3 sessions inside Boa
Jessy Marshall
Founder, Hive HQ
Jessy Marshall is the founder of PR agency Hive HQ, which she started six years ago after training as a beauty therapist and then working in PR (she never finished the degree). Hive works largely with beauty, fashion and lifestyle brands, and Jessy has been involved in building awareness for names including Bangn Body, Naked Sundays, Showpo and TBH Skincare.
The sessions
What Jessy teaches
Reverse-engineer a headline from a brand you aspire to
Jessy's method: pick the founder or brand you want to be like, search where they have been covered, then find the exact headline. Her example was "Jane Lu creates fashion empire selling $59 dresses". Then write your own version of that headline with your point of difference in it, such as a lower price point or the product going viral on TikTok, and pitch that to the same journalist.
From How to pitch media and influencers without an agency →Write to the publication, not to media in general
Daily Mail and the Australian Financial Review do not speak the same language, so the same pitch will not work for both. Daily Mail leans into what is going viral on TikTok and what customers are saying. Marie Claire wants ingredients if you are beauty, or fabrics if you are fashion. Read a recent storey about a competitor in that masthead and bundle your storey up the same way.
From How to pitch media and influencers without an agency →Send one Dropbox link with every asset a journalist could need
Jessy's asset pack: the correct live website link (state clearly that you want your own site linked, not Priceline or another stockist, or they will link the stockist), e-commerce imagery on white for magazines, lifestyle imagery for outlets like Daily Mail, and a press release with brand background in case they widen the storey. Do their job for them.
From How to pitch media and influencers without an agency →Run PR as a three-touch sales sequence
For fashion, touch one is asking the editor their size and offering to send something. Touch two is confirming it has arrived and sending all the information. Touch three is the follow-up about when the storey is being written. For beauty you can skip sising and send straight away, then push for a test and trial. Treat it as a sales cycle with planned touch points, not a single email.
From How to pitch media and influencers without an agency →Gift your entire first production run before you spend on ads
Priscilla gave away all 500 units of Bangn Body's first shipment to anyone who would take it, and did not run Meta or Facebook ads for over 12 months. The logic was recognition: by the time ads ran, she wanted roughly one in ten people to already know the brand so the ad worked harder. Naked Sundays did the same, running no paid media for the first two or three years and relying on seeding, press and events.
From Three beauty and wellness founders on getting product into hands →Test whether a manufacturer will say yes by calling until number 13
Samantha Brett had no manufacturing background. She Googled every sunscreen manufacturer and called them all, working on the assumption that twelve nos get you to a yes on the thirteenth. She then repeated the process with bottle manufacturers across China, India and elsewhere until she found one that could build a bespoke mister that would not spray into eyes. That bottle is now the reason the product ranks number one on Amazon US and Ulta US.
From Three beauty and wellness founders on getting product into hands →Recognise that a media profile does not convert to sales
Sally Obermeder is blunt that a following does not mean add to cart. People already have a box they put you in, and if you push a product at them they get annoyed. Because SWIISH started with smoothies rather than a product, the habit was show and share rather than sell, and that removed the selling pressure from the content. Consistency over the long game builds the tribe, not the profile.
From Three beauty and wellness founders on getting product into hands →Split Instagram and TikTok into front of house and backstage
Priscilla's framing: Instagram is your real estate and the front of the curtain, whether that is polished to justify your price point or deliberately scrappy. TikTok is behind the curtain, meet the team, meet the process, mistakes and all. Use Instagram Stories for personal connection with a sprinkle of TikTok energy, and let TikTok carry the raw material.
From Three beauty and wellness founders on getting product into hands →Narrow to one demographic and watch the floodgates open
Leah's biggest trajectory change with Kaya was drawing a line in the sand: women only, over 40. Before that she was trying to be everything to everyone. Jessy backed this from the agency side, saying the brands Hive HQ works with see takeoff at the moment they get really specific about their demo. Pick the customer you can serve better than anyone, then say no to the rest.
From Beyond the Logo: Building Brands That Last →Post one titled reel every night, no scheduling, no exceptions
Talitha has released one 30-second video a night for close to two years. Each one carries a big blunt title on the front, like "Diamonds Are Not an Investment", rather than the moodboard aesthetic the rest of the jewellery category uses. Some hit 3 million views, some get 20,000. That single habit drives all website traffic, leads and appointment bookings, and she only started Meta ads about six months ago.
From Beyond the Logo: Building Brands That Last →Get someone to interview you on camera instead of talking to yourself
Talitha's first videos took a thousand takes filming alone in her bedroom. The format only clicked when another journalist offered to ask her questions off camera while filming. Answering a real question is easier than performing a monologue. If solo pieces to camera stall you, book a friend for an hour and film ten answers.
From Beyond the Logo: Building Brands That Last →Free builds audience, not revenue: set the benchmark before you scale
Leah ran free daily Zoom workouts through 78 days of lockdown and reached 700 people a day globally. When she tried to monetise it, they would not pay, because something given for nothing has no perceived value. She now refuses discounts and does not run Black Friday. Set your price at the start, because you cannot walk a free benchmark backwards.
From Beyond the Logo: Building Brands That Last →
Watch the full sessioninside Boa.
Session notes are free. The recordings, the live advisories and the founders in the room are for members.