posting all right we’re good so hey
everybody i am on a google hangout with
with nash who’s got this crazy program
that is about to launch and wanted my
help so we set up this time as a quick
interview dash let us know what’s going
on right on brother well i’m putting
together a program that basically is
going to teach entrepreneurs that have a
message they want to get out to the
world i like to support entrepreneurs
who are looking to make a positive
difference in the world and touch
people’s lives in a meaningful way and
there’s so many of them out there that
I’ve met and connected with who just
aren’t being heard you know it’s like
the world’s best-kept secret and so yeah
they have lots of value to share but
they just don’t know how to get their
message out there in a bigger way and so
I’m putting this together really to help
them to amplify their message and its
really focused on media publicity and
mass media communication and you know we
got TV radio newspapers news websites
you got blogs you got podcasts you got
magazines trade publications you got all
these different media sources out there
and they all have a massive captive
audience right and they all are looking
for interesting and informative experts
to come on there and fill their space
they gotta fill their space or their air
time with somebody and so I’ve just
found that this this whole idea of
publicity is not is not taught very
widely there’s not very many people to
know about it and how to go about
getting publicity how to get their name
in the media and how to leverage the
influence of existing of the existing
influence of other companies and other
people and so that’s really why I’m
doing this I know Evan you’ve been you
know it featured a new york times and
forbes and Wall Street Journal and
auntie be multiple times so I wanted to
connect with you kind of get your
experience on that and maybe other ideas
that you have on on house you know to
share a message with a larger audience
and really to to amplify ones valuable
message
and get it out there to the world so
that’s really what i’m doing here and so
I’m really looking forward to connecting
with you buddy and kind of picking your
brain on a few things here oh um okay so
let me like it’s tell you my story with
the media and what’s been going at nine
um I first became interested in with my
first software company and we we were
taking out some advertising and found it
up wasn’t working very well and I said
to myself you know there’s two ways to
get into these magazines the first is to
take out an ad and the second is to have
them write a story about you and what do
people pay more attention to an ad or
story write the story and what cost you
less you know as an entrepreneur you’re
trying to save save on your costs and
make sure you’re spending your money
wisely and a story isn’t cost you
anything or ads do so i changed the
focus of the business to try to get
publicity and get us known and become
experts and be sought after and that
helped land more stories about us and
get more interviews going on and getting
more traffic to our website and i use
the same practice when i started my
business now at the beginning what i did
was i would create a press release every
two weeks so i would make a media list
and i targeted people who were in my
industry so publications radio shows TV
shows that dealt with entrepreneurship
because that’s what I focus on and then
I also focus on people who are in my
area major media outlets newspapers
magazines radio shows that didn’t focus
on business entrepreneurship but focused
on my geographic area and so I made this
huge list and you can find out these
guys online any reporter you can find
out their email address and so I made a
list in every two weeks I would send
them a press release and the press
release I tried not to make it sound
like a press release I tried to make it
a story so a lot of reporters they’re
busy people they’ve got a ton of stuff
on the goal you want to make life easy
for them so i crafted my press release
like it was a story and i had a powerful
headline a powerful sub headline and
then
content below and in there i would say
according to entrepreneurs with Evan
Carmichael and quote myself and I was
send these out and I would always get
picked up somebody always picked this up
and either wanted to interview me or ask
me more questions every two weeks I send
something out and at least one or two
people would pick it up I even had some
outlets who are lazy and they would just
copy and paste my story and publish it
as is which was great like that that
tells you that the press release was
written well it’s not the typical press
release saying hey buy my product it was
actually a crafted story and if you can
make the the lives of reporters easier
and give them something valuable and
helpful then they’ll they’ll want to
talk to you and reach out and and from
there people became they began to know
me as an entrepreneur expert and they
saw me one articles another reporter see
that and they they called means and age
can you comment on this article and it
kind of snowballed from there that’s
powerful brother and that’s yeah that’s
one thing that I’ve learned is the the
journalists and the reporters there
they’re really there in the process when
they’re when they’re looking for an
expert they’re in the process of
creating a story so like you said I
think that’s gold that if you can make
their life easier and just present them
with the story already done then yeah
they can either just run the story as is
or it just makes their life at you know
that much easier because they can you
know they don’t have to do all that work
so i think that’s really really powerful
buddy um so that’s really helped while
there is when i made a list of reporters
who I wanted to get in touch with
besides just sending them a press
release every two weeks with the story
I’d also comment on the stuff that they
were writing already and not just saying
hey great article but i would add my two
cents to it so you know other people who
are buying a program all entrepreneurs
you should be the best at what you do in
the world right if you’re not master
class and you’re not gonna have success
as an entrepreneur so you should be the
best and you should be the expert and
you just got to let people know that
you’re the expert and so whatever
article comes out about your industry
you can write to the reporter and say
hey this is great but you don’t here are
some other things
think about and you just put yourself on
the radar screen of that reporter and
reporters often go to the same source as
over and over again because if you’re
making their life easier again right if
they have a great source they’re going
to share it they want to come back to
you they’re going to write a series on a
certain topic and if they see that
you’re knowledgeable and you’re caring
you’re adding to what they’ve already
written because these guys are not
experts they’re generalist by nature and
so to be able to tap into an expert
who’s reaching out to them and
commenting and giving them feedback
that’s powerful and then they remember
you and the next time they write a
similar story they’re going to say hey I
wonder if I wonder if Nash could help me
out with this now that sounds that that
thought you might be a good person to
connect with and so they’re going to
reach out nice nice and you made another
good point to as far as the snowball
effect and you know I think that’s why
it’s so important for entrepreneurs that
really believe in their message and the
value that they have to offer even if
it’s intimidating for them to pursue the
media and that kind of thing that they
should do it because it opens up so many
new doors of opportunity and like you
said number one the the reporters that
you’ve already worked with are going to
come back to you in the future but then
also other reporters other media sources
are going to see that and they’re going
to come to you as well and it just it
creates a snowball effect and it makes
it that much easier to get more media
publicity down the road so a very very
cool man um let’s see i disappoint you
know to build a successful company
you’re going to have to stretch you’re
going to have to grow you’re going to
have to go beyond your comfort zone not
many people come out of starting the
business being well groomed to talk to
the media like it’s not something we
learn in school it’s not something you
can pick up a textbook you started by
doing and a lot of entrepreneur too
afraid to be out there to talk about
their business what really helped me and
I was nervous the first time I did it I
was really thinking why did I start this
business like I have a passion for what
I’m doing and as long as you are
passionate about your company and the
reasons why you started it
just let that shine through like you
want to help people your business is
there to help somebody else and so if
you could just remember that and
remember that hey you know what you’re
talking about like you don’t have to be
a super season media expert just be
yourself and tap it into the knowledge
base that you already have that made me
feel more comfortable when I started up
and the media can be a huge boost for
any entrepreneur who’s trying to get
more exposure it’s gonna bring you way
more exposure than any advertising
campaign that you can take out because
we don’t have huge budgets but to do
that yeah if you’re afraid you got it
you got to step into that fear because
you’re going to have to stretch yourself
and grow and step into things that are
going to be a little scarier at the
start but you need to do it if you want
to be able to build a successful company
yep and you know I heard the quote that
everything that you desire and all of
your dreams lie outside of your comfort
zone so that’s definitely important to
push the comfort zone and what what is
uncomfortable at first soon becomes
comfortable you know in most cases
anyways and so it’s uh you know I’ve
learned that fear really is like a
phantom and when you face your fear and
decide to walk through it it just ends
up evaporating and it really was nothing
nothing to fear anyway so I think that’s
really good buddy now you got you got
featured on TV several times can you
explain how that process happened did
you pursue you know the TV outlets or
did they get in contact with you how
exactly did that happen ah mix of both
have done a lot of TV work at the
beginning it was from the press releases
that I sent out you know I would talk
about trends in entrepreneurship and
people would respond to it and say hey
can we have you as a guest on our show
either a new show or breakfast kind of
morning show or show specifically
tailored to entrepreneurs and small
business owners so that’s how it started
and then again from there people would
just write to me and say hey I saw you
on this show can you come on and be an
expert for us what really helped me was
also make
the media page and so a great tip for
any entrepreneur if you want to get
noticed in the media create a media page
on there have your picture have your
short bio I recommend having it 100
words or less so I mine I have Evan in
99 words so quick hit for them with more
details below up they want have some
pictures of you you know doing things
that you have your head shot but then
also in action mention where you’ve been
in the media before even if it’s your
own local paper whatever like show that
you’ve done something in the media get
some momentum going and when people see
that page it makes you look professional
makes you look like you know what you’re
talking about a big fear for the
reporter is one wasting their time like
they’re talking to somebody who doesn’t
know what they’re what they’re talking
about but also if you’re not really the
expert it can be hard for reporters to
know the difference sometimes like
they’re not experts at what you’re what
you’re knowledgeable lat and so they’re
putting their reputation on the line by
having you come on and be an expert so
you better know what you’re talking
about and having a professional media
pages show hey I’ve done all this stuff
you know I know what I’m talking about
have years of experience in my field
that helps the reporter feel more
confident that yeah I bring Nash on I
bring Evan on now they’re gonna be
didn’t know they talk about they’re
going to be stars I swear it on can you
can you share some other effective ways
that you recommend for getting a you
know mass exposure and this could be
internet-based or or otherwise but do
you do you recommend anything like joint
venture partnerships with others in
related fields like bloggers and
podcasts is that kind of thing or what
else can you recommend as far as that
goes getting getting one’s message out
there in a big way sure um two quick
thoughts one still on the media side a
service that I used for a while and
still subscribe to is called PR leads
it’s kind of like help a reporter out
but but there’s there’s a fee to it
we’re basically it’s ninety-nine bucks a
month and reporters from around the
world submit their ideas and you can say
hey I’m an expert on this and that’s at
you how I got into the new
times there’s a reporter saying from the
New York Times I want to write an
article about how small businesses can
make themselves look bigger than they
are and so I go back and when you write
to report who has a question you don’t
want to just say hey I’m an expert talk
to me is there any bombarded you want to
give them a specific example so whatever
their question is tell them the solution
write the story for them and that let
them to do an interview and taking some
pictures at my office and so that’s a
great service I have no connection with
it apart from being a happy customer
that was PR leads.com and then the other
thing in terms of joint venture
partnerships I do love partnering up
with people who already have an audience
online animal scene says ways we can
work together I have 7,000 people now
who contribute to my website and most of
them are marketing experts business
consultants and they contribute content
on my site and help promote it and I
help give them exposure and promote them
as well when I launch new products or
programs I always try to look at who can
i partner with the helpless get off the
ground so it’s not just me pushing out
to my audience a great example is I
created a line of famous entrepreneur
trading cards I’ve always been a fan of
baseball cards my whole life I collected
them I collect thousands of cars they
need to need to trim my collection and I
wanted to make my own trading cards just
as something fun to do and I thought why
not make these entrepreneurs like they
deserve to be heroes too and superstars
and have their own baseball card and so
I wanted to have steve jobs and bill
gates and donald trump on their own card
and i decided to partner up with
different bloggers and so I I connected
with some of the top business bloggers
so Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki those
guys and I asked him hey who is your
favorite famous entrepreneur and I want
to I want to feature you on the card and
them so a guy kawasaki pick Steve Jobs
everybody picked their own famous
entrepreneur and I made the card and all
the proceeds from that went to a charity
so it was wasn’t a money making thing
but definitely give a lot of exposure
for my business and when i launched it i
sent the cards for free to the blogger’s
with them on the back and their Idol on
the front and
they do they all tweeted the better they
all published it out there you know Tim
Ferriss & Guy Kawasaki and Seth Godin
were all pumping it out there saying hey
look what I’m will climb a part of this
is a great initiative and it was a great
marketing exercise in that you know
partnering up with these guys wasn’t
just me pushing it to my followers which
is substantial but so I want to hit more
people now I had 30 the top business
loggers in the world all toner audience
hey I’m part of this great initiative go
check it out and so I’m a big believer
in making partnerships with people who
are in your industry who have a related
audience who can help promote what
you’re doing nice right on man right on
can you what can you say about a media
exposure vs paid advertising and which
is which is more effective and can you
can you speak on that a little bit yeah
so I touch them a little bit earlier um
I’ve done a lot of both and I find that
the the media exposure generates more
interest as a greater impact and gets
more people clicking onto your website
in the early days of my software company
again I was taking out ads and I wasn’t
getting the results I was looking for
and and it was costing me money like
every month i’m spending money on this
thing and i’m not getting results and
you have a finite budget right like
entrepreneurs you know i don’t know
about you but like most entrepreneurs
are not made of made of cash so you
gotta be careful where you’re spending
your money and advertising can work like
i don’t want to say hey screw
advertising it can work but it costs
money and you have to really pay
attention to what you’re doing well with
the media again if you look at a
magazine do you read the story to read
the ad like some people read the ad but
most people will read the story you get
much greater impact from a story than
from an advertisement and what costs
less right like the story doesn’t cost
you anything sometimes reach out to
reporters but it doesn’t cost you
anything where an advertisement every
time you put it in there it’s gonna cost
you money so you can get a much bigger
ROI from the story than from doing the
advertising again you got to do properly
and invest the time but I found that to
be a lot more effective least in my
experience if I had to pick between the
mediums
I would always choose print I seem to
get the best results from print in terms
of measuring a impact on my website I
think it’s because the websites written
down and they can see it there and go to
a computer and and type it in where if
it’s radio or TV they have to remember
it and they may not be in front of the
computer or their phone at the time so
they don’t they don’t do anything with
it so I get more response out of a print
magazine newspaper any kind of printed
media as opposed to the other ones um
but I mean it’s all great they all they
all add not just traffic and leads to
your website but what credibility if you
can go to somebody’s website and see hey
this guy’s been in a New York Times and
Forbes magazine in the wall street
journal right away they will pay more
attention to you then if there’s nothing
there powerful yeah it’s like basically
an implied endorsement from that media
outlet like when we go to your site you
know right at the very top of the page
you can see those those endorsements
there and that’s that’s huge for
credibility if somebody is looking at
some you know your products or services
and there’s someone else offering
something similar but they don’t have
those kinds of endorsements and those
logos on their site then you know the
clear winner will be you so very very
powerful right there and from what I’ve
learned to because you mentioned PR
leads and I actually interviewed
yesterday dan Janelle which is the
founder of PR leads yeah yeah yeah got
to pick his brain on all of this and he
said that even sending out press
releases they get picked up on news
outlets and news websites which you know
when you especially when you go through
his PR distribution service you get
picked up on like over a hundred
legitimate news websites that will print
that right there on their website and
that’s that’s the same thing you know
you’re being featured on their site and
so then you can you know you can
actually take the logo of that and say
hey I’ve been featured in such and such
and put that on your site there so
that’s really really powerful buddy all
right I just got a couple couple last
questions here
Evan and this next one here is not
necessarily related to publicity but I
think it’s vitally important for
entrepreneurs who because you know
there’s so many of us entrepreneurs that
we work in isolation so much and we’re
not really interacting with and
networking with and connecting with a
lot of our peers and you know you can
experience burnout when that happens
frustration just all kinds of negative
things can happen when you’re not really
connected with others in your field and
so you know I’ve learned on your website
how much you believe in master mining
and you even run like a mastermind group
up in Toronto right and can you talk
about the importance of you know
masterminding why you feel so important
sure I actually have a group running
tonight so thursday nights is when i do
my group meetings so the idea mastermind
i was familiar with it from thinking
girl rich and you’ve ever read the book
great book must read for all
entrepreneurs by napoleon hill and he
talked about how Henry Ford and Thomas
Edison and all these guys got together
and it wasn’t until they started meeting
that all of the businesses took off now
I love that concept but I never really
did anything with it until I interviewed
a guy by the name of Brian Scudamore who
started a company called 1 800 got junk
and use a Canadian he grew from 0 to 8
million in a couple years like Brian
how’d you do this and he said it was
through farming mastermind groups and I
said that’s really interesting i look in
my city there was nothing here and so I
basically took what he was doing and
brought it to my city and it’s so
important because it is too lonely game
and even if you love what you’re doing
as an entrepreneur you need help and
support both in the form of ideas and
what to do and also just like guidance
and and feeling like you’re not alone in
this a lot of entrepreneurs when we’re
out networking talking about her
business is always the good stuff right
I just landed a new media lead because I
sign up for Nash’s program it’s amazing
but it’s never like oh my god I’m gonna
I hate my business I’m gonna quit like
why is this not working right like who
do you talk to you about that stuff
and we have friends we have family but a
lot of times if they’re not
entrepreneurs they don’t understand that
they can give you a year they’ll listen
to you but they can’t give you a support
so the point of our groups is to meet we
meet once a month and it’s to be an ear
and to give guidance and we try to
surround you with people who have
complementary skill sets to you so
you’re really strong as something but we
can other areas we find matches for you
and also just have someone to talk to
about the crap in your business and get
some advice on what to do because we
don’t really have these people to talk
to we may research online find articles
that kind of stuff you know like my
marketing sucks you know what do I do
you’re not going to go to a network
marketing or any kind of event you’re
going to say oh my marketing sucks I
don’t know what to do and who you tell
that to so that’s the point of the group
um we look people or beyond the startup
stage typically 300,000 10 million and a
half revenues trying to grow the next
step and basically go around the table
everybody has 20 minutes to talk about
what’s going on in their business and we
don’t want to be a 20 minutes of talking
but you know quick update and then
what’s the problem you’re facing how can
we help and then everybody kind of
free-for-alls and tries to give each
other advice and it works out I’ve been
doing it for I don’t know six years and
it’s been fun to see the members go we
had one member who just came to us with
an idea on paper I want to start his new
business I don’t know what to do in last
year he crossed a million-dollar mark
and he’s growing and so it’s exciting to
see that kind of growth that he
attributes a lot of his success to the
mastermind group that we’ve created so a
lot of yet you may have to do it
yourself there’s not a lot of groups at
least that I found um there’s a
worksheet I make the help entrepreneurs
go through that process if you’re
creating yourself but it’s definitely
worth trying to surround yourself with
people who we can bounce ideas off of
and keep you motivated sometimes we call
it entrepreneurs anonymous because we
like a lot of the Cubs your face it may
not even be related to your business
right like oh my my dad is bugging me
about something or my his health is his
Arab
like sometimes that’s the support you
need um so yeah definitely worth it one
of the best decision I’ve ever made in
my business rock on rock on and how do
you recommend if you have any ideas on
this how do you recommend folks to to
form their own mastermind group and any
ideas or thoughts on that yeah a lot I
know you’ve got like four minutes left
so i’ll see what i can have rock quickly
I mean the worksheet goes over and
really a lot of detail though they’re
gonna keep his uh finding people who are
the same value system as you and who are
in same similar levels of business I was
in a mass hundred before and there were
two of us who were kind of way ahead of
everybody else and the others something
they didn’t want to contribute they just
couldn’t because they hadn’t been to the
problems that we were facing right now
so you really need to get people who are
there for the right reasons it doesn’t
help each other you’re not there to
pitch right nobody wants to go to an
event where they’re being sold all the
time they’re help each other out and
they’re of similar sizes but have
different backgrounds and different
skill sets um we have a process that we
go through so everybody who wants to
become a member meets with me first over
coffee I explain it clearly let them
know what it’s all about make sure
there’s no surprises then they write a
one-page overview about their business
that gets presented at a meeting and
we’ll talk about it see if we want
invite this person they come as a guest
to the next meeting we’ll see how
everything works meet the members be
able to ask a few questions for their
own business and then everybody thinks
about it afterwards to see do we want
this person to continue yes no one more
trial meeting you know yes no and then
make a decision I’m there that’s kind of
like crunch down and everything we do i
but we have a nondisclosure agreement
you know some formal rules and structure
you need somebody to take charge like it
was just a free-for-all it doesn’t work
out and things end up falling apart so
you need somebody to be in charge to
moderate the meeting so I do it for my
groups but so super important to like
the selecting the right people is I’d
rather have a small cut before people
instead of having eight which is our
maximum uh because if you have two
people who don’t like each other
in a meeting like the whole thing falls
apart and it’s not going to help your
business all right on man well I
appreciate that that’s uh that’s pretty
much all the questions I have man you
really did drop some good nuggets here
and I appreciate you sharing I
appreciate you taking the time i hope
everyone watching this gets a lot from
it and takes your advice on pursuing
media publicity you know because from
what I’ve learned you know those that
have pursued media publicity and have
taken it seriously and really decided to
make that a serious part of their
promotional marketing strategy you know
there’s countless success stories of
people that have literally transformed
their entire business and their entire
life virtually overnight by you know
getting in the right publications or
just getting the right publicity in and
just getting mass awareness and exposure
on what they’re offering so with that
you know if you have any last words
hoarding words for us yeah final thought
is is it’s not that difficult like don’t
make this out to be some crazy project
that is that is scary and two huge these
are hoarders you’re not selling them
like they need you they need experts
every store you read there’s an expert
who comments on it that should be you
for your business for your industry that
experts should be you you’re making your
reporters life easier by reaching out to
them and connecting with them so so I
know like a lot of entrepreneur free the
selling and pitching don’t think of it
as that like you are really helping out
that reporter if you can be a credible
expert for them national bumping up
against the clock if people want to
learn more about you what’s the best way
to find that out that’s great well you
can actually go to get publicity net get
publicity net and when they go there
they’re actually going to get access to
a free interview that I did with Dan
Janelle which is the owner of PR
leads.com and he’s a widely known expert
in and publicity and media relations and
he shares really just kind of opens the
whole door for anybody that wants to
learn about how to do this and its
really really great interview so they
can go there and get access to that and
then they’ll be able to learn more about
the program that I’m launching that’ll
really teach them all of this in a
comprehensive way very cool Nash
good luck yeah thanks a lot heaven you
have a great day my friend will talk to
you soon buddy to Cheers bye-bye
everybody i am on a google hangout with
with nash who’s got this crazy program
that is about to launch and wanted my
help so we set up this time as a quick
interview dash let us know what’s going
on right on brother well i’m putting
together a program that basically is
going to teach entrepreneurs that have a
message they want to get out to the
world i like to support entrepreneurs
who are looking to make a positive
difference in the world and touch
people’s lives in a meaningful way and
there’s so many of them out there that
I’ve met and connected with who just
aren’t being heard you know it’s like
the world’s best-kept secret and so yeah
they have lots of value to share but
they just don’t know how to get their
message out there in a bigger way and so
I’m putting this together really to help
them to amplify their message and its
really focused on media publicity and
mass media communication and you know we
got TV radio newspapers news websites
you got blogs you got podcasts you got
magazines trade publications you got all
these different media sources out there
and they all have a massive captive
audience right and they all are looking
for interesting and informative experts
to come on there and fill their space
they gotta fill their space or their air
time with somebody and so I’ve just
found that this this whole idea of
publicity is not is not taught very
widely there’s not very many people to
know about it and how to go about
getting publicity how to get their name
in the media and how to leverage the
influence of existing of the existing
influence of other companies and other
people and so that’s really why I’m
doing this I know Evan you’ve been you
know it featured a new york times and
forbes and Wall Street Journal and
auntie be multiple times so I wanted to
connect with you kind of get your
experience on that and maybe other ideas
that you have on on house you know to
share a message with a larger audience
and really to to amplify ones valuable
message
and get it out there to the world so
that’s really what i’m doing here and so
I’m really looking forward to connecting
with you buddy and kind of picking your
brain on a few things here oh um okay so
let me like it’s tell you my story with
the media and what’s been going at nine
um I first became interested in with my
first software company and we we were
taking out some advertising and found it
up wasn’t working very well and I said
to myself you know there’s two ways to
get into these magazines the first is to
take out an ad and the second is to have
them write a story about you and what do
people pay more attention to an ad or
story write the story and what cost you
less you know as an entrepreneur you’re
trying to save save on your costs and
make sure you’re spending your money
wisely and a story isn’t cost you
anything or ads do so i changed the
focus of the business to try to get
publicity and get us known and become
experts and be sought after and that
helped land more stories about us and
get more interviews going on and getting
more traffic to our website and i use
the same practice when i started my
business now at the beginning what i did
was i would create a press release every
two weeks so i would make a media list
and i targeted people who were in my
industry so publications radio shows TV
shows that dealt with entrepreneurship
because that’s what I focus on and then
I also focus on people who are in my
area major media outlets newspapers
magazines radio shows that didn’t focus
on business entrepreneurship but focused
on my geographic area and so I made this
huge list and you can find out these
guys online any reporter you can find
out their email address and so I made a
list in every two weeks I would send
them a press release and the press
release I tried not to make it sound
like a press release I tried to make it
a story so a lot of reporters they’re
busy people they’ve got a ton of stuff
on the goal you want to make life easy
for them so i crafted my press release
like it was a story and i had a powerful
headline a powerful sub headline and
then
content below and in there i would say
according to entrepreneurs with Evan
Carmichael and quote myself and I was
send these out and I would always get
picked up somebody always picked this up
and either wanted to interview me or ask
me more questions every two weeks I send
something out and at least one or two
people would pick it up I even had some
outlets who are lazy and they would just
copy and paste my story and publish it
as is which was great like that that
tells you that the press release was
written well it’s not the typical press
release saying hey buy my product it was
actually a crafted story and if you can
make the the lives of reporters easier
and give them something valuable and
helpful then they’ll they’ll want to
talk to you and reach out and and from
there people became they began to know
me as an entrepreneur expert and they
saw me one articles another reporter see
that and they they called means and age
can you comment on this article and it
kind of snowballed from there that’s
powerful brother and that’s yeah that’s
one thing that I’ve learned is the the
journalists and the reporters there
they’re really there in the process when
they’re when they’re looking for an
expert they’re in the process of
creating a story so like you said I
think that’s gold that if you can make
their life easier and just present them
with the story already done then yeah
they can either just run the story as is
or it just makes their life at you know
that much easier because they can you
know they don’t have to do all that work
so i think that’s really really powerful
buddy um so that’s really helped while
there is when i made a list of reporters
who I wanted to get in touch with
besides just sending them a press
release every two weeks with the story
I’d also comment on the stuff that they
were writing already and not just saying
hey great article but i would add my two
cents to it so you know other people who
are buying a program all entrepreneurs
you should be the best at what you do in
the world right if you’re not master
class and you’re not gonna have success
as an entrepreneur so you should be the
best and you should be the expert and
you just got to let people know that
you’re the expert and so whatever
article comes out about your industry
you can write to the reporter and say
hey this is great but you don’t here are
some other things
think about and you just put yourself on
the radar screen of that reporter and
reporters often go to the same source as
over and over again because if you’re
making their life easier again right if
they have a great source they’re going
to share it they want to come back to
you they’re going to write a series on a
certain topic and if they see that
you’re knowledgeable and you’re caring
you’re adding to what they’ve already
written because these guys are not
experts they’re generalist by nature and
so to be able to tap into an expert
who’s reaching out to them and
commenting and giving them feedback
that’s powerful and then they remember
you and the next time they write a
similar story they’re going to say hey I
wonder if I wonder if Nash could help me
out with this now that sounds that that
thought you might be a good person to
connect with and so they’re going to
reach out nice nice and you made another
good point to as far as the snowball
effect and you know I think that’s why
it’s so important for entrepreneurs that
really believe in their message and the
value that they have to offer even if
it’s intimidating for them to pursue the
media and that kind of thing that they
should do it because it opens up so many
new doors of opportunity and like you
said number one the the reporters that
you’ve already worked with are going to
come back to you in the future but then
also other reporters other media sources
are going to see that and they’re going
to come to you as well and it just it
creates a snowball effect and it makes
it that much easier to get more media
publicity down the road so a very very
cool man um let’s see i disappoint you
know to build a successful company
you’re going to have to stretch you’re
going to have to grow you’re going to
have to go beyond your comfort zone not
many people come out of starting the
business being well groomed to talk to
the media like it’s not something we
learn in school it’s not something you
can pick up a textbook you started by
doing and a lot of entrepreneur too
afraid to be out there to talk about
their business what really helped me and
I was nervous the first time I did it I
was really thinking why did I start this
business like I have a passion for what
I’m doing and as long as you are
passionate about your company and the
reasons why you started it
just let that shine through like you
want to help people your business is
there to help somebody else and so if
you could just remember that and
remember that hey you know what you’re
talking about like you don’t have to be
a super season media expert just be
yourself and tap it into the knowledge
base that you already have that made me
feel more comfortable when I started up
and the media can be a huge boost for
any entrepreneur who’s trying to get
more exposure it’s gonna bring you way
more exposure than any advertising
campaign that you can take out because
we don’t have huge budgets but to do
that yeah if you’re afraid you got it
you got to step into that fear because
you’re going to have to stretch yourself
and grow and step into things that are
going to be a little scarier at the
start but you need to do it if you want
to be able to build a successful company
yep and you know I heard the quote that
everything that you desire and all of
your dreams lie outside of your comfort
zone so that’s definitely important to
push the comfort zone and what what is
uncomfortable at first soon becomes
comfortable you know in most cases
anyways and so it’s uh you know I’ve
learned that fear really is like a
phantom and when you face your fear and
decide to walk through it it just ends
up evaporating and it really was nothing
nothing to fear anyway so I think that’s
really good buddy now you got you got
featured on TV several times can you
explain how that process happened did
you pursue you know the TV outlets or
did they get in contact with you how
exactly did that happen ah mix of both
have done a lot of TV work at the
beginning it was from the press releases
that I sent out you know I would talk
about trends in entrepreneurship and
people would respond to it and say hey
can we have you as a guest on our show
either a new show or breakfast kind of
morning show or show specifically
tailored to entrepreneurs and small
business owners so that’s how it started
and then again from there people would
just write to me and say hey I saw you
on this show can you come on and be an
expert for us what really helped me was
also make
the media page and so a great tip for
any entrepreneur if you want to get
noticed in the media create a media page
on there have your picture have your
short bio I recommend having it 100
words or less so I mine I have Evan in
99 words so quick hit for them with more
details below up they want have some
pictures of you you know doing things
that you have your head shot but then
also in action mention where you’ve been
in the media before even if it’s your
own local paper whatever like show that
you’ve done something in the media get
some momentum going and when people see
that page it makes you look professional
makes you look like you know what you’re
talking about a big fear for the
reporter is one wasting their time like
they’re talking to somebody who doesn’t
know what they’re what they’re talking
about but also if you’re not really the
expert it can be hard for reporters to
know the difference sometimes like
they’re not experts at what you’re what
you’re knowledgeable lat and so they’re
putting their reputation on the line by
having you come on and be an expert so
you better know what you’re talking
about and having a professional media
pages show hey I’ve done all this stuff
you know I know what I’m talking about
have years of experience in my field
that helps the reporter feel more
confident that yeah I bring Nash on I
bring Evan on now they’re gonna be
didn’t know they talk about they’re
going to be stars I swear it on can you
can you share some other effective ways
that you recommend for getting a you
know mass exposure and this could be
internet-based or or otherwise but do
you do you recommend anything like joint
venture partnerships with others in
related fields like bloggers and
podcasts is that kind of thing or what
else can you recommend as far as that
goes getting getting one’s message out
there in a big way sure um two quick
thoughts one still on the media side a
service that I used for a while and
still subscribe to is called PR leads
it’s kind of like help a reporter out
but but there’s there’s a fee to it
we’re basically it’s ninety-nine bucks a
month and reporters from around the
world submit their ideas and you can say
hey I’m an expert on this and that’s at
you how I got into the new
times there’s a reporter saying from the
New York Times I want to write an
article about how small businesses can
make themselves look bigger than they
are and so I go back and when you write
to report who has a question you don’t
want to just say hey I’m an expert talk
to me is there any bombarded you want to
give them a specific example so whatever
their question is tell them the solution
write the story for them and that let
them to do an interview and taking some
pictures at my office and so that’s a
great service I have no connection with
it apart from being a happy customer
that was PR leads.com and then the other
thing in terms of joint venture
partnerships I do love partnering up
with people who already have an audience
online animal scene says ways we can
work together I have 7,000 people now
who contribute to my website and most of
them are marketing experts business
consultants and they contribute content
on my site and help promote it and I
help give them exposure and promote them
as well when I launch new products or
programs I always try to look at who can
i partner with the helpless get off the
ground so it’s not just me pushing out
to my audience a great example is I
created a line of famous entrepreneur
trading cards I’ve always been a fan of
baseball cards my whole life I collected
them I collect thousands of cars they
need to need to trim my collection and I
wanted to make my own trading cards just
as something fun to do and I thought why
not make these entrepreneurs like they
deserve to be heroes too and superstars
and have their own baseball card and so
I wanted to have steve jobs and bill
gates and donald trump on their own card
and i decided to partner up with
different bloggers and so I I connected
with some of the top business bloggers
so Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki those
guys and I asked him hey who is your
favorite famous entrepreneur and I want
to I want to feature you on the card and
them so a guy kawasaki pick Steve Jobs
everybody picked their own famous
entrepreneur and I made the card and all
the proceeds from that went to a charity
so it was wasn’t a money making thing
but definitely give a lot of exposure
for my business and when i launched it i
sent the cards for free to the blogger’s
with them on the back and their Idol on
the front and
they do they all tweeted the better they
all published it out there you know Tim
Ferriss & Guy Kawasaki and Seth Godin
were all pumping it out there saying hey
look what I’m will climb a part of this
is a great initiative and it was a great
marketing exercise in that you know
partnering up with these guys wasn’t
just me pushing it to my followers which
is substantial but so I want to hit more
people now I had 30 the top business
loggers in the world all toner audience
hey I’m part of this great initiative go
check it out and so I’m a big believer
in making partnerships with people who
are in your industry who have a related
audience who can help promote what
you’re doing nice right on man right on
can you what can you say about a media
exposure vs paid advertising and which
is which is more effective and can you
can you speak on that a little bit yeah
so I touch them a little bit earlier um
I’ve done a lot of both and I find that
the the media exposure generates more
interest as a greater impact and gets
more people clicking onto your website
in the early days of my software company
again I was taking out ads and I wasn’t
getting the results I was looking for
and and it was costing me money like
every month i’m spending money on this
thing and i’m not getting results and
you have a finite budget right like
entrepreneurs you know i don’t know
about you but like most entrepreneurs
are not made of made of cash so you
gotta be careful where you’re spending
your money and advertising can work like
i don’t want to say hey screw
advertising it can work but it costs
money and you have to really pay
attention to what you’re doing well with
the media again if you look at a
magazine do you read the story to read
the ad like some people read the ad but
most people will read the story you get
much greater impact from a story than
from an advertisement and what costs
less right like the story doesn’t cost
you anything sometimes reach out to
reporters but it doesn’t cost you
anything where an advertisement every
time you put it in there it’s gonna cost
you money so you can get a much bigger
ROI from the story than from doing the
advertising again you got to do properly
and invest the time but I found that to
be a lot more effective least in my
experience if I had to pick between the
mediums
I would always choose print I seem to
get the best results from print in terms
of measuring a impact on my website I
think it’s because the websites written
down and they can see it there and go to
a computer and and type it in where if
it’s radio or TV they have to remember
it and they may not be in front of the
computer or their phone at the time so
they don’t they don’t do anything with
it so I get more response out of a print
magazine newspaper any kind of printed
media as opposed to the other ones um
but I mean it’s all great they all they
all add not just traffic and leads to
your website but what credibility if you
can go to somebody’s website and see hey
this guy’s been in a New York Times and
Forbes magazine in the wall street
journal right away they will pay more
attention to you then if there’s nothing
there powerful yeah it’s like basically
an implied endorsement from that media
outlet like when we go to your site you
know right at the very top of the page
you can see those those endorsements
there and that’s that’s huge for
credibility if somebody is looking at
some you know your products or services
and there’s someone else offering
something similar but they don’t have
those kinds of endorsements and those
logos on their site then you know the
clear winner will be you so very very
powerful right there and from what I’ve
learned to because you mentioned PR
leads and I actually interviewed
yesterday dan Janelle which is the
founder of PR leads yeah yeah yeah got
to pick his brain on all of this and he
said that even sending out press
releases they get picked up on news
outlets and news websites which you know
when you especially when you go through
his PR distribution service you get
picked up on like over a hundred
legitimate news websites that will print
that right there on their website and
that’s that’s the same thing you know
you’re being featured on their site and
so then you can you know you can
actually take the logo of that and say
hey I’ve been featured in such and such
and put that on your site there so
that’s really really powerful buddy all
right I just got a couple couple last
questions here
Evan and this next one here is not
necessarily related to publicity but I
think it’s vitally important for
entrepreneurs who because you know
there’s so many of us entrepreneurs that
we work in isolation so much and we’re
not really interacting with and
networking with and connecting with a
lot of our peers and you know you can
experience burnout when that happens
frustration just all kinds of negative
things can happen when you’re not really
connected with others in your field and
so you know I’ve learned on your website
how much you believe in master mining
and you even run like a mastermind group
up in Toronto right and can you talk
about the importance of you know
masterminding why you feel so important
sure I actually have a group running
tonight so thursday nights is when i do
my group meetings so the idea mastermind
i was familiar with it from thinking
girl rich and you’ve ever read the book
great book must read for all
entrepreneurs by napoleon hill and he
talked about how Henry Ford and Thomas
Edison and all these guys got together
and it wasn’t until they started meeting
that all of the businesses took off now
I love that concept but I never really
did anything with it until I interviewed
a guy by the name of Brian Scudamore who
started a company called 1 800 got junk
and use a Canadian he grew from 0 to 8
million in a couple years like Brian
how’d you do this and he said it was
through farming mastermind groups and I
said that’s really interesting i look in
my city there was nothing here and so I
basically took what he was doing and
brought it to my city and it’s so
important because it is too lonely game
and even if you love what you’re doing
as an entrepreneur you need help and
support both in the form of ideas and
what to do and also just like guidance
and and feeling like you’re not alone in
this a lot of entrepreneurs when we’re
out networking talking about her
business is always the good stuff right
I just landed a new media lead because I
sign up for Nash’s program it’s amazing
but it’s never like oh my god I’m gonna
I hate my business I’m gonna quit like
why is this not working right like who
do you talk to you about that stuff
and we have friends we have family but a
lot of times if they’re not
entrepreneurs they don’t understand that
they can give you a year they’ll listen
to you but they can’t give you a support
so the point of our groups is to meet we
meet once a month and it’s to be an ear
and to give guidance and we try to
surround you with people who have
complementary skill sets to you so
you’re really strong as something but we
can other areas we find matches for you
and also just have someone to talk to
about the crap in your business and get
some advice on what to do because we
don’t really have these people to talk
to we may research online find articles
that kind of stuff you know like my
marketing sucks you know what do I do
you’re not going to go to a network
marketing or any kind of event you’re
going to say oh my marketing sucks I
don’t know what to do and who you tell
that to so that’s the point of the group
um we look people or beyond the startup
stage typically 300,000 10 million and a
half revenues trying to grow the next
step and basically go around the table
everybody has 20 minutes to talk about
what’s going on in their business and we
don’t want to be a 20 minutes of talking
but you know quick update and then
what’s the problem you’re facing how can
we help and then everybody kind of
free-for-alls and tries to give each
other advice and it works out I’ve been
doing it for I don’t know six years and
it’s been fun to see the members go we
had one member who just came to us with
an idea on paper I want to start his new
business I don’t know what to do in last
year he crossed a million-dollar mark
and he’s growing and so it’s exciting to
see that kind of growth that he
attributes a lot of his success to the
mastermind group that we’ve created so a
lot of yet you may have to do it
yourself there’s not a lot of groups at
least that I found um there’s a
worksheet I make the help entrepreneurs
go through that process if you’re
creating yourself but it’s definitely
worth trying to surround yourself with
people who we can bounce ideas off of
and keep you motivated sometimes we call
it entrepreneurs anonymous because we
like a lot of the Cubs your face it may
not even be related to your business
right like oh my my dad is bugging me
about something or my his health is his
Arab
like sometimes that’s the support you
need um so yeah definitely worth it one
of the best decision I’ve ever made in
my business rock on rock on and how do
you recommend if you have any ideas on
this how do you recommend folks to to
form their own mastermind group and any
ideas or thoughts on that yeah a lot I
know you’ve got like four minutes left
so i’ll see what i can have rock quickly
I mean the worksheet goes over and
really a lot of detail though they’re
gonna keep his uh finding people who are
the same value system as you and who are
in same similar levels of business I was
in a mass hundred before and there were
two of us who were kind of way ahead of
everybody else and the others something
they didn’t want to contribute they just
couldn’t because they hadn’t been to the
problems that we were facing right now
so you really need to get people who are
there for the right reasons it doesn’t
help each other you’re not there to
pitch right nobody wants to go to an
event where they’re being sold all the
time they’re help each other out and
they’re of similar sizes but have
different backgrounds and different
skill sets um we have a process that we
go through so everybody who wants to
become a member meets with me first over
coffee I explain it clearly let them
know what it’s all about make sure
there’s no surprises then they write a
one-page overview about their business
that gets presented at a meeting and
we’ll talk about it see if we want
invite this person they come as a guest
to the next meeting we’ll see how
everything works meet the members be
able to ask a few questions for their
own business and then everybody thinks
about it afterwards to see do we want
this person to continue yes no one more
trial meeting you know yes no and then
make a decision I’m there that’s kind of
like crunch down and everything we do i
but we have a nondisclosure agreement
you know some formal rules and structure
you need somebody to take charge like it
was just a free-for-all it doesn’t work
out and things end up falling apart so
you need somebody to be in charge to
moderate the meeting so I do it for my
groups but so super important to like
the selecting the right people is I’d
rather have a small cut before people
instead of having eight which is our
maximum uh because if you have two
people who don’t like each other
in a meeting like the whole thing falls
apart and it’s not going to help your
business all right on man well I
appreciate that that’s uh that’s pretty
much all the questions I have man you
really did drop some good nuggets here
and I appreciate you sharing I
appreciate you taking the time i hope
everyone watching this gets a lot from
it and takes your advice on pursuing
media publicity you know because from
what I’ve learned you know those that
have pursued media publicity and have
taken it seriously and really decided to
make that a serious part of their
promotional marketing strategy you know
there’s countless success stories of
people that have literally transformed
their entire business and their entire
life virtually overnight by you know
getting in the right publications or
just getting the right publicity in and
just getting mass awareness and exposure
on what they’re offering so with that
you know if you have any last words
hoarding words for us yeah final thought
is is it’s not that difficult like don’t
make this out to be some crazy project
that is that is scary and two huge these
are hoarders you’re not selling them
like they need you they need experts
every store you read there’s an expert
who comments on it that should be you
for your business for your industry that
experts should be you you’re making your
reporters life easier by reaching out to
them and connecting with them so so I
know like a lot of entrepreneur free the
selling and pitching don’t think of it
as that like you are really helping out
that reporter if you can be a credible
expert for them national bumping up
against the clock if people want to
learn more about you what’s the best way
to find that out that’s great well you
can actually go to get publicity net get
publicity net and when they go there
they’re actually going to get access to
a free interview that I did with Dan
Janelle which is the owner of PR
leads.com and he’s a widely known expert
in and publicity and media relations and
he shares really just kind of opens the
whole door for anybody that wants to
learn about how to do this and its
really really great interview so they
can go there and get access to that and
then they’ll be able to learn more about
the program that I’m launching that’ll
really teach them all of this in a
comprehensive way very cool Nash
good luck yeah thanks a lot heaven you
have a great day my friend will talk to
you soon buddy to Cheers bye-bye
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