'll see what I've been through that I can help them. So she literally hired me one day as, her story was about successful living with bipolar. She hired me on a Wednesday. On the Thursday through Haro, I connected with a reporter from Good Housekeeping. Again, this is a young girl that had no media ever. The reporter from Good Housekeeping interviewed her and put her in the print issue of the magazine. Her first ever media people think you have to build some small, but her first ever media right out of the gate was a big feature in Good Housekeeping.
Does it help? It's you, Tracy.
How do you mean? You mean
Well, you were the one that connected her.
Well, the reporter didn't know me. I mean, there are skills that, you know, so there's skill. I just met that person, the reporter on haro. She was looking for women to share their stories with bipolar. But it is a skill in how you present it so we can say haro and sauce bottle and people can go to it and say, hey, I tried, but I didn't get anything. Well, I mean, well, we get like this. So this is number one. You've got to be quick because the reporters are under deadlines. If you're taking three days to write the perfect essay, they're not going to go back and redo their article because you had a good comment. Chances are they're trying to get good service. They got to do it quick. And you've got to understand advertorial versus editorial, which is something that is huge for entrepreneurs. And no matter how much you try to explain it to them, they'll still come back with, oh, let's do a press release about and you have to explain, no, that would be just the director of the ad department with that. That's a marketing thing you have to have. It's a different mindset to think of yourself as to really understand their demographic and then to think of yourself as there to give information to their audience, which is what they're looking for, not to give you free advertising, you know, for their for your project, which is what they know you want.
So you mentioned the, you know, about that young girl telling her story. So that would be one of the key things. And I mean, our audience has heard this from us before on other occasions. Tell your story. You're the only one who has that story. It may be similar to other people, but, you know, you have your story. So what would you say to people who maybe don't feel comfortable sharing something like bipolar or sharing something like this that they have?
Yeah, not everybody has to be. You don't share solely that personal, you know, in a lot of people wouldn't. But she had thought I mean, it wasn't something I put on her and said, hey, you have to do it. She had been thinking, hey, this is what I think. If I start putting this out, people will resonate with my struggles enough. So that was her decision before she met me, that she wanted to pull it out. But she has gotten huge, partly as a result of that now for the last year. And again, that was an unknown person. And then for the last year, pretty much anything to do with mental health and little to do with positivity, with inspiration, with, you know, getting over that mountain, anything with that. We pitched her to that and she gets them as team and good housekeeping. Good. So now she's got a whole, she basically built a career and a public presence based on that magazine series. Arianna Huffington Drive Global called her a mental health champion.
Wow.
Luckily, you know,
Melanie
That's quite an accolade
What I'm saying is. So now she's out mental health Champion as seen in Good Housekeeping. I'm not my mental illness right there, that alone is usually powerful. She gets them and tell that story a lot because people think you have to start over at your local paper or on a blog or not necessarily. There's no it literally, as I said, my clients for a small podcast, small blog, to Reader's Digest, to whatever. To me, it's all about building that credibility, you know, building that what they call thought leadership now. But when you search like you search my name now, my name ten years ago, you'd find some activist work I did, search my name now and you find one hundred and eighty podcast, a bunch of articles written about me. There's a new one just today, all this stuff. So I don't have to. So now when people come to me, someone refers someone to me, for example, and I say, Hey, do you want to see some references that you want to see? I just have to send them. You know, it's like Google me, check the links. There's no I don't have to sell myself in the way that I used to have to sell myself. It's all there already.
See, Esther? People can Google me and they'll find me, but they won't find you, will they, Esther?
No, I have one of those names that nobody knows how to spell anyway.
But if they knew, then if they do that is like this. Like Tracy Lemery, there's nobody else called. Trace Lemery, her husband's name is Dave Parkinson. It's like it's not as easy for him to do that. Like John Smith. Dave Parkinson, I don't know.
So we have actually been talking about marketing and PR together so far, haven't we? And they very much go hand in hand. And I don't think most small business owners we do have the largest audience would be small business owners. They realise they do go hand in hand quite as much as we realise it does. So how much should a small business owner focus on these?
So absolutely. I would say and this is what I already knew, this was why I started writing my book, Get Wrapped, which is aimed at that audience. But this is what I really learnt in doing all these podcasts that I've been doing in the last six months is truly I was right about 80 to 90 percent of entrepreneurs. I would say, don't think about PR. They don't conceive of themselves as somebody that's going to be quoted in media. How do you get the new how do you break that way? You they don't get that. You don't see how that's possible. And they think of themselves as, you know, I'm just a whatever those people that get the awards are on TV or whatever they're, you know, that are the only difference between them and you, if you see someone on TV, is they had a publicist or they knew how to reach out to media or to suggest a story because media doesn't go far and wide looking for the best doctor, the best whoever they take the story as it comes to them usually or the content they know whoever is in their Rolodex as the expert for that.
So it's but you know what? There's not one major corporation in the world, not one that doesn't have a PR communications department. So that fact alone should tell the entrepreneur there are not a level playing field, that they're missing all those opportunities. And so if he you know, if you have more time than money, I always say or take a look, try to figure out the entrepreneur versus editorial, try to maybe you can get yourself a little bit but if you have a marketing budget, think about dividing it for a month, even if it's only for a month or for the three months or whatever it is, get a publicist for that period of time because it'll open up your mind, now I work internationally, hi
just dropping that in there.
But just because at the end of that month, you'll see you understand the pitch, right? And then you'll understand. You'll see how you're framed your department as well. You'll be amazed, literally amazed because you'll be getting media. You'll see that your profile about you, that feels good. That's validation. And I had one of my clients in she was just a power lady and she was just going through the pressie funding. I'm not a finance girl, but that's what she hired me. So they were in the middle of all that. She literally said to me after six months of a lot now, because it really paints a picture after six months of working together, she said, You changed my business in my life. And I'm like, that's a pretty big accolade. What do you mean? She said, You made investors take us more seriously. And right this time, I mean, that's you. I was always thinking more about the customer, you know, elevating yourself above the competition and all that. But I hadn't thought about that. A lot of finance go, but investors taking you more seriously is the difference between them going, look at the media they got, that's interesting look, all we in Japon are talking about is a difference between them dropping two, three million dollars on your company or passing it on and going to the next one.
Yeah,
And I havent even thought of that. So now I'm like, oh, no, from that perspective, even more valuable, you know, because again, we built and then everything that we do supports the marketing department. Right. Because, again, if they're credible or the person is credible or you're credible or whatever, then when you're selling or talking or whatever your message is or they Google, well, who's this person saying this to me? Who is this Tracy? Who is this. Oh, OK. They look at you, you know, why why are some family successful? Because it's not just the idea. They look at the personalities and what who they are and what they've done and all that stuff that matters. Right. So in a world where well know, how do we select the best way to know about who someone is by looking at what they're doing. Right. And we have to make that with to be especially as women, not be ashamed. I was doing a podcast the other day and someone said like aren't we bragging if we do that and women say that all the time and there's a big difference between confidence and arrogance. And that's something we really need to realise.
We need a little bit both in fairness. Yeah, you do a little digging.
Well, but you know what? My one of my clients more efficiently when she heard this call, she made it up. What she said is perfectly confidence has a smile and arrogance has a smirk.
Confidence has a smile. Arrogance has a smirk.
Right. Because confidence is like, hey, yeah, this is good you know. But arrogance is like, oh, I'm better because I'm good. You're not as good or look at me. You know, that's not what confidence is. So you're completely different, really.
So can I ask you, we now understand that it really is essential to have both in your business model, but can you do too much or too little marketing and PR?
Yeah, I would say yeah, probably. I mean, too much of anything. I mean, depending on how your division of your time, number one, as an entrepreneur, your own division of your time. And if you're doing things on your own like number one. If you're doing it, DIY. number one. The more time you're spending on that kind of stuff, the less time you're spending do what you love, which is, you know, being that entrepreneur, being on the stage, whatever it is that you do, you know, that's why you got into this. So you don't want to spend all your time becoming a marketer or becoming a publicist or something , you know. Yeah. And in terms of can a brand have too much? Well, that depends to what your messaging is and how like you can be you want to be in their face all the time, either
No
You know. So it all depends on how the song that you overhear played all the time too. But I mean, I don't think it's too much necessarily to a point where if you're being called for interviews and what you're saying is of value and all that, it's you're not pushing your different forms. I don't think you have to worry about being oversaturated, not with is a big giant media world. But in terms of your own time and your spent, you know, you don't want to get away from your core. What brought you to what you're doing either? Right. So
Amen,
is there any such thing as bad PR? Oh.
Oh, yeah, I think so. I definitely. You know, you always see people say, oh, any what do they what do they say. Any mention any press is good press.
There's no such thing as bad PR
People say that all the time and I'm always like, oh my God, you're so wrong. You know, the people who pay publicists I don't have any quite like this. They know more about elevating and celebrating. I want to be seen, but there are people who pay publicists to keep them out of the news, you know, so yeah. And I mean, just even as we know, that's not true as individuals. Like I mean, we just I as an individual, like, oh, if I see, you know, I'll judge and decide. We all decide who we want to do business with or who we like or who we don't like based on, you know, their present, the kind of things they say in their social media presence. And I know certainly in the last year when some people were, I don't know, losing or whatever on the Facebook, you know, with all the things going on last year, there some people that I change my opinion based on stuff that they said or, you know, and that's just on the social their own little PR. It's not even in the news, but it does matter. You know, you people will definitely judge you. And we all do it based on, you know, sometimes good things and bad things. You know, like sometimes we're fairly judged, you know what I mean? Like, you know, we can expect not to be judged. We can't be putting all this negativity out in the world and thinking, oh, you know, I'm not going to get it back. Right. So those kind of things matter. And people think that, oh, yeah, I definitely don't agree with that. Any publicity is good publicity. I think good publicity is good publicity.
So can I ask Tracy for our listeners, is there maybe some top tips that people can take away from? Because you've mentioned a lot in fairness, we obviously still want to contact you and learn more about you, which we will do at the end. And we can learn a bit more about Recht as well. But is there any actionable tips that we can give our listeners to take away today, please?
Yeah, I would say put together a pit, a pitch. At least it will differ depending on who you're talking to. But at least your little bio is the pitch for your the bio that you'll use in your pitch, basically. And so it's the about you. What? It's not your regular bio. It include stuff from your regular bio, but it's mostly what makes you a compelling guest. What makes you knowledgeable about this stuff. What may what a couple of ideas about what you might speak about if you were on the radio, for example, or on a podcast, just for example, is when I send in my pitch about me to be interviewed. I don't just say Tracy is an international award winning publicist. You'll be like, OK, you know, so
that's lovely. Wonderfull.
But, you know, kudos to you. But they'll say, like you said at the beginning, traitorously can give tips about how any entrepreneur can get top of any industry using earned media. Or another thing I talk about is, you know, building up your confidence that you can build up your brand so that you can build up your community items perspective. So whatever you think about some little ideas, like what? What you will talk about on a segment. Yeah, exactly. And that should be, you know, small area. This is about Tracy, the about Melanie. And then honestly spend some time looking at here. If you haven't heard about Haro, go look at it together. Help a Reporter out,
Over here is general request. Yeah. Over here it's journal request
and you guys have sauce bottle in Australia as well. I don't even know Jordan so yeah there's a bunch of them and but basically the, Haro its good too everywhere because I'm in Canada and about 60 percent will be America only. But a lot of it is more, you know, whatever, they don't care. So it's just check in with those once a day. After a while, you're going to actually be amazed again. You might be open to the media opportunities available for free for regular people and start thinking more about Google. Look it up on the interweb, figure it out. Look at what I say. What I mean when I say editorial versus advertorial, because, again, the advertorial is the way you're trained to think. You talk about your product, you talk about marketing. That's all familiar to all of us watching a million ads. You're also used to watching, you know, new news interviews. So start thinking about that in terms of yourself and watch the news know before you pitch a story to the news, you know, watch the news. But is that really a story that might be on the news or is it more something that would be, you know, maybe on page A16 or in the lifestyle section of the paper and pitch appropriately, don't you know? Star opening to the NEWSROOM with twenty two minutes to tell the national news, you know, so you have to start to have an understanding of what they do, what kind of stories they cover. And, and that's where you don't want to spend all your time though. So you know, maybe hire a publicist. But no but it depends on if you have more time in my life is that when we all start out, we want to do everything ourselves,
but we don't have a budget when we start out.
Exactly. So, both right? You are on a budget and we and we kind of. Yeah, there's so many things to do. You just sort of starting out. So there are definitely things. I didn't hire a publicist when I started this and I wasn't a publicist, so but I put a whole hell of a lot of time into it, maybe over nine years from when I started as a freelancer to where you Google my name now and there's a large national warranty. That's all you know. Right. It's time. But you can do that. Take an hour out, whatever, you know, two hours a week is, can you do that, then do that and use that time and find the opportunities and you know, because there are a lot of opportunities.
OK, so I'm going to have to ask Tracey tell us about get wrapped.
All right. So, yeah, my publisher would say, boy, we were waiting for that for a long time. Yes. She originally asked me to write that in twenty seventeen. But, you know, busy publicist. I was busy with my clients.
Wow.
This year I've gotten a lot more. The story behind it is was so, Lewena Bayer was one of my first clients when I was a freelancer. Now she's the head of Propriety Publishing. But back then she had just got her book, The 30 Percent Solution, which is a business book about how civility in the workplace can impact your bottom line in terms of employee retention and customer retention. We made that an Amazon in business bestseller just with working with it was a six or seven years ago. And then she decided to start her own company in publishing, has about 40 offers now, mostly in soft skills and business. And she literally asked me to write the book on PR. So I started writing it like three years ago and then it was starting. But now I've been, you know, overcover of like, no take an hour a week. And I've actually been doing it. So we should have it out by early summer. And it's actually worked out really well because through COVID, I've started doing all these podcasts mostly to a business audience, you know, as a guest, the entrepreneurs and executives, which is the audience for the book. So I'm, you know, really seeing the kind of questions that are asked you and the kind of, you know, the responses that listeners have. And I'm really understanding what a blank spot, what a yeah, what a blank spot it is for so many entrepreneurs. Just the way when I started my business, I was great at what I do. But I know nothing about the backend, about finance, about growing a business the way I had to get somebody to come in and, you know, teach me all that. And they look at me and she didn't know that. That's the easy stuff. Just the way I look at any expert while utilising media. You're an expert. Get up there. Like what? You can do that? How do you do that? That's why I started the book and talking about it and everything, because really, again, it's the way I built my entire business. I have never placed an ad not one
Have you never?
Not one.
Wow.
That is impressive actually.
You know.
So where would be where would you find the book, Tracy.
So it's going to be on Amazon Studios and propriety publishing. It'll be you know, I'm hoping to get it. I'm going to be doing my PR things if I can get it in bookstores. So but definitely Amazon and propriety publishing, OK,
That you have given us so much great information today, Tracy, and so many tips that we can all take and all run with. Thank you for that. Where can we find you to connect with you and
engage you
more stuff
follow me or hire me or whatever the heck you want to do, yeah so you can find me on Instagram at Tracy Lamarre, PRMEDIA, which if you spell my name right, they'll find me because I'm the only one. And Laborie Media.Com is my website. Tracy Lamarre on Facebook. LinkedIn is great to connect with me as well as the more on LinkedIn and yeah, and I'm happy to do it every half hour. Consult with anybody that says they heard me here and wants to know if I really can get them in the media. I promise. I mean, you everybody.
Oh thank you for doing that, Tracy. That's very nice of you.
Wonderful. I hope all our our listeners take you up on that. That's it for today. Guys, thanks for joining us. Do connect with Tracy and ask her all your burning questions as well in case we missed anything today. We'll be back next week with more Monday morning marketing. Until then, have a good one
Bye.