Baby Got Booked The Podcast

We typically book three types of guests on the show. We book producers or editors in the media who have a media platform and are looking for content and experts. We book people who have used the media to launch their brand or grow their business. The third type of person I like to bring on the show is somebody who helps us elevate our game and become a better story (because if you’re living a really great story that’s an excellent first step towards getting attention for it). My guest today, Zane Caplansky, fulfills all three of these requirements because he is a celebrity chef, he owns multiple businesses (all in the food industry), he’s an absolute media magnet extraordinaire and he has his own podcast. If you’re at all in the food industry or want to be in the food industry this is the guy whose show you want to get on.  The Globe and Mail article: There was a huge article in the Globe and Mail (Canada’s biggest English language newspaper). The headline was Caplansky’s Deli goes national with restaurants ‘built for Instagram’. Caplansky’s had re-branded their logo and he offered the Globe and Mail an exclusive on the new logo. Exclusivity: Zane’s offer of exclusivity was attractive enough for the editor to say yes and assign a writer. This only works if you already have an established relationship with a particular editor. Exclusivity is a very sexy thing to the media.  Editing: Once it’s out of your mouth what they report is out of your control. It’s up to the journalist to decide what to print and how it’s going to go. It’s all in the editing. Editors and producers decide what story they want to tell. All you can do is put on your best performance and then leave it up to them to either be sympathetic and favorable or make you look like a jack ass.  Sound bytes: The best thing you can do to prepare for a situation like this is to have certain key sound bytes prepared. They’re not going to want to cut out the sexy bits. Make the bits you want to have come across the sexiest.  Know your audience, know your editor: You do this by consuming the product. You read the paper, you see the kind of stories they are telling and look for trends. What type of story do they keep telling? Then ask yourself how this applies to your business. Franchising: Zane resisted the idea of franchising for years. His thinking was that running a restaurant is hard so running two would be twice as hard. Then he got an offer from an organization to open two franchise locations in the Pearson International Airport in Toronto. He said yes without really thinking through all the possible ways and reasons why it might not work. They became very successful in the most challenging environment possible and that convinced Zane they could grow. Think about how you stand out from the crowd. What do people gripe about? Zane went to the two most common gripes (overpriced, low quality food) and fixed them. Podcast: Zane was invited to be on a radio show. Afterwards the producer called him and asked him to be on a discussion panel the following Thursday. He did and was invited back the next time and the next. Finally the producer told him to just keep coming until they told him to stop. That was two years ago and he’s still on the panel every Thursday. The other members of the panel were seasoned veterans of radio and he studied them to learn from them. One day he stuck his head in the program manager’s office and said “If I was going to pitch you on a food radio show what would I have to tell you?” and the manager said “That’s a good idea, let’s do it.” His podcast started six weeks later and is called “Let’s Eat with Zane Caplansky.” Getting on Zane’s show: Being invited on the show has a lot to do with personality and topicality. Just sending an email saying “I’d love to come on your show” isn’t going to get very far. He wants to know why. Tell him something that’s going to be compelling for him to want to put you on the show. Make it easy for him to say yes.  You can reach Zane on Twitter @Caplansky, on Facebook under Zane Caplansky or Facebook.com/caplansky and Instagram @Caplansky Zane’s Globe and Mail article can be found at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/caplanskys-deli-goes-national-with-revamped-restaurants-built-for-instagram/article29497520/ I love hearing from you. I’m @lifewithgeeta on Twitter. If you want a peek into my personal life follow me on Instagram where my handle is Baby Got Booked. You can reach out to me via email or via my website contact form at geetanadkarni.com Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack. [http://www.babygotbooked.com/headlines]

It’s much easier to tell a better story if you are living an amazing story. Tiisetso Maloma falls into that category because he is an entrepreneur many many times over. He’s worked in very diverse industries including but not limited to marketing and PR, photography, graphic design, web design, copy writing, public speaking, event organizing and a lot more. He is about to launch a brand new book which you can pre-order right now called The Anxious Entrepreneur: Anxiety Defeats Creativity and Creativity Defeats Anxiety. I’m excited about introducing him because I think anxiety is a big dark underbelly of entrepreneurship. We will talk about using creativity and story-telling techniques to defeat the anxiety that may be holding you back, maybe crippling your business or if your business is successful sucking a lot of the joy out of your life. What most people don’t know about Tiisetso: Most people think because he is on Facebook a lot that is he very sociable. He is but he is also more of an introvert. He needs time to himself to read, write and do other things that interest him. A lot of entrepreneurs are like that. He’s interested in a lot of things. He’s always been the kind of person who’s dabbled in more than one venture. That alone can cause high anxiety because when you’re running more than one business the risk of failure is multiplied. Where does anxiety come from? As soon as you involve yourself in a number of ventures that’s when the anxiety gates open up, so it’s a matter of keeping focus. This can mean anything from having Facebook and Twitter open while trying to write a blog post or trying to run two businesses at the same time. You don’t want to miss out on anything but you need to stay focused. Defeat anxiety with creativity: Anxiety defeats production. When you are anxious you can’t be creative, when you’re creative you’re not anxious. Chop away anxiety by getting creative. Getting creative could mean going for a walk, going for a run or indulging in something you enjoy like writing or playing music. What if I have a deadline? That’s about energy. When you don’t sleep well you feel it in your body. Take care of yourself, make sure you sleep enough hours and exercise as well. This will help you in dealing with a stressful situation like a deadline. Geeta said she doesn’t think she struggles with anxiety as much as most entrepreneurs do, but she used to. The reason she’s gotten a handle on it is because she’s put in certain habits that are non-negotiable and fitness is one of them. People say they don’t have time. Geeta doesn’t have time either; she’s pregnant, has a young child and runs two businesses. She makes time. Dealing with nighttime anxiety: Start off with the priority tasks. If you do all the priority tasks before noon for example after that fewer things will affect you and anxiety won’t control you. Also, get honest with yourself about your energy cycle. A lot of people ignore their energy cycle, we don’t pay attention to it, and we look to external signals. It’s a lot like letting your body tell you when you’re hungry or you’re full rather than just going by the clock. • Tiisetso Maloma’s website is www.tiisetsomaloma.com • You can try your first workout on www.liftsession.com for free using the promo code Geeta. • I love hearing from you. I’m @lifewithgeeta on Twitter. If you want a peek into my personal life follow me on Instagram where my handle is Baby Got Booked. You can reach out to me via email or via my website contact form at geetanadkarni.com • Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack [http://www.geetanadkarni.com/headlines]

Today I want to introduce you to somebody who has actually been in a vomit comet. They are the simulators that allow you to simulate weightlessness aboard an aircraft and feel what astronauts actually experience in space. John Getter is a licensed pilot and has flown the space shuttle simulator and has more than 3 hours of weightlessness aboard a special NASA aircraft (the vomit comet). He is a former broadcast journalist whosebroadcasts have been carried in 135 countries and he supervised projects that flew in space. He does insights and stories from working with hundreds of explorers including all who walked on the moon or commanded a space shuttle. He’s a professional speaker and he produces news coverage for major broadcast and cable networks including Good Morning America. He consults with major corporations industry and political leaders on effective communication skills, media understanding and of course storytelling.  Today Show and Good Morning America: Both of the programs aim at primarily a female audience but GMA more so. The first 15 to 30 minutes is hard news and the rest is interesting, fun features. The Today Show is more news oriented and is a more serious program. When John does the news he wants stories that people will talk about the next day. Pizza Convention: There was a pizza convention in Las Vegas, where John lives. A booker from Good Morning America called him and asked him to go to the convention and find an interesting person they could fly out and have on the show. When he went he found it was so huge and so full of interesting characters they decided instead to send a film crew out there. They ended up doing a video segment of the convention and flying a guy out to New York to demonstrate with the GMA hosts how to spin the pizza dough etc.  Getting on one of the programs: John’s story is that he worked in the space program a long time and did a lot of reporting on space travel. He lived in Washington D.C at the time the Columbia Space Shuttle was lost. Fox News was scrambling like everyone else to come up with people to talk about what might have happened, what did happen, etc. John introduced himself to them and they asked him to come on the program immediately. He had something of value to give them.  Value: When you give the audience something of value you give them something that entertains, educates, informs, makes them laugh, makes them feel smarter and is something they’re going to want to bring up at the dinner table or a cocktail party. It gives them something interesting to make them more interesting.  Why now? John’s story is a perfect example of something that Geeta drives home which is that it answers the question “why now?” Geeta has a YouTube video on this on the baby got booked YouTube channel where she will walk you through how to answer this question and what it means the way a producer asks it.  Put a face on it: This means something folks can connect with viscerally. It’s important to connect with information that connects with the head, that’s the expert part. But that which connects and is remembered is that which touches the heart, the emotional side. Find a way to tell a story that touches not just the head but the heart. How to get your foot in the door: Be clear, succinct, focused on what the audience is going to get and try to do some research beforehand as to whether or not you should be talking to someone like John or someone else. It really doesn’t make his day when the phone rings at 5:30 AM pacific time and it’s someone in New York trying to pitch him something. Don’t pitch too much and too often.  • How to reach John: You can find John through his website johngetter.com or through email at john@johngetter.com  • If you’re interested in learning how to write a bio in ten minutes or less check out babygotbookedlab.com • Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack. [www.babygotbooked.com/headlines]  

On today’s show I’ve brought on a story telling maestro. Park Howell has been a professional story teller for more than 30 years. He has helped firms achieve epic growth through the power of story to define their brand and connect with customers, all the things we’re going to teach you how to do today. He’s a professional speaker, a marketing consultant and a brand story strategist. He’s going to help us craft and tell a compelling story and then we’re going to hook those ideas together to show how you can leverage this for the media (that’s where I can bring some of my ideas to the table).  Joseph Campbell: Park was introduced to the work of Joseph Campbell through his son who was going to film school in Hollywood. Joseph Campbell is America’s foremost mythologist. His 17 step hero’s journey can be seen in the movies you love, the books you read and even the songs you listen to. If you really want to see it in action all you have to do is look at the very first Star Wars movie because George Lucas used Joseph Campbell’s blueprint to write that script. When Park started overlaying it in his advertising and marketing work he saw the same hero’s journey, the same story patterns materialize.  Ten Chapter Story Cycle (also available as an infographic on Park’s website businessofstory.com) Chapter One: Backstory. Park also calls it “where in the world have you been?” This is stage setting to create context around the story. Park asks people to answer three questions: Where have you been? Where are you now? Where are you going? Chapter Two: Who’s Your Hero? We want to know a little bit more about you the hero. Tell us your strengths and weaknesses. Everybody loves an underdog so when you’re telling your personal story tell us what you want, what you’re going after, how you think you’re uniquely equipped to get it and how you think you’re not equipped to get it and how you’re not even sure how you’re going to go about it. Chapter Three: What’s at Stake?  Chapter Four: Your Call to Adventure. Hollywood calls this the “inciting incident”. Everyone has a moment in their life when their world turns upside down and they go from their ordinary world to a new extraordinary world.  Chapter Five: Villains, Fog and Crevasses. This is where the obstacles and antagonists show up. Villains are the people in our lives that try to thwart our progress. Some of them are literally villains that don’t want us to win, others are well meaning loved ones that are afraid and question what we’re doing. They are also the internal voices saying “Am I good enough? Can I really pull this off?” The fog is the blind spots you have moving forward and the crevasses are the gaps in what we’re telling ourselves and how we’re actually acting. Are we living the story that we believe we want to live? Chapter Six: Enter the Mentor. We all have obstacles but we don’t go through them alone. We have a mentor, one or more people at our side to help guide us. They serve a powerful role because they guide us with their wisdom, experience and tools.  Chapter Seven: The Road of Trials.  Chapter Eight: Victory is at Hand. When did you have that first real big victory where you said “Yes, I’m on the right road. This is awesome.” How did you celebrate that victory?  Chapter Nine: The Moral of the Story. What is the truth in all of this? Chapter Ten: To Be Continued. It’s a repeating cycle. You’ve gone through it once now you’re set up for this new revolution of your story cycle.  Contact Information: Park Howell can be found on Twitter @ParkHowell, on LinkedIn and at Business of Story on Facebook. His website is businessofstory.com Geeta wants to know your thoughts on this episode. Reach out to her and tell her what you got out of this. She’s on Twitter @lifewithgeeta or you can reach out to her via email or via her website contact form at geetanadkarni.com.  Park invited Geeta to be on his Business of Story podcast to take this to the next level and talk about the story cycle as they use it in their companies.  Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack.  

Today’s guest is somebody who’s going to teach you how to talk about what you do in a way that makes people want to lean in and hear the rest as opposed to the elevator pitch that makes people say “oh, okay” and the conversation is over. Jenny Beres has run a successful freelance writing business for 10 years. She started with $75.00 in her bank account and quickly transformed it into a six figure freelance copywriting business. She helps brands tell their story in a compelling way and she also helps a lot of freelance writers or freelance social media people run a successful business. So it’s the skill of writing itself, what stories to tell, what stories to leave out and then on the other side of it the business aspect of running a freelance writing oriented business.  Compassion and inspiration: Whether you’re a business owner writing your own copy or you’re a copywriter on a team and you’ve been hired to capture someone else’s story you must write from a place of compassion and inspiration. Those are the two places that marketing copy must come from. You must speak to your audience, which essentially if you’re a business owner is maybe you five years ago before you found the solution to the problem that you were experiencing.  Vulnerability and oversharing: One of the main questions a customer asks is “Do you see me? Can you feel what I’m feeling?” so being vulnerable by saying “I’ve been you” (if you have) is a great place to start. You aren’t coming across as inauthentic but at the same time you aren’t oversharing. Make sure the story you’re telling is the story that’s related to your audience. Find the intersection where your story connects with your target audience. It’s very easy to get lost down that rabbit hole of sharing so much you turn your client green. There is a fine line between being vulnerable and oversharing and that intersection keeps you from crossing over it.  Questions Jenny asks her clients and recommends you ask yourself and discuss with someone you trust: Why you? Why you specifically? This brings out a little bit more of the story and that’s usually where we get a few more details about where they intersect with their desired client. What do you offer differently? What you offer is different even if it looks like the same product or a similar service. You do something differently; we all put our unique fingerprint on our business. Identify your unique fingerprint. Lead with that in your marketing message. Is there anything that you’re currently struggling with? A business owners struggle is going to be different then a potential client’s but you can get into that emotional realm. While you want to maintain a level of professionalism it’s important for the client to tap into how they felt and use maybe how they’re currently feeling about their struggles to tell their story using more compassion and a more inspirational language What was your catalyst? In story telling the great things always happen after the catalyst. The catalyst is what pushed you to make a choice to do something differently.  Who do you serve now? If you look at the first scene of a movie and you look at the last scene of the movie they’re usually photo negatives of each other. They’re usually telling the same story but the rebirth of that story. And the end of your brand’s story should be the rebirth of you. But you always want to include who it is that you’re serving. Who is it now that you’re reaching out to? Who are you paying it forward to? A brand’s story without including your audience simply is just you talking about yourself. You don’t want to isolate your audience from your brand’s story; you want to include them in your success.  When you make a mistake: If you feel like a joke didn’t land right or an email didn’t come across as intended being direct about it is the best way. Jenny said she used to fret and apologize for ten hours whenever she made a tiny mistake and she had to learn to rein that in. She would email the person immediately and say “I just re-read my email and it didn’t come out quite the way I meant. If you took it the other way I’m super sorry. This is what I meant…” and then she would clarify what she meant.  How to contact Jenny: There are several different ways to get a hold of her on her website jennyberes.com.  I love hearing from you. I’m @lifewithgeeta on Twitter. If you want a peek into my personal life follow me on Instagram where my handle is Baby Got Booked. You can reach out to me via email or via my website contact form at geetanadkarni.com Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack

Do you remember the Herbal Essences commercial where the woman in the shower is going “Yes! Yes!”?  Well, I don’t have the woman in the shower (she’s a model) but I have with me the woman who wrote that ad campaign and made it famous. My guest today is Linda Kaplan Thaler and she is responsible for some of America’s most famous advertising campaigns including the Aflac duck quack and the yes, yes, yes Herbal Essences campaign. She has won 13 Clio awards (which is like the Oscar for advertising) and two were for best original music and lyrics. If you’ve ever heard “I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Toys R Us kid” and Kodak moments that is her. She runs a billion dollar advertising agency in New York City called Publicis Kaplan Thaler. Her latest book Grit to Great (co-written with Robin Koval, who is also the co-founder of the company the Kaplan Thaler Group) is a national best seller that teaches us how to be a better story (other books include The Power of Nice, Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World, and The Power of Small.)  If there was ever somebody who could boil down a brand’s story and tell it in 30 seconds in a way that turns it into a cultural piece of shorthand this is the person who really gets how to do it.  The Grit factor: You don’t have to be born with unbelievable talent. 98% of really great people have, not the It factor, but the Grit factor. Anybody can develop grit; you don’t have to be born with it. That is what the book Grit to Great is about.  Most important factor: Linda and Robin couldn’t figure out why they were so successful and winning almost everything they were pitching. They knew it wasn’t because they were geniuses. Then they realized when they started doing post interviews with clients such as Wendy’s or Proctor and Gamble and would ask “why did you award this to us?” they would always get the same answer which was “Your work was great, everybody else’s work was great too but we didn’t think anybody could work harder than you did.”   Famous examples: They started looking at famous people who have done extraordinary things but were completely ordinary growing up. Colin Powell was a C- student in college until he discovered the ROTC and decided he wanted to devote his life to service in our country.  Steven Spielberg was rejected from film school three times. Michael Jordan couldn’t even make his high school varsity basketball team. Walt Disney got fired from his first job because he lacked imagination. What did these people have? They weren’t brilliant, they weren’t particularly talented, they had the Grit factor.  G.R.I.T:  Guts, Resilience, Initiative, Tenacity Your 90 year old self:  Jeff Bezos of Amazon tells a great story about how everybody told him he should stay at his comfortable Wall Street job instead of starting amazon.com. He had a conversation with his 90 year old self who said “Of course you’ve got to do this. Do you want to turn out being this age and never even tried something that you really really want to do? “Have a conversation with your 90 year old self (in the privacy of your own home of course) and you will know exactly what you should be doing.  Advice that took Linda out of the baby pool and into the ocean: Every time you do something for somebody you are throwing out a positive imprint or a seed. That seed will blossom and grow in ways you can’t even imagine. Do not expect anything when you do something nice for somebody. In some way, shape or form the universe is going to pay you back and it’s going to be unbelievable.  Grit Quiz: On Linda’s website grittogreat.com you can take the Grit Quiz to access your Grit level and to see where you have potential to develop it even more.  Grit to Great: You can buy the book on grittogreat.com or on Amazon or anywhere else there are books. An audio version is also available.  Linda is on twitter @lindathaler2 and Facebook as Linda K Thaler. Share with Linda a habit you’ve developed that’s moving you forward towards your goals. She often posts people’s stories of where their Grit took them. Or if you have any tips to share they send them out almost daily.  I love hearing from you. I’m @lifewithgeeta on Twitter. If you want a peek into my personal life follow me on Instagram where my handle is Baby Got Booked. You can reach out to me via email or via my website contact form at geetanadkarni.com Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack

Have you ever bought a copy of Inc. Magazine, read it cover to cover and ripped out pages to use as a blueprint to create your dream business? Today’s guest is none other than James Ledbetter, editor of Inc. Magazine and Inc.com. Prior to this position he was the founder and editor of The Big Money, which is Slate’s business and finance site (if you’re familiar with slate.com) and the opinion editor for Reuters. He has also been deputy managing editor of CNN Money and senior editor at Time and is the author of four books. Today he’s going to spend some time with us telling us what sort of stories excite him, what his inbox looks like and how you can pitch him in a way that gets you an invitation to join their contributor network so that you can have your own column in Inc. Magazine. Vetting process for contributors: They ask contributors questions such as what is it that you want to write about? What is it that makes you qualified to write about it? What are you going to offer us that no one else can offer us? Then they ask them to give them ten headline ideas for columns that they would write. Then they give them a set of guidelines, a mission statement and some training on CMS. Depending on how often the person is writing there is a try out period between 4-8 weeks. During that process the contributor is watched closely and given feedback if something seems off. Choosing the right content: What distinguishes Inc is that they are always trying to tell the story from the point of view of the entrepreneur. How did this person make this happen? How did they overcome the obstacles that are well known to people in small business? What makes them tick and what can readers take away and use in their own business? They do reader surveys once a year and one of the questions is “how often in the last 12 months have you taken something from the magazine, ripped it out and used it in your business?” and the numbers have been really gratifying. Copyright: The copyright is temporary. They are not in a position of wanting to own all the rights to everything that they publish online. They ask for exclusivity for a certain number of weeks and when that period is over the writers can do absolutely anything they want with it including re-publishing it elsewhere or turning it into a book. Paid and unpaid columns: They pay columnists who write at least six posts a month minimum. They pay on traffic at a rate of $9.50 per 1,000 U.S page views. For most people it helps with the grocery bill but is not enough to make a living but a handful are making a lot. James inbox: James gets 200-300 emails a day. He looks for ones that stand out and have a targeted and modest goal. Emails that get deleted immediately: Emails with 7 MB files attached will be deleted immediately due to limited storage space. People that send out multiple emails and forget to change the name so James will get things like “Dear Doris”; if your attention to detail is that low he doesn’t want to deal with you. Email subject lines that grab his attention: An email with a subject line that already sounds like a headline story is one he would respond to. For example he got one with the subject line “Is there a doctor on board?” which was about an app that lets you consult a physician while you’re on flight. Piece of advice that took James out of the baby pool and into the ocean: At his first job in journalism as a summer intern for a magazine called The Wilson Quarterly the man who ran it told him “never come to your boss with a problem, come to your boss with a solution. If it’s the right solution you’ve done him or her a favor but if you just come with a problem you’re making his or her life worse.” If you’re curious about what it’s like to pivot a young business when the front man (or front woman) is pregnant and is changing the business model you can follow the babygotabump column I write for Entrepreneur.com. Just look for hashtag #babygotabump I love hearing from you. I’m @lifewithgeeta on Twitter. If you want a peek into my personal life follow me on Instagram where my handle is Baby Got Booked. You can reach out to me via email or via my website contact form at geetanadkarni.com You want to make sure journalists ipen your email? Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack

Jason Silverman is a Martial Arts Master Instructor, Information Marketer, Marketing Expert & Coach, Sought-After Speaker, CEO of Powerful Words Character Development and Co-Founder of Dance Sites Done Right/All Star Cheer Sites. We met when Jason interviewed me on his podcast which is called The Real Deal. We talked about specific strategies that dance, cheerleading and martial arts studios can use to get themselves media coverage. Jason has helped and continues to help more than 500 studios worldwide with a marketing system right out of the box that helps them bring in, retain and engage with their clients. Licensing: Jason started by piloting seven people to make sure the system would work when someone else was running it. They did the pilot program for about a year then decided to take it farther. They got a website and merchant account and Jason called three people in the industry that he knew well and asked them to tell people. Overnight they had around 100 new clients. Their System: It is a powerful words system they created of how to teach personal development in a facility. This is something a studio owner would teach their teachers to implement in class. In cases where the owners are also the instructor, they are teaching the lessons and using the material to better market their facility. For them it is a short cut. Whiteboard: The steps to have a whiteboard video script are more intensive than writing your own script. So if you do that first you use that as cliff notes as you’re doing your own video. Jason called some of his clients and they agreed to answer questions about the business while Jason recorded the conversations. Each client came up with one thing he had never thought about. From those conversations you figure out what the most important parts are and break it down as if telling a story at a cocktail party. Units: When you’re going to have conversations with people schedule a start time and end time. Use units of time of five minutes. How many units do you need? You shouldn’t need more than one or two units. There are a lot of units in one hour. This way you become a lot more accountable for your time.        Tips for licensing: There is a big difference between franchising and licensing. Make sure you aren’t operating an illegal franchise. Check your local laws Build your system; pilot it with 5-7 people you know across the country (the pilot people pay for it). Keep a diary every day of not just what you’re doing but also what you’re hearing and what you wish they knew. Make sure that you can get people to do what you need them to do.   For more information visit jasonmsilverman.com AllStarCheerSites.com is Jason’s website with the marketing video Geeta likes. If you’re curious about what it’s like to pivot a young business when the front man (or front woman) is pregnant and is changing the business model you can follow the babygotabump column I write for Entrepreneur.com. Just look for hashtag #babygotabump I love hearing from you. I’m @lifewithgeeta on Twitter. If you want a peek into my personal life follow me on Instagram where my handle is Baby Got Booked. You can reach out to me via email or via my website contact form at geetanadkarni.com You want to make sure journalists ipen your email? Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack

My guest today is the guy who spent thirty years bringing life into focus as one of the U.S’s most sought after portrait photographers, and is now inspiring creative entrepreneurs to leverage their so called lack of focus. Jeffrey Shaw actually believes that it is a good idea to chase the metaphorical squirrels all over the place. He’s a business coach, speaker and host of the popular business podcast “Creative Warriors” (in fact we met when he had me as a guest on his podcast). Jeffrey is also a contributor to the Huffington Post, the creator of the online training program “The Creative Warrior” and has been sighted in various publications and trade journals. If you have trouble with “creative chaos brain” where you look at a blank wall and see three hundred different opportunities and you tend to run in seventeen different directions at any given time and are still trying to run a business and be successful and have relationships etc then this is the episode for you. Creative’s in business: The root of the problem for creative’s in business is that the rules of business have been set forth, established and followed by a very traditional mindset. Those who go in business using their creativity, selling their talents and creative thoughts and transforming people’s lives follow a very untraditional way of being in business. Hook: For a traditional business they put their effort into understanding their niche. A creative person who’s building their business on the inside out should put an equal if not far greater amount of effort into establishing what it is that they want to stand for. When we’re clear on our purpose we may wear many hats but they all hang on one hook. Figure out the hook. What is the one thing that all the hats are going to hang on? The hats are an expression of that. Renaissance: This philosophy is grounded in the renaissance of the 1400’s. Jeffrey believes the movement he’s creating is the new renaissance movement established on the same principals of the original renaissance of the 1400’s. It was a compliment to be called a renaissance person. It was a compliment to be good at many things. This is not about doing many things half assed. This is about being very good at more than one thing. Exercises Jeffrey puts his clients through: Step one: Take the lid off. Usually where those ideas came from there’s a million more behind it. Step two: Ask yourself the question “What is it that throughout my life people have complimented me on?” Our gifts are so natural to us that we don’t even see them. What’s of ease to you the world probably wants more of from you. Step three: Ask yourself “What drives me crazy?” Most often what people are most driven to do. Special offer on Jeffrey’s Seven Day Mini Course: Jeffrey has a seven day online program called “Week of the Warrior” that you can find at weekofthewarrior.com. Once a day you’re asked a powerful question. When you reply with your answer you get a little piece of the puzzle. At the end of the week those seven pieces of the puzzle come together to create the path of the creative warrior, which is a non-linear path for a creative person in business. It is normally $37.00 but Geeta’s listeners can get it for free with the promo code: podcast. Find out more about Jeffrey at jeffreyshaw.com Geeta’s blog at geetanadkarni.com for a review of Gay Hendricks book The Big Leap which she reviews as being one of the best books she read in 2015. I love hearing from you. I am @lifewithgeeta on Twitter. If you want a peek into my personal life follow me on Instagram where my handle is Baby Got Booked. You can reach out to me via email or via my website contact form at geetanadkarni.com Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack: www.babygotbooked.com/headline

My guest today is consultant and speaker Steven Gaffney. He runs a wildly successful seven figure business and is in the National Speakers Association Million Dollar Club. His platform is honest communication. He’s tall, dark and handsome, he’s rich and his platform is honest communication (like the perfect man). He’s the author of five books: Just Be Honest, Honesty Works, Honesty Sells, Guide To Increasing Communication Flow Up Down And Across and 21 Rules For Delivering Difficult Messages. His latest book is Be A Change Champion: 10 Factors for Sustaining the Boom and Avoiding the Bust of Change. Honest communication: People tell Steven “I am honest” and he will say “Well you’re probably lying.” This is not about the ethical point of view about truth or lies. The biggest problem is not what people say it’s what they leave out, what they don’t say. If you can get others to get the unsaid said so they can speak their truth and we can speak our truth without somebody flipping out on us then relationships are dramatically improved. Recognizing dishonesty: Someone who only shows one emotion is most likely lying. Why? Because human beings have a range of emotions. If you’ve ever had anyone say to you “Everything is great!” that’s impossible. Likewise someone who is always complaining and belly aching is also not telling you the truth. It doesn’t matter how miserable they are inside there are at least some good things they can be happy about. Too much truth: There is a saying we all grew up with which is “treat others the way you want to be treated.” If the roles were reversed what would you have wanted the person to say to you? Everyone always says they would want them to tell the truth. Someone who is over sharing is still being dishonest because they are doing a lot of talking but aren’t really saying what’s on their mind. Blind spots: We don’t always recognize how we come across to others. The reason we need to get feedback is because we really are blind to how we come across. Sometimes somebody will say “I’m aware of my blind spots.” Do you realize how silly that sounds? If you knew what your blind spot was it would no longer be a blind spot. This is the value of having really good friends and people that will speak our truth. That’s why we want to cultivate a relationship with people that will actually speak their truth to us. When they do even if we don’t like it we should at least appreciate that they’re speaking their truth to us. That’s how we learn and grow. Hurting people’s feelings: When you say “I have some feedback to give you, is it okay?” or “Do you really want to hear the truth?” they can already tell it’s not going to be the most favorable. A lot of times people will say they are being honest but they are really being brutal. There’s a big difference between honesty and brutality. Three keys to good, honest communication: Be fact based Make a request End with an appreciation State the facts, make a request and end with an appreciation. For example “I noticed that you said you didn’t want to hear about what happened to me yesterday. My request is I’d like to share with you what happened because I think it’s really important as we look at what we’re doing moving forward. Because I really do appreciate our relationship and I value us having an open, honest communication.” You can reach Steven at his website justbehonest.com where you will find a lot of free articles and videos. If you do something that Steven shared in this interview and send him an email about it he will send you the electronic version of his first book Just Be Honest for free! Steven’s email: steven@stevengaffney.com Read Geeta’s blog for a review of Gay Hendricks book The Big Leap which she reviews as being one of the best books she read in 2015. I love hearing from you. I’m @lifewithgeeta on Twitter. If you want a peek into my personal life here at Baby Got Booked HQ follow me on Instagram where my handle is Baby Got Booked. You can reach out to me via email or via my website contact form at geetanadkarni.com Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack

Today I’ve invited three of our students to share some of the results they’ve had building exposure, credibility and growing their businesses using the media. Lauren Victoria from Hawaii launched Aloha Crate, a subscription box that sends Hawaii treats to people all over the world. We’ll talk about her experience launching her company using just social media and how she landed her first television interview. Julie Creffield from London U.K is a runner, fitness enthusiast, professional speaker and author at toofattorun.co.uk. Her award winning blog and exploits have been featured in press around the world including the U.K’s Daily Mail, The Today Show and the Huffington Post. Joanne Giacomini from Montreal is a writer and blogger at exceptionalmomchild.com. She is the mom of a son with autism and she writes and speaks on the wonders of parenting a special needs child as opposed to just the medical side of things. She joined the course in September 2015 and in a few weeks she landed regular blogging status with Huffington Post Parents, Wise Women Canada, Mommy’s List and more. She’s been featured on local breakfast television and radio shows. All this for someone who didn’t have a single media credit to her name three and a half months prior to this recording. All three of these women not only live in different corners of the world but also have very different types of businesses. Today we will get to meet these amazing women I have had the privilege of working with. Lauren Victoria: When Lauren first launched Aloha Crate at the age of twenty-three she anticipated thousands of customers pouring in but only had three even after a big social media campaign and paying for Ad’s. She realized social media wasn’t cutting it. She reached out to a reporter that she had previously worked with and got into the newspaper. Then a week later a friend of hers told her there was a spot open on the morning news. They got on the morning news a week later and even before she left the station her phone was exploding with orders. It was nonstop the entire day. That was twelve months ago and she recently sold the company for a sizable sum. Here's Lauren's blog. Julie Creffield: Julie set up her blog in 2010 after coming in last in a race. She thought that was funny so she started blogging about it. It was never meant to be a business it was supposed to be a hobby while she was training for a marathon. The blog got a lot of interest from women who said they were fat and liked to run too. A lot of the things she was talking about they said happened to them. There was a lot of excitement before she even turned it into a business. She redesigned her website and it went viral but she didn’t have anything to sell. She had all that traffic but wasn’t making any money because she wasn’t selling anything. So she made t-shirts with her too fat to run slogan on them and things took off that way. Women started wearing her t-shirts and people would ask them about it and they would direct them to her blog. Julie said one of the things that helped her was to think about her target audience. In her case it’s overweight and inactive women who have been burned before by diet companies. She knew she had to build up trust with these women. They weren’t going to go on her site and buy an expensive coaching program right off the bat. She had to provide smaller things and things they could download for free. They wanted to get to know her and understand that she’s going to help them before they will pay money. (Check out her books here) Joanne Giacomini: Joanne said her son is raising her. He teaches her how important it is to live in the moment and how our children teach us to be better human beings. She started her blog last fall. She had so many stories about her son and people were encouraging her to write about the other side of autism. Not about the medical side of it, not about the therapies, but about what it’s really like living and raising a son and the journey that she’s on. So she started her blog and people started responding to it. Friends told friends and it started to grow. Then she realized she had a business idea, she could be helping to empower mom’s to live life to the full with their children and give them the tools and tips and techniques they need to live a better life with their family. She emailed Barry Morgan at CJAD (radio station in Montreal) and she was amazed when he called and said he would love to have her on the show. I love hearing from you. I’m @lifewithgeeta on Twitter. If you want a peek into my personal life here at Baby Got Booked HQ follow me on Instagram where my handle is Baby Got Booked. You can reach out to me via email or via my website contact form at geetanadkarni.com.

Today we’re going to be doing something a little bit different. If you’ve been listening to the show for any amount of time you know we tend to have people who fall into one of three categories. We have media professionals who are producers, high ranked journalists or podcasters looking for experts just like you. We also have people using the media to catapult their business to the next level. The third type is somebody who’s out there living an amazing story, helping others do the same and is going to help you become a better story. I am a firm believer that everything is story. We are defined by the stories we tell ourselves, our reality is defined by the stories we see around us that we carry in the back of our minds whether we’re aware of them or not. That tends to either propel us forward or hold us back. Nobody knows that better then my guest today, Pascale Landriault. She is a certified HR profession and a postmaster in NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). She is also a life and business coach and her specialty is helping folks design the career of their dreams. NLP: Neuro Linguistic Programming is a practical approach to help people achieve their goals or achieve any kind of transformation. NLP is a series of models based on people who have had success in certain areas. It will help people improve their behavior if their behavior is not helping them out. It can either help them expand their capabilities or even alter or improve internal states. It’s also very big in facilitating communication. Perfectionism: Perfectionists live in the illusion that perfection can be reached, but it actually can’t be reached. They live in perpetual insatisfaction. They are rarely satisfied with their work or anyone else’s work. They are afraid of making mistakes, afraid of failure, have difficulty delegating and often say “I should have “or “I could have”. How to know you’re a perfectionist: If any of the above applies to you. If you’re sensitive to criticism, have an all or nothing attitude, have difficulty accepting your limits, are afraid of asking or receiving help, feel like you always need to be in control and feel like if you quit being a perfectionist you will stop performing and become mediocre or lazy. Tips for the perfectionist: The first step is to become conscience of your tendency to be a perfectionist and really evaluate the impact of your behavior. Make the decision to change. Identify your beliefs around perfectionism and change them. For example one belief could be “I should not make mistakes”. Challenge it by asking yourself if that’s really true. What is the worst that could happen if this were true? Identify your beliefs, question them and then find three examples in your life where the opposite is true and write them down. There is a recommended book by Byron Katie titled Loving What Is. It is based on her technique called “the work” which is really working on thoughts and belief systems that aren’t necessarily useful to us. Tips for the procrastinator: Take your goal or plan and cut it up into smaller, manageable bites. Take each activity and put it in order of priority Give a time limit for each activity To find out more about Pascale’s work and how she can help you overcome procrastination and perfectionism and step sideways into a career and life of your dreams visit Pascale Landriault's website here The Big Leap, Conscious Loving Ever After, Lasting Love and Five Wishes are available in audio format on audible.com or you can find any one of Gay’s 30 books on Amazon or at your local bookstore. If you would like to read my own review of The Big Leap you can find it on my blog at geetanadkarni.com. The post is titled The Best Book I Read in 2015 and Why You Should Read it Too. I love hearing from you. I’m @lifewithgeeta on Twitter. If you want a peek into my personal life here at Baby Got Booked HQ follow me on Instagram where my handle is Baby Got Booked. You can reach out to me via email or via my website contact form at geetanadkarni.com

    Ever found a book that seemed to contain all the secrets you’ve been struggling to unlock and then have that book pop into your life right when you need it the most? That’s how I felt when I cracked open the spine of The Big Leap, one of thirty books written by my guest Gay Hendricks. Gay earned his degree in Counseling Psychology from Stanford University and has been a leader in the field of relationship transformation and body-mind therapy for more than forty-five years. I’ve come to truly believe that one of the biggest business breakthroughs will happen on the heels of a personal breakthrough. Your business breakthroughs are almost always if not always related to personal breakthroughs and the central theme of The Big Leap confirms this. Upper limit: In The Big Leap Gay Hendricks puts forth the idea that most human beings have an upper limit. We have a glass ceiling, a set point for happiness. The moment you hit that glass ceiling (which is invisible unless you go looking for it) you will find a way to self sabotage and bring your happiness level down to something that’s a little more comfortable. The Big Leap: Gay Hendricks first discovered the upper limit problem in himself when he was thirty. He began to become aware that when things would be going well he would find some way to sabotage himself so that he came back down to where he was before or worse. In working with clients in his therapy practice he began to look for this and found that’s pretty much a universal human concern. This led him into figuring out exactly why this occurs and The Big Leap is the result of what he discovered over the next thirty years. Unique ability: Every human being if they are sensitive to themselves and begin to inquire gently and mindfully into themselves will discover they have one really unique ability. This will be something that they are so attuned to and good at that it becomes an effortless way of expressing their true genius in the world. There’s a phrase from one of the gospels that didn’t make it into the official Bible, the Gospel of Thomas. It says “If you bring forth what is within you, what is within you will save you. But if you don’t bring forth what is within you, what is within you will destroy you.” We are both beckoned by and fear the expression of our fullest potential, the big fears deep in ourselves. Extreme circumstances: Everyone, no matter where they are in life can find areas where they are limiting themselves about how happy they could be. It hasn’t been tested out whether someone can be happy in extreme circumstances but most situations in life are not that dire. Most of us manage to keep ourselves miserable even in circumstances where we don’t need to be miserable. Four Big Fears Fear of outshining other people. This fear often comes to us as children when we compare ourselves to our brothers and sisters. Fear of creating more burden. The yearning to do something beyond what you’re doing now but not doing it is resisting the added burden to your life. This fear is not based in reality and can evaporate once you begin to work with it a bit. Fear of leaving behind or being disloyal to people who were there for you in your past. Fear that something is fundamentally wrong with you. You haven’t really done anything wrong but it’s something someone accused you of so you take on this guilt as if you’ve committed some imaginary crime. Einstein time: Someone once asked Einstein to explain the theory of relativity in simple terms. He responded “An hour with your beloved goes by like a minute, but a minute sitting on a hot stove goes by like an hour.” If you’re in a painful situation you’re trying to withdraw from the experience and in the act of withdrawing time slows down and becomes a factor. When you’re with your beloved your cells are wide open and you’re experiencing the flow of love and time becomes irrelevant. When you find out you’re resisting time that’s a sign that you’re not tapped into your genius. Visit Gay Hendricks website at www.hendricks.com The Big Leap, Conscious Loving Ever After, Lasting Love and Five Wishes are available in audio format on audible.com or you can find any one of Gay’s 30 books on Amazon or at your local bookstore. If you would like to read my own review of The Big Leap you can find it on my blog at geetanadkarni.com. The post is titled The Best Book I Read in 2015 and Why You Should Read it Too. I love hearing from you. I’m @lifewithgeeta on Twitter. If you want a peek into my personal life here at Baby Got Booked HQ follow me on Instagram where my handle is Baby Got Booked. You can reach out to me via email or via my website contact form at geetanadkarni.com

My guest today is global celebrity and speaker Jeffrey Hayzlett. The first time I heard him speak was in New York in 2015 at an event called Media Lab. He was out there talking about having a media presence and also being a part of the media and how it can help you grow your business once you do enough of it. As you know this is my wheelhouse but some of the concepts Jeffrey was talking about were so big and vast that I felt like I couldn’t quite take it all in on one shot. Jeffrey is the author of a new book called Think Big, Act Bigger which I highly recommend. He is a speaker, an author, a contributing editor; he’s the host of C-Suite with Jeffrey Hayzlett on Bloomberg television and Executive Perspectives on C-Suite TV and business radio host of All Business with Jeffrey Hayzlett on CBS on-demand radio network Play.it. He is the CEO of The Hayzlett Group, an international strategic consulting company focused on leading change and developing high growth companies. Squirrel! In the Pixar movie UP there is a dog named Doug who has been outfitted with a collar which allows people to hear his innermost thoughts. He’s talking and he’s super excited and enthusiastic and then will suddenly say “Squirrel!” and get distracted and look away. Jeffrey talks about this in chapter four of Think Big, Act Bigger. In business we have these squirrel moments where we get distracted and sometimes they become things we follow which we shouldn’t. Jeffrey’s advice is “kill the squirrels” whenever they pop up. Planning focus tool: In Jeffrey’s book he mentions a tool he uses as a visual reminder of what he should be concentrating on. He draws a triangle and makes a list of the most important things at the top (the biggest goals in business) followed by the less important and finally the least important at the very bottom. Then he flips the pyramid upside down and takes the wide, most broad end and that’s where he puts the most important goals and that’s his time factor. When you have to turn off professional speaking: Jeffrey detached two retinas in his eyes at the same time so he had to give up public speaking and traveling for awhile. You have to prepare yourself for things like that. You have to say “what can I do?” You can get on the phone and start selling to make up for that income, you can move dates around or hire friends to do it and take a little commission. Those are just a few things you can do. You think things through and find ways to get around it. You should be thinking worst case scenario, what happens if? What might I do? Don’t plan for that but be ready. You don’t want that but understand that it might happen and sometimes it does. Safety warning: If you see little floaters in your eyes in the background all the time eventually you’re going to have a detached retina. You should watch for that. After the age of 40 you should be getting checked every year. Three stages of every entrepreneur: One man band, devout followers and adding the skilled technicians and professionals to give you the scale that you need. For more information buy Jeffrey Hayzett’s book Think Big, Act Bigger Jeffrey Hayzlett’s website can be found at www.hayzlett.com Reach out to me on Twitter @lifewithGeeta, Baby got Booked on Instagram and Facebook. Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack  

My guest today is Stephen J. Bronner. In addition to being a fitness buff and video games aficionado he also happens to be the deputy editor for entreaprenuer.com, which means he manages their vast contributor network. He graduated with a Masters degree in journalism from the CUNY School of Journalism in 2008 and has worked in local journalism for several years. He lives in New York’s Long Island and is always looking for a great story. You might remember we already had entrepreneur magazines editorial director Ray Hennessey on the show (that’s episode four in case you missed it). On that show we talked about what sets them apart, what they like, what they don’t like and what really makes a good entrepreneur story. I really encourage you to go listen to that episode but today we wanted to do something a little bit different. I want to zoom in on what it takes to land a regular column on entrepreneur.com, the digital site. We want to talk about what you can do to grab Stephen’s attention, how often you need to be pitching, what format he prefers etc. Most people think the paper magazine is more legitimate but the audience online is far bigger, tends to skew younger and are extremely engaged. If you want to speak directly to an audience of committed or curious entrepreneurs or wanteprenuers online is the place to be. What not to do: Some tend to think that contributor content is marketing disguised as articles, but that is not the point. The goal is to educate, inform and entertain readers. The readers always come first. If you want to use the platform to promote your business that is not the proper way. That’s what sponsor content or your own blog is for. They want contributors to put forward their best advice and help readers accomplish their goals. What is an expert? The contributor doesn’t even have to be an entrepreneur. They can be somebody who has worked for a big company. They are more interested in ideas and the way you present your ideas. You don’t have to have your own business to write for them but you do need to have expertise in the area you’re writing about. They are looking for subject expertise and personality which is very important as well. How often should a contributor write? There is no magic formula or number. It depends on what you’re writing about and what message you want to send to readers. They have contributors who write twice a week, weekly, every other week and monthly. If you’re writing about a niche topic it’s probably best to scale back. Content that works best for the digital edition: Pieces about starting businesses, growing businesses, productivity and personal improvement. Preferred length: Pieces are usually between 700-1000 words Copyright: They prefer exclusivity. If it’s been published on another website they will usually turn it away or request a unique version. Three tips on becoming a regular contributor on entrepreneur.com Read the website, and get familiar with the content. Search the site for what you’re writing on, see what’s already been written and find your own unique angle. Start writing out ideas. Come up with three ideas that are fleshed out with a headline and three sentences explaining what you want to do with it. Send Stephen a pitch. He prefers email, which you will need to find yourself (so he doesn’t get inundated). Final Thoughts: When you land your contributor status on entrepreneur.com tweet, tag or email Geeta and let her know so she can celebrate with you If you liked this episode please leave a review in the iTunes store and share with friends. Let Geeta know if there are specific topics you’re struggling with around media, performance or entrepreneurship so she can hunt down the right expert for the topic and give you the answers you need. Be sure to check out Stephen’s fabulous article “3 Lessons for Entrepreneurs from ‘Ninja Warrior’ Training” on the entrepreneur site (hint: his contact information is right there). Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack

Today’s topic is one that gives a lot of us media expert’s sweaty palms. We’re going to talk about our websites and more specifically how to use them to get media attention. Heather Lutze is a widely acclaimed speaker, trainer and consultant who literally wrote the book on search engine optimization (two books in fact): The Findability Formula: The Easy, Non-Technical Approach to Search Engine Marketing and the brand new Thumbonomics: The Essential Business Roadmap to Social Media & Mobile Marketing. She’s going to teach us everything from how to use Google to spy on your competition and what to look for to which key words will best drive customers and the media to our sites. Getting started with SEO: The biggest mistake is not implementation but in the correct usage of content and keyword phrases your potential audience will be searching for. Your keyword phrases should be what the users are searching for on Google. You could use a phrase that fits and be the #1 hit on Google for that phrase yet not get any business because the people who are looking for you are Googling something else. AdWords Keyword Planner: A keyword phrase can be 1-3 or more words knit together to create a keyword phrase that you put into Google. Heather uses AdWords Keyword Planner. It’s a tool that is inside a page search account. If you’re going to buy your way into search results you can set up a free account with adwords.google.com and use their free keyword planner. This is the gold standard of keyword research. It’s a Google database of all the searches being done in Google over the last twelve months. It will give you monthly averages for any phrase. Two concepts for titles: The mullet approach: The mullet hairstyle that was popular in the 80’s was often referred to as “business in the front, party in the back.” This concept can be applied to titling a blog post. Your title would be what you want to have your blog post rank under (business) followed by a colon or dash and something specific to what your blog is about (party in the back). Example: Movember: What Every Man Needs to Know. Movember is business and “what every man needs to know” is the party in the back. THBLI (Title, Headline, Body, Links and Images): If you insert the keyword phrase in THBLI you’re not just going in and throwing in a bunch of keywords onto your content. Make sure your core concept is included in the title and sprinkled throughout the body content. Include links to helpful websites and create an image so that when Google comes and looks at your title, your headlines, your body, your links and your image it knows clearly that this is a thought leadership paper. spyfu.com: This website lets you put your competitor domain in and it will show you all the keywords that competitor ranks under as well as the pages they’ve optimized to do so. Free findability app: This is an iphone app that is also good for android. Search for Heather Lutze on both of those stores and download the app for free. It also has audio and kindle versions of both of her books. Findability Formula is on SEO and Thumbonomics is on social media search. Heather’s new book Marketing Espionage is coming out in the first quarter of 2016 Heather’s website is findability.com. Under University she has private coaching, a webinar series and live events or you can bring them in and they’ll train your team in house. Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack http://babygotbooked.com/headlines

Have you ever been to a conference and watched a speaker so powerful that you just sit there with your mouth open the whole time? A speaker so good that you immediately put their name on your wish list for future training? My guest today is exactly such a speaker. Lou Heckler is a peak performance and leadership specialist who’s studied high achievers for more than 30 years. He represents a broad background in management and leadership positions. He’s worked as an instructor and core supervisor for the defense department (do not mess with him) during his active Army duty. He’s also held positions in public and commercial television ranging from news director and community affairs director to corporate management training director. He knows the ins and outs of the media system and he certainly knows what it takes to get on the news. The value of stories: We’ve loved stories ever since we were children. They helped and still help us do two things: See where we fit in life and what it was going to be like for us. They helped us take the content of our lives and put it into context. Give us a model Professor Chip Heath did a study among his students where he asked them to recall speeches of guest speakers who had visited their classroom. 5% of the students remembered specific statistics but 63% remembered the stories. When we use stories we become memorable and give someone a model to follow. Leading from behind: With a good story it’s easy to lead from behind. You’re handing people a key so they can unlock the box that is most useful to them. What’s this story about? It’s not just what happened on the surface it might be about something bigger. Once we find that truth we have a much better anchor to use and a place we can use that story. As long as you know what the central truth is the stories can be about other things that have happened to you and other truths you’ve seen. Why stories are important: Maya Angelou said “People will forget what you do, people will forget what you say, but they will never forget the way you make them feel”. That’s what story does. Three things every good story needs: It needs a worthy central character. You’re not a character you’re a human being but if you’re going to tell a story about yourself or about something you’ve observed we want the central person in that story to be a worthy person. We want them to be a moral person, a good person, a person of good intent. Every story needs tension. There are lots of ways to build tension but think of it like a movie that you’re filming. Make them see it not just hear it. You don’t tell the whole story at once you make people say to themselves “I wonder what happens next?” A story needs a big finish. Resolve the story but issue a challenge to the audience for themselves. How will you use this in your life? An exceptional abnormal job: A newspaper columnist who won a Pulitzer Prize for feature reporting said one of the best things she does is look for the normal in the abnormal and the abnormal in the normal. She looks for someone who is doing an exceptional abnormal job in a normal circumstance. 21 Day Story Program: Get out there and look for stories for 21 days. Have at least one story for your file by the end of each day. At the end of 21 days it will be like breathing. You’re not just going to find the stories they will find you. Lou Heckler’s website: www.louheckler.com If you have a question you would like Geeta to answer on the show reach out to her by using the contact form on her website geetanadkarni.com or by social media via twitter @lifewithgeeta and babygotbooked on instagram. Write headlines no journalist can resist with the 58-headline template pack [http://babygotbooked.com/headlines]

You wouldn’t expect someone diagnosed with an anxiety condition to become a public speaking trainer but that’s exactly what my guest Lucas Mattiello did. He has struggled with anxiety and not just overcome it but made it his mission to help others do so to. He uses his experience of living with anxiety for 15 years, the self management tools he used to control stress, and his training as a certified professional coach to connect with his clients. Although Lucas is an internationally renowned trainer, does communications and stress management, and works mostly with people in a corporate communications or public speaking context he is no stranger to the media. He has been featured in Forbes and numerous news shows. He is a best-selling author and his corporate clients include Vancouver Coastal Health, BFL Canada and Cactus Club (one of my favorite places to eat when I’m in Vancouver). Nobody’s a natural: Everything takes work. You didn’t get to the level of proficiency in your current skill set immediately; you had to work at it. It’s the same concept with public speaking. There are a number of highly successful public speaking “outgoing introverts” that can turn it on. Steve Jobs was a great speaker but he was not a natural extrovert, he was able to turn it on with training. Breathing: When you’re getting ready to go before the media there’s going to be some nervousness there. When people are nervous they take big inhale breaths and short exhale breaths which is the opposite of what you want to do. Over breathing makes you more nervous so you want to focus on exhaling as long as the inhale or even longer if possible. 4-7-8 Breathing Technique: Inhale through your nose for four seconds, hold your breath for seven seconds and exhale through your mouth for eight seconds. This way you’re doubling the length of the exhale compared to the inhale and you will notice a reduction in nervousness. What if I make a mistake? In a media presentation there’s only five minutes that matter: the two minutes before you go on, the first two minutes of your show and the last minute. The two minutes before is where you’re going to see the nervousness and anxiety spike up. The first step is to reframe the situation. Instead of fear over what can go wrong reframe it as excitement and enthusiasm to connect with a massive audience. Power Posing: Instead of sitting and looking over your phone to kill time before you go on try power posing. Stand up, open your arms up, and walk around. If you’re embarrassed because people are watching go to the bathroom and open your arms up as far as possible and that is going to make you feel more powerful from a mechanical level and mindset level. Connecting with the host: Make eye contact. The natural tendency when you’re nervous is to avoid eye contact. That’s not good for making a connection with anybody. In a one on one context we want to maintain eye contact 60-70% of the time. That’s enough to let them know you’re paying attention but not so much that it’s awkward. Body positioning. Have your body open. If your chair has arm rests put your arms on them. That is going to force your chest to be open as opposed to if your hands are on your lap. Pausing as a power move: If you lose your train of thought focus on taking a deep breathe in and pausing. When people are nervous they rush through the material but confident speakers pause and let the information linger in the air. You can play this off as a pause to have impact. Give yourself that moment to jog your thought and continue going with it. Or admit you got side tracked, laugh about it and continue on. 20-20-60 technique: Walk into any presentation or media obligation thinking “20 20 60” 20% of the audience is going to love me regardless of what I say 20% of the audience is going to hate me regardless of what I say 60% will be on the fence (they can go either way). It’s not about trying to get 100% of the audience it’s about saying “there’s an 80% potential here let’s focus on that”. How to contact Lucas Mattiello: The best way is to go to his website at levelupliving.com. Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack [http://babygotbooked.com/headlines]  

My guest today is a guy who’s helping me get over my resistance to all things social media. Phil Gerbyshak is the Director of Social Strategy at Actiance Incorporated. He’s also an award winning speaker, author of four books, several thousand articles and over 50,000 tweets. Phil has spent the last ten years dedicated to learning, teaching and sharing all that he can about social media. His work has taken him all over the world to share his insights into building relationships using social platforms. He has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Financial Times and many other publications. Social media: Social media is but one weapon in your arsenal of things to do, it is not the only thing. There is no silver bullet so anybody who tells you that they have the answer to how to get you to do anything is completely wrong. There’s many answers. Some take more effort, some take more time, sometimes you get lucky but all of them require work. Using social media effectively: The key is to get something worth talking about that has some sort of news angle. With a 24/7 news cycle almost everything can be news worthy, you just have to think about how it works for your audience. Choosing a social media platform to focus on: Where is your audience? Where do they hang out? LinkedIn is an awesome place for business people looking for professional insights from other business people. If you’re talking to consumers and are very visual a combination of Instagram and Pinterest is recommended. Generating pre-buzz: As soon as you’re booked post a little lead on social media saying you’re excited to be going on this show. Then the morning of or the afternoon before post a reminder for your audience to tune in. Tip from Geeta: If you’re going onto a visual medium or if you’re doing a photo shoot for print one of the ways she loves to generate pre-buzz is to post three different outfit choices and get her audience to vote on which one she should wear.   Hashtags: A hashtag is a pound sign and a word with no spaces, dashes or underscores. It looks silly but a hashtag offers a way to instantly click and search for everyone who has used that hashtag. How to use hashtags: To index your content to make it easy to search for To add humor to a post To tag yourself to build your brand with the people in your life How many hashtags should you use? It depends on the platform. Two or three is appropriate for Facebook and one or two is fine for Twitter. You can use a lot on Instagram. Do you want ROI or ROE? To get to 10,000 of the right followers could take your entire life. But if you targeted and tried to connect to 5 or 10 of your ideal customers and worked on those investments you could see a ROI very rapidly. Put in the effort to add maximum value to their lives and business so they can see you as a resource. If you’re not talking to anyone in particular and just want to get your voice out there you might get a lot of ROE (return on ego) but no buyers. Set your intention correctly. Focus on the one or two people that can most benefit from your message not that can help you the most. Twitter: @PhilGerb [www.philgerbyshak.com] Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack [http://babygotbooked.com/headlines] 

My guest today is Nanci Murdock, my manifesting coach. Today’s episode is like no other we’ve ever done before. We’re going to be talking about really and truly getting everything you want from your life, your relationships, your business and of course your media. Nancy has her own course teaching women to invest and save millions in bank and financial advisor fees. She holds the highly respected designation of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). She’s also a marketing guru and the former head of marketing for BCA research. She’s also extra special because she has this totally wild tool in her tool kit that helps her make a ton of money in ways that defy logic. Today we’re going to share true life stories that prove manifesting works. This is the story of a beach vacation, some air miles points, a pair of $1400 cowboy boots, a mini cooper that turned into a garden and more. Three steps to manifesting: You have to get over your beliefs. If you’re carrying negative beliefs and think “this isn’t possible” or “it’s just a coincidence” then it’s just not going to work because your beliefs are going to overpower the fact that anything is possible. Write your story out. Your money story is what you believe about money. Write more than 5 sentences but less than 50. Write one page about your history with money, work, success and abundance. If you’ve had a job loss, divorce or other problems write how you feel about the financial circumstances surrounding these situations and then just put it aside. It’s just for you and nobody else. Then turn the page over and write about what you’re grateful for. You can be grateful for what you have without having to feel guilty for anything you aspire to have. After you’ve done this give it a week and then go and look at your story again. See what kind of adjectives and adverbs you used. Look for words like get rid of, toxic, difficult, shame, awful. Those words show that you have a negative money story. Then go back and rewrite your story. A story is just something we tell ourselves about our history and it can be rewritten. Focus on the detailed feelings of what it is that you want. Put yourself in that place of success and see it clearly. Once that’s done let it go. End it by saying “this or something better”. Don’t lose track of the why: You don’t want to get so focused on the goal that you lose track of the why behind the goal. The why is the important part. You might say you want this job but really you just want your father to be proud of you. You equated one outcome with another outcome. But those are actually two separate pieces that may or may not go together in real life. Nanci spent years wanting a mini cooper because she wanted the feeling of having something of her own to take care of and enjoy. Then she discovered her garden gave her those exact same feelings. Pennies: Always pick up pennies on the street. The universe will give you exactly what you want and if you walk past money it will think you don’t want anymore. Organize: Organize the money in your wallet, get rid of old receipts and take care of your checkbook. Show you care about money and are serious about this. Pay Bills on Time: Be thankful for your bills because someone trusted you with credit. Why violate that trust? If you have a manifesting story or something that you’re trying to manifest you can reach out to Nancy and send her an email and tell her the tip that helped you push the envelope on making your dreams come true. Nanci is sharing a guided meditation to sharpen your manifesting skills. Get it here:  http://bit.ly/1O51qUV Twitter: @nancimurdock [www.themoneycoach.com] (primarily teaches investing doesn’t talk a lot about manifesting) Email: Nanci@themoneycoach.com To get Nanci’s special pink bubble technique go to [geetanadkarni.com] and click on the podcast tab or Google baby got booked podcast with Nanci. Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack [http://babygotbooked.com/headlines]     

My guest today is personal security expert and identity theft speaker Robert Siciliano. His 30 years of experience and expertise in all aspects of security have gained him audiences across a wide variety of media. Mr. Siciliano’s credentials include hard-hitting and provocative contributions to TIME, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, Fortune, Business Week, Huffington Post, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Reader’s Digest and Consumers Digest. He is a regular contributor to Entrepreneur and has appeared as a guest commentator on The Anderson Cooper Show, John Stossel, The Steve Harvey Show, The Today Show, CBS Early Show, Good Morning America, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox News, Inside Edition and Extra among others. His clients include GMAC, The National Association of Realtors, Domino’s Pizza, United Bankers Bank, Exxon Mobile and many more. Siciliano’s goal is simple – to wake up and empower people throughout the world so they can avoid becoming victims.   Personal Security: Personal security includes the physical security of your person, your family and your home. It also includes information security which involves protecting your identity, data and devices.   Is this just paranoia? Paranoia is the opposite of what Robert does or teaches. Paranoia is a form of mental illness. People who are paranoid are out of control, disconnected and overwhelmed every moment of the day. What Robert teaches causes people to feel a tremendous amount of control. It allows them to feel grounded and connected to their world.  Once you understand personal security and how it works it’s like riding a bike. Once you achieve that balance you’ll know how to ride it forever effortlessly. It’s the same for personal security once you understand what your options are and put those systems into place. SEO and SEM: SEO is search engine optimization. SEM is search engine marketing. They work hand in hand to get your brand front and center. It should be the goal of anyone selling anything to show up on the first page of the search engine.   Top three tips for pitching the media and getting their attention: 1. Pitch something relevant that’s current and timely. It’s not so much about you as it is what you can provide them. They are looking for something a little bit different. After the Ashley Madison breech a lot of data security experts got called. Robert is a data security expert too but he also talked to the victims and was able to share what they told him and the advice he gave them. Whatever your pitching the media on especially if it’s a breaking news story see if you can find a layer to explore that would really be yours and set you apart from everybody else.   2. Speak to something that falls into the realm of your expertise. If you’re an egg decorator you’re not going to find many media opportunities except at Easter. Search for places that eggs might be relevant at other times. On Halloween when kids throw eggs at houses you can talk about how eggs damage the siding on houses and how to get that off.   Be an expert for crying out loud which means you devote a certain amount of time, energy and resources to learning around your core expertise so that you’re really an expert not just on your niche subject but outside of it as well.   3. Don’t spend even five minutes talking about something you’re not remotely an expert in or you’ll just come across as a fool. You’ll ruin your credibility and do more damage than good.   Be available: When the media calls if you don’t answer the phone they will call somebody else.   Tips for doing a brilliant interview: Get good at what you do, know your topic, become comfortable with your content and speak to the fundamentals. With every topic and issue there are fundamentals in regards to that particular topic. In episode 3 with Gerard Braud he talks about exactly how to do this step by step.   ·      Robert’s advice on how to get out of the baby pool and into the ocean:Answer the phone. Robert says he is the only person he knows that has spoken to every major media naked! That is because he answers the phone wherever he is and whatever he’s doing!   ·      You can visit Robert’s website at [www.robertsiciliano.com] or follow him on Twitter at @RobertSiciliano or @IDTheftExpert   ·      Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack [http://babygotbooked.com/headlines]

Our guest today is here to tell us why journalists are your worst best friends. Tanya Birkbeck is a bilingual multi-media broadcast journalist who works on staff at CBC Montreal. She files daily to national and provincial news casts for radio and television and also creates web and social media content for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She’s a trained video journalist and has worked internationally producing news reports and radio documentaries while also training and mentoring journalists. She will also tell us about how she launched the world’s first feminist cat magazine! Tanya’s Inspiration: Tanya grew up on a grain farm in rural Saskatchewan. She was an only child who lived out in the middle of nowhere. She spent a lot of time reading books and writing about her animals. Because of this upbringing so far away from everything she developed an incredible curiosity for the rest of the world. This was the inspiration for what would later become her career in journalism. Feminist Cat Magazine: As a kid Tanya created a lifestyle magazine for female cats called Catelaine. It was inspired by Chatelaine, Canada’s largest women’s magazine. She borrowed Chatelaine’s logo and did the illustrations and wrote the articles using her own cats as characters. Worst Best Friend Ever: In terms of their relationship with their sources journalists are the worst best friend ever. They’re the best friend who doesn’t respond to your messages, misses your anniversary and doesn’t come to your kid’s birthday party but all of the sudden when they need to borrow your car to move they are calling and saying “can you have your car over here five minutes ago please?” It’s nothing personal journalists are just very hard to get a hold of because they are extremely busy. Follow up, follow up, follow up. The importance of that first line: The subject line has to catch their eye because they are scrolling through dozens of messages. It should inspire curiosity that makes them have to know what the second sentence is because they are so hooked on the first one. It is like buzz feed headlines that you can’t resist clicking on even though afterwards you can’t believe you wasted your time on it. Be a little quirky: The things that make a good interview are clarity, getting to the point and it helps to have a quote that’s a little quirky. Make your point in a way that doesn’t sound exactly the same as everyone else. Let your personality come through a little. For example Tanya talked to a doctor who was against a proposal of having a non smoking and smoking area on a terrace. The doctor said “that would be like having a peeing and non-peeing area in a pool”.  ·      Tanya’s a-ha moment that took her out of the baby pool and into the ocean: She was working as a producer on an art show in 2012 when the student protests occurred. They were looking for some reporters and she had worked as a reporter years earlier. They asked her if she would like to go back to reporting and when she did she realized it’s what she loves and wants to do for her career. When you’re doing something you really love you know it in your heart. If you don’t really love what you’re doing you’ll know that too. Figure out what you love. ·      You can pitch Tanya your stories via email or twitter. Her email is tanya.birkbeck@cbc.ca and her twitter handle is @tanyabirkbeck ·      Tanya is also active on instagram where she posts a lot of journalists in the field style photos. It’s a good way to get to know what interests her. ·      Look me up on twitter at @lifewithgeeta or check out the resources on my blog at [geetanadkarni.com] for example the template for the perfect mediagenic bio that you can get written in under 15 minutes ·      Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack [http://babygotbooked.com/headlines]    

My guest today is someone I met during an appearance on the Washington Business Report. Josh Boak is an economics reporter for the Associated Press. Previously he worked on staff at the Fiscal Times, Politico, The Chicago Tribune and the Toledo Blade. He’s been educated at Princeton and Columbia and is a Livingston Award winner and Pulitzer finalist. Additionally Josh has worked as a researcher and reporter on Bob Woodward’s book Obama’s Wars and spent time freezing in the Afghan desert for the Washington Post. Perhaps the most intriguing thing about Josh is that when you meet him backstage he wears glasses and comes across as quiet and mild mannered like Clark Kent. Then as soon he goes on the air he takes off his glasses and becomes this super animated, opinionated super guest. For today’s broadcast I asked him to take his glasses off. Don’t Deny, Justify: Josh learned this rule back when he did improv comedy and applies it to his journalism career now. Make active rather than passive decisions. Don’t say no. You want to keep the conversation going which often means you say “Yes, and…” History of the Associated Press: The associated press started in the middle of the 19th century during the Mexican American War. The newspapers in New York didn’t know how to cover the war in an affordable way so they teamed up and created their own version of the Pony Express. In this way they were able to relay news from where the fighting was to the offices in New York City. How a wire service works ·      AP gets the news in some cases a little bit early on an embargoed basis. This means it can’t be released to the public yet. ·      Josh or another reporter will write a short story of about 150 words. This gives the news in a breaking sense. ·      The story suddenly appears on computer screens at newspapers as well as on websites all over the country. If you’re listening to the radio often the announcer will read it from a printed page. ·      Five to ten minutes after the first story launches they will have another 450 words going into more detail about what the report is. ·      They will flesh that out with quotes from interviews and additional details from other reports and bring it together in one last version. Josh’s definition of economics: It’s fundamentally about how you make choices. The choices you make influence your life. You might pack your lunch or decide to buy it from a food truck. If you packed your lunch that’s money you’re trying to save so that you can spend it elsewhere. That is economics. If you buy your lunch from the food truck that’s also economics because you’re saying I get more satisfaction from eating this food. Advice for pitching a story: What matters is someone doing something unique or interesting. Don’t assume that just because it matters to you it will matter to the reader. In so many cases it doesn’t because it’s a form of self promotion. No one wants self promotion unless they’re a Kardashian. It also hinges on your ability to tell a story, why your story matters and how it relates to something that others would care about. They have to be able to tie the story to something larger that is much more than you or it’s not going to work.   ·      Josh’s advice for getting out of the baby pool and into the ocean: Don’t be afraid to be edited. Edit yourself and look for the edits of others. The goal is always to make a better story. What’s cool about it is other people can help you get better but in the world of journalism you still get the credit. ·      You can contact Josh on twitter at @joshboak ·      Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack [http://babygotbooked.com/headlines] ·      Geeta is putting together a Q&A episode. Submit your media related questions on the contact form at [https://geetanadkarni.com] and she will answer your questions on the show.

Jen Grisanti is an acclaimed story and career consultant at Jen Grisanti Consultancy Incorporated. She’s also a writing instructor for NBC’s Writers on the Verge, a former studio executive and a blogger for the Huffington Post. Jen is the author of Story Line: Finding Gold in your Life Story, TV Writing Tool Kit: How to Write a Script that Sells and her latest book, Change your Story, Change your Life. She is an absolute power house. We share a lot of similar ideas around the theme of your story is everything and everything is story and how that really colors your reality, your relationships and your business. Three different stories that entrepreneurs need to think about:          1. The story of what led you to open your company (your why). Your personal dilemma is your why. Understanding your why is everything to your success. 2. The story of your company (your company’s why). The why of Jen’s company was looking at her customers and recognizing with her clients what their why was and how her company could be the answer to their why. 3. The story of your customer (your customers why).                                                    Jen Grisanti’s why: Jen’s world was thrown out of balance when she lost her job as a studio executive at Spelling Television and CBS Paramount following the death of her mentor Aaron Spelling. She felt like 15 years of work went up in smoke. She had to connect her dilemma, which was the fear that everything she had learned would no longer have value. Her why was to create a business where everything she teaches focuses on her strength as a studio executive. Mission statement of Jen Grisanti Consulting, Inc: To stop isolation and create community through the telling of story on a global level How story telling leads to more customers: Story needs to come from within. In order to understand your story you need to go there with people and when you do you create a client who wants to come back for every story. Not only that but they will want to share it with their friends and you will have clients that are coming from your clients. Then you will have clients who are going to stay with you for years because they enjoy the emotional connection. Rock bottom moment: Every new story begins on a rock bottom moment. Instead of looking at the rock bottom moment as the worst thing that could happen, look at it as the best thing that could happen. The rock bottom moment represents the end of something that wasn’t working and the beginning of something that could. What took Jen out of the baby pool and into the ocean: The recognition that we can fail forward. When we fail we get information on what’s not working and clarity on what could work. Failure was a huge part of the past of many very successful business people. Failure represents that we tried. If we’re not trying then big success is never going to happen. ·      Free gift from Jen: To receive her Log Line Worksheet and special offers, click HERE! [http://www.jengrisanti.com/blog/] ·      You can also find Jen on twitter at @JenGrisanti ·      Read Geeta’s article “Why I Quit Sucking My Thumb at Age 34 (Yes, It Was a Business Decision)” [http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245774]   ·      Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack [http://babygotbooked.com/headlines]

Today’s guest is my friend and former colleague Elysha Krupp, the U.K fine living and lifestyle editor at AskMen.com. As the world’s largest men’s lifestyle website in the world, AskMen.com has more than 14 million monthly readers in the U.S alone. Elysha focuses on travel and food, loves to eat herself silly and compensates with fitness. Today we dig into exactly what it takes to excite the team who speaks to and serves the largest online male audience in the world.About the AskMen.com platform:·      Started about ten years ago with a real focus on SEO (search engine optimization). Today a lot of their traffic comes through search engines like Google.·      Offices in London (which is where Elysha is based) Sydney Australia and Montreal Canada where the headquarters is located.·      Covers everything from fitness, dating, sports, news and anything else under the sun that could possibly spark a man’s interest.·      Incredibly diverse with thousands and thousands of articles on every different type of lifestyle sector.The kinds of stories they cover: About 80% are features and 20% are straight news. In terms of news what they cover is anything related to men’s interests.The best way to get noticed as an expert: Pitch something that is concise and to the point. Do the research and make sure what you’re pitching makes sense for them. Ideally it would be something that they are already covering.Pitches that get deleted right away: They get a lot of pitches where it seems like whoever the PR person is hasn’t even been on the website. They receive pitches about things like kid’s toys for example. These are the kinds of things that will be deleted right away.Getting set up as a contributor: If you’re willing to write a full feature that is always greatly appreciated and the easiest way to get on board. If you’re a small business owner and there’s a decent writer in your company that helps a lot. If it works out for you to become a contributor they can set you up with an author bio and you can become a regular contributor.Elysha clicks on emails that:·      Get to the point quickly·      Aren’t  long and wordy·      Are relevant to something happening locally or in the world ·      Timing and relevance are the biggest factors for herPro tip: One of the best ways to figure out a why now to hook your message onto is to Google awareness days or hallmark holidays. Put either of these two things in quotes and put them in Google. There’s an awareness day for everything.Lead time at AskMen.com:  Traditional magazines have an estimated three month turn around, but since AskMen is online their turn around is much quicker. It can be as quick as the day of but if you want the best chance a week is generally ideal.Sections open to pitches:  The career and dating sections are always open to pitches because there’s an endless amount of options there.  A fresh angle is the biggest piece of advice. Come up with something that is going to provide something new for the readers.·      Pitching something to Elysha: Think about a creative angle. Don’t just come to her with a product you’re trying to sell but with an actual story. The less work she has to do for you the easier it will be to get coverage. If you come with an already prepared full angle and story then it will make her life easier and she will be more willing to run it.·      Elysha’s advise for getting out of the baby pool and into the ocean: If you won’t read something your readers probably won’t either. If you wouldn’t accept your pitch then don’t pitch it. If you’re not interested in it why would a reader be? You are ultimately your first reader and you are ultimately your first client.·      Contacting Elysha with a pitch: Email her at elysha@AskMen.com·      You can also find Elysha on twitter at: @ElyshaKrupp·      Write the headlines of a journalists dreams with the 58 headline template pack at [http://babygotbooked.com/headlines]

My guest today is a true media ninja. Jess Todtfeld is going to share with us the techniques he used to break the Guinness World Record for doing the most radio interviews in a 24 hour period. In addition to being an amazing public speaker Jess Todtfeld brings with him 13 years of experience as a TV producer for NBC, ABC and FOX. He’s booked and produced over 5,000 segments. His producing credits include being part of the team that launched the O’Reilly factor and Fox and Friends. Reach out to the boss: In radio the boss is the program director so Jess made a list of program directors for talk radio around the U.S and just worked that list. He would send out emails with different angles, or hooks, on the story. You have to be smart about this though. The most important part of an email pitch: Writing the subject line is the most important thing you can do in the process of pitching. It has to be a headline that grabs people, lets them know it’s not junk, and compels them to open the email. One extra layer: The headline needs to be in the email big and bold and should look like a newspaper headline. Avoid “spray and pray”: In the PR industry “spray and pray” refers to sending junk emails out all over without even knowing who you’re sending it to and without putting your name in it. This rarely works and if you do it you’re setting yourself up for it to be terrible. Pro tip: Make your emails look like you literally wrote it to one person. Jess will copy and paste his email signature from his personal email so it looks like he’s sent out just one email. The importance of using an email service provider with tracking: ·       Allows you to see whether someone has opened your email, how many times they’ve opened it, and any links they’ve clicked on. Gmail, and other personal emails, do not allow this. ·       Use a system to keep track of who clicked. These are your top people who have some level of interest. You can then take the extra step of picking up the phone or sending a one on one email. For those who never opened the email you can try sending out another email with a different subject line or angle. Pro tip: Never tell someone that you know whether or not they clicked on your email! Jess’s ninja tips for getting press: Have your list of media contacts queued and ready to go so if something happens in the news or in your business you can jump on it. Be like Nike and just do it. In the beginning of the email say “Hi (First name)” followed by “Does the story below work for your show?” One of Jess’s secrets to success with the media: Help them and do as much of the work for the media person as you can. Be a resource to them. Ask what you can do to help whether it’s providing pictures or video or even suggesting other interview subjects. More ninja tips: ·       Put pictures in the body of the email. A newspaper without pictures is boring. Your email without pictures is also boring! ·       If you know someone who would be a great fit for a show suggest them to the producer. ·       Jess’s advice to get out of the baby pool and into the ocean: Play big, be dedicated to your process and figure out who your target market is. ·       Find the shortcut to getting your email opened by the producer of your dreams with the 58-headline template pack! ·       For a special limited time offer on Jess’s media list visit prmarketinginsider.com and use promo code “baby”. When you sign up write Jess a note telling him something you liked about the show today and he will respond to you personally. ·       Listen to this episode!

Today's guest is will be helping us with a topic that a lot of my students struggle with: how to write good content. Whether you want to write a pitch, an article, a blog post, or a book, John Peragine has answers on how to get it done--and how to make it your best work yet. John Peragine is a freelance journalist and writer. He is the author of 12 books, has ghostwritten hundreds of others, and writes for the New York Times, Reuters, and Bloomberg News. When you get the call...answer. When John got his big shot at Bloomberg, it was because he took initiative when he had an opportunity! John had basic confidence in his abilities, but he saw a gap between that and what he needed. So he then did everything humanly possible close that gap. This kind of initiative PAYS! John's number one tip for getting booked: just ask! If you know a journalist, let them know what you do! You never know when they will take you up on it. A good story: is authentic. Often people edit themselves before the story comes out of their mouth--don't do that! Let your light shine through. Don't be afraid to: talk about yourself! People want to connect with the writer. Especially the challenges that you've faced, as well as your take aways. Pro tip: People won't remember what you said, or what you did. They will remember how you made them feel. Aim for that emotional impact. People connect with vulnerability. When writing a book (article/blog post/etc), start with: The essence. Start with WHY you are writing the book Come up with 2-3 take aways for readers, and focus on those Pro tip: If readers can synthesize your message in 2-3 sentences, they can become your (free) publicists. If it's more complicated than that, it can become confusing. In a media interview, your job as an expert is: to provide the least amount of information required to create transformation for your audience. This give the listener space to get involved in the story. The quickest way to erode your credibility (in writing) is by: writing a bad book. This will kill your credibility much faster than not writing anything at all. Instead, make sure the book is your best effort by getting editors, sticking to the point, and making sure your content is relevant. The best way to tell if your book passes the "good" test: send the book to as many people as you can for feedback. Your best bet? Other experts in the field. Don't be afraid to ask! John's tips to spice up "The List" story archetype: Look at what's trending in the news and business Bookend your list of bullet points with something juicy at the beginning and the end Show don't tell. Use stories, metaphors, and examples rather than descriptive sentences. Pro tip: People like to do business with people they know and trust. Sharing your personal story in writing can help people get to know you. John's advice to get out of the baby pool and into the ocean: Rather than going into a situation with a "want" (I want you to notice me), shift the focus of the conversation onto making them want you! For more: Write headlines no journalist can resist, with this 58-headline template pack! Check out John's books on Amazon here.  Go say hi to John Peragine at his website, or on LinkedIn. Listen to this episode!

Ray Hennessey is editorial director of Entrepreneur.com, and has worked as director of business news at the FOX Business Network, where he managed day-to-day editorial operations for the channel. Ray spent a decade at Dow Jones in a variety of positons, notably editor of SmartMoney.com and news editor for Dow Jones Newswires. He's been a columnist for The Wall Street Journal and appeared daily on CNBC television. He was also a regular on-air contributor to CBS News. And, he's a really cool guy! In this week's podcast, we get everything from fixing toilets (Ray is a former plumber!) to whether you can make a sales pitch in your Entrepreneur.com column. Entrepreneur magazine: is the leading title for stories on entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial experience. They like to hear about people who are doing new things and innovating. The website has more than 15-16 million unique visitors each month. The definition of "entrepreneur" has evolved! It used to describe anyone who started their own business. Now, anyone who is innovating (even if they work within a larger company) are seen as using entrepreneurial principles. Think: disruptors. Innovators. People that are changing industries and companies. For Ray, the best part of Entrepreneur is: The audience! Smart, engaged, and active participants in the conversation. What sets Entrepreneur apart from Inc., Forbes, and other business magazines? It focuses not only on businesses and business owners, but also on their attitude, needs, and philosophy. It's about what drives people. It's less stuffy! Let's be honest: entrepreneurs are a bit nuts, but they are awesome. "We try to be as opinionated as our audience." -Ray Hennessey The biggest mistakes people make when pitching Entrepreneur: They don't build a relationship; Ray deletes most emails from names he doesn't recognize the name (Ray gets 1000s of emails a day) Pitching a story is like finding a job or a customer: it's about networking and building a relationship. This could be as simple as sending a LinkedIn request, sending a tweet, or sending a follow-up note after meeting at an event. Too often, people get in touch only when they need something--this does not bode well. Pro-tip: Get to know the magazine and show that you know what they do when you pitch. An expert is: Experienced! Track record is key! Someone who have new ideas Entrepreneur's stance on content marketing:  Content marketing is about educating the marketplace about where your product fits in. There are real benefits to content marketing, and Entrepreneur has benefitted as well. An example: a divorce lawyer talking about a new trend in custody. It is a subtler sell, and is a great way to generate leads More heavy-handed content marketing (Eat at Joe's! It is the only good restaurant) doesn't fly on Entrepreneur.com (and also isn't very effective). Customers can sniff it out, and bring the torches and pitchforks. What about putting a link to a product or a freebie at the end of an article? This is tricky for editors, especially when it comes to webinars etc. On a limited basis, Entrepreneur has let some authors promote events They would like to find a way to reward good contributors and benefit the audience. However, they are still collecting data, and keeping quality as the #1 priority. What does it take to become a regular Entrepreneur contributer? Every contributor must apply by contacting an editor They are evaluated Content is then monitored Pieces are then edited for both style and content--not all pieces make it to the audience Entrepreneur's stance on copyright and exclusivity: Entrepreneur owns all pieces Contributors are allowed to write for other publications (although this might change) An example of a pitch that got deleted immediately: Someone who started an email with "Dear Richard, I know you write frequently about the military" Robo-pitch or cut-and-paste pitches Pro-tip: Pitching is like asking someone out on a date. Find out what they are into before suggesting an activity. (Do your research. Personalize your pitch). Advice that Ray got to take him out baby pool and into the ocean: Stop thinking that you're smarter than everyone, because you're not. Go into everything with an open mind fills every day full of the joy of learning. How to pitch Entrepreneur magazine: here!

Gerard Braud is a professional speaker and media trainer and is the author of Don't Talk to the Media Until..., which I have read cover-to-cover and is a PHENOMENAL resource for anybody serious about getting media attention. Gerard is know as the guy to call when the **** hits the fan, and is an expert in crisis communications. In this episode, Gerard explains why you should NEVER answer a journalist's question directly. Show notes: Gerard defines a crisis: as anything that could harm the reputation or revenue of a business. Social media is amping up the risk of communications crises--you never know when a disgruntled customer will take to a Twitter rant. The best time to get crisis communications training? Before the crisis happens!  To prepare: sit yourself down on a sunny day, and think about possible crises your business might face, and how to address them. Look at sudden (e.g. a fire or tornado) and smouldering (e.g. inappropriate employee conduct; sexual harassment; embezzlement) risks to the reputation and revenue of your business. You usually have more time to prepare for smouldering events, because you will often know about them before they go public. With sudden events, you will usually have to respond immediately.  Then, start writing generic template press releases for the scenarios you've identified. You can fill in the details later, but a template, written when you aren't in crisis, will serve you in spades later. This should be a communique that you could send to the media, post on your website, or send to your employees in the event of a crisis. The worst day to deal with a crisis? The day of a crisis.  Why you should never answer a journalist's question with a direct answer: When you directly answer questions,your answers lack CONTEXT Then, it is easy to have your answer taken OUT of context Avoid being taken out of context by preparing 3 preambles: 1. A general explanation of what your company does and how it benefits the world. E.g. At (company name) our goal is to (a big, audacious statement about how you make the world better) 2. State two contrasting truths and then provide your opinion. E.g. Maybe you think A, maybe you think Z, but what I think is ________________) 3. An empathetic-type pre-amble you'd use in a crisis. E.g. "Our hearts are heavy with news we have to share..." Pro tip: when describing your company's impact, use the word "you" to bring customers in emotionally. For example rather than saying "At company XYZ our mission is to provide gas for cars and oil to heat houses", say ""At company XYZ our mission is to provide gas for your car and oil to heat your home".  The way to get booked over and over? Do a good job in your interview. Do a good job by: Getting media training Practicing often (interviews aren't like regular conversations. Practice is CRUCIAL to coming across as confident and natural. Become irresistible to journalists by giving them what they need in every interview right away. Give them: A headline A synopsis sentence of the story A pithy quote with essence of what you believe Pro tip: set up your expertise on your own. Don't leave it to the journalist! Give them the words you want them to use in the intro you send. Describe yourself as an expert and guru, and they might too! Details are not a major component of good interviews. They are only there to prove your point. BUT if you can convert the details into an emotional story, they can have a major impact. A tip for nonprofits: Be careful not to mask your work under ambiguity and political correctness. Help people wrap their hearts around your message through concrete language.  Make sure to explain jargon such as "barriers to employment" by adding concrete examples right away. Accessible, simple language will help you reach more people, and will include more people in your message Pro tip: If your audience can't understand what you do, they can't hire you. For more: Watch the Fox & Friends clip about kidney donor ethics to hear a Braud-approved sound byte.     Access 58 subject lines that work here. 

Tracey Madigan is the executive producer of the Washington Business Report on ABC7, Washington DC's go-to show about who in the business world is winning, and how are they doing it. Tracey trained as a journalist in Winnipeg and has worked as a producer and journalist for a number of media outlets over her career. A true media veteran, Tracey has an almost instant sense of what will make a good story (and what won't) when reviewing a pitch.    The Washington Business Report has three main parts: One-on-ones with global CEOs: CEOs from Donald Trump to Diane von Furstenberg share their passion, past failures, and tips for successful business Small business spotlight: tips and takeaways from experts, profiles and first hand lessons, how they overcame hurdles, and who's winning Weekly round table: what's new in the business world and why it matters to people According to Tracey, a great story involves: A journey! Want to make the journalist root for you, so share your challenges and failures along with your successes. This makes you relatable!   Take away tips and lessons for the audience The Washington Business Report's audience: Goes beyond small businesses to include a broader audience. It has to be relatable to everyday people Pro tip: make sure you aren't nichey. If you are focussing on B2B, it still doesn't give you permission to fall into jargon, numbers, and business blahblah. It's still about the human connection.  When you send a pitch, behind the scenes:Producers go over content, do pre-interviews, and figure out how they can fit them into their show.    2 things Tracey wishes you knew: Producers really grapple with time, and she doesn't have time to negotiate around a pitch. Get to the point! Hook her on your story right away. A lot of potential guests want to be on-air for 10-15 minutes. TV segments are short! The show has only 21 minutes of content TOTAL, so it's important to get to the point (are you seeing a pattern here?).  The number one interview mistake to avoid: When you are Ms. Personality in the pre-interview, don't get all serious once the red recording light is on! Trying to act "how people should act on TV" is the number one interview mistake people make (and can make a producer feel a bit let down). Pro tip:  Quickly engage the producer in your pitch, because more often than not, she is the one that makes the decision. Production teams are getting smaller and smaller, so it is ever-more important to make a human connection right away with the producer.  Tracey's definition of an expert: someone who speaks in a way that is accessible, and that gives value to her audience by moving beyond the obvious,  distilling information into nuggets, and evoking an emotion.   "I want fewer numbers, more stories" Tracey Madigan, Washington Business Report   For Tracey, irresistible pitches involve: A subject line that pulls you in A likeable character that has something to teach Disrupters: people who break the mold in their industry or company One of Tracey's favourite episodes: Interview with Patrick Byrne from overstock.com: Wallstreet whistle blower, success-story, and seen as "crazy" by his nay-sayers.  What not to pitch: Stories that are boring or inaccessible to those outside your company or industry (e.g. the CEO hire, the new market, the event, etc) Most common mistakes people make when pitching the Washington Business Report: Using industry-speak  Using the word "solutions": it doesn't mean anything! Say what the problem was, how you solved it, and why the world is a better place because of you or of your company. How much lead time do you need? Totally varies, from a few weeks for a few hours.  Pro tip: if you are able to give interviews at the last minute when someone else cancels, tell a producer. They will call on you!  Tracey's top cheat:  When sharing your bio: "We help "A" do "B" so that "C"". What are you doing, who are you doing it for, and why does it matter? A piece of advice that took you out of the kiddie pool and into the ocean: Make a great first impression by being an authentic you. 

Episode 1.1: John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur on FireIn this first installment of Baby Got Booked The Podcast, we are SO LUCKY to welcome entrepreneurship and podcasting mogul John Lee Dumas! John is the founder and host of the Entrepreneur on Fire, a podcast showcasing today's most inspiring entrepreneurs. Entrepreneur on Fire was voted the Best Business Podcast on iTunes in 2013, has more than 1 million downloads per month, and also happened to be one of the major tools that kept me going when I was first launching Baby Got Booked. You can probably imagine what getting in front of 1 million people could do for your business. In this episode, John Lee Dumas shares EXACTLY what he and his team look for in a successful pitch, so that you that you can have that kind of exposure for your business. Plus: John explains what to do if you swear on a podcast (phew).So...are you ready to ignite?What happens behind the scenes when you pitch EOF:EOF receives 100+ pitches per month, plus about 5-10 recommendations per month from past guests (which often get to skip the queue) John's VA does the initial pitch triage, and asks people to fill out an application. 70% of would-be guests don't take the time to fill out the application, so those that do are seen as more serious,  and have a leg up!Every once in a while, John gets a personally written pitch that he fully reads--which are clearly not boiler plate. These pitches totally skip the line.John's defines an expert as: someone who has taken the time to learn about a topic, and who is willing to share that knowledge with others. (Sound like you?). John's favourite stories for Entrepreneur on Fire are:All about the transformation people get from EOF, and the ripples of the showHonest, personal, and are so vivid that take listeners along with you (so they can smell the grass of the field where you had your big a-ha, or biggest failure). Pitches that rock John's world: Refer to EOF and how it has changed their livesGet creative in terms of format Share their journey to success, and can speak to a recipe for successDo not pitch:Self-serving product pushes. EOF is about you and your journey, so when you don't share that, it's clear you haven't done your homework.When to pitch EOF:EOF requires a lead-time of 3-4 months. Make sure Fire Nation gets the most out of your episode by:Setting up a link to a free cheat sheet, book, or video (this also grows your list!) that listeners can accessCentering the audience in your content. When preparing for the show, ask yourself: what is the best way I can tell this story to benefit Fire Nation?You are ready to pitch EOF when:You listen to the show and realize that you think of the guests as peers (similar accomplishments, their journey resonates for you etc).Ready? Send your pitch to John at: eofire.com, where you can fill in the application form.John's #1 piece of advice to move out of the kiddie pool and into the ocean: if you want to be, do. For more...Listen to the Entrepreneur on Fire podcast here at EOF HQ. Check out John's AWESOME free podcasting course here.Check out John's free webinar course (which is soo on my bucket list) here. Access the Amazon's #1 book on podcasting, Podcast Launch, for free here. To hear John and Geeta talk about why Geeta hated it when John said "Are you ready to ignite?!" (and some tips on entrepreneurship, too), check out Geeta's EOF interview here. To find out more about the Baby Got Booked course, click here!