81: Hack your own PR for your business with Odette Barry
Are you being seen as a business owner?
Not just on your own social media but in other online publications and the media? PR (or public relations) is about being seen by others outside of your circle.
‘It is not gross to promote yourself’ is a mantra this week’s podcast guest, Odette Barry is going to teach you. It is time for you to be seen for all the amazing things you do!
Grab a notebook, it is time to learn!
If you LOVED the episode, make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag me @essential.shift and @odetteandco.
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KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS
How to hack your own PR
What PR for small business and entrepreneurship looks like
Must-know PR tips for your business
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Bless it be.
With love, Laetitia!
ABOUT THE GUEST
Odette Barry is a headline-winning PR mentor, who designed and teaches the popular Hack Your Own PR program, an intimate program designed for small business owners because she knows that every business has a story to tell.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION
Laetitia Andrac 5:57
Hello, Odette. Welcome to the essential shift podcast.
Odette Barry 5:59
Oh, thank you. So much for having me. I'm very excited to be here.
Laetitia Andrac 6:02
I know for anyone listening to this conversation, you're gonna have nuggets of gold. So grab your notebook, grab a pen. I have been attending to a keynote of Odette and she blew my mind so be prepared to have your mind blown. And listen deeply. If you're driving just press pose and listen when you need to to write the notes. So let's get into it. First of all, Odette. I love to always ask my guests. Who are you as a human being? What's your energetic blueprint? If you know anything about human design, astrology sign Ayurveda. dosha. Whatever you feel called to share with us if you could do that, that would be amazing.
Odette Barry 6:40
Yeah, well, who am I? It's such a lovely, lovely big expensive question to ask and I hope that I don't let you down. Yeah, so I I'm a manifesting generator. I have had all kinds of astrological readings and to be completely honest, and I'm a little bit embarrassed to admit this. I can't remember what my rising sign is. But that having that full reading was where I found myself most identified. I'm a Virgo, but I don't identify with that as much as my rising sign. I wish I could tell. Now, but I remember a couple of years ago, I got my human design reading done by cat screener. And I found it so useful because she really did the reading deeply into my workflow and how that affects business. And it was so helpful to just see that in myself and identify those gaps and weaknesses that you sometimes beat yourself up about and just forgiving yourself that and going. I know that's part of the design. That's where my magic comes from.
Laetitia Andrac 7:46
Yes. And it's so empowering, right it's like this permission slip to be you actually are not trying to run your business like someone else or run your life your family or that I love it and you're definitely having the traits of the manifesting generator in her, you know, blooming state when I when I saw you like we met a few months ago through another you know, connection we had but when I go to see you in person, the presence you have and yeah, you are a manifesting generator. Definitely I love it. I may look at your moon sign and rising sign for me because the sun sign is actually important but not as much as a woman it's more than one sign so we can talk we can have a conversation around astrology I know the time but I love that thank you so much for sharing it is it is really defining you and anyone who's listening to this who knows manifesting generator you will understand why or that is having so many facets to her personality now so can you share with us you own this beautiful PR business called audit and CO Would you mind sharing with us the origin story of this business? We love story on this podcast. So would you mind sharing with us this?
Odette Barry 8:55
Yeah, sure. Well, I would like where to begin, but I moved to Byron Bay from Melbourne eight years ago. And I think before I left I kind of thought I might start my own business but it was more because I couldn't really find a job up here and my husband was really resistant to us moving on to France. He didn't want to like be unstable for our son and he got moved around a lot as a kid so we didn't want to do that to our son. But equally he was like you've such a hungry, Korea person. You're not going to be satisfied in like a little small business in Byron Bay. Joke's on him. But yeah, when we moved I so I'd worked in corporate communication for Westpac and Pete buddy for physiotherapy. So I'd worked in big organizations and I'd never actually worked in an agency. So when I first started doing a little bit of freelance when I moved up here, I'd been in that that notorious likeminded bitches drinking wine Facebook group, and I picked up heaps of work through there doing a bit of copywriting, a bit of PR, little bit of social media, helping with email marketing, and I kind of built up enough to justify leaving my job and taking that leap. And I suppose at the beginning, I was a professional yes person. I didn't really have very good boundaries. I had a terrible pricing model. And I probably nearly worked myself into an early grave, but I built an agency really quickly because word got around and I just basically all my friends who were writers or social media managers, or graphic designers, cobbled everyone together into a debt and CO and I genuinely called my business Odette and CO because I didn't know where I was going. And I was like, that gives me a bit of freedom to you know, go where I go. And I think also, so my sister is works in the communications industry. And I think unconsciously we were quite competitive growing up and I, you know, when we were at school, she always knew she was going to study Media and Communications. She was gonna go into that she went straight into PR for film studios, like she was a go getter. And I didn't go to uni straight from school. And when I decided to go back to uni, I accidentally went and did strategic communications. And found myself in the same industry as her. So it was it was a real funny path to where I am today, but so when I had the agency, I kind of it was really evident that the best work that I was doing was in PR but as I spoke about at the huddle, all of my friends in Byron business owners and one of my friends actually referred to Byron as kind of being like Woodstock for business. It's it's like it's the most incredible creative, beautiful, warm, celebratory community around small business because everyone in Byron basically needed to have a business in order to pay their way because there's not that many job opportunities. But yes, the flip side of that, is that all my friends like can you do PR for me? And I was like, no, because you can't afford it, which was the sort of sticky position, but it also was the inception point of me going, Okay. Is there a way that I can serve these amazing people to help them get their voice out there to help them become visible on a national global stage by teaching them how to do their own PR and so for the last five years, I've been teaching amazing businesses how to do their own PR.
Laetitia Andrac 13:04
I love it. I love this story. And I love how actually first like many business owners that we hear on this podcast and many business owners that I have, you know, the joy to support, it's at the beginning we say yes to everything. And we tend to burn ourselves out. We tend to not have boundaries and clear definition of what we do what we don't do. We struggle with pricing ourselves because of the self worth journey and all of those kinds of thing. And then we learned it sometimes the hard way, like through a breakdown or through a month we're like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna burn everything down to then reconnect to what we are meant to be doing and I am definitely PR is some things that you're amazing art and I have witnessed, the way we connected with others. By the way, it's a friend of mine who is a client of mine as well because I've become friends with all my clients. And that's great. I love it. Don't judge me for that. And she was like, Oh, I went to his beautiful book launch. It was led by audit and CO doing all the PR maybe you should reach out to her to do the PR of your book. And that's how I reached out to you. I've never like no, I'm booked out and all that. So and then I got to meet you at the huddle, but you are really good at it and people know that. And before we get into you know what it means to do our own PR I know we have some people listening to this podcast, who may be like, What is even PR you keep saying PR is it permanent residency because I have some foreigner living in Australia listening, or I have some French people in we call it public relation, you know, and so just Would you mind saying for us, what is PR first and then we'll get into it?
Odette Barry 14:43
Yes, of course. And honestly, like the vast majority of people that haven't got experience in PR have never heard of it. You know, I could be telling you I'm an engineer for all but basically, PR is really about managing reputations. So changing the way people think and feel about you. And we can do that in so many different ways. We do that via events by awards by speaking opportunities, but also by appearing in the media. And that can like that's changed so much over the last decade. But anything from doing podcasts like this, to you know having a story in the Sydney Morning Herald or on the nightly news. The news landscape has changed monumentally and it's diversified so much. There's so many call different outlets that you can pitch to. But the goal is to reach new audiences so be exposed to more new customers hopefully, to influence how they feel about you so that they go. Oh, you're amazing. I want to work with you. But also just a fast track that journey that people have to go through. So we know they have to discover you. They have to get to know you they have to like you and then they purchase from you. So we can use PR and you know those exposure opportunities, both to reach new audiences, but also to move existing audiences a little bit further along that purchase funnel.
Laetitia Andrac 16:20
I love it and I love how you straight away debunk a myth which is a lot of people think about PR well as from public for those who are French public relations for those who are English but we
Odette Barry 16:33
so much nicer in French.
Laetitia Andrac 16:36
So everyone think about oh my gosh, I'm going to be you know, an intrapreneur or I'm going to be on you know this other business review those kinds of things. Yes, this is PR but also as you've mentioned, being a guest on a podcast that we're doing today, it is a PR activity for you. You know, doing an Instagram live with someone else is actually a PR activity, all of those kinds of things. So look at pr holistically in your business and maybe you don't realize that you're already doing it right
Odette Barry 17:03
totally totally. And I always talk about the clout and credibility ladder and it being you know, the first time you pitch a story, you're probably not going to be on the cover of Vogue. Like it might be nice.
How can I get on the cover?
You know, like we do have to ladder up to opportunities and and those those grassroots places where you can start to build your voice and stretch your ideas as well because sometimes your ideas do need a bit of feedback. They need some some airtime for you to really land into them. So using your own social media, your email newsletter, your blog, or wherever it is that you publish your ideas, your own podcast, and then going out and doing other people's social media, other people's email newsletter, their podcasts, Instagram lives, as you said, and then they kind of like those stepping stones in building your confidence, building your visibility, but also by doing that, you're starting to get exposure from different people and often journalists, editors, news anchors and producers are also on social media and seeing those voices and picking up stories. So like there's been so many so many people who've gone through my program or that I've taught PR to who go through that process. They start getting noisy and start being sharing their ideas and building their confidence and getting out of their own way which is a big part of it. And then suddenly, they're like, oh, all those people that I befriended on social media. They're actually asking me to come and talk and I'm not even pitching to them. And I'm like, that is the dream. That's what we want to happen.
Laetitia Andrac 18:48
Definitely being a so true leader you know, like people approaching you for you. To share your message and I love what you said around e takes time. Humans This podcast is no BS we you know say the thing for what it is. And a few weeks ago I was celebrating being on you know slow magazine, which is magazine I personally love and I was so happy that they replied positively. But for anyone listening to this know that I have pitched too many outlets before getting a yes from an outlet and it is not happening overnight. You know writing a monthly column for best holistic life around energy of date, same thing it took me you know a few approaches and all of that to finally be approached by them to write for them. But before that I had to you know, reach out to other outlets. So you create this energy of I am reaching out and sometime you receive an opportunity, but please keep going.
Odette Barry 19:43
I think overnight. Yeah, and I think don't build up overnight.
Laetitia Andrac 19:47
Sorry.
Odette Barry 19:48
But I think that's a big part of it is like having the courage to put yourself out there in the first place, which is terrifying for a lot of people, but then having the courage to follow up as well because that's a part that I think people miss but I think like one of the messages that I think resonates with a lot of businesses that I speak to is to reframe, promoting yourself because so many people feel the EQ and they feel it's so jarring the idea of being out there being like I'm a bit great at what I do, or you will want to work with me because I've done X Y Zed and that there is that rub there. And that's like that's a cultural behavior in Australia, but also I don't think it's just Australia. But I know that like if you look at the American business landscape, people are really much more comfortable with that self promotion. And so I urge everyone to really just sit with that and think it's not gross to self promote, be okay with putting yourself out there because if you're not going to who is going to celebrate your business and how are people going to know what you do or trust that you're amazing so that like I tip my hat to you for showing up for yourself and pitching and putting like those messages out there because it can be intimidating sometimes when you're like, Oh man, I've had these like, you know radio silence, but the large majority of even my first pictures don't get a reply and not because they're not any good. But because journos get like, you know, hundreds of pictures into their inbox every day. So, maybe go back to some of those pictures that you sent off and go into two follow ups because there could be some, you know, opportunities waiting for you.
Laetitia Andrac 21:41
Yes, definitely. I love that and it's not gross to promote yourself is such a beautiful mantra that we will put you know, in the design and everything for this podcast because for me when I heard you say that it's really helped me and you think that Australia is having is having like this poppy syndrome and no one is promoting themselves but I find that actually I was trying to promote so if you have a scale you have like French or straight like the French like it's really don't promote yourself. Don't speak about yourself. Like it's really, really bad. And then you have Australian and then of course you have the American war. Like I'm amazing. It's incredible. So I had to work through the ladder. Um, you know, I'm trying to embrace this but it's it's really taking the time and at the beginning of my own business journey, that's why I hired Maria shout out to Marissa was my content copywriter to write about me I was very comfortable voice knotting her about the thing but then I couldn't write it myself. And now I wrote a book so you know, it's like, it's been a journey. But from the beginning I was like, I've really felt the achiness you know, being like, what am I like to tell about this
Odette Barry 22:56
like, but I think one of the like, the beautiful things about that and a gift to everyone who's listening to your podcast is to identify that that voice inside themselves is not them broken. It's them being a human and being very normal, if there is a normal, and that all of us go through that journey. Like I am terrified. Almost all of the things that I've asked myself to do, and have to navigate through that imposter voice. And I guess it's it's hearing it and acknowledging that it's a very human voice to keep us playing safe to keep us in the drive. It's like you know, an outdated that there's probably not any bears just outside our door we should be fine. But that that behavior is like to keep us playing safe. And if we want to succeed in our business, we have to like step up and yes, be a little bit fearless.
Laetitia Andrac 23:58
Definitely because otherwise, you know as you said, no one will vouch for you like you need to be found you need to use your voice you need to be seen and I knew that from the get go. So I was like let me find a team to help me like expand that and you know, you may know my story, being a general manager and being a leader in cooperate. I always had people surrounding me and I knew I didn't want to run a business on my own. So straightaway, I was like, Okay, who can help me support that part of myself and then you know, on the journey, I became more and more comfortable. And yesterday as I told you, before, we're recording this we were filming the video for my book launch campaign and I find myself sharing my story on camera, which is something like you would have told me to do two years ago but I've been like, shocked me to that first and then
Odette Barry 24:47
you know, something that's really like a helpful tip for people that like at the beginning of that journey of talking about themselves is to have an accountability buddy, a friend in business who is a cheerleader of yours and interview one another about your business just in your you know, everyday conversations recorded on your phone. Ask them like have these sorts of inception questions. What's your founder story? Like? Why do you do what you do? Where did the business come from recorded in conversation with someone that you love that you feel safe with? And then come back to that and transcribe that and you'll find that you will use this celebratory language that's, you know, championing you. And then when it comes to actually writing it, I always think about trying to get into the headspace of that cheerleader, your friend, and write as though you're writing about a friend that you love when you're writing about yourself which it can be tricky, but if you've had that banter with a close friend, it can really help you get out of your own way.
Laetitia Andrac 25:53
I love it. And it's really aligned to the fact that we cannot do business on our own. Like we definitely need a tribe around us a village and people supporting us and I love that so listen to that. Have someone around you cheering you on and practicing ways, but anyone was listening to this and was like, okay, so I understand PR now I understand how important it is in my business to start looking at, you know, being visible and all of that. But I don't know how to get any quick wins or any wins. So what are you know a few things. You know, a few nuggets of gold you can give them for them to start surrendering to the magic of PR to start embracing PR like what are the little things that they can do and I know you have like a lot of things you can share with them but just a few tips.
Odette Barry 26:42
Well I guess like first thing would be trying to get that founder story teased out so that you've got that as a starting place because almost every podcast or you know place that you go will that'll be a big conversation in there. So get that written down. And then you can maybe quiz your audience if you've got an existing audience and ask them what social media accounts do they love what email newsletters do they subscribe to, what publications do they read, so that you can start gathering a little bit of a database to know where you might go and pitch? So I'm a big fan of going for the low hanging fruit first get some wins, build your confidence, get a few more wins, build some more. So start with some of those little you know sharing your voice on your own social media channels. Then look at pitching out to some you know other social accounts, blogs, podcasts or media publications. So when it comes to pitching my approach to PR is play small and go gently rather than just going big and going for the fireworks straightaway. So the reason why I say this is that I think it's 75% of journalists say that only a quarter of the pitches they receive are relevant to the outlet that they produce content for. So that means that if someone does a quick search for business podcasts, they then fire off the same pitch to all 500 Business podcasts. And they don't even go oh well. This is for women in business. This is got a little bit more of a spiritual feeling. This one's hard nosed real estate business, you know, and they've all got really different interests. So the same pitch is just not going to land. For all of them. So my like lens is always just choose three and go hard on your research don't like you know, spray and pray. instead. Really like be thoughtful be a great listener be a great reader consume at least 10 episodes of the podcast or read 10 articles or watch 10 episodes of the show, so that you know what kind of conversations they typically carry, the sort of tone that you would need to pitch with and what angle you can produce for them. So you always want to come up with angles, which is like story ideas themes for a conversation and putting that in your pitch. So when you send off your pitch, it should feel like a bit of a love letter in that the person who receives it's like oh my god this person loves the podcast. They their background is really aligned with what my audience is interested in. And these three topics they've suggested are like, I want all three of them, not just one of them. So when you do that, it means that you're not just going to have a one hit wonder where you get one opportunity it's going to be a long term relationship where they'll invite you back or you know, there'll be other collaboration opportunities. So rather than trying to be everywhere in anywhere and the other thing with spray and pray approach of emailing 500 Business podcasts is you're going to need at least 500 hours to appear on all of them if you were to get a resounding yes to everything. So you always have to think about how much time you could personally dedicate to the appearances should they all land so be thoughtful. Be strategic. Get that media bio, get your angles clear, and then go deep on your research.