Jessy Marshall on Pitching Media and Influencers

Boa host0:00
Hello everybody, and thank you all for being here today. As you may know already, our goal at BOA is to make sure that you have the network and the community and access to the people that can help you take your business to the next level. And that's what today's all about. Today, we're gonna be learning from one of the greatest PR minds in Australia. Jessie started HIVE HQ, how long ago?

Jessy Marshall0:24
Oh, 6 years.

Boa host0:26
6 years ago, and since then has been instrumental in building some of the brands that we all know and love. Like for example, Bangin' Body, Naked Sundays, Stacks, and Showpo. Like these are all iconic brands that Jessie was instrumental in helping bring awareness to. And today's all about learning from Jessie's experience and getting her tips and tricks in how to pitch our brands to media, to influencers, and how to generate buzz and awareness. About our products and brands. So we're so grateful to have you here. Thanks for having me. And we're grateful to have you all as well. As always as well, so I do wanna mention, there's gonna be lots of Q&A. So the shorter my questions are, 'cause they're never as good as your questions, the shorter mine are, the better. So as we're talking, put your questions in the chat and the team will text them to me. So if I'm holding my phone, it's 'cause I'm looking at your questions. I'll read out your name and then you'll ask Jessie a question. We'll kick off, first of all, Jessie, now you obviously have like a big star reputation in building brands. Can you just give us just a short storey of how you actually got into PR and how you founded HIVE?

Jessy Marshall1:39
Yeah, great question. And I'll try and keep it succinct. I was actually a beauty therapist a long time ago. I feel like I've had 48,000 jobs, then decided, okay, this is all too hard. I don't wanna be hands-on in beauty therapy anymore. So decided to start studying PR and working in the industry. I got a job straight away because I know as a person I'm a really like hands-on learner. So I was like, I need to get a job as well as studying because studying is just not my strong point, which is case in point because I actually never finished the degree. About 3 years in, I was like, fuck this.

Boa host2:14
Business owners, I'm sure most people here probably, I got kicked out of college. Yeah, me too. So I'm sure it's a pretty common thing.

Jessy Marshall2:19
I was like, it's just not for me. Anyway, worked in the industry and then decided, okay, well, I'm going to go out on my own let's give this a shot and started Hive 6 years ago.

Audience member2:29
Wow.

Jessy Marshall2:29
So we work with a lot of beauty brands, probably because my background is a beauty therapist and also lifestyle and fashion.

Boa host2:37
Now everyone talks about like how to get the attention from the journalists, like how to pitch to media. What is that actual process? So when you, when, when your clients come to you and say, hey, I want to get attention from the media, what do you actually do? How do you actually speak to the media and how can people do that?

Jessy Marshall2:54
Yeah, so I think as an agency, like when you have an agency, there's a, there's a few ways that this works. One, we're in contact with them every single day, so it's kind of like this ongoing conversation as opposed to just cold pitching. It's kind of like we've got this black book or like this best friend that— we're not best friends, we're like what kind of work colleagues, we're not in the same workplace— where we have conversations around those businesses that we work for and we're pitching those stories. Um, However, for those out there that you guys obviously have your own brands, if I was you, I would be sending products to a particular journalist within the field that they write about your business or product, and then introducing them to who you are, how you started it, and your, your product.

Boa host3:39
So really, it's actually, it's not so much about pitching your business at the start or pitching like a crazy event you're hosting. It's actually about just get meeting them.

Jessy Marshall3:47
Yeah.

Boa host3:47
Like just building a friendship, building a relationship.

Jessy Marshall3:49
Yeah, building a relationship with them.

Boa host3:51
And so when it does come time to pitching a business, what are the keys to creating a pitch that actually gets the attention of, like, how do you not be one of the ones that they just move to the side? How do you be one of the ones that stand out?

Jessy Marshall4:05
Yeah, totally. I think understanding how the journalists write is really important. So if we look at, let's say, Daily Mail, going to Daily Mail and looking up, you know, a similar product that is maybe your competitor and being like, how has this journalist written about them? Because then that really formulates how you're going to pitch to that editor. Because Daily Mail speaks very differently to, say, Financial Review, and you want to make sure that you're writing to the publication. So if you can write to Daily Mail and be like, hey, I've seen you wrote this story, here's my story, and kind of like bundle it up in the same way, you're more likely to get the pitch across. If I was to write to Daily Mail as if I was writing to AFR, they're going to be like, that, I don't even know what you're talking about because we don't talk in that language. Does that make sense? Because every publication kind of like speaks differently.

Boa host4:53
But how do you actually do that? Like, if I, if you were to ask me to write the same way as each of them, I'd fail that. Like, how do you actually understand?

Jessy Marshall5:02
Yeah, yeah. So tell me who you, not competitor, but who would you be like this is who I want to aspire to be like. So let's use Jane Lu from Showpo as an example.

Boa host5:11
I want to be Jane.

Jessy Marshall5:12
I want to be Jane. So I would look up Jane and I'd be like, okay, Jane Lu Showpo, where has she featured? She's featured in the Daily Mail, I'm sure. And then work out what that headline was. So if it was like Jane Lu creates fashion empire selling $59 dresses, I would then go to my business and be like, cool. So my name is Jessie Marshall. And I sell dresses that are actually $50, 'cause you've obviously got a point of difference and they're going viral on TikTok or whatever it is that they're talking about, or the dress that makes you, I don't know, look this way.

Boa host5:44
I love that. So look for brands or entrepreneurs that, you know, are in the similar direction that you are, that are already further down, that have generated press and then try to copy similar press for yourself. Because that's obviously trending and working.

Jessy Marshall5:59
Yeah, totally. And as I said, every publication kind of writes differently. Daily Mail might be writing about, you know, things that are going viral on TikTok or customers that are talking about products. But then let's say Marie Claire, they're actually talking about ingredients or they're talking about fabrics if we're in fashion. So again, that would be changing the style of pitch to suit that journalist.

Boa host6:20
So customise your pitch for every publication. Do not just send out a blanket.

Audience member6:24
Do not.

Boa host6:24
So outside of that mistake, what are the other biggest mistakes you would say or you have learned from in pitching to media?

Jessy Marshall6:34
Making sure you've got all your assets. And so when I say assets, website, we obviously need that to be live. You want to link to the correct website. Otherwise, if you've got a stockist, they're going to link to the stockist. So if you're a Priceline and you want them to just be linking to your website, if you don't tell them that, they're going to link to Priceline. If you're, let's say, If it's imagery-based, so beauty products, we're always sending e-com imagery and campaign imagery because again, like if Marie Claire are needing to shoot product, it's generally on a white background, but then Daily Mail might want more lifestyle, real-life pictures. So making sure you send them like a Dropbox link with all of that imagery in there. And then a press release is always quite important, just some brand info. So whilst you might be pitching a particular angle, Let's say they want to do a broader story, making sure we've got somewhere that they can find further information about your company if they're not familiar with it already.

Boa host7:31
So basically try to do their job as much as possible for them.

Jessy Marshall7:35
Give them everything that you possibly can.

Boa host7:37
But when do you do that? Because for example, if I just sent someone an email that had attachments and heaps of text and all these things, they might be like, oh, I'm busy enough, I don't need to cheque that. So are you sending it all at once in the first like press release, or are you getting their attention with something first, then sending everything?

Jessy Marshall7:55
Yeah, it depends on the brand and the product. Generally speaking, let's say it's fashion, we might first be reaching out to the editor to say, hey, what's your size? We wanna send you something from this brand. Then next step is like, hey, this has arrived, here is all the information. Third step is me again. Yeah. When are we writing this goddamn story? Yeah. And just, you know, trying to find another narrative. If it was beauty, I would say you have already sent the product 'cause you don't necessarily need to customise so much 'cause it's not size orientated. You can be like, hey, we're sending you the Bangabody Firming Lotion. We would love you to test and trial it. Here is all the information. And then obviously trying to coerce them to test and trial it so that they can write about it.

Boa host8:36
But essentially like what you're describing is like a sales cycle, a sales system. It's like touch points to a sale. Like you need more touch points. If the first one doesn't work, there's a second touch point. What's the third touch point? What's the fourth?

Jessy Marshall8:50
Have a break.

Boa host8:51
Another touchpoint. Yeah. So it is sales as well.

Jessy Marshall8:54
Yeah, absolutely. It is very much sales, building relationships. And then also let's say you're not getting a hit. Is it actually newsworthy? Is it something that they—

Boa host9:04
is there a point of difference? Yeah.

Jessy Marshall9:06
And if it isn't and you can't find your point of difference, you need to like go back to the drawing board and rehash what it is that you're putting out there.

Boa host9:13
That opens up a good question though, because if I was going to be pitching something like a storey for Boa, —yeah— and I might be nervous that like, oh, is anyone actually going to care about my company or my story? How do you kind of overcome that and how do you know if it's something that they would want to write about?

Jessy Marshall9:31
Yeah, I guess, oh, hard because we've obviously got these connections. So I generally will just ask, like, we've got really good friends in the industry, so I'm like, hey, like, do you actually ever think this is ever going to get us anywhere? Or what do we need to strengthen the story? So sometimes just asking, particularly if you've built that relationship or if you feel comfortable being like, hey, like I'm at BOA, this is what we've got. But if you think that there's another angle here, please let me know. Because like, yeah, like, you know, TV journalists are quite open. They're open to feedback. They're open to saying, hey, look, that's not gonna work right now, but this would work. Can you help me with that? Again, it's that building a relationship.

Boa host10:07
And I guess that's kind of one of the major benefits of having like a PR firm or agent is that they can speak to the journalist, be like, hey, What do you wanna write about? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then formulate a storey about that.

Jessy Marshall10:17
Yeah, absolutely.

Boa host10:18
And can you just give one kind of maybe your favourite example of a unique campaign that you've done that's been like quite successful and generated a lot of buzz for even like any of the brands that we just mentioned?

Jessy Marshall10:32
Yeah, TBH Skincare actually. So it was actually last year, Margot Robbie was in town for the Barbie movie., and we did an activation actually here in Pitt Street, where Rachel, the founder, dressed up as Margot Robbie, and we pretended she was Margot Robbie and took photos and pretended there was paparazzi taking photos, and it was all for a TikTok stunt. Now we didn't think necessarily at that point we were gonna get press. We did because people could see that it was going viral. So kind of jumping on the back of that and then just running with it. Because the TikTok went viral, obviously media wanted to cover it and then just like navigating that and just going, okay, well, this is a bigger storey than we probably anticipated. Yeah. We're just diving in.

Boa host11:15
Double down. Yeah. Yeah. Time to go. Yeah. And so now I want to move into influencers. Yeah. Media is one aspect, but in some ways media can also be a little bit intimidating, I guess, because it's kind of like, oh, it's a company. It's a, you know, like even I get a bit more intimidated from media. So influencers have become like a major way, obviously, to get, to get attention. Yeah. What's the first step a brand should take when they want to work with a particular influencer or just they want to start working with influencers in general? Yeah.

Jessy Marshall11:48
I think first knowing your demographic. So again, if you're like, let's use TVH Skincare, they're an acne-based brand that are helping teens or Gen Zs with breakouts. Making sure that that influencer that you want to work with has the same demographic. Because let's say that, you know, there's an influencer out there that we think is amazing, but if her demographic is mainly sitting in, you know, the boomers, that she's not speaking to Gen Z, yeah, it's not going to convert or it's not going to have that awareness.

Boa host12:19
It's just not going to be worth totally marketing through them.

Jessy Marshall12:22
Yeah. So really looking at who the demographic is and who And how do you find that out?

Boa host12:28
Do you actually ask the influencer or do you look who is commenting?

Jessy Marshall12:31
If we're going into a paid partnership, absolutely ask for insights. If we're just like gifting product and seeing how it goes, I would be looking at who your audience leans on and maybe getting their feedback. So like we've had brands that'll pop up like a storey post and be like, who are your favourite influencers? And getting that feedback straight away and then looking outside of that. I think there was a girl, I've now forgotten her name, Erin Dearing. Triangle. She found a triangle and her storey is she couldn't get to Kylie Jenner. So she found like all the friends around Kylie Jenner, gave them all swimwear. And then Kylie Jenner finally was like, I want this. Yeah, I want it. So similar, similar thing. Like if you're trying to get the big person, like who is outside of that, cause they've probably all got a very similar demographic so that you can get to the top or just like filter it down.

Boa host13:17
So really you should, and it's easy to do cause you can actually see who the, cause you know, the influencers may all be friends or you'd actually map out like this, this influencer, this influencer, like you can make make an influencer map. Yeah. And then kind of send product or target, you know, people around. Yeah, definitely. That's cool. I've never thought about that. Um, now pitching to media is one thing. Is pitching to influencers the same, or how do you pitch to an influencer to get them to work with you?

Jessy Marshall13:43
Yeah, so influencers, some of them are self-managed and some of them have managers. So working out— and generally it's in their bio, right? It'll generally say, you know, Jesse Marshall at whatever, and that's for your email. And then just telling them again, product, here's the info, can we get them to test and trial it, make sure that it's a fit. You obviously want the influencer to like actually love or want to endorse the product, not just not like it. Um, yeah, that wouldn't help. Yeah, like make it authentic. So like make sure that there's like a period where they can test and try the product, and then obviously going live. Um, I think in that initial phase just, yeah, negotiation. Again, it's probably a sales tactic. One, looking at the insights. Two, making sure that you feel like that aligns with your audience and then moving forward.

Boa host14:29
How easy is it to get influencers to post your product for free rather than going to like a paid partnership? For example, would you avoid the influencers that have their agents on their account? Because you know, if you approach them, their agent's gonna come in 'cause they're gonna want a fee.

Jessy Marshall14:45
Not always. Again, it comes down to relationship. Like we do a lot of like gifting and we see a lot of return from that. So it still does work. But I think just obviously also making sure that they're interested. So before we do any gifting, it's like, hey Daniel, we want to send you this product. Are you interested? They say yes, we confirm their address and then we send it. So just making sure that they're actually open to receiving the product before just like sending product blindly.

Boa host15:10
And the same with journalists or media, you'd want to build a relationship with an influencer, yes? Yeah.

Jessy Marshall15:15
And how do you go about that? Same way, the exact same way. So like, hi, I'm Jessie, I've got this brand, would you be interested in trying? Like exactly the same way you're trying to build that relationship.

Boa host15:24
Would you ask them for to go for coffee or the influencer's like, nah, relax? Absolutely, that's good.

Jessy Marshall15:30
Um, coffee, drop into their DMs if you have to, like their posts, like actually engage as if you are friends. Like they are also trying to build their audience, so just as much as you need them, they also need you.

Boa host15:41
Yeah, I think that's important to remember. Yeah. Now, influencers, media, it's all brand awareness. Correct. That's all we're talking about here. So why is brand awareness so important, especially like at the early stage of your business?

Jessy Marshall15:57
Yeah, more eyeballs, more people to website, hopefully, and then hopefully that converts into sales. So the more awareness we can create, Hopefully that is landing like big picture in more customers.

Boa host16:12
Um, but how do you— so how can I tell? Well, um, yes, maybe how can you tell if brand awareness is actually working? That's a great question too. But also, how do you balance brand awareness budget or time with short-term goals? Like, I need sales, like I need conversion.

Jessy Marshall16:29
Yeah, and that is a hard— that is one hard part of PR because like we don't, we're not, we're to support your marketing, we're not just marketing. Yeah, so it's like one, like if we look at a pie, I'm like PR is this part and then there's like everything else. Um, we're to support the marketing. So let's say, I don't know, you're holding a sale, can we get coverage on that? Probably from a media perspective. Can we get influencers involved in that? Absolutely. So as long as all of that PR, sorry, media mentions and influencers is saying the same message, hopefully it has that flow on.

Boa host17:05
I think also it would be like brand awareness is more like when you do see an ad and you're like, oh, I know that brand. You know, I saw Jessie, she posted about it or Amal or, you know, any of the, you know, Boa has a lot of people post about it. So it does create that flow on effect. Yeah, and that familiarity where it's like, okay, I know that brand, that's a cool brand, I like that brand. Oh, there's an ad for it. 'Yeah, I'll cheque it out, I haven't checked it out.' So it does, it, you know, so you need both, I guess, brand awareness and sales-driven marketing. Yeah, totally. And I guess, uh, final question before we go to Q&A is, if as a smaller brand, like a newer company, what are some ways that you can obtain brand awareness on a budget? Yeah, totally.

Jessy Marshall17:52
So Find a freelancer over an agency.

Boa host17:58
A freelancer PR agent?

Jessy Marshall17:59
Yep, a publicist, um, definitely can help. Do a shorter project with an agency rather than something that's like super long term. Try it yourself. Yeah, I've given you the tools, you can give it a red-hot crack. Um, it does take time, like I think that's just something to remember around, um, PR or just like trying to get media influencers. It's not going to be overnight, it does definitely take time. Time, but you can do it yourself. You just have to maybe allocate time in your day to be able to do that. Yeah. Oh yeah, go to a freelancer or start with an agency with a project as opposed to like a long-term retainer.

Boa host18:34
Okay guys, we're gonna move to the Q&A. So if you've had questions or if you haven't put your question in, put it in now 'cause I'll call it out. But we'll just start with the first question, which I don't have the person's name, but it's what would happen if you're exploring an opportunity that hasn't been done before and the specific area is filled with ambiguity, who do you model your journey up? Do you wanna ask that question yourself? 'Cause I really screwed that question, I asked it wrong.

Audience member19:03
Yeah, no problem. Thank you. Thank you so much for taking the time and really guiding us through this process as well. Really appreciate that. So fine. So if you're in an industry, so I serve in the death care service providing. Yeah.

Jessy Marshall19:15
So yes, there's a lot of funeral services around.

Audience member19:18
However, my particular product Product or market, the app is very much focused towards caring about people and guiding them towards the journey of end-to-end. Yeah. Now, the listing in the Australian or APAC region, that's not really something that's covered. So I'm trying to, I don't think have an example or a person that I can role model and follow their steps. Yeah. So how about I take this journey on board and try to find the right pathways to try to connect with the right people?

Jessy Marshall19:41
Yeah, definitely. So, and you said death industry, right? Like funeral services. Funeral services. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. So I, you could still look up any journalist that has spoken about like the funeral service industry and obviously then to that journalist you need to just express that it's obviously a new way of doing things because they definitely still speak about the sector as a whole. You're just innovating it. So I would probably like take the angle like we understand that like this is the here's a new way, and this is what we're bringing to life. Does that kind of answer your question?

Boa host20:17
I think so, yes.

Audience member20:19
Yeah.

Boa host20:19
Thank you. Deanna? Hi, sorry, Jessie, big fan.

Jessy Marshall20:23
I had actually two questions.

Audience member20:26
One, what do you think of sort of pay-to-play platforms like a Linkbee?

Jessy Marshall20:30
Yeah. And then second question, obviously you're the queen of maximising the viral, and TBH is like an incredible example of that.

Audience member20:38
Constantly think of this sort of Gen Z boss and Andrew Tate thing and just articles everywhere.

Jessy Marshall20:44
Um, so paid platforms, what do you think?

Audience member20:47
And how do you maximise your press coverage when you go viral?

Jessy Marshall20:50
Yeah, totally great question. So LinkDaddy is amazing. Don't use it as, um, your only PR strategy, and that's just because it forms part of like advertising really as a whole, because it's not building a relationship with the journalist. It pay-to-play. So have it as part of it and like use it as one of your segments of your marketing, um, you know, structure for that month, but don't use it as your only, only one. You still need earned media and just a few— like, Linkbee is so amazing, but sometimes when that campaign ends, that storey is removed, so that doesn't boost your SEO long term. So use it, absolutely, it has a purpose, but try and do both if you can. Second question, how do you boost something from like a viral perspective? So when something goes live, if you start to see that like obviously trending, Gen Z Boss in a Mini was kind of something that we couldn't have anticipated to do what it obviously did. But when you start to see that, jumping on that, so writing to let's say news.com 'cause they write a lot of TikTok viral storeys or a Daily Mail or a Channel 7 and literally saying, hey team, like, We've seen this has gone live. It's garnered, you know, 20 million views in the last 2 hours. And here's why. So just giving them very top line. Don't also think— I know we spoke about like how much information to give. Obviously give as much information, but keep it short and succinct. So dot points, like I'm a big dot pointer, like just get the dot points out. Don't think that you have to give them like paragraphs of information. You've got maybe, you know, as soon as they open that email, you need that first like 1 minute of that to capture, capture them. So give them everything at the top of that email as fast as you can. So they're like, oh yeah, I need to write back to this. Does that kind of answer the question?

Audience member22:36
Yeah. Awesome. Thank you.

Boa host22:38
Thank you. Ben?

Audience member22:39
Hey Jessie, thanks for your time and everyone as well. But the question I had, I had one idea in terms of what I do is AI. We're an AI software that kind of automates reading income docs, usually quite a long process. And I put— if I can get that into a TikTok video, and our brokers and the people that use our stuff will sit in a TikTok video, right? That's pretty quick. Couldn't even get people that never worked in the industry doing it, burning in length of TikTok video. But I was wondering, is there anything else you noticed that would be effective or any other types? I mean, like, besides obviously reaching out to, like, industry, um, newspapers and podcasts and stuff like that. Is there anything you notice that's quite worth it to focus on books to get printed on or do?

Jessy Marshall23:24
Yeah, totally. I would also look at like people within the industry. So like I'm thinking like marketing, like let's call them marketing girlies 'cause like that's a trending thing on TikTok or like even founders like within the like business space 'cause it feels like something that they could potentially use. So like Boa in this instance, it's kind of like who's been on Boa, could they use it? Implement it and talk about it so that you get that like ripple effect. Then you could also then take that to like, let's say, a media outlet and be like, hey, Jesse from Hive, Daniel from Boa, I don't know, James from Showpo are all using this, and this is why these entrepreneurs are using this. So kind of building like a case study, so to speak, so that you can then sell that in as your story.

Boa host24:05
We should do that.

Audience member24:10
Like their name, like they have some weight behind the name. I'll use your name or James's name, there's some weight behind that.

Jessy Marshall24:15
I can kind of use that. Yeah, yeah, totally.

Boa host24:18
Thank you, Ben. Um, Mana.

Audience member24:21
Hi, um, yeah, my question was mainly around how do you market a service? Because I feel like there is so much information out there and so many videos about marketing a product, but especially because I work in trades, so how do you market trade-based services?

Jessy Marshall24:38
Yeah, totally. Can I ask what trade you're in? I'm a builder. Yeah, nice. So TikTok actually could be like your best friend here. I would be like doing TikToks that's like the 3 easy ways to do X. Look, I'm not an expert in building myself, but like I'm sure you can come up with like what that is, showing people essentially like how to do it and then using that as your lever for media coverage. Also, given that you are service-based, you've obviously got a particular area. Look at local-based media, so less national publications, so less like Marie Claire or news.com.au or Daily Mail and looking locally because that's where people are obviously then going to read about you and find you. That could also work from the perspective as well as influencers in your area. So finding influencers that are within your catchment and working with them to promote the local service.

Boa host25:35
Okay, perfect. Thank you. That's okay. Thank you. And Sylvia, this is a fantastic question actually.

Audience member25:41
Hi, good morning both. Thank you very much for your time this morning. Yeah, my question is, I've been working in the past in the fashion and beauty industry, and especially beauty industry. I loved having, for instance, Beauty Directory, a place where I could find, you know, all the media contacts, which magazine they will working with the events that were running in the market, and also a way to promote the products. I'm now in more lifestyle, like mainly tableware and homeware field. And yeah, is there a way, like kind of a beauty directory, or best way to find— I've been looking, you know, like at, you know, magazines, who is writing the article, Instagram, like I've been trying to follow things, but is there a way to like, you know, shortcuts, get things faster and be able to pitch directly to the media?

Jessy Marshall26:33
Yeah, you've done the right thing looking inside the magazine or like looking at the websites. Perfect. LinkedIn, don't forget about it. It's also a great platform. Platforms such as— there's not like a beauty directory, but there's Talem or Social Diary, which obviously have that. How up to date they are Obviously, you know, they're things that those companies have people that are obviously updating those platforms all the time. But I think you're actually— I would challenge you on that. I can see my team in here and I know they're all going to get really angry at me. Telamon Social Diary, I love it. Don't lean on it because it's not always up to date. What you're actually doing by going to the website or going to the magazine and looking is actually the faster way to do it. Like, I know it takes time, but it's the more accurate way to do it.

Audience member27:20
Okay, thanks. Yeah, because I think that's for PR agencies where, you know, when a brand has the budget, that's where lies your expertise. And literally you have all, you know, that beautiful database. Um, but yeah, I just thought, um, because I'm quite new in the lifestyle and home industry, I was quite comfortable with the other ones.

Jessy Marshall27:44
Yeah, how to tackle this new space. Yeah, definitely.

Boa host27:48
Thank you, Sylvia. Emily.

Audience member27:51
So, I'm an up-and-coming speaker and I'm looking to get PR opportunities or to be seen and heard, get speaking role jobs. I don't need to be paid for it, but what is the best protocol to, yeah, I guess, get some PR, get some eyeballs on me or to even market myself. I'm guessing it's just going to be speaking and showing my face. Yeah.

Jessy Marshall28:16
But is there anything else that you can share to help me get started? Yeah. Oh my gosh, I'm going to— Recording stopped.

Boa host28:25
Oh, that's weird.

Jessy Marshall28:28
What Anita from Hero Packaging speaks to, like marketing campaigns on TikTok, if you look her up, on TikTok, you'll see what I mean. I would actually like probably nearly like replicate what she's doing by giving your own advice. Obviously don't give away your entire black book, but like to build your profile and personality, kind of doing the same, like so that you can get your name out there. Also, don't be afraid to— if you see something like, let's say News.com are talking about something that you feel really aligned on, don't feel like bad about like reaching out and being like, hey, next time you have a storey like this, I would love to I'd love to be involved or I can give advice on this so that you start to build that profile. And then you can obviously say, hey, I'd love, you know, when you're reaching out to people to do more speaking opportunities, pop that into your portfolio. Also, if you've seen like an event take place, let's say it's, you know, BOA has like a speaking event and you wanted to be the host of it. Again, put yourself forward. There's no harm in like outreaching and introducing yourself. But the more you can show that, it's gonna obviously help to build your profile.

Boa host29:35
I could actually share a lot about that too because— Recording in progress. Can you guys hear that when it says that, recording in progress? Okay, yeah, so I wasn't saying your question was weird before, Emily. I was saying that the fact that the recording stopped was weird, just making sure you knew that. But like obviously for CUBB and for BOL, we have a lot of speakers. And so we're always looking for new speakers and there's only a set, like there's only a certain number of like, uh, Jesse's, for example, who like kind of everybody knows. And, you know, we have relationships with them, we can get them to speak. But we, we need so many speakers that we're always looking. And I can tell you one thing that we hate— I don't know why we hate it, but it's, it's done wrong— is, and I think PR agents do it, to be honest, so I hope you don't do this, but when, when the company gets like a message to the website, like it get— like you get like a through the website and it's just like a copy and pasted kind of like, here's this person, here's why they should Speaker, we've never booked any of them. When we do book people is when like someone we know, like typically a member or like even like a BOA user has messaged in and been like, hey, you should totally get this person to speak. I listened to them and they were fantastic. We are always way more likely. So like if I were you, I'd be getting like all my friends or anyone I know to go tell their like, I don't know, their employers or if they're part of communities or whoever you know, tell them about you because it'd be a lot more likely that, that, that they'd use you. We— that's basically how we get so many of our, um, our speakers. They're introduced to us through—

Jessy Marshall31:01
yeah, it's like relationship building, right? I— yeah, I, I— so don't send those messages. Yeah, don't, don't. Well, yeah, as I said, always customise everything that you do. Like, it's going to come across like much more, um, personable. But try to build those relationships for sure. Thank you guys so much, that helps. A bunch.

Boa host31:19
So thank you. Thank you. And I actually just had one question to finish, to wrap up, um, which was TikTok. Yeah. Now, should everyone be on TikTok? Yes. Okay. And how would you have any best tip to, to generate TikTok or use TikTok?

Jessy Marshall31:34
Yeah. Okay. Well, like, yes, everyone should be on TikTok because, um, it's an amazing platform and you can still have like a lot of organic growth on it. Um, however, if your demographic is not on TikTok and it's obviously a waste of time, then, then fine, like let it go. But I would say most people these days, that's where they're finding the information. Um, I can attest to that because like the girls who I can see on there, let's say they're not like me, I jump on news.com every morning and that's where I get my information from. I'm certain the girls are scrolling through TikTok and that's where they're getting their information from. So don't be afraid of it. Um, think of it totally different to Instagram. It's not It's not glossy, it's completely raw. So jump on and just get more comfortable with it. If you're not comfortable, find somebody else that is comfortable to do it for your brand.

Boa host32:19
Okay, thank you so much. And thank you all for being here and for being part of BOA. We love you all so much and we're so grateful to, that you gave us your time to also put on this event. And Jessie, thank you so much as well. Thanks for having me. How grateful we are for you. I hope you all have a wonderful Friday and a fantastic weekend. Thank you all for coming and hopefully we'll see you at the next event.