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View this issue online at www.todayscoach.com/Feb2004/021704.html
Tuesday, February 17,
2004
Welcome to the Latest Edition of Today’s Coach
We’ve
got a great interview with Deborah Brown-Volkman, who is
an accomplished coach, author and media maven.
In addition to speaking at the 3rd
Annual CoachVille Conference June 2nd - 6th,
Deborah is the Chairperson for the new CoachVille PR
Task Force. Read
on for a treasure trove of tips on working with the
press and creating buzz for your practice.
Tune
in next week for an interview with America’s Dream
Coach, Marcia Wieder.
Till
then...
Keep
playing,
Kim
George
Director of Communications and
Collaboration
CoachVille/Schools of Coaching
kim@coachville.com
Contact
us at letters@coachville.com.
Growing Your Practice Using the Press
An Interview with Deborah Brown-Volkman
 We're excited to have you be a part of the 3rd annual CoachVille conference in Orlando in June. Can you give our readers a taste of what you'll be presenting?
I'll be talking about how to grow your coaching practice using newspapers and magazines. About 2 years ago when I came back from the first CoachVille conference in Las Vegas, we were really challenged to take our practices to the next level and I said, 'I really want to build a relationship with the press "so I educated myself. on how to do this And, I used my 12 years of sales and marketing corporate background to help me. In the two years I've been in the Wall Street Journal, Smart Money magazine, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune; and I've been in these publications several times. I realized that it's not as difficult as one would think. There are so many reporters out there looking for content, they are looking for what have coaches have to say.
There seems to be this perception - and I don't think it's just particular to coaches - 'Who am I to approach the press?' How dangerous is that fear?
Well, I believe that fear is real, and I also believe that it can be overcome. The press is intimidating. We see the press from a paparazzi perspective, going after certain
celebrities - so it's intimidating. That's one side of it, but the other side of the press is news, content, and reporting things that people really want to know about.
What's great about the press is that it's not who you know, but it's what you have to say. The press is looking for the story idea; they're looking for something that's new or original, or something that they can expand on. If you look at people in the news they're not always famous; they've just done something that's interesting and that reporters feel readers would want to know about.
It seems to me that it makes a shift to what the individual is an expert at or has to say or offer.
Exactly. I'm a big believer in specialization. As you know, I wrote my book
Four Steps to Building a Profitable Coaching
Practice, and it's really teaching coaches how to pick a niche and specialize. Once you specialize, it gives you focus and direction. I'm a career expert, and once I had that focus, I was able to go to different publications, find out who writes about careers, read everything about them and what they write, and help them come up with story ideas because of this specialization.
What you're saying is specialization is really a big, big key in getting heard and getting recognized from the press.
Specialization is the key to getting clients and growing your practice. It's the key to getting the press interested in you. It's the same in the workforce; if you wrote a resume that said, 'I can do anything' and sent it to employers, you wouldn't get a job.
We're always specializing, and for some reason in the coaching industry, coaches are afraid to specialize. I think it's either that they're new to coaching and not ready to specialize yet; or they're afraid that if they say, 'I only do this', they're walking away from something, and you are. If you specialize, there are clients you will walk away from, but what's great is that you're walking
towards something that's greater. You have that focus and clients will be able to identify you, they'll be able to get what you do. And once people get what you do, they'll hire you.
I did an interview with Mitch Meyerson and one of the things that stood out for me was when he said, 'People do business with people that they know, like, and trust.
Yes, and that's what I like about CoachVille. CoachVille knows the value of specializing, and they're really committed to helping coaches with that.
You talk about this hesitation coaches have to specialize. Do you discuss this in your book?
Yes, the first step is to define your target audience. I believe - and this is my personal opinion - that who you coach is you. You are giving back your personal experiences and lessons learned. I believe people are joining the coaching profession because this is the first time there's an industry where you're able to give back what you've overcome in your life, and people want to know about it. Let's say you were in a car accident, and you survived that, and then you end up opening a coaching practice on how to survive and go on. Or, you took your own business to a million dollars, and now you want to help other people do the same. There's a teaching aspect to coaching, and who you coach is you means that you're giving back your personal experience.
Thomas Leonard talked a lot about that, about bringing your experience and who you are to coaching.
When I talk about sharing personal experience, it scares many people. Coaches will say, 'Well, I'm not done yet; I have more work to do.' Well, we'll always have more work to do. The goal is to find the people that want to be where you are today, and that's your target audience. As you grow and train and develop yourself over time, your coaching practice expands because you're expanding.
There are always people who want to be where you're at, no matter where you are or what you think you haven't done yet, there are always people that admire you.
The larger point here is that there are always ways through your experience and your coaching that you can add value, and that's very powerful for people. When we approach the press, we need to be thinking about how we can add value to them.
Yes. When you contact a reporter, you want the reporter to put you in the story. Both you
and the reporter know this, but a reporter is not going to put you in if you're all about self-promotion. Talk about yourself and the work you are doing with your clients as it pertains to what the reporter is writing about. Make it relevant to him/her and the reader. Don't promote your coaching services unless a reporter asks. Reporters have a duty to their readers, and if you can offer them something that's going to have their readers come back time and time again because they wrote a good story, they will quote you and they will use you in future stories.
So it's the idea, then, of building a long-term relationship, or an ongoing relationship, with a reporter.
There are times when a reporter will call me and won't use me for a story and I'll say, 'Whether you use me or not, please feel free to use me somewhere down the road.' But, the thing to remember about newspapers and magazines is there are thousands in the
world. Each one of these newspapers or magazines all have a space to fill. If you're a magazine, you may have a monthly or a weekly edition to fill, or if you're a newspaper, every single day you have to put words into your newspaper. Reporters are always on the lookout for stories
and, coaching is so interesting because it produces results, it transforms people's lives, and reporters are interested in this.
So what will a reporter be interested in? If you write a new book, that's interesting; if you come up with a new product or program that produces results for your clients, that's interesting. If you read an article a reporter wrote and think there's something missing, and contact that reporter they might do a follow-up based on the information that you gave them.
That's very helpful, because I think one of the main questions to ask is, 'What do I have that is interesting to offer?'
Yes, and everyone has something interesting to offer. The way to really craft that is to do your homework. For me, I'm a career expert and
when I started, I began reading all the newspapers and magazines I could find, finding reporters who write about careers. With the Internet, you don't have to spend all your time at a news stand, you can read a lot online. You can get a reporter's email address, and you can start telling them things about your practice that really relate to what they're writing about.
So let's talk about some suggestions that you have for the coach who may be reading this that's never approached a reporter before. Where should they begin?
I believe in building small. I use this story - I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a couple of months ago when they had a whole U2 exhibit; the whole entire floor was dedicated to U2. There were rejection letters there from Sony Records and some of the bigger record companies in the world. So, instead they went to the smaller radio stations. They got played, they got known, and then they were able to go to the larger record companies and get signed. That's the way to start - to start small. We say, 'Oh, I want to be in the Wall Street Journal'. The Wall Street Journal may take you if you have something really interesting, but the truth is, if you haven't been in other publications first, they might not take you right away.
The place to start is to identify newspapers, and magazines, in your area. Get to know the reporters that write about what you do; contact them, let them know you're an expert. Really pay attention
- if they write a story and you see that something is missing or you see that something in your coaching practice relates to what they wrote about, contact them. Let them know about your coaching practice and how you can be helpful to them in the future. Hopefully they will call you when they are writing their next story. Then, once you've been in a local newspaper, you can go to the larger newspapers, magazines, and press and say, 'I've already been quoted'. It gives you more confidence to approach them; it gives you more credibility in their eyes, and it gives you practice with smaller publications when you start small.
I would imagine that's important to develop these skills and fine-tune your approach in the beginning.
Yes, because there's less pressure when you are talking to a reporter at a smaller publication versus when you're having a conversation with someone from the Wall Street Journal, who is more experienced. For the larger publication, you really need to be polished.
That relates back to our conversation about specialization. You really need to know your target market, what you do, and what you have to offer in terms of being an expert so you can position yourself with the right
reporters.
Definitely. You know if I wrote a press release about something that's career related and I send it to a reporter that writes about real estate or living or relationships, that's really going to upset them. I've wasted their time and they know that I haven't done my homework.
So there's a process that's really developing here of doing your homework - which implies not only investigating what local opportunities you have with the press, but your business homework of what's my target market and where am I specializing - and then starting out with a letter of introduction. What's your opinion on email versus snail mail for doing that?
I like either one. Reporters rely on email a lot. Especially if you're sending them a story idea or a press release. It's much easier for them to have it in email so they can just cut-and-paste to use it. If they get a fax, they have to re-type it. They like email.
Then, you want to follow up with a phone call and then invite them out for coffee or lunch?
Yeah, and they'll either say yes or no, but you've already initiated the relationship. It's something they're used to; it's not unethical.
Tell us more about this idea of following up with information that they can use.
The way to communicate with the press is through a press release. I know CoachVille has a link to that - an excellent link.
We actually have a press release design
system.
It asks you questions and has you fill in the blank; and then you have a press release. It's very helpful. Press releases are the way the press wants to be communicated with. I suggest sending out a press release
once a month. When you first write your press release, it's more work, but once you have the format done, it's just a matter of plugging in new information every time you have something new to say. A lot of times the press are working on a story and need experts. Because they've been receiving your press releases on a regular basis, they'll contact you and interview you and if they like what they've read
What you're saying is the press release is a gateway to building a long-term relationship with benefits that come back to you. It's positioning you as an expert that the press will rely on.
Every single day reporters are looking for new sources and new ideas. They're very, very receptive to new ideas. But keep in mind, the only thing you should send to the press is news, and it should be in the form of a press release. Don't send your newsletter or ezine.
Don't send a reporter anything but news. What other things would be good practices?
Make the press release no longer than one page. Create a catchy headline to grab their attention.
What would you consider a catchy headline?
In addition to the book I wrote for coaches, I also wrote a career book for my corporate clients on how to discover their ultimate profession and I wrote a press release about it this morning. I said, 'New book to help President Bush find a new job'. Basically what I said in the release is that if he did the exercises in this book, he would find a career he was better suited for.
So the idea is to tie it in with current events to catch their attention?
The point is to read every single day. Every day I get up and look at
The Wall Street Journal; I look at the New York
Times; I look at CNN and MSNBC just to get a sense of what's going on in the world, as well as local newspapers. Many of what I read is online and it takes me maybe an hour to get through it all. If I see something that ties into what I do, I have the press release template, I plug in my story idea and I send it to the reporters on my mailing list.
You have a special section on your website dedicated to all the Press Mentions you have received. What's the next step once you've gotten some of these mentions? How do you maximize publicity?
There are so many ways --it's amazing. Like you said, on my website I have a whole section devoted towards the press; they can see I've been quoted before. I also have a fact sheet about myself that includes information about my practice and my target audiences, how long I've been coaching, etc. These are all things that are important to the press. I also have my bio, and I put pictures of myself there in case they need one to include in their story.
When you're having a conversation with a reporter, what are some things to do and not do on the interview?
Here are a couple of tips. The press are looking for people who are open and honest and know themselves. It's important not to try and be who they want you to be, but be yourself. Now, that's not to say that you can just do or say anything, but they like people who have opinions and who are comfortable and confident. That's golden rule number one, be yourself and don't be afraid.
The second thing is to recognize that whatever you say is on the record. Even if you say it's off the record, it's on the record. So, do not say anything that you are uncomfortable saying. If somebody asks you a question that you don't know the answer to, keep asking them questions until you're able to answer it.
So be sure to ask clarifying questions?
Yes, very important. If you can't help a reporter, tell them you can't help them and refer them to someone else; they'll appreciate it. If you don't know the answer, tell them you don't know the answer. If you don't know the answer at that moment but you have access to it, tell them you'll email them the answer and do so.
Another tip is when you're on the phone, it's important to be upbeat and enthusiastic and confident. Speak in sound bites. If a reporter asks you a question, answer the question in 3 to 5 sentences at the most and then just stop. If they want a clarification, they'll ask you additional questions. There are two benefits to
this - you're able to answer their question quickly, which they appreciate, and they can then follow up with another question. Also, they're taking notes. They're writing things or typing things, and they can't go that quickly.
And you're leaving the opportunity for a follow-up question which probably adds more substance, in the long run, to the interview.
Yes, always ask what the story is about. If you start talking about stuff and it doesn't pertain to them, you're done, you're finished. They'll say, 'I'm writing a story on so and so, and I'd like to have you comment', say, 'Well, tell me a little bit about the story first.'
Don't assume that you know what they're looking for.
Yes, and at the end of the story, never, ever ask a reporter, 'Will you put me in?' It's taboo.
It's pushy and you really have to come across as someone who could be a reliable source, someone who's really out to help the reporter. The reporter knows you want to be in the story.
It's that soft promotion again, rather than over the top.
Sometimes they'll ask the spelling of my name or where I'm located and I'll say, 'When is the story coming out?' and then they'll answer you and I'll look for it at that particular time. If I don't see it - sometimes you'll speak to a freelancer who's pitching an idea and they're not sure, then you can say, 'Oh, is it okay if I email you in a month or two to see when the story's coming out?' and that's acceptable.
Any last thoughts for coaches reading this interview?
The press is looking for you. Getting quoted in newspapers and magazines can be done. You just have to find the courage and put yourself out there. It's fun; when you're on the phone with a reporter and they're asking you for your opinion, it's great. Getting quoted brings
clients - when I'm quoted in a newspaper or magazine, I always get calls from potential clients.
Deborah is the President of Surpass Your Dreams,
Inc., www.surpassyourdreams.com,
a successful career and mentor coaching company, that has been delivering a message of motivation, success, and personal fulfillment since 1998. She is a published writer and her articles on how to be successful in your career can be found on more than 100 web-sites over the Internet. She is the author of two books, Coach Yourself to A New Career (A Guide for Discovering Your Ultimate Profession) and Four Steps to Building a Profitable Coaching Practice (A Complete Marketing Resource Book For Coaches.)
She has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Smart Money Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and New York Newsday, as well as interviewed by Entrepreneur Magazine and Business 2.0. She was also a featured guest on BBC, Radio Scotland when they came to New York City to find out how people were coping in their careers since the September 11th attacks.
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