CTC Ep. 51 | Visibility as Strategy: How to Finally Get the Recognition You Deserve

Kris: [00:00:00] Welcome to from Click to Client, where we transform a confusing message into a clear, compelling story that sells. I'm your host, Chris Jones, StoryBrand marketing expert. I'm here to help you attract more dream clients with the power of story.

Kris: I would love to welcome to the show KJ Blatten Bauer. She is the founder of Hearsay and she is a PR expert. She has spent the last 28 years helping invisible experts become recognized leaders. In their field. And I'm also excited to share that KJ is a client of mine, so both of us kind of go by kj, which can kind of get confusing in email threads.

But we are having a lot of fun working together and I've so enjoyed. Delving into the, the business of PR and what that means. And I thought it would be, a perfect fit to have KJ on the show today. So kj, welcome.

KJ: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. This [00:01:00] is fun. This is fun.

Kris: So tell us a little bit about yourself and about what you do.

KJ: So I am a powerhouse publicist, and like you mentioned, I've spent the last 28 years helping cool people and bold brands get the recognition that they deserve. Um, I help people amplify their dreams by finding the untold stories and what they do and who they serve and what they offer. And I get that to our media friends.

I shared a media outlet. I help connect them with the right movers and shakers, and it results in press that helps them stay booked, busy, and most importantly, profitable with their business.

Kris: So give us an example of a client like my, the, my listeners of the this podcast are service providers. They're experts.

They know what they're doing. And one of the things that we've uncovered in our work together is, the fact of how infuriating it is when you are an ex. Expert in your field and you have been around for years and then you're watching, people that don't know as much as [00:02:00] you do, or people with less expertise kind of rise to.

The visibility level that you're really longing for, right? How frustrating that can be for experts. So I wanna hear more about that. Like what are your clients, when you get on the phone with them, what are they complaining to you about? And I also wanna hear a story of how you've helped a client overcome that and what you did.

KJ: Sure. Before I dive into that, I just, I, I really wanna put the myth to bed 'cause I think people have a misunderstanding of what PR even is. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs think that public relations, publicity in general, it's only for celebrities or like big brands with giant budgets. And that could not be further from the truth.

Small businesses, service providers, solar. Solo founders, they actually have the advantage because they're nimble. They're relatable, and they're often solving the real world problems that the media wants to cover. So one of my favorite, um, wins from this year is I work with an interior design firm and they make beautiful marble kitchens that are like, I'm not a cook, I am not a chef, but I can appreciate these kitchens.

They are. [00:03:00] Gorgeous aspirational. They're, they're so beautiful. They almost look like AI created them, but they aren't based on the east coast or the West coast where people normally associate high-end design or celebrity design with. They're in one of the flyover states, they're in the Midwest, and so.

There aren't a lot of publications that focus on the Midwest. When they came to me, they were struggling. They couldn't grow their Instagram. They were only in the city where they were based. They wanted to travel nationally, but they also just wanted recognition for their work, and they wanted to be able to charge more for their services.

Because I mean, when you're building a whole kitchen made outta marble, you have the budget to build a kitchen made out of marble. And so. Using, just sitting with them for the day, going through what they thought was just basic, oh, you know, like we've been maybe featured here, or we maybe worked on this person's house, or we put together this really pretty kitchen, but it just lives in the folders on our laptops.

Going through and find, uncovering those stories is where I shine. I find the hidden gems and I help. Craft those stories into things our media friends want to read about, want to share what, what readers and people like me or you. Even if I just microwave really well, I could [00:04:00] microwave really well in a marble kitchen.

Um, I, I, I tell those stories and so working with them within two weeks, I've found the stories that they needed after sitting with them one day. About a month from that, they had their first three national press pieces. One of them was a giant seven page spread in a international design magazine, and from that, they literally booked a 12 month wait list for projects, even virtual phone calls for an hour.

Just because people finally recognized what. They had to offer and could see their beautiful design work. And once you have someone amplify you on a stage a little bit outside your comfort zone, opportunities just snowball from there. So it's not only the wait list, it's not only the virtual calls where they can charge like 10 times what they normally charge in person just for an hour, um, of normal design work.

It's. It's seeing that revenue, but it's also building the rapport. You know, once you have a wait list, people realize you're the real deal, even if you were the real deal before, and so that also helps breed more business. More referral systems. It helps you employ the people down the line and build up your team.

And so [00:05:00] they've seen the success from that and it's, it's truly been amazing the last few years to watch them skyrocket from that, that one day session where we work together.

How do you identify if a story is really newsworthy? It is just, it's, it's a bunch. It's a variety of things. It's truly what's going on right now. The trends, right? What are we talking about? But it's also evergreen content. It's fall right now. You know, kids have gone back to school. Some people might be empty nesters, some people might be preparing for their kids to go to school or graduate.

Um, it's Halloween season. We're all leaning into sweaters and scars and boots. So there's the fashion aspect of it, but we're also leaning into like soups and comfort foods, and it's just on digging those sorts of messes. There's also, for a lot of people, it's the start of the fourth quarter, right? So for a lot of businesses, a lot of entrepreneurs we're a lot in for the fourth quarter, right?

Like this is as much as, as January is for fitness. The end of September, beginning of October for us is like a. Uh, it, it's the, a clean start. It's a fresh slate. It's your last chance to make, to end the year with a bang. And so there's, there's planning involved. It, it's just really finding [00:06:00] the unique aspect that ties into not only a calendar timing, but what's trending, what's going on in the world, um, that sort of thing.

It, it's not, there's not really a formula for it, but it's also not, it's not hard to do when you sit and have someone else look at it, just like your clients look. Anyone can write. Anyone can be a writer, right? I can get a pen, I can get a notepad, I can write things. Can I write things as well as you? No.

And I literally write for a living. Anyone can go into chat GPT and put the same commands in there and then get 900 M dashes, and we realize it's chat, GPT. But when you hire a professional to do your copywriting, it shows you finally. You step away from the process and remove yourself. You have a professional write it for you.

The copy comes out exactly how you need to speak to your target audience. I do the same thing. I dig into their business and I try and find interesting stories, interesting aspects that you might just glaze over every single day and what you do to you. It's not a big deal to me. I know exactly what our media friends are looking for, and I know how to spin that to make it a story.

Kris: I love it. Yeah, I think that whole bottle effect, which I talk about a [00:07:00] lot, whereas it it, when it's your own business, you are quite literally inside the bottle trying to read the label. That can only be be read from the outside. Like, I got to come into your business with a fresh perspective and really.

Dial in your messaging and you get to do that same thing with your clients. So you obviously have relationships with what you call your media friends, right? Are those journalists or what do you It could probably could be a group of different job titles, it could be group of

KJ: different things. So I've spent.

Uh, I mean, I spent nearly three decades, right? So I know the inside and outside of a newsroom. I know the right person to contact, whether they're a reporter, whether they're just the person working the desk that shuffles the news to the reporter, whether they're, they're producers on the show and they move around all the time.

But for the most part, those people stay in the industry. But there's also bloggers that can help get stories out there. There's influencers that you can partner with. There's brands that wanna partner. With solo entrepreneurs and get their messages out. And so it's just, it's, it's finding the right people that are gonna amplify a message.

And I spend a significant amount of time online just seeing who's talking about [00:08:00] what, who's, who's doing what, who's conversing in certain circles. And it's, it's that sort of connecting.

Kris: And what are they looking for? Like I would, I imagine, I imagine this is a guest that, like your job is to make their job easier, right?

So they can do less work. Like you do some of the heavy lifting for them. So then it's just like, oh, this is like a softball, essentially. Is that, is that true?

KJ: Yeah, a hundred percent. It is. Um. I like to make a joke that reporters are lazy. They're not, they're working really hard. They're just getting thousands upon thousands of emails and pitches a day thrown at them.

And so what I like to come in and do is make their life easier. I'm giving them the topic. I might be giving 'em the headline or the title. In some instances, I'm writing the article for them because I want my clients to appear a certain way and I wanna make it as easy as I can to slide things in to their paper, to their publication, to their digital story.

Mm-hmm. And so you're helping shape. All, all of, all of the content forum. So I, I feel like I, at times, am the reporter, I am the editor. I'm doing all of [00:09:00] those things just because it serves my client in the best interest to get, to get their information portrayed in the right way. Whether that's writing a news release, even though it sounds really outdated, it's not, or it's putting together a slide image of like, here's the 10 paint colors you need to be focused on in your home this fall.

Kris: Right. Right. What, what is the biggest mistake that experts make when they're trying to get media attention?

KJ: I think they wait until they're big enough or, um, they've made it before they start putting themselves out there. I think you touched on it in the intro. There is nothing more frustrating than knowing you're an expert, knowing that you know what you're doing and you are the be all end all.

You know, you're the goat at what you do, and then seeing someone else just run away with all the attention. It is extremely frustrating. I felt it in my industry. I've watched clients live through it, and I think too often if you're good at what you do, you're busy doing it, which is why you bring in someone like me or someone else that can help you promote your message, because if you are not.

Using visibility as a strategy, you're costing yourself business. You're [00:10:00] costing yourself time, and the longer you wait to put yourself out there to be ready to hit a certain number or have a seven figure business, whatever the excuse is this week, the longer you wait to start promoting yourself and putting yourself out there and position yourself as the expert, the longer you're holding yourself back to the point of where you might not ever get press one day because you spent too much time waiting.

Kris: Right. Oh my gosh. That was gold. Thank you. Um, how, how should somebody prepare if they're like, okay, I'm good at what I do. I've been very busy doing what I'm good at. How, how can they prepare to begin to start pitching themselves? The first

KJ: rule is to get your foundation in order, right? So it's, look at your website, it's look at your social media.

It's look at your Google business. Set up your LinkedIn everything and make sure that it is all communicating the same message, which I'm Amen. Amen. I'm sure you tell people all the time, right? Yes, totally. What you don't want someone to do is go look at your website and see one thing and they'll go to your social media and see something else.

You want same title, same imagery, right? Every single thing should be dialed in, so when anyone sees anything that has to do with you, they're like. [00:11:00] Oh, that's the expert on why, or, oh, that's Kim. She's the expert on this. That is how you want, you wanna get that locked in first. Make sure all your links are working.

Make sure that no offers are outdated, like holidays coming up. Make sure that when you're promoting something for Black Friday, it's not 50% off an email, but only free shipping on your website, because that's gonna cost you customers. So it's, it's getting the foundation order. That's step one. Step two is identifying.

Who you wanna reach? Like where is your target audience? Are they online on blogs? Are they on Reddit? Are they paying attention to influencers? Are they reading magazines? Wherever that is, start finding the context of the people that you wanna reach out there. Once you have that ironed out. The third thing is identifying what's newsworthy about you.

You know, what cool offering do you have? What's the latest thing you're doing? Is there something you're, you're, you're launching? For me, it was just talking to you about this, right? Like, I believe visibility is a strategy. You and I both feel very strongly about chat, GPT and where we're headed with ai.

So it's, it's little things like that, topics that you [00:12:00] might just be talking to your business friends about. Those are great news hooks. Another news hook way to look at it is if you take the top 10 to 12 questions that your customers are gonna ask you routinely, right there, you have 12 news stories.

That's one a month that you could be pitching. And then if you take that, like I get asked all the time, how should I get started in pr? Well, the real question they should also be asking is, why have I not thought about using pr? You know, like everyone's worried about social. Everyone wants to go viral.

They don't realize the truth of that is a viral post might gain you a couple hundred followers. It's not gonna get you any sales. Those people are there to watch what you're doing. They're not there to purchase what you're doing. So is social the right aspect for you? Who knows? So it's not only the 10 to 12 questions that people normally ask you that you hear all the time in your business, it's the questions you wish they were asking you.

Mm,

Kris: yeah.

KJ: So like, like you, people are gonna ask you like, why should I hire a copywriter? And your response is probably like, why shouldn't you hire a copywriter? But also it should be like, one of your first questions back is probably gonna be like, what? What do, what are, what [00:13:00] message do you wanna convey to your people?

That's another pitch right there. And you have, you're gonna have more things to pitch than you know what to do with. And then it's just narrowing down like what's the most popular topic? But those three things, you're ready to pitch, you're ready to go.

Kris: I think you touched on something really powerful in that this idea of the difference between good PR and PR that actually converts into business, into clients.

Um, what, what's the difference? Like, like you said, a post might go viral, you might get a couple hundred followers, or a post might not go viral, but it might bring you in three new clients. So tell me the difference between those two things.

KJ: I think there's, I think there's a huge difference between visibility and vanity.

I think social media is hugely vanity metrics. We've been taught that we want likes. We've been taught that we want views. We've been taught that we need followers. But personally, I would rather have 20 followers that are buying every single thing that I'm selling than 200,000 that are throwing me likes every once in a while.

You know, 'cause likes don't keep my lights on and they definitely don't put french [00:14:00] fries on my table. And I really love that. So I love it. I, I think that, um, visibility is a strategy. I think a lot of things that people do. Or just vanity metrics. You see it all the time. If you spend any time on social media or on the internet, you see a lot of people and they're constantly posting and they're spitting out content.

And it might be good and it might be bad, and it might just be a lot of content, but are they getting clients? Do they have time to work? Are, are, is, is their message even converting you if they're your target customer?

Kris: Right?

KJ: These are all things that I like to look at because I find that. One or two well-placed articles to your target audience is gonna give you so much business.

You're not gonna know what to do with yourself versus the scattershot approach of trying to be on every, if I was trying to be on every single podcast right now, it wouldn't do me any good. I'd be exhausted. I wouldn't have time to work in my business. I wouldn't have time to serve my real clients. Yes, I'd be getting my name out there, but if I'm not getting my name out to the right people, no one's gonna hit the purchase button.

No one's gonna book me for calls. So I think it's just being smart about where you're appearing. [00:15:00]

Kris: I, I wanna circle back, you made a really important point about congruence, about how if somebody comes across you on, in, on Instagram and then they immediately go to your website, if there's a total disconnect there from what happens on Instagram to what your messaging is on your website, you have just lost a potential client.

I, I've. I've experienced this myself a lot where people put a lot of time and energy into an Instagram ad, for example. And then I always go from the ad to the website to make sure like, is this a trustworthy company? Right? Um, it what's in it for me, right? We're all wondering that question and. At least half the time.

The ad has a completely different look and feel, palette, messaging, everything different from the website and immediately I bail. And that is kind of a, that's something that happens a lot, but it's also a much bigger point around. The importance of congruence, um, at [00:16:00] every touch point and how powerful it is.

When we beat the same drum over and over and over again, we might think, oh, this is boring. PE we, I can't repeat the same message over and over. But you can, that, that is how you become remembered for solving a particular problem. And that's really the goal.

KJ: Right? Right. So when I started out. Oh, so many years ago when I started out so many before the internet when I started out, which is actually a real thing.

Yep. We were looking up recorders in a phone book. Um, when I started out before the internet, attention spans were like 30 seconds, almost a minute. You could talk forever.

Kris: Yep.

KJ: Then it was, oh, less than a goldfish. And in my head I'm like, how do they even figure out the attention span of a goldfish? But okay, then we were at six seconds.

Well now thanks to TikTok, we're at like two seconds or less. No. So you get your information out there and if you're putting something out to people, not only do you have to have it be repetitive 'cause what it takes at least 18 touches of a certain message before people are gonna convert. So you might be sick of talking about it, but it doesn't mean they're sick of hearing about it.

Um. You have to control that attention span. If the [00:17:00] attention span short and you've already hit 'em up 18 times with a message and then they go from your social media ad or your post to your website and everything's different, all that effort was for nothing. Like nothing looks worse, and there's no excuses.

When you can have a va, when you can do it yourself instead of scrolling, instead of Netflix and chilling all night long, it takes two seconds to get across all of your platforms and make sure that everything is uniform. Your bio, your headshot. The colors they, they're the check your links. Like it's just laziness.

And it's laziness that's gonna cost you money. Like, you know better, you know better.

Kris: Yeah. You know, I call that leaking trust. It's like mm-hmm. You've got holes, holes at the bottom of your bucket and the trust is just falling out.

KJ: Yes.

Kris: And to shore all that up, it might take. It might take you an afternoon.

Right, right. Just to go to every touch point and make sure everything is buttoned up and congruent and consistent and it will make all the difference in the world. So, um, you touched on something I wanna delve into a little bit more. How has PR changed in the last few years, other than attention spans dramatically shifting.[00:18:00]

KJ: I think there's, there's more to do. There's more to see and there's. A lot that hasn't changed at all. You know, the basic tenants of public relations have stayed the same. News releases still work. They get your information out there, right? Pitching still works a hundred percent no matter what the method is.

That has changed. I think what has changed is the dawn of social media, right? So now we know. Way too much about everyone at all times, and no one has any privacy. And a lot of times I want my clients to just get a diary and just write down what they're gonna say in a diary and maybe sleep on it before they post it.

But, um, there's this instant need for attention. So I think that there's more to do, easier to get your message out there. So there's no excuse to not have your message out there. The same on the other end of that sort. It's. The new cycle's gonna move faster. People are gonna cycle through your mess or through your announcement faster.

So good and bad, but also. Nothing is gonna get by anyone. If you have a poor customer experience, if you do something illegal, if you do something shady, it that tho those sorts of things. It, it didn't, it doesn't all come out [00:19:00] in the wash anymore. It comes out immediately on social media over numerous things and there's, there's the cancel culture, there's accountability, there's all of those things.

And I think it's just being mindful of, of where you're. It's mindful of how you put yourself out there. It goes back to keeping everything streamlined. Mm-hmm. Like does this really represent your brand? Is this really what you wanna offer? Is this a hill you wanna die on? Is this what you wanna be known for?

And I think I, I think that part of public relations has changed. Back in the day when there was, weren't cameras everywhere, when we didn't have our phones, when we weren't all living with instant knowledge, I think brands could get away with a little bit more. I think you had. A different way to roll out strategy Now I think there's more of an instant gratification and it just needs to be taken into account.

Kris: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That, that accountability piece that you touched on, I think is. Really intriguing and really wonderful. I think, you know, as experts, we are the real deal and the people that aren't the real deal that does come through in like, for example, Google Reviews, like as an expert, as an authority, we [00:20:00] want.

Perfection when it comes to our clients. We wanna get our clients the results that we promised to them. And if we know we can do that time and time and time again, the Google reviews are a great way to build up that trust and build that, build up that authority. And in many ways, that can be really reassuring, right?

If you're the real deal and you're following through with what you promise, your Google reviews. Are going to reflect that now you have to ask for those Google reviews first. But it does, it definitely is a beautiful, um, method of accountability that, that separates the people that are the real deal and the ones that are just kind of, you know, in it for quick wins or in it for the money.

KJ: Um, true, true. And that, that is. PR in a nutshell, right there, right? Like it's one thing if I tell you I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread. It's another thing if you see an ad where basically it's me telling you I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread. But if you hear from peers, KJ really knows her stuff.

She is amazing. She has turned this around. And then [00:21:00] if you go to Google and see all those review reviews that say the exact same thing as what your peer just said. You are gonna have no hesitation working with me because I just got the third seal of approval from numerous places, whereas. In a lot of instances, people aren't using those reviews.

They don't have that word of mouth. And then it's like you, you're seeing something, you go to the website to check 'em out, and you're like, I don't, I don't know if this is legit. And when you're investing any sort of dollars for your business, whether it's 15 to 50,000, you wanna make sure that the person that you're putting in your corner, that you're using to help move your dreams forward knows what they're talking about.

Kris: Totally. And I think now like post pandemic and we've just, in the last handful of years, a lot of people have invested a lot of money and gotten burned, right? Mm-hmm. And I am the people that I'm talking to. Have been burned. And so they really wanna be cautious, they wanna be careful, they really wanna make the right decision.

And things like PR and reviews, and people believe what other people say [00:22:00] about you more than they believe what you say about you. Right? So that can really help hold someone's hand over that threshold.

KJ: No, because there's, there's people in every industry. Look, I'll be the first to tell you. There are a lot of PR people who do not know what they're talking about.

The industry gets a really bad rap. You know, there's the celebrity publicists. There's the people who one time had a great press hit. Now they're trying to sell you on media training and how they know everything about pr, which. They don't, you know, there's, anyone can say that they're a coach. Anyone can say that they're an expert, which is great.

Anyone can say that they're a coach and they're an expert, and if they know what they're talking about, good for them. I support them. If they don't know what they're talking about, it's a world of harm. And so I think having. Someone that can vouch for you. Having those reviews, asking for the Google, having that backup and having it prevalent on your website, on your social media, the on the Google site, even if you have to Yelp whatever it is, I think monumental for you.

Kris: Totally.

KJ: Yeah.

Kris: Okay. What is one thing somebody listening can do to take action to [00:23:00] take a step forward into in increasing their visibility?

KJ: Well, the first thing I think is what we talked about. Make sure your foundation's in order, get everything how you want it forward, facing externally to people. Get those ducks in a row.

Have what you wanna be known for, front and center. I think the second thing that they can do is spend 30 minutes and Google your industry. Google what you wanna be an expert in, see who's writing about it. Match that to where you think that your target or ideal audience might be. Write those names down, you know, search for their email addresses and then.

Start crafting your own version of those stories. If you agree with it or don't agree with it, then reach out to them and just that's how you get the ball rolling. Rolling. But first, make sure that your house is in order, because when your big day comes, when the spotlight shines right on you, you want it to be shining on you in the right fashion.

Kris: Hmm. Amen. Where can everybody find you and do you have a freebie that you would like to share?

KJ: [00:24:00] I, you can find me on Instagram at KJ blatten Bauer. That's kj. B-L-A-T-T-E-N-B-A-U-E-R, or um, hearsay pr.com. H-E-A-R-S-A-Y-P r.com. I am currently revamping everything on my website, and yes, there will be a freebie that's gonna help walk you through how to use visibility as a strategy.

Kris: Amazing. Thank you so much for being here, kj.

KJ: Thank you for having

Kris: me. Is your website turning away Potential clients? I can help you turn that around. Book a moneymaking messaging call with me today and we'll transform your story into your most powerful sales tool. That's all for this episode of From Click to Client. Don't forget to subscribe and follow. I'm Chris Jones and I'll see you next.