284: How do I get PR for my small business? | Cassandra Hili 

What is more powerful than your email list, social media content and blog articles as a small business owner? 

Earned media. 

So if borrowed media are your socials, owned media is your website, email list etc, paid media is your advertising, earned media is all the coverage you get from OTHER people. 

Think podcast interviews, news articles, media attention. 

How do you get it? What if you don’t have any connections? 

All those questions are answered by PR expert, Cassandra Hili from the Curated Agency.  

If you LOVED this episode, make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag us @contentqueenmariah and @⁠cassandra.hili⁠

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KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS 👇

✨ How to get the attention of a journalist 

✨ How to get creative with your pitch ideas

✨ One thing you can do as soon as you finish listening to get the ball rolling 

SHOW RESOURCES 👇

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @contentqueenmariah⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Other than that, enjoy - chat next week 💕

ABOUT THE GUEST 👇

Cassandra Hili is the founder and director of Curated Agency, an award-winning Sydney-based public relations firm formerly known as Millennium Communications. Since launching the agency in 2016 at the age of 22, Cassandra has become a leading voice in Australia's PR landscape, specialising in hospitality, lifestyle, beauty, and expert services. Her agency is renowned for crafting bold media strategies that secure impactful coverage across top-tier outlets, including Forbes, Broadsheet, and The Daily Telegraph. 

Cassandra's journey into entrepreneurship began at 17 with a personal blog detailing her health and fitness transformation, which garnered over 250,000 followers across platforms. This early success in building an authentic personal brand laid the foundation for her PR career. Under her leadership, Curated Agency has evolved into a multidisciplinary team, delivering tailored campaigns that resonate with modern audiences. 

Beyond her agency work, Cassandra is passionate about empowering individuals to shape their own narratives. 

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

 Hello Cass. Welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited to have you here. Can you just tell everyone a little bit more about who you are and what you do?

Amazing. Thank you so much for having me.

So my name is Cassandra Hilly. I am the founder of a PR marketing agency called Curated Agency. We were formerly known as Millennium Communications, but we just did a massive shift and rebrand, and we basically specialize in helping people, places, and brands become media worthy.

Ooh. I like that. It's a great tagline.

Amazing. So, yeah, you um, mentioned that you've just had a rebrand after being, um, in the past agency for nine years, which is super cool. So I'd love to share for you to share a little bit more about that and your origin story. Like how did you get to where you are now? Oh,

okay. Like nine years is a lot of time, but I'll, um, kind of better go back a little bit.

Um, the way that I kind of phrase it is, is like it was in a way like everything was meant to be. So I started a blog when I was 17 years old. I had a ma um, like a weight loss journey and um, I had a blog on Tumblr back. That far. And, uh, basically it was my first initial taste of what it was like to build an online community.

I started it from scratch. I used it as a platform to not just tell my story, but to also motivate other people and meet other people. And within like a year, it grew to over 30,000 followers. Um, from there it just kept developing and developing. I had the blog for about five-ish years, but during that time.

It was also the start of Instagram, so I'd had a Tumblr blog. I had a, I was one of the ojs on Instagram, and then there was a YouTube account. So I was kind of running all of these multiple channels, building my personal brand, growing a community. I. Um, without realizing I was also like my own publicist. I was featured in like my local newspaper, women's Health.

I was speaking at events. I was kind of doing everything even to the point when I was like, I think I was like 20 or, yeah, 20 or 21. I had even flown over to Europe to speak at a children's hospital around my weight loss journey. So. It really gave me the foundations of what I needed to know about building a brand, managing a community, growing a community, but also getting myself out into the media.

And then I was going through a bit of a life stage in my early twenties where I just didn't know what I was gonna do, and I was all very dramatic and I just wanted to be a blogger. And I just decided I'm gonna just spend some time building this. And at the time, the influencer game wasn't what it was like now.

I wish I held onto it that little bit longer, but it didn't. Um, and it was really hard to monetize it. I had a very successful ebook that did quite well, which I sold, and I got my personal training certificate. So I was kind of selling programs, but it wasn't enough for it to be like full salary. So I was What was.

Like in the light of my parents, um, unemployed and my dad was watching a that show with like where they do the, you, you are fired and or the apprentice or whatever it is. And there was a figure, a very popular Australian publicist on there at the time, and she was doing her thing. And my dad goes to me, why don't you do what she does?

And I was like, oh, okay, let's give it a go. And then within a week. I got a new job working in sales. I got accepted into this degree and everything kind of changed. And then as I was pedaling along within my degree, I realized, um, I'm already doing everything that I'm doing. So it started this kind of manifestation journey of, well, I'll get through the course, I'll make my parents proud and get a degree, and I'll keep working.

And then once this degree is over, like I'll just start my own agency since I've already got the skillsets. Little did I know, uh, about six months after I said that, I actually ended up starting my agency. So a friend of mine kind of gave me the opportunity to just start with her brand. And then from there it was like this on flow effect where I.

I had people like referring work to me. When I wa did have my blog, I was also doing quite a bit of social media consulting for other brands. So, 'cause it was that emergence era of power of social media for businesses. So I had people from that time coming to me and contacting me and asking me for my help and it went pretty well.

Like to the point where within. I started in September, 2022. 2022, sorry, 2026. Um, and it's within like six months. I was able to leave my job at the time and go into that full-time whilst balancing my uni degree and we weren't called Millennium Communications for the first, um, nine years of the brand. And just recently in May, we, I just went on a journey where we rebranded purely because.

We just weren't who we, we, our brand didn't represent who we had become. The brand had grown alongside me. It had changed, it had evolved and it just was, there was a bit of a disconnect and I needed something that felt. More impactful, more powerful and less corporate-y because I'm not a corporate person, um, like at all.

And I just took that leap of faith and it's been, it was a big, big journey. It took a couple of years to find the right name to actually do it. And it's been, yeah, now we've been into it for just over a month and it's been amazing.

That's awesome. What a story. I love that that is, you know, back in the days of blogging and it's so funny how like the foundations are very similar, right?

Like building community. You know, creating online content, like it kind of hasn't changed. It's just the mediums and the way we do it, that's changed, right? Like, I think sharing your story building community is kind of what everyone's still doing. It's just in a different way. So it's, it's crazy.

Yeah. I would say like, it's become everything.

It, it's almost like those blogging days were the start of it. Mm. A follower wasn't just a follower. A follower was a community member. And I remember back in the days, like everyone was having. Oh, you know, meetups offline, you know, even if they had like a thousand followers, come meet me at Kiara and let's catch up.

You know, the ask me anything boxes, everyone just used to talk to each other and I feel like brands are now starting to realize, even through founder generated content through their brand accounts, that this strategy is by letting them in, being authentic and being real with them and actually treating them.

Treating their, their customers or their audience, like a person or a friend that they're gonna, that they can speak to and relate to or understand, they're gonna be more likely to stay along with them in their journey. Like I've still got people who followed me in my blog, who follow me on Instagram till today just because they're sticking out for the journey.

Yeah. That's so cool. I love that. It's amazing. It's, and I think as you're saying, like brands are starting to realize like, oh, okay. Like even, um, you know, there's now paywall content in terms of Instagram. You can have like a special password or subscription or whatever that looks like and people wanna follow and be part of that.

And I think it's like you, as you're saying, treating every follower, I really love that, like treating every follower like a community member because it's true. Like if they're part of the journey, like they could. Be loyal fans, right? Not just a simple follow, which I think is very powerful.

Big time. I think like it's, it's one of the most powerful things that you can do.

And if, if you can have community members in real life, like your friends, your family, your acquaintances and everything like that, and you can build them, you can totally build it online as well.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's a really good point. So I wanna talk about pr. It's a very good topic and uh, I think a lot of small business owners, um, yeah, I think it's one of those things.

Where we're like, oh yeah, cool. It would be cool to get featured in somewhere or get seen above my own social media channel because that's where like massive trust gets built, right? Like being on a podcast, being featured in news, like that's where a lot more credibility can come from because it's not you just saying how amazing what I do is it's other people saying it.

Right? So as you say, it's called Earned media and um, you talked about. When I read sort of like a bit more about what you do, it's like, um, kind of journalists are looking for particular things. Media outlets are looking for particular things, podcasts, um. Podcasters are looking for particular things.

What's happening right now? What do we, what do we need to be doing? What, what's everyone looking for when it comes to getting featured?

Yeah. Uh, look, yeah, everything is very different according to each media outlet. I, so I say this really strongly because. There isn't just a stock standard approach with just anything or anyone like you would know.

You're a podcast host, right? You with a specific audience who have specific issues and you wanna have experts on that can talk to those problems or issues or concerns or to inspire and influence, but. What's happening right now I'm finding is, is there are so many incredible brands and people out there and there isn't a lot of media opportunity as they used to be, because people are realizing how amazing PR is or media attention is for the brand, and people need to start getting really creative in order to be heard.

But at the same time, they need to be really tactical with their approach as well. So if you are somebody who's listening and you are wanting to say, for example, get on a podcast, you need to listen to that podcast and you need to hear what they're talking about. Same with the media outlet, like magazine, read it, consume it, find the right journalist and read every single, not every single, but read a few articles that they've written and really get to know what they.

They're trying to tell the messages or the stories that they're trying to tell, and then identify within your product or your story if you're a person or your whatever it is that you are selling, and find your story. Don't make it just about the product. What, what is about the product? What was the journey like to create the product?

What was your business journey like? What did you learn? What were your lessons? What's this big milestone that you overcame? Whatever. How many products did you sell in an hour? Whatever it might be. Mm-hmm. That's what you wanna sell. What's not necessarily sell, but that's what you wanna deliver to a journalist.

Mm.

It's not really these days so much about the product, it's more so about the person who has created the product they wanna know. And even like, and I think social media and TikTok have heavily influenced what the media cycle is like right now, but. They wanna know the authentic story. They don't wanna sell.

You know, this person made X in X amount of hours as much as they used to. That worked really well during COVID times. But now they wanna tell and share stories of people that are authentic, that are real, that have depth, that have meaning. Um, that's what kind of gets across the line.

Yeah, it's really interesting.

I, I did study journalism and PR and when I did my internship at one of the local like, um, newspapers back in the day when lots of people read those, um, one of the, the, the head, um, chief of staff said to me, you're studying pr, right? I was like, yeah. She's like, probably you'll end up in PR at some stage.

'cause every journalist goes into it. Please, please don't send me press releases where you feel like it's a. Like it's a privilege, like it's a privilege to be featured in paper, but don't feel like it's other way round. Like, don't pitch me as if like, yeah, like you need to hear what, it's more about them and their audience, not about you.

Uh, is it still like that now?

100%. The way that I could view it is, is like, we're like Australia Post, we're the delivery man. But like for example, like we are the middleman between the client and the publicist, right? So we're the middleman between the client and the journalist. So the way that I see it is, is like it's our responsibility as PRS publicist, or even if you are a jour, uh, a business owner looking to pr yourself, like you are your delivery man.

Right? Mm. But our job is to find and do all the right research to make sure that the story that we're putting in the envelope is going to the address that we need to put on, like the correct person, so the right journalist. So when we are delivering that to the journalist, they have to then be their own delivery man by then relaying the information and the story to their audience.

And they're always gonna think audience first is our say. For example, their audience is called Emma. They wanna make sure that mi is gonna be interested in this story that you have sold to them. Mm-hmm. So we're constantly just like in this thing, and it's all about knowing, it's all about relationships, it's all about understanding, it's all about consuming.

It's, it's all about understanding as well, the audience that, not just the newspaper or online platform, whatever, Instagram. Uh, account is deliver, like it's not just about that story, it's also about the audience that they're speaking to. It's also about who that journalist is speaking to within that vertical, that column, whatever you wanna call it.

Because every beat of a media outlet, like whether it's lifestyle, finance, whatever it might be, we'll have a very specific person and reader to that beat. And you wanna be able to make sure that that journalist is all the information you're sharing to that journalist is relevant. Relevant to that person that they're speaking to.

Yeah, it's such a good point. And I think even as social media, like with social media or creating content or marketing your business, you, you, I. I always say, you should come at a lens of your audience first. And sometimes we just go like, oh, I wanna share this about my business. And that's fine. But also you gotta think about the person consuming it.

It's no different. It's just that you've got an extra person in between, which is the journalist delivering it to their audience. And it's maybe a little bit different in terms of like, they might have a broader audience or a more niche audience than you. But I think it's important to go like, how is this going to benefit?

And I think the great pictures that I get on my podcast is, yes, as you said, someone listens to it. They reference like an episode that they've listened to or something that, you know, they just haven't picked, like the first thing, they've actually listened and then also like given topics that my audience would be interested in and really tailored it to my audience.

And I think that's so important. 'cause then I go, oh cool. Yeah, that would be a really good episode.

Yeah, it's, it's, everything is all about just understanding. What the person wants and or the journalist or the host, like understanding what their reader wants to know as well. And the way I see it is, is sometimes it's about you have like, we have to be like psychics.

It's like we have to kind of figure out what problem or what solution or what story is gonna work and kind of put it out there and. Make, like see if it's gonna be the one that actually lands or if it's gonna be right. We're kind of predicting what's gonna work. Yeah. It's not work and it's all about being creative.

It's about storytelling. It's not about promoting, like the moment anything comes across to promotional or journalists will likely say no or they'll respond and be like, let me put you in contact without ads. Team. Yeah. If you are a product based business and you have an affiliate attached to your, um, product, like a Skim Link or link be, or something like that, that's a completely different strategy within itself.

But it's all about just understanding and relationships and going back to the roots of what is storytelling.

Mm. Yeah, storytelling is so important. And I think there's sort of similarities too with social media or creating content in that regard. Like, you know, you have some things that land and you go, oh, okay, that was interesting.

Like I have this one specific video for this one client. As soon as we post it, it just goes crazy and it's just like, we know. But it's like, it's funny. And I imagine it's the same thing with like the media. It's like that one, and actually that's a question I had with you. I guess a lot of people, I see a lot of.

Content now from, you know, places like Smart company or um, women's agenda, et cetera, they do take on a lot of like what's happening in the moment. So, for example, um, I had one client where in the United States there was like a big, um, health. Kind of, um, reform and like lots of people spoke about it. So then she leveraged that and wrote an article that was quite controversial and it got picked up by Women's Agenda or, um, you know, during the New Barbie movie or I've seen, um, marketers jump on that and create an article that was quite fun.

So do you recommend, like, you know, for any small business owner, just to keep an eye, like one ear out on like what's happening in your space to be like, oh, we could do an article, a new movie coming out, a new. Trend and do this and how it relates to my brand.

Oh, a hundred percent. Be as diligent as you possibly can with the media cycle.

Like media hijacking is super, super crucial. Um, the moment you see something, you wanna be the first if it relates, and obviously if it aligns to your values, your brand values, and your audience. Values. Um, but definitely media hijack. Like we do it quite often with some of our clients and it works really, really well as a strategy.

And it's also can be really fun because you can get super creative with it. And whether it's a social media post or if it's an article like. It can get you it. It's a fun way to be able to get creative within your branded really, really quickly.

Mm. Yeah. That's really cool. So I guess a lot of people listen, obviously we're time poor.

We're like, okay, so I've got to consume, I've gotta do this, I've gotta do that. Is there certain moments where it's better to just. Focus on PR as a business strategy? Should it be something that we put into our regular, like kind of marketing comms sales plan? Like what do you recommend for clients that are like, obviously outsourcing would be the best, um, but for those that are like, okay, I wanna give it a go, but like, how much energy should I focus on at, how does that look in terms of like my overall marketing comms PR plan?

Yeah. Look, it's really hard to say because, uh, it really just depends on like how. Much of a priority it is for your business and with where you're at. My biggest thing that I would say is, is like if you really want quick wins or quick ways of how you can get PR for your brand, TikTok is a really great source to get some real, like free quick tips on how to land PR or get some ideas.

Mm-hmm. I'm not gonna lie, a lot of journalists I have spoken to do get a lot of, uh, story ideas or trend ideas based on TikTok or Reddit. Mm-hmm. That's a really quick, like, great way to be able to find how can I quickly do this? Or what, what's kind of a, what's something that could possibly work for my business and idea.

Um, but it's really, yeah, it's really hard to say specifically amount of time, but. The thing is, is I would say the more time you give it, the more likely it will work for your brand, but you have to be consistent with it. Mm-hmm. You'll get a lot of, you may get a lot of nos or a lot of emails that don't get responded to.

Like, this is our daily life. Rejection is like our best friend. Um. But you need to see it through and you need to keep continuing to do it because one day that no could be a yes or you know, that story you didn't think was gonna land works. So dedicating at least a few hours a week to it, even if it means in the beginning and you learning and you're trying, getting creative chat sheet PT is a really great way to, it was well, like incorporate AI into it to find ideas or angles or even get them to do some research for you.

Um, we do that like quite a bit, especially with the research side of things. But start off with a couple hours a week, get some confidence around it. You know, get a bit creative with angles. Build out your biography or your brand bio, your brand deck, whatever you kind of feel like is necessary. And. Start sourcing and reading and consuming.

So say if you have a target media outlet, you really wanna get in. Just even if it means you start there and you start with one journalist that you really wanna target, start dedicating a bit of time every day to reading their content. You know, first thing in the morning before you start work or at lunchtime, really feel like you understand that journalist and try giving them a pitch.

Mm yeah. You get the confidence, you can then keep the momentum going.

Yeah, and I think as you said, like even having it in your calendar like once a week to work on, I think is very helpful. 'cause it kind of breaks it down. But like, I think too, it depends on your goal because say for example, you are a product and you're like, oh cool, I wanna get all this exposure.

Can you handle that much exposure? Like, do you have the resources to be able to fill, like even, you know, in influencers say like a top, um. Beauty influencer posts, uh, one of them in the states had to stop doing it for small indie brands because they didn't have the websites broke. Um, they, they just, they just didn't have the capacity to fill the orders.

Um, you know, whereas on the other hand, there was, you know, someone, this is more influencer marketing, I guess, but like sent out some samples and she said, yeah, I'll do a post on it. So we bought like $10,000 worth of stock and then she never did. So it was like. The other way

around, you know? Yeah. So it's like your goal too, I imagine.

Yeah, 100%. And look, and that can happen in the media industry as well. Like you can have a journalist who says, yes, I'll do a story. And that story can take a lot of time to come out, or it may not ever happen. Um, or you know, you can have one article and it can crash your whole business or you can sell out and you know, so it's a really good question.

Like you just. Ask, like ask yourself, like what? What can your business handle right now? Is it going to exceed or be able to support? Success or do you, if you dedicated X amount of time to it every week or every month, or should you start small and grow as it grows with it as well?

Mm. Yeah, that, that's a really good point.

I love that. So pr obviously a lot of it is relationships. I remember when I worked in, um, in-house pr, we were in an automotive company and as soon as we had this beautiful relationship, it was like press release done. Like so easy, right? But now there's like as small businesses. I mean, your work is based on a lot of relationships I imagine, but what if we're like, okay, cool, I don't have any relationships with media.

Can we do it without loads of relationships? What's kind of the plan for our small business owners that are like, yeah, I wanna dedicate some time, but do I need to know, you know who you know, not what you know type of vibes.

Yeah, look, a lot of even coverage that we get doesn't come from relationships.

I'm not gonna lie. It comes back down to the pitch, the story, and the timing. Um, yeah. And the, and the product or person that we're putting forward to them. Um, so that's the first key thing. I even tell this to like, people that sign up with us, they're like, oh, because you've got this client, this relationship, you should be able to get us this coverage.

And I'm like, Hmm, no. Yeah. Funny wish. That's how it works. Sometimes I can call a favor, but I also try not to. But it's, it really comes back down to what. Why, like it really comes back down to, from the journalist perspective on what is so unique about your brand or your story from everybody else's that they should talk about you whilst, look, guest relationships do help, and I'm not gonna rule that out because I have great relationships with so many amazing journalists.

If you are wanting to build them, social media is a really great place to start. Follow them, like read their, consume their media, engage with them, and then, you know, let build up a little bit of social rapport. You can then either DM them and talk to them or even find their email and just simply contact them and take them for a coffee or wine or something like that.

We do quite a lot of coffee and breakfast meetings. Um. With journalists, and sometimes it's as simply as just saying or asking a journalist, Hey look, I know you're super busy, but I really wanna learn more about you and your writing, and I would love to one day be able to pitch to you, but before I do, I really wanna make sure that whatever I do is right.

Can we sit down or have a phone call so I can. Hear like what you're looking for from a brand. Mm. Do you know how many times we've asked that question? And it's been amazing. Sometimes it hasn't even led to a coffee, but it's led to an email. Like I actually did this yesterday with a journalist friend of mine, and I was like, why is nothing I'm pitching, landing?

Tell me what's going on. Because some half the time it's not the journalist that's making the rules, it's the editors or the chief of staff or. The top of the, the corporate ladder and they have to act as quick as we do. And sometimes we're, we're just as much as shock as the journalist is with the changes that we're like, wow, what was what?

Why isn't what, what was, what was working six months ago? No long, longer working.

Mm.

Give us some insight info and it's as simple as either this is what's changed, here's what you need to know, or we're just really busy and we can't prioritize things. Yeah. It's as it's with, for small business owners, it's as just as simple as asking that, that question as well.

But consume, read, understand, and if you're still a little bit like, oh my God, I still don't know. Get social savvy, like the art of social media and the art of journalists. Journalism these days is like, journalists are becoming influencers. So they've got profiles. Follow them, talk to them, engage with them, and you never know what might come out of it.

Mm. I love that. And I feel like it makes it less overwhelming, right? Because you don't have to then have this amazing pitch to begin with. All you have to do is have like, I love that. 'cause for me that's way better than like having to come up with a story and write it and it's like too much. Right? If I can break it up into like, you know.

A bit of engagement. Bit of liking. Bit of connecting, a bit of reading. And then Bill, I, I love that. I think a lot of business owners will really resonate. Like with anything, it takes time. And I think we don't have to do anything overnight because that's not the point. Right. And even I. Tomorrow you could have a say, yep, you're gonna be on the Today Show.

And then something happens like World War iii, which who knows right now. And you just get pushed away. Sorry, we've got bigger things.

Yeah, and that's the thing with this game, you have to be. This is where like having a bit of resilience has been important because, um, these things happen. Like your story can get pushed or you get a lot of nos or no replies, or you be, don't become a priority because the news cycle shifts like mm-hmm.

It's patience is key in this game. And yeah, we just have to like, what, I'll never forget the first time I got featured in Forbes, it took me a year of building a relationship and then like that for the article to come out. Like it was a lot of patience, but when it happens, it, it really, it happens and the on flow effects are.

Are exciting.

Yeah. And you're an expert. Like imagine for the rest of us we need to like 10 times that.

Yeah. Well look, I tell this to my clients all the time because I remember, I'm like doing it on behalf of our clients and it, it's a patience game and it's very much about a managing expectations kind of thing.

Like the game changes so quickly. Like I said, what worked six months ago or three months ago isn't working now and. We, and as business owners, you know, it's like social media. You have to constantly be staying on top of it, be consistent, keep up, uh, you know, get creative, get ahead of the trends. You know, it's what are those kinds of fields that we also rely on?

Marketing strategy. Mm-hmm. So, you know. You just have to be a little bit diligent with it. Yeah. But it's fun. It is fun though. I don't wanna be like being, being a sourpuss. It is so much fun. And there are so many journalists out there who are willing to work with brands that don't have PR representation.

Yeah.

Like especially in the cost of living crisis that we're in now, journalists are humans. They understand it, they get it. So they're also willing to hear from people and brands that aren't represented. It's, it's, mm-hmm. Don't, don't feel as though media is just for those who have an agency behind them.

It's not the truth at all. It's accessible to anybody. The emails are literally on the web.

Yeah. That's so true, and it's, it's interesting that you say that as well because like even, you know, I, um, I follow, I don't know if you follow her on TikTok for Dan, she's like a family lawyer. She's a TikTok. She's been featured, like she's been on the Today Show for her book and her job, and she's just creating content.

She's just showing up. And I think there's a lot of space for people that are willing to, as you said, like founder led, being the founder of creating content and building a personal brand, because journals are watching, they're seeing what you're doing. You know, we see news.com au articles come out all the time about like literally, I.

Tiktoks are like featured in every single like article now, and you just go, oh yeah, this is related to an article. It's, it's wild. So you, it's, it's interesting because we think, oh, you know, I, I don't have anything important to share, or this is boring. Like, I did a story last night. We met a guy over here, he's 82, he lost his wife, he's finding himself and 'cause we're staying in the caravan park for context, he's in a.

In a two man tent and he is got his little VD dub. I, I filmed it last night and I posted it on my TikTok and people were like commenting like, oh my God, this is like, you know, so stories are ev in everything and everywhere and they can always relate to something. And you know, that's the type of story where news.com will be like, oh, we need to get in touch with this man.

This feels like an interesting story. You

know? Exactly. There's stories everywhere. You just have to be vulnerable enough with yourself to actually allow yourself to think that your story is important.

Hmm.

Everyone always says, I dunno what to talk about, or, my story isn't interesting or important. And it's like, well, no, no, no.

You need to remove that mindset and just start going into, no, there's something valuable in here. I might, I lived this experience it, I, I'm past it. But somebody else might be on this journey and they need to hear about it. 'cause they might need to need some advice or they might need to know that there's something on the other end, whatever it may be.

It comes from more of a selfless. Mindset and the more content you put out there with your socials, and trust me, what you just said is exactly it. There're journalists on TikTok watching, like that's where they get quite a lot of the stories from, like, especially in news.com au, your news.com au. Your daily mails like all it takes is one video and it doesn't have to go viral.

It just has to be, has to be interesting enough and they'll snatch it up.

Yeah. I love that. So, okay, cool. We're excited, we're ready. What happens if we do get some attention and we do get a bit of traction? How do we leverage this? How do we prepare for potential? You know, especially, I mean, product is one thing, but even as like, um, service providers, et cetera, how do we make sure that we maximize that?

Do we pop it into our content strategy? How do you advise your clients to make sure that they're ready for, for traction and, and to continue it on?

Yeah, so I always say first thing is first to share it everywhere and share it with everyone, all your marketing platforms, socials, um, also your like email marketing.

Put it on your website, pop it everywhere because the more eyeballs. On, on the article, the better it is as well for your, for you, but also the news site. Mm. Um, from there, when it comes to next steps, just because it, just because you got one piece of article, one article doesn't mean you should stop. You need to keep going.

Yeah. So

media, like social media these days, ev, everything moves really quickly. So keep pitching, keep getting yourself out there. Ask the journalist if they wanna talk to you about this other story. Um, go to other media outlets. Read depending on what platform you've gone to. There are some article like media outlets where I go, don't read the comments, but there are some where I'm like, for example, business ones say smart company or inside small business.

Where in the comment section, I'm like, read them, because that could be where your next content tip might be. Mm. Look at what a journalist wrote a year ago and can you try and see if you can predict any upcoming content that they might be putting out, or can you see like a. A timeline or a, um, pattern of what they've done at a certain time of the year that you could potentially put yourself forth for.

So just be diligent. Keep going, keep pushing. Put it everywhere. Share it everywhere. But get, be ready for your next pitch. Always go pitch ready.

Yeah. No, I love that. And yeah, definitely sharing it. I think like also it adds credibility to your followers too. Like they go, oh my God, you know, this person is featured here, or they've done that.

And, and I think a lot of, so for example, I had a client, um, we posted to Substack an article and, um, smart company reached out to her to like basically reshare it. Um. That was quite cool 'cause that was like content first. So even that comes from like that content first lens. Like you never know what you're putting out there can get picked up.

But then also like how we leverage that afterwards. So we didn't just go, oh cool, that was posted. We made sure we, we mentioned it. And then we did a follow up article on Substack and mentioned the. The reshare, like the I, I mean I'm all for repurposing 'cause it makes everyone's life easier, but also the same time, like it builds that credibility if they go, oh my God, like she wrote that article, it was posted in Substack and now here's her follow up.

Like that's cool. It continues the story. It continues the narrative. But I think a lot of us go like even with podcasts, like, oh, you are on a podcast. Oh, cool. Tick as like, you know, share it, like collaborate, whatever you can do with it. Because I think, and even, um, one of my clients has, has just reached out to a lot of the podcasts she's been on, and we've gotten snippets that we can then post native to her platform because I think, and then we can tag it back to the person.

I love it when, um, people that join my podcast and they reshare or they share to their stories or even a comment, you know, like, it, it's, it's like, oh, cool. They're like actively. And I imagine as a journalist you write this story. And if it does get pushed, it does get the views. You go, oh, that person writes interesting stuff.

I'll, you know, want them to ask them again or reach out to them. And usually I think as well, like I see this with any, anything in business, I do workshops and local government, um, reach out to me. And once you've done one and it's received well, they always come back to you for ideas as well. So it's that relationship already.

A hundred percent a relationship doesn't always have to be over coffee or breakfast. It could be simply just being reliable and giving a journalist what they need or what their audience receives well, and understanding the understanding what they want as well. Like there are some journalists that I've got relationships with that I haven't ever met, but we are email buddies.

And or call buddies. And you know, that's only because we pitch what we know it's gonna work for them and they just see it reliable. And we also make sure that our clients deliver within deadlines. So, you know, that is also very important. Always be within the deadline, be available. Like it's not, you want them, sorry, it's not, they want you, you want them.

So yeah, always lead with that mentality as well. But I, yeah, always repurpose the content. Always do a follow up. Just be reliable and like, I love that idea of substack, like media doesn't just have to be these big media outlets. Like niche media is huge. This is what I mean, like Reddit. Massive. Right now.

Like I said, journalists are using that as a tool to identify like potential stories. Substack is on the, like the, like the next thing I reckon, like start one, build a community on there. Keep it free for until you know you have a real like. Demand for your content. Um, LinkedIn is huge as well. At the moment.

We're finding a lot of journalists as well are engaging with people who are really strong opinions on LinkedIn as well. So share everywhere, be everywhere and keep, like, one article is great, like I said, but consistency is key. Like we, I'm a big believer in not being a fad. I'm a very holistic PR strategist.

Yeah. The way that I see it is, is you are better off having one article a month going out than one article and then now, and then another article in six months from now because

you Yeah.

Have time where you didn't make it a priority. Once you start, be consistent.

Mm. Yeah. That's a good point too, because I think like, yes, you get one win and then you go, okay, cool, put it in the done box.

Check. Yeah. Yeah. That happens with, with content as well. And I think, yeah, finding your, your place I think is important. Like, is it Substack, is it LinkedIn, is it TikTok? Is it video? Is it written? Like finding your space is really important from a content perspective because then you know the sort of medium that you want to delve into and it can help you with that media.

Um, because a lot of us are like. Yeah, where everywhere, which is good, like repurposing. But I think finding that place where people can get that really like juicy information from you is really powerful because that's where, um, yeah, you get that the more authenticity, the engagement. And then of course like, um.

You can leverage that to pitch to media as well, which is cool. Um, so amazing. This is so cool. I'm excited. Um, is there any parting advice before we wrap up? For small business owners listening, they're like, cool. I'm, I'm keen to give this a go. Um, yeah. Anything else that you wanna mention? I.

Um, I'd probably say look, overall, the big thing is, is just start being a consumer and start consuming where your audience is consuming information from.

Um, but also just set a goal and one goal, like that's my challenge. Just set one goal, a media goal for yourself of where you wanna be featured in. Find the right journalist, start reading it, start getting creative, have some fun, because PR doesn't just also have to be media. It could just simply be you even creating your own media channel, such as your own podcast or substack.

It could be an activation that you do offline. You know, get a bit creative with Gorilla Marketing and just stay focused on that and. Don't be afraid to tell your story and pitch. Go out there, enjoy it. Don't be disheartened by any rejection that might come take it from me. I've been doing this for too many years and it, it's just a normal, know that that's normal.

Mm-hmm. But just remember that all it takes is one for, I feel like I'm about to sound like Lady Gaga, but all it takes one person to say yes for things to change.

No, but it's true. We need to get better at rejection therapy. Like it's, you must have, like, you know, those like a hundred nos. I'm sure you, you've nailed that challenge.

You become

numb. You become numb to it after, right? You're like, all right, they didn't reply. You know what makes it worse? There are like chrome things that you can get for your email where you can see when someone's opened it, that. That's the ultimate form of rejection. Like when you're sending a blast out, like a press release blast, and then you see how many people have read it and no one's replied.

That's when you go, oh, this. I should feel things, but I just don't. But it's

just a, just remember, it's a part of it. It's just a, yeah. Absolutely. And it's the same with like engagement on social media. I had someone today like, oh, sometimes I feel I could put stuff out there and I don't get the engagement.

And it's like, but also engagement's one metric of your content. But that's fine. But it's like it, you just gotta get used to it.

Yeah, exactly. Sometimes it's like. The consistency is the most important part, right? Like with content, like with publicity, with any form of marketing, the consistency is the most important part because that's what helps you in the long game.

It's like building a business. The more consistent you are, the more it's gonna pay off later. Right?

Yeah, that's very good parting advice. So thank you so much Cassandra, for joining us and how can people find you and learn more about Yeah. What you do, because I'm sure people will have, um, wanna do a stalk and see how potentially in the future you can help them.

Because I think we all, sometimes these are the things like, oh, that would be really nice to outsource.

I feel that sometimes I think about that myself sometimes. Um. Uh, so thank you for having me firstly, and if you wanna get in touch, my email is cass@curatedagency.com au. Or just simply go to anything that is socials or website curated agency and you'll find us there.

Amazing. We'll have all your links in the show notes, but thanks so much for joining me and yeah, sharing your knowledge. 'cause there's a lot in the PR game, so it was really good to have you on to share all you know.

Thank you so much for having me and thank you so much everyone for listening to me.

Amazing. Thank you.

PodcastMariah MacInnesmarketing, marketing advice, how to be authentic online, business ownerComment