Angel Tuccy is a best-selling author and award-winning radio host with over 12 years in the media industry. Using media interviews, Angel went from being a stay-at-home to being awarded Most Influential Woman of the Year. With her media background, Angel has been a catalyst for entrepreneurs to gain more visibility, more media exposure, get published, and become best-selling authors. She's been on radio, TV, podcasts, and stages and featured in countless magazines.

 Angel candidly teaches her audience how to get published and how to gain more media & publicity exposure in order to create even more leads and get paid even more. She is the author of 11 published books, host of over 2,000 broadcasts, and has interviewed over 5,000 guests. Angel travels the globe speaking to entrepreneurs about how to expand their influence and attract more customers by leveraging traditional media exposure. She lives in Denver CO.

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Angel Tuccy (rhymes with fussy)

Use the power of Media Interviews to create even more industry influence, elevate your brand and differentiate yourself from your competition. Grab a complimentary guide to create guaranteed media exposure in 10 days. www.MakeYourBigImpact.com

Angel Tuccy is an Award-Winning Speaker, Radio Host, TV Producer, Best Selling Author & PR Media Specialist. Her clients have been featured on thousands of major media publications, television, radio, podcasts, magazines, and stages.

Angel was awarded “Most Influential Woman of The Year”, “Best Morning Talk Show” and “Best Talk Show Team” during her 10 years in broadcasting. She’s been featured on the cover of Lemonade Legend magazine, shares stages with top influencers, and hosted a daily morning talk show syndicated on 7 streaming channels.

Angel is a best-selling author of 15 published books, and she’s been featured in countless others. Her top-selling book “Get Discovered” is the how-to example for creating media exposure in less than 90 days by using media interviews & PR to grow your business, book, and brand.

Angel has hosted over 2,500 broadcasts and interviewed over 5,000 guests, and such as Sharon Lechter, Michael Gerber, Les Brown, Forbes Riley, and Bill Walsh. Her unique approach to media is why her clients call her the Media Matchmaker.

- Creator of Media Mastery 360
- Best Selling Author, 15 published books
- Host of The Angel & Tina Morning Show 2020-2021
- Assets Are Sexy Founder, Sharon Lechter 2020
- Listed in Marquis Who's Who 2020
- Host Experience Pros Radio Show 2009-2018
- Diamond Leadership Award, Powerteam USA 2018
- Nominated for Most Community Impact, HR Chamber 2016
- Best Morning Radio Show, Colorado Community Media 2015, 2016, 2017
- Best Networking Group in Denver, Brazen 2015
- 2nd Place Best Talk Show Team, Colorado Broadcasters Association 2013
- Most Innovative Business of the Year, HR Chamber 2014
- Nominated for Outstanding Business Woman, Denver Business Journal 2013
- Chairman of the Board for the Chamber of Commerce of Highlands Ranch 2012
- Hall of Fame Award, HRCC 2012
- Most Inspirational Business Leader, SMDCC WIL 2011
- South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce Member
- Colorado Broadcasters Association Member 2012-2018
- Founder of Ladies Who Lunch 2009

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I am looking forward to sharing another amazing industry expert with you. Our expert comes by way of Denver, Colorado. Angel Tuccy is the author of eleven books, including the number one bestseller, ABCs of Exposure: Media, Publishing, & Speaking, and teaches how to use traditional media to break through the marketing ceiling. She is going to transform the way you think about media and marketing using some of the best ideas she learned from hosting over 2,000 radio broadcasts and interviewing over 5,000 guests such as Sharon Lechter, Michael Gerber, Seth Godin, Jackie Collins, and many of the sharks.

Angel openly shares how to multiply and monetize your exposure using media marketing. We all know that media marketing is a topic that is near and dear to my heart so this is going to be a great conversation. Get your pen and paper ready, because I know we are going to have some writer downers.

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Angel, thank you so much for being here with me.

Thank you so much for having me. I am pretty excited.

I am excited too. This is an important topic. A lot of times, when people are thinking about marketing, they forget the media part or else they think that media means social media and we know that it is not. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about what media coverage means to you so everybody knows what we are talking about and we are all on the same page?

Most people, when they hear the word media, they go directly to social media. I speak at conferences all over and I talk about TV, radio, magazines, podcasts, and even the standby press release when I talk about traditional media. A lot of that gives you content you can share on social media but in the world of social media, everybody can post on it. When you are an invited guest and you are being featured in traditional media, you are taking up an exclusive spot. There is a lot of benefit and credibility when you are using traditional media to grow your brand.

I know that a lot of media outputs are looking for entrepreneurs to attract more media, publicity, leads, customers, and sales so it is important that we pay attention. I always like to say, “Marketing is great. You have got to master your marketing but you need to leverage media.” I love it so much but let's backtrack a little bit. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about your journey and your story of how you got here? I am sure you did not wake up one day and said, “I want to work in marketing and media and I want to write eleven books.” Tell us a little bit about that.

It is pretty amazing that I am here when you think about my background and if you were to peel back the layers. In high school, I almost failed my public speaking class. It was a required class for graduating. Had my teacher not taken pity on me and given me a passing D, I would have failed because I was nervous and scared anytime I got up in front of an audience. I was shaking and trembling. I could barely utter a sentence, let alone put two of them together.

One of the exercises we did in our public speaking class was to go into our radio studio, our high school studio booth, and read a soundbite or an intro. At the age of seventeen, he said to me, “Angel, you will never have a career in radio.” At that time, I dismissed it. That was fine with me. That was not a direction I thought I would ever go.

What is interesting is twenty years later, I was being interviewed because I had a radio show and they asked me if I had always wanted to be in radio. That message came flooding back to me as if it had always been there in the front of my mind. I did not even remember that he had said it but that had been a gift poured into me as a young girl and yet here I was, years later, hosting an award-winning radio show.

That is a great story. For most people, when they think about public speaking, it is in the top three things that people dread. It is almost like death. They do not want to public speak.

That was me. Even now, I travel as a public speaker and it is still something that I have to work towards. It is not a skillset that came naturally to me. My son, Michael, thinks that little thing is called a Michaelphone. I will put him on stage and he is good to go. I was not one of those. The way I ended up in media was I was hired by a public speaker to be his admin. I am a behind-the-scenes, paper-and-pencil, Post-It notes, spreadsheet kind of girl. I was doing some research for him to do a presentation.

Because I had done the research, I knew the content and he said, “Angel, you are going to help me submit and present this content.” I wrote down, word for word, our 45-minute talk into twelve pages because I did not think I could stand up in front of an audience and recite or remember two sentences. I read that script word for word, trembling, sweating, and shaking. It was the ugliest thing you have ever seen.

I have only been a professional speaker for eight years and I have never wanted to speak. I have been in marketing for twenty, since 2000, but I have only been a speaker for eight. Most people have heard my story. When I first became a speaker, it was by accident. What I did for a whole year was every single time I got on the stage, before I did, I was violently ill. Getting on that stage was terrifying to me.

One of the things I always like to say now is, “I do it for a living but nobody has ever going to have to fight me to get the microphone back.” I am not one of those people who are like, “I want the microphone.” Once I have delivered my message, made an impact, and connected with the audience, I have no problem handing it back. However, with that said, I do remember that the biggest a-ha moment for me was once I realized that it was not even about me. It was about them. That took so much pressure away when you realized that I was the messenger.

When I discovered radio, we started podcasting and got discovered by our local radio station. On my first day in the radio studio, I took my headphones off and said, “This is what I want to do.” I had found my comfort zone where I could speak, I could talk, and share my message but it was me alone in a recording studio. It is me and my notes. We would go to a commercial break every eight or so minutes and I could still share my message. It was comfortable for me to do radio. I truly felt as if I had found my calling.

I find that interesting because we are both speakers but I love radio and podcasting. I did live radio for a while and I loved it too, but as a speaker, I travel a lot. Podcasting is phenomenal. I like it but radio is fabulous. The Marketing, Media, & Money Podcast followed the magazine. We did the magazine first and I love publishing a magazine as well and doing events and all that but I have a heart for radio. It is my thing, too, so I like it. What do you think about why most entrepreneurs struggle with marketing?

I have been an entrepreneur myself since 2008. My husband is the same thing. When we first started out, you think you build it and they will come. You are going to open up a shingle and a website, and the customers will come flooding in. What I discovered is, like most entrepreneurs, we have been taught a myth about how to build a business. We are out there building our business one-on-one. We are doing networking events. We are networking with the same people we networked with last week. We are going to lead groups to the same groups we went to last week.

We are sending emails to the same group of people we emailed last week. We are talking to the same people over and over again and thinking that word of mouth marketing, referrals, and leads are going to build our business. In reality, relationships are built one-on-one but if you are going to build your business and scale it, you have to get in front of a fresh new audience every single week on a regular basis. This is where traditional media comes into play where you get to be an invited guest.

Media And PR Exposure: If you want to build and grow your business, you're going to have to get in front of a fresh new audience every single week on a regular basis. Traditional media can help you with this.

I love how you talked about radio and podcasting. It is the number one way to connect more deeply with your audience because they are hearing your voice, they are hearing your story and you are getting in front of a fresh new audience every time you are a guest on somebody else's podcast. The reason they struggle is that they are not expanding their audience. They are talking to the same people they talked to last week.

I agree with you. I am going to delve a little bit deeper into that in a second but one of the things that I find is also interesting is that people do not know how to leverage it. Talking about podcasting, it is number one but one of the things that crack me up and I see every single day multiple times a day. Someone will have earned the right to be on somebody's podcast. They get on Facebook, and they are like, “I am so excited. I was on such and such podcast,” and that is all they do. They do not leverage it.

For me, if you are going to be on someone else's podcast, or even if you have your own, you should be talking about it before, during, and after. How are you leveraging it? What is the next thing that is going to happen after that? You have to have a plan about what you are going to do and people do not give enough thought to that. It is funny because, for me, I talk about it all the time and I talked about it with the guests, with the podcasts, and with other people.

I always have a whole spreadsheet of all the podcasts that I have ever been on myself, what the message was, and which ones are podcasts that I love that other people did. If I am in a Facebook group and somebody is talking about something, the first thing I do is I am like, “Somebody did a podcast about that.” I will go grab it and I will be like, “Check out this podcast. This answers some of those questions that you have.” There are so many ways to leverage that and people miss the boat there a lot on what they could do.

In all marketing, you see this even if they are speaking somewhere or they are at an event. It is so flyby that they are not strategically using it to spread their marketing message. They are throwing spaghetti out there and seeing what sticks. Because they are not sharing and repeating it, they are leveraging it because every podcast can be leveraged into multiple forms of messaging and marketing. We are sitting on a goldmine, Patty. I love that you are teaching entrepreneurs how to leverage the power of the podcast.

It is so important. I have to say, and I will put it out there, that because podcasting has a low level of entry and there is no barrier to coming in, pretty much anybody can have a podcast. Like everything else, there are some good and not so good. There have been times that someone has invited me to be on a podcast. I won't mention any names but I was on the podcast with someone who is a pretty big name. She speaks a lot of places, sells a lot of programs, does a lot of things and she invited me to come on her podcast. It was a 45-minute podcast but I probably said five sentences the whole time.

She asked me a question, I would say one sentence, and then she would talk for twenty minutes about how that is what she helps her clients with and that is what she does. It was crazy. Somewhere in there, I felt like saying, “This should have been a solo episode. Why did you even ask me to be on this podcast?” Sometimes, there are people that do it well and there is some etiquette like there is social media etiquette.

When I am on a podcast, I know the person who is a host. Believe me, I am not asking you to do this so I am not leading to that. When I am a good guest, I want to make sure that I help that podcast host as well because it is a small world in a way. You want people to be able to say, “I had such and such on my podcast. They were great guests.”

People are going to study that and so I always want to do everything I can to promote it, leave a review, make sure I have listened to at least 1 or 2 other episodes before I get on their podcasts. I give the podcast hosts an opportunity to be able to say within that conversation, “I read this blog that you did,” and stuff or whatever the conversation is, that is so great.

How many times would you think, “Who are some people out there that I would love to have a conversation with or to listen to them have a conversation?” That is what podcasting is about. What we are going to talk about now is what are some of the things that people would love to be sitting down and they are being able to learn some of this stuff because they may or may not ever meet you.

This is an opportunity for them to learn your story to be able to get the value in the impact that you are out there making. You did not write eleven books because you did not have something to say or a message. You talked earlier about your story. Let's go back to that. How do you turn your story into publicity? How do you do that?

You have to take your sales hat off and put your publicity hat on when you are thinking about sharing your story. This is one of those areas that small business owners are struggling with. They think if somebody is going to be within ten feet of them, they are getting their sales pitch, “Here is my 30-second elevator pitch of who I help and how I help.”

Stories are sticking. Stories are how people connect with each other and what people will share. We can get into a space where we are thinking about how our story has an impact on the world. One of the exercises that I take my clients through is What is the Big Idea? If you are thinking about your story, what you have gone through, your experience, which only you have done, so you are so unique in that space, and you have a PhD in your story, nobody else can share it the way you can. You have gone through this experience, so what is the big idea?

If we look at the world and how the world would be different? If they listened to your story, they went through your program, they were part of your podcast, and everybody in the world was doing what you talked about was going through that lesson, how would the world be different? If we can start to think about how we are impacting others, because of the story that we have gone through, it is like when you are speaking on stage.

It is not about you. It is about the impact you are going to have on the world. I take them through this nice little exercise on What is the Big Idea so we can peel back the layers on what is trending in the news and in the marketplace in the world. How does that impact? How does your story impact and where can we filter that into the gaps and what is trending? You probably remember Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Did you get on the bandwagon of that?

I did not get on the bandwagon, but I am familiar with it.

She is a New York Times bestselling author and she started a TV show. Her big thing is helping you to clear out the clutter and only keep things in your life that spark joy. Consignment stores, thrift stores, and donation places were up 345% over the year before. Within four months of her TV show coming out, they were overwhelmed, overpacked, and did not want your stuff. They were at maximum capacity. That is impact.

Media And PR Exposure: When facing media exposure, you need to focus on one thing. You don't have to be a Jack-of-all-trades. Focus on the thing that you can do in your sleep, or the thing that can keep clients up at night.

Here is a woman who is talking about decluttering, talking about only keeping things that spark joy and she made this incredible impact because everybody started following her. Think about the impact of our story of overcoming, recovery, and breakthrough. What impact that can have on the world? It is phenomenal the opportunities that are out there to share your story. There are so many places looking for fresh content and guests. Why not you? Why not share your story?

It is important to know how to position yourself. It is great that you are going to turn your story into publicity, but how would you position yourself, in your opinion, for media exposure?

The first thing I recommend is focusing on one thing. You do not have to be a Jack of all trades where I speak on this, this and so much more. Focus on one thing and that is the thing that you can do in your sleep that keeps clients up at night. It is that loss leader. It is that low-hanging fruit that gets people excited. When they think about you, this is what they think of.

If they are going to do referrals and word-of-mouth marketing, you want to focus and be known to that one special team. Position yourself as the title in that. Are you the breakthrough specialist? Are you a recovery specialist? Are you a media specialist? Give yourself the title that allows for people to start to recognize you as the expert in that space and lead with that.

We do not care about your company name. We are not into your program. Not into all of that yet because when people hear, “We have got Patty Farmer, a specialist of,” the initial thought is, “I need that. I know somebody who needs that.” They can start to relate to you. I always encourage my clients to go through a little market research before they choose a title and see what sticks among the people that are already following them.

Go to your social media site and do engaging posts like, “Do you like this title or this title?” This will start to create and spark that conversation because marketing is the art of starting a conversation. You start to see what bubbles up to the top. Once you position yourself and you have established, “This is what I am going to be known as, and this is the title,” then we run with that everywhere. Make sure that our digital footprint matches everywhere on social sites, business cards, voicemail leads with that, and press release launches all of that. The world is our oyster after that. Does that make sense?

It makes sense because a lot of times, they do not know how to position themselves and what it is they want to be known for. It is the difference between being an expert. I always like to say all the time, “Everybody who has a business ought to be an expert at that. It does not matter what you do, but are you an authority at that?”

You need to be an authority so you are known as that go-to person so people know that you can influence people and specifically into making a purchasing decision. Becoming that authority is important, and is one of the ways you can position yourself. I like that. Once you position yourself, how do you leverage media exposure where it counts like measuring how to do it and how to leverage that media exposure to attract leads and clients?

There are a lot of opportunities to create media exposure like podcasts. When we started podcasting it was 2008, anybody with a cell phone and an internet connection could host a podcast, so there are a lot of opportunities. You think about your story and what you would want that to be out in the world. Do you remember the Chewbacca Mom, the girl who put the Chewbacca Mask on? Her video was one of the first videos on Facebook. They hit over a million views. Did you follow that? This was in 2016.

I do not remember that one.

It was Candace Payne. We all want to go viral. We want our story to go out there, get picked up, and say something. We want the world to take it, run with it, our phone rings, and our sales funnel overflows but in most cases, that is not exactly how it works. We have to work on it. We have to become the brand name, be top of mind, and put ourselves in front of the right audiences on a regular basis.

One of the things we have to know is our numbers in business. I love that you talked about money, marketing, media, and all of that together. If you know what your numbers are, you will know how many people you need to be in front of on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis, you are creating the exposure. What happened with the Chewbacca Mom was she made this video. She is in her car and she had gone into Kohl's and bought this mask that when you put it on you open your mouth that makes the Chewbacca monkey sound.

She laughed and it made her laugh. It was this infectious, authentic, joyous laugh. It was a ten-minute video but it was one of the first videos to hit over a million views on Facebook. They brought her to Facebook. She was on ABC, NBC, and all over. She was this viral, amazing story that we would all want. The challenge with that is Candace did not have a business to back that up. She did not have an opt-in that she could send people to. She did not use it to build her list.

I always recommend that we use media to build our list. Have an opt-in where you are sending people back so you will know okay, “I got this exposure,” great, but exposure without a call to action is vanity exposure. In some cases, that vanity is good. I have got that ABC logo or magazine logo, whoever that brand name is. For most of us as business donors, logos are not going to pay the bills.

We need clients to come into our sales funnel. Having an opt-in being able to use it to build your list is what Candace did. She can never go back and recreate that same viral sensation and collect the leads and the followers that had followed her. During that time. She has since created something she also has a podcast and created a program. She is written two books.

I got to interview her when she wrote her first book but this is a great example of having your business systems in place to be able to handle the media exposure so when you go out and you are a guest on somebody's show, you can funnel them back into your sales funnel. I think I did not answer the question. I feel I went round-robin on that. What was the original question, Patty?

How to leverage media exposure to attract leads and clients?

Media And PR Exposure: Whenever you're being featured in the media, you have to have a clear call to action. Something that you can use to grab the audience and further your relationship with them.

Use it to build your list. Whenever you are being featured in the media, have a clear call-to-action that sends them to a squeeze page, text opt-in, or some way that you can use it to grab the audience, further your relationship, and nurture that relationship with them.

Now that we have leveraged that media exposure, we have this opt-in and call to action, which is very important, I know we are going to talk about yours at the end but I already went in, got it, and I have already bought your book. Your book is great so I love that you have it on Kindle and Paperback. I got it on Kindle but I may need to get it in paperback so I can write all over it.

The way you broke it down was done very well. Thank you so much for that but now that you are leveraging that, that leads to what are some of the ways to monetize it. There are so many people out there doing all kinds of stuff. When my clients say, “I am going to do this and this.” I am like, “That is great but how is that making you money?”

For me, I do not do anything until I figure out how it is going to make me money. It does not mean it is going to make me money on day one but there is a plan. I already know what my plan is and how I am going to monetize it. If you could give us 3 to 5, that would be great. What are some of the best ways to monetize your exposure to get more leads and clients?

You are right. If we are not making money, we have an expensive hobby. I have this conversation with clients all the time or with people that meet me at workshops and conferences. I have to ask them, “What are you selling?” “What is it that we are leading people to? What is your core product offer?” When you know what your core offer is and you think about your revenue goal for the year, and if we were to break it down, let's say it was $100,000 for the year, you want to break six figures.

It is a big goal because only 6% of most entrepreneurs hit over six figures in a year, which is so sad because we are busting our butts. We are working twelve-hour days, if not more, and that was not how it was intended to be. You have got your revenue goal. When you think about your core offer or your average client ticket price, how many clients do you need to serve to make your goal?

This is a valuable exercise I take people through all the time. I did one with a gal. She only needed 35 clients to hit her sales goal for the year. You have put up this number and we think, “I am going to make $1 million.” When you break it down to how many people are you going to serve, this gets us out of that mindset where it is all about the dollars and all about money. We do not have to feel we are these money-grubbing people. We are there making a difference in serving our clients.

How many is that? When we can break down how many clients we need to serve over the course of the year, we can break that down by quarter, by month, by week, and even by the day. Once we know that, we can now leverage these media opportunities where we are getting in front of the right number of people or a brand new audience on a regular basis.

The reason why traditional media and why you see people with ABC logos, NBC, and CBS and why they post as seen on these traditional media logos is because those logos are familiar. You are not yet. They have not heard of you yet. You are not familiar. This is why we align ourselves with other brands that people are familiar with so we can put our name with somebody else that they trust.

For example, you already trust Patty. You listen to her, you are her guest or in her audience, they already know, like, and trust you. Being a guest on your show, that trust transfers immediately over to the guest. You elevate your credibility and you create familiarity. By doing those three things, because people do business with know, like, and trust, you have got the trust, you have got the elevation of credibility, and you are more familiar, you shorten your sales cycle by 60%.

If somebody opt-ins because they have heard my talk here, they already like and trust me. If I can give them a result and my opt-in, followers become customers when they get results. If I go through my filter, I send them some value-added emails, they follow me on social, read the book, and go through the opt-in. By the time they connect with me and we get on a call, they are more than likely going to become a client at that point.

You are attracting clients versus chasing. Knowing your core offer is key. It is getting it in front of a brand new audience or knowing how many people you need to get in front of on a regular basis. Having your upsell, your lifetime value, your numbers, and your program all figured out monetizing your intellectual property, the digital courses, and having your book out there are all smart ways to leverage.

We all say, “You need to diversify and have more than one stream of revenue,” but that does not mean being a dog walker, a window washer, and a graphic design artist. Have all of your streams of revenue but have multiples that bring in six figures. Have a digital course, have your speaking, events, program, service, and each one of those bring in that six figures. It might take 3 to 5 years to put it together. So what? The time was going to go by anyway.

I agree with you. It is one of the things that people say to me all the time. If I had $5 every time I heard it, people will say to me, “Patty, you work all the time. You are everywhere and you do all these things.” Here is what I always like to say, “No. I do one thing well in many ways.” The podcast, Marketing, Media, & Money, the live event, Marketing, Media, & Money. I do marketing and media. That is what I do. I publish a magazine. I speak about marketing and media.

In all those things, this is what I am the authority on and I do it in many different ways so I make money in many different ways. That is what we are talking about here. It does not mean like what you are saying. You do not need to go out there. It always cracks me up when I see somebody that this is what they do and then I see this other thing. Sometimes all that does is make people think, “You must not be successful at what you are doing because why are you doing that?”

Sometimes, it is because you are passionate about it. It is something you love to do or maybe it is your plan B. If you wanted to replace your planning, there is nothing wrong with that. I am all about that, too but if this is what you do, and somebody says, “This is what I am about,” and then all of a sudden, you are teaching this class on something else.

You are like, “What does that make sense?” You need to be thinking about that. I love that you were pretty clear about that. This is one of my favorite things and I do not always get to ask people about it because not everybody gets it but I know you are going to. What do you think about newsjacking? I love to newsjack. It is one of my favorite things to do for my clients. Where do you sit on it?

Media And PR Exposure: Newsjacking is an incredibly valuable way to get your story out there again. You can interject your voice into a conversation that is already going on and kind of piggyback onto an ongoing story.

Newsjacking is an incredibly valuable way to get your story out there to interject your voice into a conversation that is already going on. Often, we want to pitch this cold story to the media but if we can piggyback onto a story they are already doing, give them a fresh point of view, a different point of view, a new angle, then it is brilliant. I recommend newsjacking.

I teach that to my clients and we have had a lot of success in getting our clients featured because of newsjacking. It is an insider media term. The average person does not realize that how it works is they can participate in it. One of the things I have my clients do is set up a Google alert for their topic so they get a notification every time their topic is featured in the media so they have an opportunity to participate.

I always like to say there have been some famous ones. Several years ago, I remember the Super Bowl when the lights went out. Oreo came out less than 30 minutes and said, “You can still dunk us in the dark.” They jumped all over that. I have a client that lives in Florida and where they have all the hurricanes. When they had that big hurricane, the thing that people do not realize is, sometimes, you are listening to the news and you are thinking they are repeating themselves over and over again but they are doing it because they do not have anything else to say.

They would love to have something else to say about that. That is the opportunity. This time, they were talking about the hurricane and everybody was talking about how they might have to evacuate and how you need to be ready in an emergency. My client was in the financial world and so I said, “We should pitch this and talk about how you need to be also ready for financial emergencies.” She is like, “What does that have to do with hurricanes?”

I said, “It does not, but it does have something to do with an emergency.” We pitched it and I had her on every single radio station. We went all the way to Capitol Hill based on that story but it was a different story. It was a story we were able to tell by taking something that was already happening and insinuating her business in that story.

Honestly, newsjacking is a technique but it is a technique that works well now which leads me to my next question. How powerful do you think that press releases still are? Is it old school? Is it something that is still valuable? Is it all about how you do it? Is it something you can't? There are a lot of ways you can do it yourself now? Is it something you should hire somebody for? Where do you stand on the whole press release thing?

People outside of media think that press releases are old school and outdated but truly, press releases are the language of media. There is a space for them if you are wanting to put your message out there. It is Google food. If you Google your name, and you want to be on other people's audiences and other people's platforms, here is another way that you can do it. It is also a great way to get featured on some of those major networks.

If they pick up your press release through the Associated Press, you can reach out to them and say, “You have already got my press release on your website. Let's bring you in for the story.” It can open the door. If you have never done a press release, you should hire somebody to help you until you start to understand the language and the format because there are a lot of rules and formatting that happen that is awkward to somebody who has not been in the media or has not done a press release in the past.

From my clients, there has been some great stuff that has come from putting a press release out. It is pretty exciting when you see it work. We have tried all sorts of ways to distribute press releases. There is everything from a computer-generated. They will put out computer-generated to people that have connections and leads with different media outlets, and everything in between.

Before you get hung up on the distribution of it, you should get in the habit of writing them. Putting your PR hat on, what is newsworthy in my business? What have I done recently that I can tell that story? It is little popcorn pieces of your story and your brand. It is not everything but let's start to get in the habit of sharing and creating publicity, and a press release is an easy way to get into that.

A lot of times, people do not know what kind of things it is because there is a place for do-it-yourself. Remember, are you the best person to represent you if you are wanting to put yourself, your business, your brand out there and you are wanting to leverage that? Is this where you should spend your time? Is this something you should do with somebody else? There are a lot of places and books. There is a lot of information out there on do-it-yourself PR.

There are some ways that it can be done but sometimes, it is important to have a professional help you so I agree with you on that but a lot of times people do not realize how they can talk to journalists. I did a media panel and we had a lot of journalists. I live in Dallas, Fort Worth so we had a lot of them here. I found that afterward, people came up to me and they were like, “I did not have any idea how to connect with them.” That was one of the questions I asked.

The journalist was like, “How can people connect with you? What is it that you are looking for?” I thought it was great when they started sharing exactly what it is, how they want to be reached, and what it is they want. Do they want it to be emailed? Do they want to do this? What are the things they want and how do they want this big long story? What is it they want? Here is someplace that is your expertise. What do you think is the easiest way and/or best way, so they may not be the same answer, to connect with journalists?

These days, if you go to the local TV stations, your news sources, and radio stations, everybody's email address is available online. It is easy to send them an email with a quick introduction of who you are. If you do not hear anything back, a follow-up is lovely. If you have got a story that has got a sense of urgency to it, then you can follow up with a phone call but you can send an email, press releases, and media pitches.

We have had a lot of luck doing that. Never send them an attachment because they do not know who you are. You are not sending them, “Go now and look at my stuff over here. Here, I am a specialist. In fact, I wrote a book on it. This is what I would love to be a feature on. I can be a content expert.” It is short, sweet, and simple. We get so many replies especially if it is a good fit.

One of the other things that people need to be thinking about is their business. They do not always understand the news cycle. There is definitely a cycle there and stuff. Let's talk about the timeline, and what they need to know about paying attention to the news cycle.

I do not want you to take on a whole other job following the news and figuring all of this out. If you are following the trends and you see that there is something trending, you set up this Google alert of what is going on in the media and you can see the news that is going on in your topic. That is something very basic that you can follow. You do not have to learn it all at the onset, just in the beginning.

Media And PR Exposure: Following the news and figuring out where you can plug yourself in shouldn't be your second job. You can set up a Google alert for what's trending in the media and see what's going on about your topic.

Start thinking about, “How can I put my story in there?” How do I position myself as the expert? How can I add value to that story? What can I bring to the table that is not an infomercial? You can't use free media and traditional media to sell your product and service. That is what most people are thinking. If I am going to get on the news or if I am going to be featured, I am using it. I want to film my event. I want to sell my product and my service. If you have not paid for the spot, you have to pay for advertising, if you are wanting to sell something.

Think of this. If you are selling, they are selling. You have to come up with what value, what expertise, what education, and what entertainment can you provide to them. Because there is so much opportunity, they are looking for fresh content. They are 24/7 looking for ideas. Where do major networks get their news from? It is from their regional affiliates. Their regional affiliates get it from their local affiliates and local affiliates get it from their press releases, community newspapers, and social media.

Rather than get hung up on, “When should I send it? Is it today? When is the best day?” Done is better than none. You do not have to be perfect. If you send it on a Friday and it did not get picked up because everybody is off. I would rather you send it than not send it to get in the habit of and get in the mindset of creating publicity for your story.

I love that because I wanted to ask you a question on local versus national. A lot of times, people think, “If I want to get on that, I have to do this first.” What are some of the ways that people can break into local news? How do they get known locally? I know there are a lot of different ways that I use and use your local media. What are some of the ways that you would suggest that people be able to leverage in local news?

Local is where I always recommend you start. They are looking for local stories. They get their national stuff from the national team. That is what we are. We are fillers for the national news. Connect with them. If you want to know something about them, you can read their bios. Because you watch the local news already, you know something about them and you know things that are going on.

By being a brand new author, by being a content expert, by positioning yourself in that space, you have opened multiple doors by connecting directly to that newscaster, that journalist, or that station whether that is radio or television. It is the perfect place to get your foot in the door and to get your story out there. One media attracts media so now you can leverage that media story by sharing the clips, the links, and the pictures that you took.

Once you are on the inside, it is all in who knows you. One person can change your life. If you have got somebody on the inside who likes your story, they have sister stations. Who else can they refer you to that they can send that story on, recommend, and introduce you to? Sometimes, we get in so we can build a relationship with the journalist so they will introduce us to that next interview opportunity. They know people in you do not. It is always easier when you can get in by a referral than a cold call.

What would your advice be to somebody that is maybe a brand new entrepreneur or business owner? Maybe they worked for corporate and they are transitioning but now they have not worked hard on this and they are getting started? What would be the things that you would think that they need to do first?

The very first thing is to put together your media kit because this puts you in the mindset that you are publicity worthy not because they need your media kit but almost because you need to realize that you are a valued resource for the media. It is a mindset shift. When you start to put how they would introduce you, what topics you would talk about, and how you would position those questions that lead back to the answers.

Secondly, you use media to build up your exposure, your visibility, and your list. Even if you do not have a new product, your website is not perfect yet, or you are still developing, you leverage media exposure to build your list, and get followers and contacts. When you do have something to sell, you have people to sell it to. Even if you are starting out, your story is so valuable as long as we can position it to be newsworthy. We want something current, credible, and juicy.

You have maybe not heard this phrase, but in the media, we used to say, “If it bleeds, it leads.” They are looking for drama, sensation, and not always this perfect, “I am going to come to help you in a bind. I am the perfect person for this.” A lot of times we think, “How to be prepared in a financial emergency.” One of my favorite topics and lead-ins for sending a pitch is to take that tip but add the word without.

How to get Michelle Obama's arms without doing push-ups? How to be prepared for a financial crisis without losing your shirt? Take it that one step further that disrupts complacency that says, “Everybody wants to do that,” but it is this pain point that you can solve for people in a headline. When you start to think of your world as headlines, what is publicity, and what is media-worthy, you have become unstoppable.

You have been so generous and I love that. I know we are almost out of time but I want to be able to ask you, what do you love about your business? You shared all this great stuff. You are doing all these things. What is next for you?

What I am loving about my business is the results that my clients are getting. I love that they are so excited, “Angel, I got picked up here. They shared my story here. I have been invited to speak.” It lights me up to know that I am making a difference because their story matters and it deserves and needs to be out into the world but they did not have any idea or any clue how to get it there.

What I want is to serve that even more. My goal is to even elevate my media contacts and the people that I have got relationships with so I can serve them even more. I have been blessed. I retired from radio in 2018. I was 48 years old. My kids were moving out. I was becoming an empty nester. I felt like the bottoms had fallen out from underneath me. A ten-year broadcasting career was erased in 24 hours.

The company and I had a business that I had tied to that and we decided to close that down and our business partnership. My world was dropping out from underneath me. I had a choice to be brave and to think and try to define myself, redefine, and rebrand who I was. I chose to go the public speaking route. Public speaking was not my comfort zone and yet, I put myself out there in this super scary space and I bravely stepped into that.

It is because I knew I was meant for another calling and I was meant for something more. That was a good season. I'd had a great season and a great career but I was not finished helping entrepreneurs expand their brands. When we can give small business owners a voice in the marketplace, their impact on their community will be even greater. I am called to that every single day.

Angel, how can people connect with you?

My favorite way is a complimentary gift that I love to give out. You can find it at MakeYourBigImpact.com. I can't believe I got the URL and that it was available. Download that free gift if you want some tips and tricks on creating media exposure. Also, follow me on social media. I am active on Facebook. You can always find me there talking to my clients sharing stories about my family. I love the interaction, the socialness, and the conversation that happens on social media.

As we wrap up, this is one of my favorite parts of the show. This is what we call Open Mic. This is where I am going to pass the mic to you and I would love it if you would share your number one marketing, media, or money strategy with the audience.

My number one media strategy is to build your business using OPP, Other People's Platforms. Build your business one-to-many, create that credibility, leverage the trust, and create that familiarity because platforms attract platforms. Instead of building your business one-on-one, use OPP and build it one-to-many.

That was a great tip. Thank you so much for being here with me. Angel, you were generous in sharing your zone of genius. For the audience, make sure you grab that gift. I have already done it earlier as well as her book. Make sure you grab that too. That was great. I love the book. We want to make sure that you connect with her, and take it to the next level as she said. You want to make sure that you get into her world. For everything that you shared, thank you so much again, Angel. I appreciate it.

I am so grateful. Thank you for having me.

For everyone, if you enjoy this episode, please subscribe and review the show on your favorite platform. Make sure you join us on Facebook in the Marketing, Media & Money Magazine Podcast and Event Facebook group where we can continue the conversation. Until then, make it a great day. If it is not great, change it.