That Solo Life: The Solo PR Pro Podcast

It's Now Time To Give Solo PR Pros Their Respect

Today we’re talking about the challenges we face as self-employed professionals in a world where certain sectors of the business world and governmental policies just don’t get us, favoring traditional employment over independent work. From pricing of tools and products to respecting the value solos bring to the table, it’s time to give solo PR pros our respect.

 

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Transcript

Michelle Kane (00:02):

Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane of VoiceMatters. And my ever steady co-host, Karen Swim with Solo PR Pro. Hey Karen, how are you today?

Karen Swim, APR (00:19):

Hey, Michelle. I forgot how to turn on the recording and use my mic and all those things and it hasn't been that long. Just my brain's all over the place today. Other than that, I'm great. How are you?

Michelle Kane (00:32):

Yeah, if I'm going to be honest, it's a little bit of a discombobulating day. I don't know. I didn't, some days are just like that, right? You make sure you read the email two or three times before you send, just to make sure

Karen Swim, APR (00:46):

I'm telling you. I mean, February is the shortest month, but it is really like it's gotten Napoleon syndrome this year. It's like, yes, I'm short, but I'm the big guy around here. I mean, it's really been shoving us around and showing us who's boss.

Michelle Kane (01:03):

I'm going to show you what's up. You're going to rue the day you talked crap about me.

Karen Swim, APR (01:09):

Yeah, call me the shortest month.

Michelle Kane (01:12):

Yeah, I'll show you. I'm going to stick around for a while. Oh my goodness. Yeah, for real, for real. And I think everyone is feeling it. It's always one of the most difficult months to just get through.

Karen Swim, APR (01:26):

Yeah, and it's short, but boy has it been jam packed and

Michelle Kane (01:31):

Yes, it's a lot.

Karen Swim, APR (01:36):

Yes, I'm ready for a spring break or something. Yeah,

Michelle Kane (01:40):

Well, and of course it has to be rude and be a leap year this year, so it's like I'm even going to add a day. Yeah, take that.

Karen Swim, APR (01:49):

Well,

Michelle Kane (01:52):

How can I flip this? Speaking of Napoleon complexes? No,

(01:56):

No. Maybe a little David and Goliath. Anyway, what we're going to talk about today or attempt to is just how, I don't think economy's the right word, but how our business world is set up really to favor the employed as opposed to the self-employed. We saw that with the pandemic where for the first time ever self-employed people, even though if you're a corporation of someone who is self-employed, you still pay unemployment tax. And yet what for the first time, oh, we could file for unemployment. Oh, well, gee, thank you very much. We too contribute to the economy, whatever. But we see it a lot as solos in the tools we use, and we've talked about that, touched on that before of course, but just how, oh, the enterprise version of this is only $12,000 a month. Well, thanks.

Karen Swim, APR (02:57):

Yeah. So it feels like this is one of the areas of discrimination that we never ever talk about, and it really is discriminatory because it's not just in the pricing, it's really the recognition and respect that many of us choose to be self-employed, and we're going to tackle that whole issue with the Department of Labor very, very soon with an expert. But to put it into context of where we're going with this is from the government. The US government does not like people that are self-employed. They don't understand people who are self-employed. When you say independent contractor, which is a big broad category and definition, the government thinks about Uber drivers and now technicians and other people, they do not think about strategic consultants like us who have really chosen to build a business of one who are very happy working on our own until we aren't, because some people go back and forth, and that is okay too.

(04:07):

So they don't understand, I'm going to say the flavors of independent work, and there's no good definition that takes into account the people who are truly independent and want to be, and the people who might be forced into being contractors because we know that there are a lot of companies out there that quite frankly just don't want to pay people as employees. Nail technicians are a great example, and they're one of the industries that is under target because your nail technicians show up at the same place every day. They have work hours, they're not working for other people, they're not marketing themselves to other people, and yet they are considered contractors. Construction workers is another category, and we could argue about Uber and Lyft because these are people that work on a platform, but even in that category, there are people that truly want to be independent. What you can't do though is say, I want to be an independent contractor. I don't want to work for a company, but I do want benefits and I want to unionize because now you're mixing. So again, the United States has a very murky view of this.

Michelle Kane (05:23):

Yes.

Karen Swim, APR (05:24):

The disrespect continues with how we're treated by companies just all around organizations, when they do content for public relations people, it's largely geared towards people that are employed traditionally, not people like us.

Michelle Kane (05:43):

Right. That's so true. And it's interesting, even as you talk to people who are in larger corporations, well, what do you do? I'm like, well, I run a public relations and marketing agency. Well, what do you mean? I'm like, well, what do you mean? What do I mean? Do I need to have 30 people standing behind me? And what I like to say is, I mean, to be honest, I've done the same job in essence my whole career. And whether that was in an ad agency or leading comms in a nonprofit, whether I'm running up the old metal staircase to my art department in my agency days, or I'm emailing someone saying, Hey, can you jo that over and make the logo bigger? Tell me the difference of what I'm doing. And I did that in varying degrees a little bit as employee, now I run my own company. And it's just interesting just the mental shift, not just amongst perhaps colleagues and acquaintances, but yeah, the government, although they seem to understand it at tax time very well, how you're organized. It's amazing to me.

Karen Swim, APR (06:52):

Technically, it's always a little bit frustrating, for example, when even you go to take some industry surveys and it's all skewed for people who have an employer, and it's like, what about the rest of us who have valid opinions and have experiences? You're not taking into account that we work a little bit differently. And then people automatically looking at us as though we're not businesses. We are, we're entrepreneurs. We founded a company, and it doesn't matter if your company has zero employees, it's still a company, and we don't always get treated that way, but things are not sized for us. So conferences are not sized for us and content is not sized for us. And definitely the price of technological tools are not size for us because these companies forget about a big segment of the public relations and marketing industry by only targeting people that are in these corporations and those big fat dollars.

(08:04):

But sometimes, and we've seen this in Solo PR Pro, which is why we don't do special offers anymore with new companies. We're very, very, very, very, very, very strict about it these days because too many companies have built their company on the back of solos, and so they give you a great price that's priced for us, and then as soon as they get on the map, they raise those prices and forget that we ever existed. I just won't allow that anymore. I just don't go for it. No, thank you. I'm not interested in giving you access to our audience, only for you to snatch the rug from up under us a year from now.

Michelle Kane (08:42):

Yeah, in many ways, I mean, I don't want to sound too pompous here, but in a lot of ways, solos, we experience whatever the next wave is going to be. We experience it first. We're like the college radio of the marketing and PR industry, or Bob, I'm going to stay in our industry silo because I liken it to, Hey, I love my radio station, WXPN in Philadelphia, and I will hear a song on there, songs on there. Next thing you know, oh, suddenly, maybe eight months later I'm hearing this song on satellite or commercial radio and everyone's saying, oh, did you hear that new song? I'm like, WXPN has been playing this for a while. So I see the solos that way, and it's not to be all full of ourselves, but it's because we are the ones, whether we have people working under us or not, we're the ones who experience this stuff first, whether it's something new in social media or just a new way that you have to operate your business. We literally feel the pain or the pleasure of the certain things, whatever the thing is. And so we have that much more experience at running the business because face it, a lot of larger businesses kind of run themselves in many ways,

Karen Swim, APR (10:05):

And the responsibilities are decentralized that everyone doesn't get the perspective of the whole. Whereas as solos, we really do, and we get that insight into organizations as well. And I think that that's a valuable contribution for people to seek out our viewpoint because we do get exposed to more, and it's no slam on people that work in companies. You guys are doing great work, and we respect you as colleagues. Our jobs often though, require us to learn things and to upskill a little bit faster because there isn't anybody that's telling us that we can't. Whereas in corporate America, your career track is often defined by the position you're in, the department you're in, and you're doing that in collaboration with your employer. As a solo, though, we are often the ones that adopt in demand scales very quickly because we have to. We don't have a backup, we don't have a department behind us. It's us. We're a very, very small team. So yeah, again, and with that, sometimes I have attended educational opportunities and the stuff that is being taught is not at our level. And then I think, and I know that that doesn't just pertain to solos, but you want to say, well, what about the seasoned public relations professionals among us employed and self-employed? Are we always only going to scratch the surface at the beginner and mid level and not go above that? And I understand they need to learn as well, but then we want to keep learning and growing as well. And often that's just not taken into account.

Michelle Kane (12:02):

Yeah, excuse me. That's so very true. I mean, even back to what you said about surveys. I can't tell you how many times I've started a survey and I get four or five questions in and I'm like, eh, you're not really talking to me, but I am still, yeah, but I'm still a segment of your audience. So what's up with that?

Karen Swim, APR (12:23):

Right? We want to be sane and we want to be heard. We want to be included. And I think we're past time, and let's be realistic. It is 2024. If the pandemic taught us nothing, it's that people in this country know how to start a business and there are a number of people that want to be in business for themselves. Can we not in this year in age, acknowledge that we exist, that we're economic engines, that we actually create jobs, that we have money, that we spend it, and that we're valuable sometimes being self-employed and then being a woman of a certain age too. I just feel like I'm completely invisible to the world. It seems like no one cares. No one cares about you, girl, you don't matter because you're not our target demographic. I don't care that they don't treat me that way. I'm going to insert myself in the conversation or I'm going to start a whole new conversation anyway, but we solo should not have to build that. I'll also say though, this is exactly one of the reasons why Solo PR Pro exists, because we do see

Michelle Kane (13:31):

You.

Karen Swim, APR (13:33):

This is why we can't create all the technological tools that you need, but we can fight for you

Michelle Kane (13:39):

And validate your experience, validate the idea that you had. If not for Solo PR Pro, I probably wouldn't have been brave enough to take a step forward. It is you and I'll name check her. Gloria Bell, I don't know if you're out there, but I saw her speak on a panel and she had her company at the time, and I thought, oh, she's doing it. And I was at a place where I knew I could see the bottom starting to fall out, where I was the safe space where I was getting paid. And that's another thing that whole experience taught me. Yes. Is it scary being on your own and having your own company sometimes? Heck yeah, but you know what? That direct deposit isn't the a hundred percent surety that you think. But yeah, those two things. And I went, oh, oh, okay. So I'm not a weirdo for having this instinctive notion that maybe this is a possibility. So if you are hearing this, you are not alone. And it does bogle my mind that in a country where we pride ourselves on our whole bootstraps thing and forging out on your own and being an American went really, because in some ways it's like, oh, how is it? Oh, we're not like that. Well, too bad because we're here doing it

Karen Swim, APR (14:59):

Enterprising Americans, but we don't really want you to do enterprising. We want you to be employed because it feels like America's just like an old school rusty model of work in so

Michelle Kane (15:13):

Many control freak ways.

Karen Swim, APR (15:15):

Yeah,

Michelle Kane (15:15):

It's a control freak.

Karen Swim, APR (15:17):

We built this whole tax system, and it's really designed for you to work for a company and just stay there and retire from there and get your gold watch. And I know we don't do pensions anymore, but we need it to be this way. This is how our system works, and we don't want to build a new one, but I say time to build a new one America.

Michelle Kane (15:39):

Wouldn't that be nice? Well, hey, we hope we've inspired you, even made you giggle a little bit because goodness knows we need that. But please do go to Solo PR Pro, check out the ongoing offer from lettuce even though we don't do special offers. There is this opportunity through lettuce. And just get on the mailing list too, because there is good information that will come your way. And please do share us around. And until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.

 

Conflict, Criticism and the Modern Solo PR Pro

On this episode we're chatting about how different generations handle criticism, especially after some Super Bowl ad backlash. We dive into why tough love is key in PR and how it's essential for solo PR pros to get real with clients. Plus, we tackle the big question: How do we teach the next gen these crucial soft skills? Tune in for an honest, straight-talk session on the art of handling the hard stuff in PR.

 

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Lettuce is teaming up with Solo PR Pro to offer you a free, game-changing Business Assessment Program. Be one of the first 1,000 savvy PR pros to join.

 

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Join our email list.

 

Transcript

Michelle Kane (00:02):

Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with VoiceMatters, and my wonderful co-host, Karen Swim with Solo PR Pro. Hi Karen. It's another week, another beautiful podcast time, not our goodness.

Karen Swim, APR (00:22):

Hi Michelle. I'm doing so well and just glad to be here and been in this time with you and our listeners. How are you doing?

Michelle Kane (00:34):

I'm doing well too. Yes, we're making it through February, which is fantastic. I was just talking to a client and we were both marveling at how it is flying by.

Karen Swim, APR (00:45):

It really is. I cannot believe that next week is the end of February. It's the last week in the month that went so quickly.

Michelle Kane (00:54):

Even with the extra day in it, it's just seems to be just going poof, which is fine.

Karen Swim, APR (00:58):

Yeah.

Michelle Kane (00:59):

It means more daylight for us to soak in and that's good. We've made it through the darkness of the season, so congratulations to all of us. And speaking of how darkness can have an impact, we're going to talk today actually about constructive criticism and how we're kind of sensing a little bit, we're feeling our generation a little bit in light of, I think, Karen, you brought up some comments over on LinkedIn about some Super Bowl ads and just some of the pushback that would you say, is it Gen Z mainly? What were you finding?

Karen Swim, APR (01:43):

Yeah, it's interesting. So there was some criticism of Super Bowl ads and for a certain generation of us it's like, okay, that's normal, right? Come in the marketing industry, push back at the criticism saying, let's all be kind. These people work so hard and it's the biggest stage, blah, blah, blah. And then another person of a different generation, older, not maybe a millennial, stepped up and said something completely different. Basically like Boohoo, get over yourself. And I thought that her point was well taken and I immediately saw that these were generational differences. So all of the people that were team know criticism were younger and all of the people that brought up the point of criticism is beneficial.

Michelle Kane (02:42):

Yeah, absolutely. Were older

Karen Swim, APR (02:44):

And it made me think about how this plays out in the PR profession, what it means to our clients and what it means to this new generation of practitioners.

Michelle Kane (02:57):

Yeah, that's very true because I mean, let's be honest, part of our job as PR practitioners is to be that voice of honesty, to bring the stark realism in, even if it's just to prepare people for the landscape they may face. I always borrow, I borrow a line from Billy Bragg and say, I am that little black cloud in a dress. That's my job. I'm not saying that I'm not coming at you to be negative or to put a downer on our efforts, but just this is the component that we need to keep in mind in everything we do that might happen. Yeah, it's

Karen Swim, APR (03:36):

Important. I love that line. That is such a perfect line, and I know it seems a little morose, but it cannot be more true for us as communicators that we have to deal in reality and we have to tactfully deliver news and we have to be honest with our clients because that trust is sacred. And as strategic advisors, we're not looking at just the now, we're looking ahead. We're looking at all of the around every corner where people may not think to look. And I think that this failure to understand that criticism is valuable, criticism sharpens, you can take insights for criticism, but we have generation of kids that grew up being shielded. So you talk about bad things, everybody got participation trophies and everybody's nice, and I'm all for being kind. So we're not talking about trolls and hatred. What we're talking about is criticism that's necessary.

(04:53):

When you put anything out into the world, it will be judged. That's part of the creative process. It really is. And so as a company, would you want to produce a product or service, have no one say anything about it that's negative, but then have it bomb and you have no idea why? Because no one spoke up. Well, I'm seeing this generation that just cannot confront the hard thing. So we see this play out in our business development landscape for PR professionals. I hear this all the time about clients ghosting you or potential clients ghosting. You have a meeting, maybe you have a couple of meetings, you talk through their needs. You put together what you discussed on paper in the form of a proposal, and then crickets forever.

(05:46):

Often it's because they can't afford the budget, but they're afraid to say that. So they just don't say anything and they just don't talk to you. Well, and it also deprives that PR professional of the courtesy of understanding what the market landscape really is. If somebody presents something to you for a particular price, you've deprived them of the opportunity to walk you through it, the opportunity to examine their own services and how they're presented and whether or not their pricing makes sense for the marketplace. And it also deprives you of the opportunity for them to do a scope of work that actually fits your needs a little bit better. So you have just decided to look at one component and then walk away because it's too hard to talk about.

Michelle Kane (06:41):

Yeah, and there's so much value in talking about it because, okay, well, tell me why you think this is too much and how can we still achieve results for you perhaps at a different price point or taking a different tactic. There are always usually, unless the budget is just ridiculously low ways to be of service, and it's a shame both sides are missing out on that.

Karen Swim, APR (07:07):

It is really sad. And managing conflict is such a fundamental tool for human beings, period. Life is not all rainbows and sprinkles. It is not. And you cannot simply say nothing all of the time. It does not work. It does not serve you and it does not serve others. And I wish that we would take this communication void seriously within the PR profession. And those of us who are more experienced and companies need to recognize this too, you need to be, begin to teach the soft skill sets to your next generation of workers. Do not assume that they have these skill sets. They do not. They cannot write business emails. They do not know these things. Does that mean that they're not smart? Of course not. They're brilliant, but they just don't have these soft skills. And so I think it's on us to ensure that we train them and that we as an older generation teach them how to tackle the difficult things and the difficult conversations. I am sure we've all had experiences, I've had this with the younger workers who are so eager to say that they can do things, that you ask questions and they say they can do it, and they don't have a clue because they're afraid to say, I don't know how to do that, so that you can actually teach them and walk them through it. We've got to get past this because it is going to be disastrous for the workforce if we don't address this issue.

Michelle Kane (08:45):

That is so incredibly true, and I love what you said about setting projects up to fail, especially something as massive and as high budget and high spend as a Super Bowl spot. I mean, those are high, high stakes. And to spend all that time and energy on something that whether you don't realize is going to just bomb out or you know it, but I can't say it. Oh my goodness, that's not going to end well for anyone. It's going to be so demoralizing to you. And also please, as you are going about practicing the craft to public relations, we've got to keep our industry in mind. How does that present as our profession of what we do? I mean, we especially need to have the capability to have those hard conversations. And it doesn't have to be, it's like they say, oh, it took me five seconds to do that task. I've been putting off for five months because I thought it would take five hours. It's kind of like that a lot of time. Those hard conversations that's going to earn you more respect with your clients. They may be relieved that you brought it up. And the point is, it is coming from your caring about the work, your caring about how the client is going to look. So even though it may feel like a negative thing, it may feel like the most uncomfortable, the thing you've ever done. It really is going to lead to a positivity of better work, more progress.

Karen Swim, APR (10:39):

I will tell you that clients absolutely will respect you for standing up for what is right and looking out for the reputation. Not every client is going to like it. Not every client is going to accept your advice. And so there's having the heart conversation, but then also learning how to navigate the solution. So you have to understand how to pick your battles, but you can't understand that if you're never addressing tough things. This is just part of the job and you become better and better at it. So clients will push back, they will tell you, no, I want this, and you can give them your professional counsel and then you have to make some decisions. How important is this? Is this like a fundamental no-No, that we absolutely will not do it. We cannot do it. I'll give you an example. If your client wants to quote someone in print, but they want it to be anonymous, we already know that's not going to fly with reporters unless you're talking in the political arena, deep Russian secrets, murder investigation. But in the business realm, that's not going to fly. You can't have somebody that's an anonymous or a made up name. I've confronted all of these issues over my career once had someone that said, oh, this person is willing to be quoted, but can we just use a fake name? No, we cannot. No.

(12:04):

So let's not quote that. So that was an absolute no, no, I am not doing that. If a client wants you to break the law or do something unethical, obviously you're not going to do that. But you're not going to go to the math over a semicolon or over a headline. That is not the greatest. But it doesn't break any rules. There are just some battles you have to choose because this is the negotiation of a client relationship. But again, have those conversations and I think people, they misunderstand difficult conversations with fighting. You're not fighting. Exactly. It's not ugly. It doesn't even have to be, we're not talking raised voices. We're talking being a professional and understanding that in this role, you're not always going to get agreement. And the more that you advance in your career and as you begin to lead people, whether you're in an official leadership role or not, I promise you, because this is something else.

(13:15):

I've seen this trend of the younger generation, not aspiring to be managers, but please understand that leaders are not always leaders by title. You can be leaders by virtue of the way that people listen and respect you, your experience in the field. And so as you advance in your career, whether you have an official leadership title or not, you will be a leader. And these are still issues that you'll have to learn to navigate. You can't just go through your career in your life just going along to please and never saying anything that conflicts with someone else's opinion.

Michelle Kane (13:51):

Yeah. In fact, that could lead to some disrespect to be completely honest.

Karen Swim, APR (13:55):

Most definitely. And if you are a woman in the workforce or any other ethnicity,

Michelle Kane (14:04):

Yes, yes, exactly.

Karen Swim, APR (14:06):

This is something you don't want to do. And I know that women who stand up for themselves and speak their opinions are often regarded negatively. But I will tell you this, I would rather be respected than popular

Michelle Kane (14:21):

Any day.

Karen Swim, APR (14:21):

This is not a popularity contest. I love my clients. I am committed to them. I will not work with someone if I do not respect them, the individual, the people that I will be working with in addition to the organization. So I'm going to fight for you. I'm going to fight to make sure that we are excellent, that we are buttoned up, and that we do everything that we can to safeguard the trust that your customers put into you. And so that means I'm looking out for you, and if I give you counsel, it's coming from a place of me as a strategic advisor, understanding something that you may not, this is my area of expertise and that's why you hired me. So realize that too. Your employer, your clients, they hired you, not so that you could just say yes to everything or be nice. Oh, okay, I'm going to do that. They hired you to do your freaking job.

Michelle Kane (15:18):

It's hard, Karen. It's hard. And you know what? It's hard some days.

Karen Swim, APR (15:22):

Some days

Michelle Kane (15:24):

You have, but you have to stand your ground and stand up for the right way to move forward. Not that you're always going to be battling something that's unethical, but just if you've made it to the point where you are working as a professional in public relations or communications, you have what you've had, what it takes to get you to that point. So trust that, trust that instinct. And I know it can be very difficult in a world where increasingly sometimes it feels like our profession is not regarded as a profession on par with other professions that have designations. And even though there is a designation in public relations, but hopefully my point's coming across so I get it, but we are every bit the professionals. We know our world, and even though other people dabble in our world that does not make them expert and trust, there are things they haven't thought of and are things they would never even have considered. That to us comes firsthand. So try it. We're going to challenge. If you're in that generation, we're going to challenge you to try it. It'll feel good, it'll be scary, but you know what? I call those a good scared. Take a step into the good scared. And if you're looking for a community that will help guide you, shameless self-promotion, plug segue,

(16:53):

Sign up for the newsletters@soloprpro.com, join the community because that is where I call it the ultimate staff meeting. It is a safe space where we can ask what we might feel is a dumb question or we can say, Hey, I'm facing this situation. I'm really unsure how to handle it. I'm not comfortable. Have you ever experienced this? What did you do? You'll get such wise and supportive counsel, it will blow your socks off.

Karen Swim, APR (17:24):

Agreed. It is a really spectacular community of peers that are not just takers, but givers. And there is a wide range of experiences. And so it really is unique in that you don't have people that are confined to just certain industries. There's wide ranging areas of expertise. Us and I could not ask for a greater group of people to hang out with. And so yes, please. I of course selfishly would love for you to join solo pr, but we also would love it if you told people about this podcast that is geared to communication professionals. We've been doing this for what, Michelle? 300 episodes or so?

Michelle Kane (18:12):

We're getting there. This might be 237. Yeah,

Karen Swim, APR (18:14):

So this is not a fly by night operation. We are committed, we are passionate, and we have been consistent in broadcasting week after week after week. And we still love it today as much as we did on episode one, and we hope that you do too. We're always open to topics that you want to see covered, guests that you may want to have appear. I would say stay tuned in March. We have, oh my God, I'm so excited about guests that we have in March and the things that are going on talk about March Madness. It is just going to be a huge celebration. So please, please share it your episodes. We put them out on social media as well. So if you could follow us on social and share, we would so appreciate it.

Michelle Kane (19:03):

We absolutely would. And we thank you and we value the time you give us each week. So until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.

 

Trend Chasing, Taylor Swift and Why Everyone Needs to Calm Down

In this episode, Karen and Michelle discuss the pitfalls of blindly following trends in the PR and marketing world. It’s important to keep strategies aligned with a brand's core values and mission. “Going viral” is not a meaningful goal if it doesn’t translate into meaningful engagement or revenue.  

 

Special Offer:

Lettuce is teaming up with Solo PR Pro to offer you a free, game-changing Business Assessment Program. Be one of the first 1,000 savvy PR pros to join.

 

Transcript

Michelle Kane (00:17):

Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves. People like me, Michelle Kane, with VoiceMatters, and as ever, my wonderful co-host, the Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hi Karen, how are you today?

Karen Swim,, APR (00:35):

Hi, Michelle. I'm nice and dry, which I understand is not the case with many across the country.

Michelle Kane (00:41):

So true. This is true.

Karen Swim,, APR (00:43):

How are you?

Michelle Kane (00:44):

I'm well. I'm well. By the time this airs though, this will have been at least a week or so ago, but we're in the midst of February, which shouldn't be a surprise that you get a big dump of snow, but it was definitely one of those storms that was supposed to be a nothing that turned into a something which always shakes up the day. I am spinning this for myself in that the cover of snow is making this rare sunshine that much brighter. So I'm soaking all that in.

Karen Swim,, APR (01:09):

Yeah, and the sunshine has definitely been rarer. This year I went ahead and invested in a happy light for myself because I was being affected by January where we had endless days of gray, dreary dark zero sunshine.

Michelle Kane (01:26):

Yes, yes. That is a wise investment. I had one of those and it broke, and I've yet to replace it, but given that I have a dark sense of humor, I'd make myself chuckle that even my sad lamp broke. I love that you call it a Happy Lamp. What do you do when sad lamp breaks.

Karen Swim,, APR (01:46):

Well, you replace it.

Michelle Kane (01:51):

Oh my goodness. So yes, being that, oh goodness, we're at that wonderful time in winter where we're smack between the Super Bowl and the Oscars.

Karen Swim,, APR (02:03):

Yes.

Michelle Kane (02:03):

Which for some is our own Super Bowl, but that's a topic for another day. But it brings to mind trends. Clients will see something that has hit the pop culture psyche in a way that everyone's talking about it, and next thing you know, we want to do something like that too. How can we take advantage of this? And I said that in that particular tone because it's not always appropriate, is it?

Karen Swim,, APR (02:31):

That's so true. And of course we have all had those clients that maybe saw something go viral and they want you to do something for them that will make them go viral. Of course, we all know as communication professionals, just as we can never guarantee media placement unless it's a paid opportunity, paid ethical opportunity that we can't guarantee whether something will go viral or not. No one knows what will go viral. That's sort of the surprise and the fun of it all is that you never know what's going to grab hold. And by the way, going viral doesn't always necessarily translate into revenue. It can translate into a fun moment. So I do think that for professional communications people as well as marketers, it's important to sort of have a framework that you can share with clients like a decision tree. And we talked about this before as it relates to social justice issues and things that are happening in the external world, you have a series of questions that you can work through, so that helps the client to become a little bit logical about whether or not this is something that they should tap into.

Michelle Kane (03:49):

I love that. I love that it brings to mind, I had the pleasure and good fortune a few years ago to sit through a nonprofit board training as far as creating your vision, your mission, and the most important of all was just bringing home the point of viewing everything through that lens. Because whether it's a nonprofit or a corporation and you're trying to think of marketing ideas, if it doesn't pass the muster of passing through that lens of let's say in this situation, what are your goals for your public relations? Then even if it's the best idea in the world, that might be fun. If it's not going to solve for one of your distinct goals, you may want to say, yeah, it would be great if we put time and energy into this, but is it really going to be the best use of our resources? Is it going to really provide what we're looking for?

Karen Swim,, APR (04:44):

I love that. That is such smart advice, and it's interesting because we as PR pros, we love tapping into trends and we love spinning analogies and we'll take a metaphor and we will metaphor it to death and it's fun. I mean, that kind of stuff is really fun. We've even done it at Solo PR Pro, but for your brands, again, when it's business, and really you have to really first of all look at your audience. So if you're tapping into, we just were off the Super Bowl and it's all about Taylor Swift, unfortunately because Swift was not one of the players. I'm just saying, so you saw millions, she's not so many articles on Taylor Swift and the Taylor showed Craft and Taylor Swift, this and Taylor Swift that and Taylor, Taylor, Taylor Taylor. But if your brand is a investment firm, is that going to really matter to their audience? And so I think that it's always important to take a step back and to think about who you are as a brand and help your clients to own who they are because that's step one of all of your communications. It's really having mission, vision and values and being true to that, even if that means ignoring trends because trends are trends and people are entertained, but we're seeking to do more than entertain. We're seeking to actually engage people and we're actually seeking to move the needle where people do business with us.

It’s a different lens that we're viewing it from. Have fun and yes, it's fun. You can go on TikTok and your CEO can dance, but are people going to trust them with their investments just because you dance? Will they love it? Will they share it? Maybe.

Michelle Kane (06:36):

Because let's face it, if it's not received well or if you kind of bomb, then that's a whole new problem. I will say one thing I'm seeing in the past week or so, and again, those that are jumping on it are doing it well and it's timely and it makes sense. I don't know if you're seeing these, but the series of Valentine cards that are arranged themed according to the brand. So the Philadelphia Orchestra did a series and it's like based around the kiddie Valentines, simple things. And it's like “You are on my Listz” using composers, or the best one today I sell is from the National Park Service. Something like, you give me a kick and it's a figure of a buffalo hoisting someone into the air. I mean, they're funny, they're timely, they align with the brand, they give you a chuckle. Something like that I think as far as I've seen, has been pretty successful. Now do you need to do those? No. Am I going to run out and make my client do these? No, because first of all, it's too late. And second of all, we have other things to do that will, like you say, move the needle.

Karen Swim,, APR (07:45):

So I love some of the customizable trends that I think that those, like what you just described, it's clearly it's a holiday here in the United States. And if your brand is somebody that recognizes holidays, tapping into some of those thematic trends that can be customized to your brand are perfectly okay. So that should go on your decision framework. Is this a seasonal or some observance that is recognized by our entire audience? And if so, are we just doing it to have a little fun with that particular observance or to bring awareness to that observance? Then those things are yes. And again, it's all about setting expectations. And your client is using this as a moment to either inform, educate, or entertain your intended audience in a way that's on brand. Then maybe it is something that you tap into. I will say we have all of these things that happened in the start of the year. We also, it's still February and I believe this will still air in February. It's a black history month.

Michelle Kane (08:53):

Yes.

Karen Swim,, APR (08:53):

This is one of those trends that you don't want to just ride the coattails up and start all of a sudden sharing Martin Luther King quotes, particularly if your organization is not diverse, knows nothing about diversity, is not doing anything to move the needle on diversity, please just opt out. And I can say that this is one of those months that you can isolate rather than be inclusive. Maybe this month it's better for you to learn and to be silent. I would honestly rather you be silent than to screw it up. Same with any of Women's history month. If your entire company is all men and you're not doing anything to advance, women probably want to stay out of the public facing promotions, actually fix the problem. I would love it if you all would do that. The problem

Michelle Kane (09:50):

That's so perfect though, because it really brings to the forefront of mind. If you don't have something to contribute in a positive way, black history month fun trend, then just don't. That's okay. But please just don't do it because you feel like you have to be in the room of conversation about things. If you truly have nothing to contribute and you're just doing it to be a face value contribution, it's again, your time and energy is better spent elsewhere, including yes, learning and becoming more diverse.

 

Karen Swim,, APR (10:31):

And I know that some people, some leaders and some organizations are critical of what they refer to as the easily offended era. So they feel like there's so many landmines. We can't say that anymore. We can't do this anymore. But I want to put that in context as well. And here's how you can help your clients navigate these potential landmines. You are right. Many more landmines exist today, seemingly, although there's always been an etiquette that we all followed in communications and in behavior throughout our entire history. There's always been rules, there's always been cultural things. But today the awareness is particularly heightened because we have so many ways of sharing information and you're exposed to so many more people. When we didn't have the internet, our day-to-Day interactions were really limited to in-person interactions. So you office and whatever makeup of your office, that's what you were exposed to.

(11:34):

You didn't have a lot of outside opinions. All of your customers could not get on a social media platform and do a video about your product. And so you don't hate those things. You love it. I'm sure the pink stuff loved it when they had been making products forever and suddenly this little clean influencer, not for money just said, I love this. And she was talking about it and it went completely viral. Did they say that? Gosh darn internet, it put us on the map and we've been doing this forever. No. So you can't rage against the machine that give it because that same machine will take it. And these landmines are opportunities for us to become better educated about how to be better at speaking with our audiences, but also not isolating groups of people as we have done in the past. So I don't think that this is a bad thing.

(12:28):

I think that this is all a great thing and it's just awareness, right? And I think at the core of what we're talking about today, we know this as communicators, it's all about encouraging your clients to be true to their brand, to be true to who they really are. Authenticity, that big word that we throw around a lot really brains here. If you're authentic, you don't have to observe a single holiday, but if the content that you produce on any communication channel is truly you, it's representative and it's seeking to add value to your audience, you really can't go wrong. Will you possibly make someone mad? You will. No. Getting around that in 2024, someone will be mad, even if it's the greatest thing in the world. People are mad at Elma,

Michelle Kane (13:20):

Right? Yeah, exactly. There are people who just love to be contrary as a hobby. So we always used to say, if that happened with anything we did, well, we've done our job. We've made them happy by allowing them to express their misery.

Karen Swim,, APR (13:35):

Yes, I love that.

Michelle Kane (13:39):

But it's so true. So I think self-awareness goes a long way for your brand. And like you say, knowing who you are, how you want to present yourselves, you do not have to be everything to everyone because not everyone is into your brand. And that goes, if you're a popular soda brand or even the bigs, not everybody's for you. And that's all right, but

Karen Swim,, APR (14:06):

Just I think we all have to get back to the idea that why is everybody wanting to be famous? There's a downside to fame. And so that's really not our business proposition. I'm going to make you famous. No, you only need to be known by the people that matter to your purpose, your mission, your organization, period. No one else has to know your name. You don't have to be famous. You don't have to be a viral sensation to matter in this world. And if we could sort of dial it down from that and back up and say, what are we really trying to do here? What are we trying to accomplish? It really would make the work of communication professionals a lot easier. So that little message is for anyone who may not be in the comms business, please don't put these expectations on your communication professionals that are just trying to do their job and do the right thing and have plans that make sense and be strategic on your behalf. We know what to do if you'll let us do it.

Michelle Kane (15:11):

Right. And it all comes down to vanity metrics. I mean, how many times I like to think these days are over, but probably not. But the clients that are saying, oh, look at all the Facebook likes this account has, I was like, yeah, okay. How many of them are bought? How many of them actually do business with them? I don't care if they have 12,000 likes, if only 1000 of those are actually potential customers. It's just numbers. Yeah. And let's face it, most of the time going viral, like that example you gave is total serendipity. And how did that happen? Because that company was leading with who they are and how they help people, and that is what caught fire.

Karen Swim,, APR (16:02):

So

Michelle Kane (16:03):

I mean, there it is.

Karen Swim,, APR (16:04):

An influencer from the UK did not get on the internet and say, my mission in life is to become famous and to put pink stuff on the map. She just liked to clean. And people found that deeply satisfying to watch someone cleaning, and she was sharing what she was using and it took off. I mean, I think the folding lady, I love the folding lady. The folding lady is my stress reliever. I don't think that she started folding. Let me learn how to become an expert in folding so that I can be completely famous. She just shared something that she genuinely loved to do with people on the internet because we can do that these days. And so yeah, I do a lot of stuff that I love and that I'm happy to do and pass on information. And I've never been a viral sensation, and that's okay. I'm okay with that.

Michelle Kane (16:58):

Exactly. No, no one wants to be a virus these days anyway,

Karen Swim,, APR (17:01):

Yes,

Michelle Kane (17:02):

I might have to check out the folding lady because if I ever conquer a fitted sheet, it will be a miracle.

Karen Swim,, APR (17:11):

She folds fitted sheet as beautifully as my mother did, and that is something amazing compliment that I can possibly give her.

Michelle Kane (17:18):

That’s a gift.

Karen Swim,, APR (17:19):

So beautiful. Everything she folds is so beautiful, and I love her. And whenever I pull out my own folding board, I think Thank you folding lady.

Michelle Kane (17:29):

I love it. Well, Karen, do you have anything to tell our listeners about what's happening at Solo PR Pro?

Karen Swim,, APR (17:35):

I do. I'm so happy to be able to share some news because it feels like forever, since we've had news and we're doing something very special with the lettuce and it's lettuce.co, we will have the address in the show notes where they have made a special offer where the first 1000 solopreneurs to sign up for this will get a free business audit. So Lettuce is a company that will help you to manage your business finances in a way that makes sense to all of us and it's app base. No privacy concerns here, but hop over to the link in the show notes and register for your freebie because it's free, but they're only taking a thousand people. But we also, they've also agreed to do a little workshop for us on escorts and how to go from a solo proprietorship to an S corp, which is great, whether you've been in business for a long time and you started as an LLC or you're thinking of starting your business, or you just started your business because they're going to walk us through some of the benefits and what it means to be become an S corp. And there are tons of benefits to it that many people may not be aware of. So please follow us, subscribe to our channel, sign up for our newsletter, and we'll have this information in the show notes for you. And we hope to just continue to bring you things that are meaningful to you in your business.

Michelle Kane (19:02):

I love that. And Karen and I, we love chatting like this all the time, but ultimately we want this to be helpful for you. So let us know at solopro.com. If you do find these episodes valuable, please share us around your socials. We're not asking you to make us viral, although we won't complain, but we would love that if you would share us around. And until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.

 

 

Small Budget PR

The whole point of operating as a solo PR pro or small agency is the ability to build the business that is right for you. But let's face it, there are many people out there who are only going to be comfortable with a certain budget level. In this episode, we want to help you to think creatively about when someone comes your way and they maybe don't have the budget that you desire.

 

Bonus: information about the exciting Solo PR Pro offer courtesy of Lettuce.

 

Transcript

Michelle Kane (00:03):

Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with The VoiceMatters and my ever wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hello, Karen. We're here. It's another wonderful episode.

Karen Swim, APR (00:22):

We are here in the dead of winter, but thankfully here, the sun is shining today. How are you doing, Michelle?

Michelle Kane (00:31):

I'm doing well. Sun is shining here as well in southeastern Pennsylvania, thank goodness. And what are we, I forget what the name of it is, but we're technically at the halfway point, so spring is on its way. I believe the Phillies equipment truck is leaving for Clearwater today for spring training.

Karen Swim, APR (00:53):

That’s nice.

Michelle Kane (00:54):

We had Phil doing his thing a couple weeks ago and that's all well and good. He predicted in early spring. But the true mark for us, Philly people is when the truck leaves baseball's on its way,

Karen Swim, APR (01:08):

Baseball is on its way. And you know what? That is good news for all of us because we look forward to spring the new season with hopefully some milder weather and longer days. So that's good. Yay. Baseball.

Michelle Kane (01:23):

That’s good. It's good.

Karen Swim, APR (01:25):

Right. The start of our baseball season is typically a bit nippy, sometimes snowy, but it's okay because we know that when baseball starts up, spring is on the way.

Michelle Kane (01:37):

Yes, and we'll be complaining about the heat soon enough. But when I think of spring, I think of opportunity and that's a bit of what we're going to talk about today because sometimes you're presented with client work, a client who has, it sounds like it's going to be a great project to work on. You really want to help them because if PR people, most of us, we love to just help people, but we also need to make money and sometimes the budget's not the best fit. So we're just going to chat about how you maneuver that, how you might make that work for you, or how you just might say maybe next time.

I know we have often had those situations where, and I know it's crossed my path as well, where you'll be presented with a budget that's just like, it's just a no, it's a non-starter. You'll have those $500 tire kickers who say, well, my budget's very small. I either don’t know what it's, or well, last time we had $500. And you think, no, first of all, we recommend, unless God forbid, unless you have an electric bill that's overdue, don't do that to yourself. And secondly, my point of view with that is always I can't do the job you need for that low of a budget. So you're better off.

Karen Swim, APR (03:08):

And I think one of the things that we want to make sure that we do on this show is we want to always be upbeat, positive and support you in having the business that you want to have. And so I want to be clear that we are never about hustle culture or you have to want to be a millionaire. That is not us at all because we want you to be happy and that definition of happiness is different for all of us, but we also want you to value the work you do and the expertise that you bring to the table. But let's face it, there are many people out there who are only going to be comfortable with a certain budget level. So we want to help you to think creatively about when someone comes your way and they maybe don't have the budget that you desire.

Are there creative things that you can do without selling yourself short? So perfect example, $500 of course, please don't be out there running PR campaigns for $500, but can you consult with the client? Can you do an hour long conversation and provide some recommendations? That doesn't mean that those recommendations are then followed by some big PowerPoint or big report. They would have to pay for that. But is that something that you can offer them for a $500 budget? If somebody has a couple thousand dollars, can you write a press release for them and say, listen, I can't really pitch for this amount, but here's something that I can do. So it's okay. I don't want anyone to feel bad when you are just wanting to take projects that might be easy for you to do, but do it within. The one thing that we always preach in Solo PR Pro is that you should never negotiate your rate.

Whatever your minimum rates are, don't negotiate those, but you can negotiate a scope of work. So yes, even within a very small budget, sometimes there are things that you can do. Now, these are individual decisions. What I highly recommend is that you have your own rate sheet, and it doesn't have to even be shared publicly, but putting something in writing, having a typed rate sheet, maybe you post it in your office somewhere or have it on your computer of your minimum project budget, of your minimum hourly. What is your hourly rate? Knowing that and having it written down and designing your business around those things. User rate calculators, solo PR pro has resources. There are lots of rate calculators out on the web. MBO partners has one that you can utilize so that you're factoring in your overhead expenses. We forget about that. Remember, you've got to pay taxes, you've got to buy business insurance, you have to take care of your entity, you need to have savings for your business, you need to pay yourself all of those things.

Sometimes people are not charging enough to really allow them to live. You are putting yourself in a hole. So having what you need to live and what you need to pay your bills and take care of your business written down, gives you those boundaries. And then you can make decisions smartly when people come to you with a lower budget about, okay, what can I really do for that? If anything? And if you cannot help them, that's okay too. It's okay to say no, but we wanted to address this because again, we talk a lot about upping your budget and how to sell yourself into those bigger accounts, but we don't often talk about is there something that you really can do with small budgets and small projects? And yes, the answer is absolutely.

Michelle Kane (07:15):

Yeah. And you might choose to engage for a number of reasons and it could be this person that's contacting you has business relationships with other people you'd like to know you. That could be it. And I'm a massive fan of scaling to the budget. It's like, okay, well we can scale it to this and it'll still be effective for you. Anything beyond that? No. But if I can be of help to you and I still receive payment for my value, that's absolutely true. And I loved what you said about have a rate sheet, even if it's not something you publish or want to make known publicly, that's a promise to yourself. And it's a reminder in these times where you might look, because look, days are busy, we have distractions, we have deadlines. We might just get stuck and think, oh no, I really want to, and now I have to think about it.

And energy drain, energy drain, energy drain. Do you have that rate sheet that you can pull up and go, no, this is what I do and this is how much I will do it for. If we can make this work great if not, and that's okay. And I know we've been talking lately about, it's interesting. I personally have been finding a power in saying no, that no longer interests me having to twist myself into a pretzel to accommodate something that may not serve me entirely. I'm going to take a pass on that and that's fine. You never know what that is going to free you up for around the corner.

Karen Swim, APR (08:55):

Yeah, I will say it's that leaning into the power of no and really looking out for yourself is something that we don't all start off in business with, right? Because we feel some people, you're new when you're a new entrepreneur and you almost feel like you're at the mercy of others. But really learning to take care of yourself and your business just as everybody else takes care of themselves and their business is truly empowering. I also want to make sure that we caution you that whatever budget levels you're working at, it is so crucial to have a very defined scope of work. And if a client comes to you with a small budget and you decide that you have a scope of work that can fit that, don't be afraid. First of all to say that is below what I normally do for PR work.

I can do this for you, but I cannot do these things for you. If you want these things, I'm happy to do them, but they cost X and quote them your rate so that they understand. It's also important to not only set the client's expectations but your own. Do not ever take on a small tiny project that's below your minimum rates, devaluing yourself doing a bunch of work by saying, well, I can grow the account 90% of the time. That's not true when somebody hires you for cheap and trust me, they know that it's a budget rate because people are not stupid as to what PR costs. Not all the time. There's too many other people out there and they may have gotten to other people and gotten quotes and then they happen upon you kind sold who's willing to give it to them on the cheap, cheap.

People don't pay more money. They just don't. That's almost like telling somebody who shops religiously at the dollar store, you know what? I want you now to go and pay retail prices. They're not going to do it because they're cheap. And let's face it, there are clients out there who are just cheap and they're price conscious and they are never going to pay you more money. So you will be stuck in this cycle of somebody who constantly wants to pay you on the cheap. So set your own expectations. If you take on something, fix the scope of work, stick to it, put it in writing, set the expectations about what you can actually do for that budget and don't move off of that. And if they ask you to do more, then charge them more and let them know it'll cost more.

Michelle Kane (11:39):

Sorry, go ahead.

Karen Swim, APR (11:41):

No, I mean that's important.

Michelle Kane (11:44):

Yeah. There's another factor to this too. Maintaining parity within our industry. When we start lowering our prices just to meet a specific need, that's a detriment to all of us across the board, especially in this world where I'm sure many of you out there have had this have where people think, oh, I post to social media. I have ai, I can do your job, we can all this is a profession. And if you don't have your a PR and if you work more in integrated comms, no, we're not licensed like teachers. We don't have a doctor in front of our name. But it is a valuable skill laden experience season requiring profession. And one way to combat against reducing that or minimizing that is to charge what we as industry peers are worth charge what the work is worth.

Karen Swim, APR (12:54):

Yes. And I mean, here's the thing I love, love, love what you just shared because that is a good consideration. And many of us advocate for pay parity, for gender pay parity

Also, which is, our industry is overwhelmingly female. Think about as a whole what you do when you devalue yourself, you bring down the entire profession, as you said, we have to stop letting people believe that somehow when you hire a smaller agency that you're getting budget rates, budget pop, budget, Betty, we are not that also you said it, you hit it on the nose, people are not paying you for the task. Stop making yourselves tacticians. They are paying you for the depth and breadth of experience that you bring for the value that you offer, which is not just an hourly rate. And if I were honest over the years, I've talked to far many small business owners, n PR and out, who basically would make more money if they went to go work for Burger King because when you look at what they're doing per hour, their hourly rates, you would be better off.

Listen, you can go get a job at Target these days for $25 an hour. You would make more money, you would take home more pay, but you don't even realize it because you're not doing that calculation for yourself and you're undercutting yourself. You're doing so much. There are people out there, I'm just going to throw out a number, charging $2,000 a month for pr. They're doing media relations, they're writing press releases, they're writing bylines, they're managing social media, and they're meeting with the client for an hour. I want to tell you that I'm not trying to make you guys feel bad, and I'm not trying to value you, and I'm not saying that I don't want you to feel bad about the budget, but you're doing too much work for that budget. And so again, if that's, Hey, listen, if you want to charge $3,000 a month, but do you in a way that respects the value that you bring to the table, and that means the scope of work needs to fit that budget and adjust your scope of work. You're not giving them the world. And if you ever hope to grow your business and scale up and be able to have fewer clients to make more money, then you really have to think about your rate structure.

Michelle Kane (15:42):

Yeah. Yeah. And I think we're at a point in the economy right now where it's a good time to take a look at that. Really, they keep dangling the carrot of interest rates going down. And I was just on a call with a client who they perceive it's going to be a good spring. So now's the perfect time. We're coming the pandemic's farther in the rear view mirror, thank goodness. And it's just an ideal time. As we do, we look out the window and the sun is shining and it's feeling a little warmer. It does give you that energy, and we just encourage you to take a look at how your prices are structured, what kind of work you're either looking for or taking on, and just make sure that you are getting the best that is due to you. And if you've appreciated this time together, please tell other people. Check out solo pr pro.com. Is the membership door still open, Karen?

Karen Swim, APR (16:43):

The membership door is still open. And also I have kind of a sneak preview announcement today. So we are partnering up with lettuce, L-E-T-T-U-C e.co. We will have links in the show notes for a special promotional offer for our Solo PR Pro family. And we're also, stay tuned. If you're not on our email list, hop over to our site and join our email list. Keep listening to the show because we'll promote it here as well. But we are doing a special workshop with them all on S Corp. So whether you're going to start your business this year, you're at the start of your business, or you've been in business and you've been in business a million years ago and you never went the S Corp route because there's too many steps, this workshop is definitely for you. And the promotional offer is fantastic. So our partnership with them, they're doing something special for our family. So visit that landing page, we'll drop it in the show notes, and we're so excited about this and I'm happy this is the first time that I've talked about it out loud. So hey, hot off the presses.

Michelle Kane (17:52):

Fantastic. That's wonderful. Well, hey, see, it's worth blah, blah. I can't even talk right now. I'm so excited. It's always worthwhile checking in with us here at That Solo Life. And until next time, thanks for joining us.

Sealing the Deal: Is Outsourcing PR Sales a Good Idea?

As a solo PR pro or small agency, is it ever a good idea to outsource your sales? It depends. In this episode we talk about how there is no right or wrong answer, only the answer that works for you and your business.

 

 Transcript

Michelle Kane (00:03):

Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with VoiceMatters and my wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. How are you today, Karen?

Karen Swim, APR (00:18):

I am a little bit cold, a little bit sad because as we are recording this, we now know that the Detroit Lions will not be in the Super Bowl this year, but other than that, life is good. How are you?

Michelle Kane (00:35):

I'm good. I'm so sorry you can join. The ranks of the football season is over for us. It's never fun, especially the Lions had such a great run this year. My gosh, I was hoping they would get there. Just to shake things up a little bit.

Karen Swim, APR (00:53):

I had hope too, for the first time since I've lived in Michigan, I actually had hope that our football team would be in the Super Bowl. I'd never had hope before if I'm being completely honest, but

Michelle Kane (01:05):

Well,

Karen Swim, APR (01:05):

That doesn't, what are you going to do

Michelle Kane (01:07):

That makes it hurt a little more? So I get that. Totally get that. Anyway, but today we'll focus on bright, shiny new things. Actually, today we're going to talk about something that's been bopping around in our thoughts for a while. Should you outsource your sales for your solo business? Sometimes you think, huh, I'm a solo. What does that entail? Why would I want to do that? But at the same time, I don't know about you, but last time I had my resume, updated my resume like an overhaul. I had someone else do it, I hired it out. Sometimes talking about yourself and selling yourself is far more difficult than selling your clients. I remember getting the product, the resume back and reading it and thinking, who is this person? I did that,

Karen Swim, APR (02:02):

And I think that's why I can see the appeal of all of these new agencies that have popped up that want to do the sales process for you, because this is a very, very common pain point for solos. I mean, very common where everyone is like, how do I bring on business? And if you did not come from a traditional agency where business development is required as part of your role, then it can be very uncomfortable to figure this out. You don't really know how to sell and people equate sales with, here's what I see. I was in sales and I manage sales teams. So when you say the word sell to many people, they instantly think that it somehow means overcoming someone's will. So it feels like force process of overcoming someone's will to get what you want. That is not what sales is at all.

It really isn't. You're not forcing someone to choose you. You are talking to people who have problems and to gather you're collaboratively coming up with a solution. Sometimes that solution isn't you. That's a part of the sales process. Sometimes it is something that you actually can solve. And so the key is to find the people that have the problems that you actually can solve. So there's firms out there, and I get it. I get the appeal and I understand why there's so many firms that are now in this space. Part of it is because many people are trying to find other avenues for PR careers as they're transitioning out of PR because of the changing landscape. And some people are very good at the sales process, they're great at discovery, they're great at having these sales conversations, and for other people, it's not their natural talent. But is it a good idea? And if so, when is it a good idea?

Michelle Kane (04:08):

Yeah, I mean, even as you're giving all these pros and cons, I often, my first question would be, okay, so if I hire someone to do outsourcing my sales because I am a solo or even a smaller shop, even if it's a micro agency doing this, is the prospect going to feel like, well, this is a little top heavy. Is this going to affect your pricing? Is it going to feel like a bait and switch? I don't know. I think it would probably work best for a very specific business.

Karen Swim, APR (04:45):

Yeah, so here's where I land on it. When you think about the sales function within a large organization, typically the salespeople are employees of your company, so they are integrated into your brand. And so when they're selling, they're not selling something that's a part from them. This is a company that they have a connection with that they're a part of, so they're a part of your brand. I do think that there's this principle in sales that people buy from people that they know, like trust.

Michelle Kane (05:22):

Exactly.

Karen Swim, APR (05:23):

So when you bring in a third party company, they're trying to establish no and trust for you and they're removed. And also, remember, a lot of these companies, here's the caution, they're not just selling you. And so if you're in an agreement with them to get a percentage, that doesn't mean that they're going to put you forth and that they are acting on only your behalf. They're just selling and they're just trying to place and match, make a PR agency to a client. So it's not a one-to-one agreement where this is your outsource sales team. Now, there are people that you can hire as an outsource salesperson, but in my viewpoint, there are a couple of cautions. And I'm not saying that it will never work. I would never say that. And we always want to be mindful about not being so locked into tradition that we're not open to change.

But in my viewpoint, you never ever go wrong when you manage sales in your company, and if you are growing a bigger agency, even your job really should be developing business. You take yourself not out of the sales process, but out of the day-to-day, tactical stuff, that's what you outsource. But business development you keep, this is your company. No one can tell your story like you. And unlike some other businesses, we're not selling widgets. This is very much a service business and pr, the way that it's purchased has not changed that much, except when you're talking billion dollar budgets where they're hiring big global agencies and they're putting out feelers. But even in that process, if we really dig down into it, we know that often with those big, huge million dollar budgets, they're inviting people that they know trust to bid on the business.

So it's still a handful of firms. It's not just a big cattle call. Yes, RFPs happen, but those have to be winnable for you to even participate in that process. So from my viewpoint, you never go wrong by taking on that function and outsourcing something else. But if you're going to go this route, I would say there are a couple things that you need to be cautious about. You need to really look at the agreement that you're entering into for not only the length of time, the process that they're going to utilize to sell on your behalf. The percentage that you'll have to give up, is it a flat rate payment? Is it an ongoing percentage of your fee? You have to understand confidentiality and how much you're disclosing to this firm in order for them to be able to sell you. So again, if they're just out there and they're selling everybody, including your clients, because this has happened with some outsourced firms where they're supposed to be selling for you, and then they're offering up your clients on behalf of other agencies, that's not a good situation. So I would say I would have legal counsel go over any agreement that I was planning to enter into and make sure that you're not trapping yourself in something that's going to work against you.

Michelle Kane (08:45):

And you know what? If you hadn't outlined all those things just now that's making me tired and thinking I'll just do it myself.

Karen Swim, APR (08:55):

You can learn how to develop business. That's the thing. You don't have to be a quote salesperson to learn how to develop business for yourself. It's getting over that fear and understanding and having some kind of a process that is your natural skillset. So for example, networking may be your jammed, you're good at it, you're comfortable doing that, do that, but do it consistently because business development is not something that should happen when the house is on fire. It needs to happen on an ongoing basis. So you need to have structures in place that you constantly do. And outsourcing sales has to make financial sense for your company. So if you are somebody that only needs five accounts that are $20,000 a month, it might not be worth it to outsource your sales. But if you're really trying to build a larger agency, again, I would say, why don't you outsource other things that are going to get you bang for your buck? Because the more you free up your time to lead strategy to develop your people and to develop business, that's going to put the money in your pocket, not outsourcing the sales function. I mean, I think sometimes when we start our own business, we forget that at some point you're going to have to let go of some things if you want to grow.

Michelle Kane (10:23):

Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that makes perfect sense.

Karen Swim, APR (10:25):

It just is what it is. It doesn't mean that you have to, if doing the work is like that is where your heart lies and that's what makes you happy and excited about going to work every day and you're happy with your income, then you won't have to outsource anything. But if you ever want to get past that point to where you're bringing in more income, you're going to have to let go, and you're going to have to give up control of some things. But business development should not be that thing, in my opinion.

Michelle Kane (10:52):

No, I couldn't agree more because all business is relationship, and people want to know who they're doing business with, and if they choose to do business with you, it's because of you. Not that you're holding hands 24/7 and overdelivering, but they want to know who they're doing business with. And I think, look, unless I'm like LeBron James and I have an agent, to me it almost pings of, oh, I'm hiring an agent and well, who am I? No one that's for, well, for the most part known entities, right? It's not for unknowns. And if people want to know how I'm doing business, they want to know how I work, I'm the one that should be cultivating it, and I couldn't agree more. If you want to outsource things, it's the day to day, and it's really, it comes down to, and this goes for any businesses.

I've had this conversation with clients who are solos in other arenas when they're struggling with scaling, and it's like, look, what kind of work do you want to do? Do you want to just dig in and do the work or do you want to be growing this to be a larger concern? So you have to decide where you want to be and where you want to go. And in that case, this might be for you, but I think just for generally speaking, for the solos of the world, I think it just kind of goes against the structure that works for us.

Karen Swim, APR (12:24):

I completely agree. And I mean, here's the other thing too. The sales cycle, it is typically long. It's not like you're going to hire somebody and boom, boom, that business is going to come rolling in. I will say maybe different than somebody who completes the whole sale cycle. Maybe you enter into relationships, referral relationships, or maybe it's a matchmaker service. But again, I say look at those and don't believe that it's going to be a magic fix, but you want to make sure that you understand all of the terms and make sure that it's going to be worth your time because I know that that also feels like such a relief if you just get leads and it's a matchmaker type service, that could be great. And I agree. When you're getting leads from verifiable sources, that's beautiful. But then in your local area, there may be groups that already do that.

I know of some groups in different cities that it's basically a community of people and they refer business to each other within the group. If they don't have the skillset within the group, then group members will go outside to their broader network. That's a beautiful thing. It doesn't cost anything. There's no fee for entry. It's just these people that have formed a relationship with one another, much like the solo prs have done with each other that are referring business to one another. Sometimes maybe you have, we have venture capitalists that we have relationships with, and we get leads from them. You can develop your own lead source.

Michelle Kane (14:13):

Yes, exactly.

Karen Swim, APR (14:14):

Yeah, you really can do that. And Michelle, you hit the nail on the head. It's relationship. What I have found when selling new business is that people don't just want to understand your capabilities. They want to understand how you think and how you do business. That's something that's not always on paper. It's in those conversations that you have with people, the things that are in between the spaces of here's what we're able to do, here's who we've done it for.

Michelle Kane (14:48):

Yes. And it even comes up with just try to be helpful. I love making connections that have absolutely no benefit to me. If I see, oh, hey, you know what? This person will be fantastic for what you're looking for, and I hope it works out. That's great. Just sprinkle that goodness around. But that also speaks to the way you do business and to who you are and to just have some third party cold calling. Because look, we get these emails and what do we do? We delete them. I had one this morning where it said, just reply, no thanks. I'm like, no, that's, that's seven too many keystrokes for me. I'm just going to hit delete.

Karen Swim, APR (15:29):

Oh, I love the templates that now force you to unsubscribe. I never asked to subscribe. You randomly grab my name from the internet, are emailing me and then saying, this is the final time that you're going email me. And then you lie and you email me again, and then I have to unsubscribe from your emails that I never asked for. Nope. I won't be doing that. Thank you. I'll however, report it a spam and get you blocked. So I'll do you that favor. But yeah, and I'm not, let me be clear. There are some legitimate PR sales agencies out there. I don't want to just throw shade on all of them. I'm just not a fan of that business model for the type of work that we do, even if it's by former PR people, because there's a disconnect between who they are and really positioning yourself, your brand to potential clients.

Michelle Kane (16:34):

I agree. And something you said earlier, worth your time, your time is worth something. And just consider the time you would spend getting something like that going for potential payoff. Is it worth it where you could really be spending the time doing that on your own, work, LinkedIn, go to the networking things both in person, and there are still some virtual things that you can pop into. And as we know, building business, it's a slow burn. It takes easily six months, two years even. I've served on certain committees for years. Is it partly to hopefully build business? Yeah, that can't be my only reason, because that's not realistic. It took about, I don't know, six or seven years until one of those committee slots turned into really good business. Timing has to be right. Need has to be right. But you know what? When they needed someone, thankfully I was the first person they thought of.

Karen Swim, APR (17:44):

And I would say for solos, remind people pretty frequently it'll feel like too much for you, but remind people what you do. We don't do that. It's interesting. I was on threads last week and this amazing woman just said, Hey, this is what I do and I'm looking to be a guest on podcast. And she just stated her value proposition and her comments were flooded with people, and then she was like, okay, here's how to reach me. So just by reminding people like, Hey, I'm here. We're connected. This is what I do. And she was bold about it. I think that solos could use a bit of that confidence. Don't assume that just because you're on LinkedIn and you're sharing articles or you're on social media or you have a website or even because you have a client that is working with you, that they remember everything that you do and can offer or that you want business, you have to open up your mouth and remind people, including your clients. So periodically, even if you've been serving a client for five years, you need to say, Hey, I have an open slot. Do you know anybody who could use X, Y, Z? Would you mind making an introduction? Do not be afraid to share your areas of expertise. And don't forget that we're bombarded with so much information that people may not readily recall everything that you offer or even know that you're in the market for new business. So you have to speak up.

Michelle Kane (19:15):

Agree, agree. Well, we hope this time together has been beneficial, especially if you've been receiving these inquiries and wondering, gosh, I don't know. Should I outsource sales? So I know Karen's offered some amazing advice, and at the end of the day, you need to do what's right for you. And we know that in your gut what that is. So if you got value from this, please share it around. Check us out  at solopro.com. I believe Karen is the window to membership still open.

Karen Swim, APR (19:47):

It is!

Michelle Kane (19:48):

Excellent. So if you want to join our incredible community, that would be amazing. And until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.

 

Panic, PR and the Way Forward

As we begin 2024, there are a lot of unsettling developments in the media industry. Layoffs and the shuttering of legacy media – it can cause a panic. But we know that change is constant and there is always a way forward.

 

Axios article: "Challenger" firms rising: Top PR talent defect from big agencies

 

Transcript

 

Michelle Kane (00:02):

Thank you for joining us for another episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with VoiceMatters, and I am joined by my wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hi Karen, how are you?

Karen Swim, APR (00:19):

I'm doing great, Michelle. How are you doing?

Michelle Kane (00:22):

Oh, I'm doing really well. Thank you. I can't complain because no one wants to hear it anyway, there

Karen Swim, APR (00:29):

You haven't. I think that we're all in that same boat. We actually all could complain, probably judging by the way, 2024 starting off. Not nice 24,

Michelle Kane (00:40):

Not

Karen Swim, APR (00:40):

Nice.

Michelle Kane (00:41):

It's being a little rude. Maybe it'll start rude and end nice. Who knows? But speaking of not being okay, we want to talk a little bit about the PR panic that we've seen and felt in the air. I mean, there's been a ton of uncertainty as the years go on the pandemic, just our sources diminishing, our media pitching being so much more difficult on an ever increasing pace. And there was an article in Axios recently that sort of speaks to that, but it sort of speaks to an overall theme of the pivot of pivoting to something new that the Axios piece specifically was speaking about the rise of challenger firms. How much of the top talent is leaving the larger PR agencies and either striking out on their own or forming smaller concerns, which, gosh, that sounds so familiar. Is there a model about that, about being a solo PR pro? So if you're listening to this as a solo, you're like, I've already done that, but it's just interesting to note for sure.

Karen Swim, APR (02:03):

Yeah, I think what's also not in that particular piece that we are definitely seeing a lot of is that we're seeing PR people as well as the media pivot their careers in different ways. So we're seeing PR people turn away from delivering PR services to serving the PR industry. So we've seen all kinds of PR sales agencies pop up. We're seeing paid media services, we're seeing people start newswires or database companies, or they're coaching, they're doing something adjacent to PR but not doing pr. And when you really think about it, because it can be a little bit disconcerting when you are bombarded with all of these changes, and you're also bombarded on a personal basis with how these changes are impacting your day-to-day job, the traditional job market has been tumultuous since the pandemic. And so it tracks that. We're seeing some of that chaos impact the PR industry. And let us not forget, unfortunately, that the industry at large for so many years has been driven by traditional PR services, meaning your in-house or it's a big agency. So that chaos now in the broader workforce market is really coming home to roost for PR people and automation has kicked it into a whole different gear.

(03:48):

So we're seeing a lot of uncertainty about not only the economy, but the work market, how much you have to work with, how much you'll be able to get resources to do the job you do. What people really think about your job is they are like, could I replace some of these functions or could I downsize and have two people do what a team used to do? Because I have automation? And those are all fair questions, but it definitely can be a little nauseating for PR people watching the spin and trying to figure out, okay, how do I keep my footing in the midst of all this?

Michelle Kane (04:27):

Right? And it can be very disconcerting and disturbing. I mean, look, we know that traditional outlets have been losing advertising dollars for years just because of the way we're consuming our media is changing. I mean, that's a given. And I think a lot of it is partly due to that change outpacing the juggernaut of the industry as a whole, being able to make up for that. So seeing something like, unfortunately, the entire Sports Illustrated staff just be obliterated, is jarring because Sports Illustrated has been such a part of our pop culture or our cultural psyche for so long, and it's like, whoa, what? What's happening? So just at that base level, it's very, very disturbing. But when you kind of sit with her for a while, you think, well, I guess it kind of makes sense in a way. So how can we best position our businesses to deal with that?

Karen Swim, APR (05:35):

Yeah, these are great questions. And you're right, it's some of those old institutions, trusted institutions are failing. And so here's the reality. Yes, things are changing. Yes, jobs will go away. Yes, some people will lose clients. And yes, there may be fewer jobs in certain sectors, that's reality. But let us not forget that that has always been reality, period. Some jobs have gone away and new jobs emerge. And so for the Sol PR Pro, what I would encourage us all to do is to look up from our to-do list and really do some future proofing of our business instead of being caught in the tailwind of what's happening right now, look ahead to where, because I believe that we all are equipped with the knowledge of being able to look out into the future and say, this is where I think things are going. And so I think it's important to do a little of that reflection and to think about what you're seeing in your business, what trends you're seeing, and what you believe lies ahead and preparing for that.

(06:43):

So right now, you should already be working on having a business for 2027, not just on what's happening in 2024, because this is all going to settle out, but what's going to remain standing? And here's the thing. Within these dark times and within these times of crisis and chaos, there is something called opportunity. And economists understand this very well. There's opportunity. So look at the problems that you believe will exist and start to work on how can I solve those things instead of getting caught up in the now and for the now, the way that you manage it is you do what are the right things. So you build in some of that innovation, but you also make sure that you are not being seen as someone who's just a tactician. If people see you as just somebody who gets media heads, then you're not going to be okay in the short term.

(07:47):

Maybe you're just not. And it doesn't mean if you are a media relations specialist, you are doomed. That is not what I'm saying, because there are plenty of people who are going to continue to thrive as media relations specialists, but those media relations specialists who will last are those that are strategic who have made themselves invaluable to the c-suite. Because what we don't understand is a lot of those people whose wholly focus on media relations aren't just writing pitches and connecting with the media. They actually are offering strategic counsel. They're probably doing a little bit of executive coaching and leadership training as well. They're doing some messaging workshops, even if it's not formally a workshop, they're helping the brand tell their story. So there's a lot of other things that are wrapped up in that. So we shouldn't be swayed by the title, but if you are not making yourself invaluable in other ways and elevating what you offer, then in the short term as somebody who just relies on tactics, you're going to get shuffled.

Michelle Kane (08:51):

Yeah. Yeah. And I think the key phrase there is strategic counsel. I think anyone who works as a solo, that's certainly what we offer without even thinking about it. So it's kind of like five, seven, however many years ago it was because time is a blur. When integrated marketing became the new buzzword, it hit me personally as strange because even when I worked in an ad agency, we offered PR services. So I'm like, well, that's what I've been doing. But if your work has been more siloed, now is the time not saying that you have to become a specialist at everything, but now is the time to consider shifting, to not consider, to shift your practice into a way that meets the needs where you can continue to be that answer to your client's question, that solution to your client's problems. I am in this bleak mid-winter. I am keeping the mood in my TV viewing, I'm watching the true detective, whatever, is it night country. And I love what Jodi Foster's character, who is the chief police, keep saying to her younger proteges, no, you're asking the wrong question. You have to ask the right question to get to the right answer. And that stuck with me because my goodness, if that doesn't work for life as well as fictional crime solving, I don't know what does.

Karen Swim, APR (10:22):

I love that. I haven't seen that show, but I love that line because you're absolutely right. We do have to ask the right questions to get the right answers, and it's going to be an interesting year. So if you thought differently by now, you've probably had a rude awakening, doesn't mean that it's going to be bad, but that there is going to be a lot of change. And in the US we know that whenever we are in an election year, it drives a level of uncertainty, period, because you don't know what the next administration will do with policy. So it's really important for us to find a lane that we can dig deep into. As you were saying that too, I would advise all solo PR pros to go deeper into your clients. I know that we all usually work with a couple of key primary contacts, and we may have interaction with other staff members, but as you just said, Michelle, about asking the right questions, you need to do some relationship building beyond the current department.

(11:34):

So get out of communications marketing and make some time to talk to somebody in finance and just ask, say, for my own knowledge, can we hop on the phone for 20 minutes? And I just want to hear more about your function of the business and what you're seeing so that you start to understand the future. And if you can't do that with your current clients, I understand sometimes that's not possible, then you need to make it your personal mission to network outside of PR people and start to talk to people in other functions. There are plenty of ways to do that. You can attend virtually webinars that are geared to other job functions, to learn about what they're seeing and the challenges they're facing, because the more that you understand business at large, the better equipped you are to begin asking different questions to get the right answers that are going to carry you through not only this year, but the next several years.

Michelle Kane (12:40):

That is so true. And I did see something recently, of course, by the time this hits, it won't be so recent, but I was checking what the muckety mucks at the Davos meetings were saying, and they actually had a fairly bright outlook for 24. So amidst all this uncertainty, we're certainly not saying that the sky is falling. And they also noted that, which was a bit satisfying to me, to see that yes, we like ai, but they're not as gung-ho. Everyone's like, we're just going to use it for everything and it's going to be fine. These leaders and decision makers are saying, yes, we like it, but we realize that it has its limits. So the sky is not falling solos. But my goodness, there are opportunities out there for us to pursue, which is a wonderful thing. And that's the wonderful thing about being a solo.

Karen Swim, APR (13:35):

It is. And honestly, if you feel like your head is spinning, you're not alone. I am going to be 100% transparent and tell you that I have those days where I think I'm over all of this. Can I just retire right now and not care about any of this? So it can be exhausting to try to keep up and to continue to try and innovate and recreate your workflow and stay ahead of things, which is why you should definitely plug into our community. If you're a communicator, either in a small, in-house team or functioning as a solo or micro agency, go to solo pr pro.com and on our homepage, you'll see a join now button, and we encourage you to connect up with us because life is definitely a lot better when you have a room full of colleagues, a virtual room full of colleagues that understand what you're going through and can offer useful advice,

Michelle Kane (14:37):

They will, and they will make you smarter, and they will help you remember how smart you are. And so many times they will talk you off the, because they have me, I can give that unvarnished, vouch, vouch for respect. And we all need that.

Karen Swim, APR (14:57):

We all need that. I'm sorry. We have, and we're all hitting that ledge a little kind of frequently these days.

Michelle Kane (15:04):

Yeah, right. It's like, oh, because yeah, even though you work for yourself, it doesn't mean that you should do it alone. So we hope hundred percent. Yeah. Well, we hope this time together has been helpful for you. It's always helpful for us, even as we record these episodes. So please do go over to soloprpro.com, check it out, see if it's for you. I think it'll be, and please share this around if you found the content of value, we would really appreciate that. And until next time, thank you for listening to That Solo Life.

 

Breaking Up the Band – Becoming Solo Again

There are seasons in every solo PR pro’s career. If you’ve built a successful virtual or micro agency but you’re feeling burnt out and considering paring down your practice to a solo endeavor, this is an episode you don’t want to miss.

 

Transcript

Michelle Kane (00:03):

Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with VoiceMatters, and my wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hi Karen. How you doing?

Karen Swim, APR (00:19):

I am grateful, Michelle, grateful to be here, grateful for a new year, all of the things. How are you?

Michelle Kane (00:26):

I think that is wonderful. I too am even though, yeah, I feel like so far my theme has been discombobulation, but I think that's because everyone's back and just trying to get things organized for the weeks to come. So out of the perceived chaos, clarity, just work in the list. It's all we can do.

Karen Swim, APR (00:50):

I think we're all feeling discombobulated. And that's a nice segue into our topic today.

Michelle Kane (00:59):

Yes, it is. Yes. Today we're going to talk about, we often talk about solos who set up their shops as virtual agencies and really micro agencies, but what if you'd just rather prefer either making that shift or you just like working as a straight up solo? We haven't talked about that too much lately, and I think that's a lot of, that's where many of us sit. I know that's where I sit. I'll pull people onto a team, but I gratefully both consciously and just the way I have designed my business, I don't have people at the ready depending on my plate of work for theirs. It's just they're fellow solos I guess I would say. And we just try to work together.

Karen Swim, APR (01:55):

And so there are seasons in every solo's career. I think sometimes we forget that. We forget that just as in a corporate career, our careers will not always look the same year after year after year. There's nothing wrong with running a small agency. I do the same thing. However, I've had periods where it's less stressful to just do the work and to be on your own and as you said, to tap into help when you need help with something or to have somebody like an administrative person that can help with reports and help with some of the administrative tasks. And so I think that this topic arose because last year, so many solos and people, period, just professionals, people that were working were not happy in their jobs. And I want to speak to those people who have built that agency, have a team of people, but you are feeling the weight of it and you are burned out. You're not sure if you even want to continue this job. Here is another option if you're not quite ready to pivot out of PR and do something completely different.

Michelle Kane (03:24):

Right, right. I think in many cases, working as a pure solo gives you a little more fluidity.

Karen Swim, APR (03:32):

It does

Michelle Kane (03:33):

The direction that you can take your work.

Karen Swim, APR (03:37):

It definitely does. I feel like when it's just you and I've had those periods, it can be beautiful because in a weird way, you feel like you have more control over your time because you can do things exactly when you want them exactly the way that you want to. And so there's a freedom that comes with it being just you, just you and the work. I will also say for me personally, in those periods when it's just been me, it's allowed me to once again touch and feel all of the work and reconnecting with that, even if it doesn't all go as planned initially, as you streamline down to just yourself, there is something satisfying about that. And it allows you to spot things that you can improve. Because when you take your hands off of the day-to-Day and the tactical, and you step into that role of leader full on, you do, and you have to become disconnected from the day-to-Day work out of necessity because your role changes. So going back to that can not only be fulfilling, but it can be a great thing for your business.

Michelle Kane (04:54):

Yeah, that's so true. And I think too, it really helps you sharpen your tools because it's just you. And I know when I say that, your listeners might be thinking, oh, stop saying that. It's so scary. But honestly, it allows you to do certain types of work, types of work where, I mean, here's the deal right now I've got a plate where I'm in charge and there are some things where I am not in charge. And it's a nice mix I have to say. It gives that part of your brain of rest and it does allow you to get in, do the work, experience it in the midst of the new AI tools and everything, and it just keeps you in the game a little bit. And I think in a way it's kind of wise because it keeps you prepared no matter which way you decide to go.

If you decide to ramp up and build out your business again, to have an active team that's with you all the time, great, it makes you that much better for it. But if you just want to pare down, if you decide to say, you know what? I've had it. I just want to write. That's all I want to do. I don't want to do strategy. I don't want to think about those things for a while. I just want to seek out writing projects. Okay, totally do that because you know what I would think in many cases, you're going to at the very least brush up against fellow professionals and you're still going to get to glean things from them. You're still going to have some level of interaction. So it's not like you're holding up somewhere and just hiding. You're not. You're just doing your work in a different way. And if that feels better for you in this moment, I say go for it.

Karen Swim, APR (06:44):

100% agree. I would also say that when you pare down and you decide to go as a solo, I think one of the scarier things for people doing that is that they're worried about their income levels. So here's where you have to be strategic with your own business. Sometimes we're strategic with our client work, but we forget to be strategic with our business. Sit down and do a little bit of math. When you have a team of people and you're paying people and you're paying higher taxes and you're doing this and you're adding up your time, what is your true income to yourself? To yourself, not revenue for the business, but to yourself. So those big numbers can be deceiving. Now sit down and think about if I had a couple of accounts that were small accounts, 10,000 a month say, and I had fewer accounts and it was just me, how much is my income?

You might surprise yourself in discovering that you know what if you hair down to what you can really handle on your own? And remember, you can also add other income streams because you can have multiple income streams working that produce a little here, a little there. With your main business being your client accounts, you could make more and maybe relieve yourself of some stress. I saw a story on social media this week, and it was from a woman founder who had handed over the reins of her company to a different leader after seven years. And she described the final meeting where she was handing over the reins via Zoom. And by her own words, she said she cried through the entire meeting, but she didn't cry because she was sad. She didn't cry because she felt she had fell. She cried because she felt the weight lifting from her shoulders of carrying the people, carrying the organization, carrying the cause.

Some of you right now are feeling that burden and we don't often talk the other side of running an agency, particularly in these tumultuous times that we have lived through that responsibility for other people's income. The responsibility for setting the tone and keeping everyone upbeat and enthusiastic, the responsibility for overseeing all of the work. Leadership has such great joys. I enjoy it. But it also comes with responsibilities. Let's be honest about that. And sometimes we need a break from it. We need a break from that. We need to step back and recharge ourselves. And I don't want anyone to feel that you failed. If that's your decision today, it's not a failure, it's just another step in your journey. And I want to encourage you to be brave enough to take that step if that's what you need to do. And as I said, it can be so freeing.

It can feel so good to just let it be about you and the work, there's a weird peace that comes. It's just like a peaceful way to work. It's like it's just you and it's like, I'm going to work a couple hours and then I'm going to go walk my dog or do a little laundry, or I'm going to cook myself a really nice lunch and sit down and actually enjoy it. I mean, whatever moves you because you can structure your workday the way that you want because for once, you're only in charge of yourself. And if you haven't experienced this in a long time, I'm telling you, it can be really beautiful. Now, if you're humming along and you are happy leading a team and doing the things, then this is of course not for you. Tuck it away for the day that may come in your future where it will be for you.

Michelle Kane (10:40):

Yeah, I agree. And I think sometimes we put too much pressure on ourselves. I know that's a shock, but not just in this profession because I have friends and colleagues in other professions that feel like, oh no, I should have a buzzing office, or I should have a lot of people working in my business. And I ask them the question, well, what do you like to do? If you were able to make enough money to support yourself either way, would you rather be managing people and cultivating people or would you rather be doing the work that brings you joy? And there's no wrong answer there. That's the beauty of it. There really is no wrong answer. But if you're definitely, you're seeking a little peace and a little just ability to not be in charge all the time, then it could be time to just be a pure solo for a while. That's okay. It doesn't mean you're not going to pick up work that involves a team along the way. No, I think that's what comes down to it, right? The way we run our businesses is because we want to structure them in the way that best suits us at any given time.

Karen Swim, APR (11:52):

I love that you said a mouthful, and you're right. And I feel that we're in this time where we are, the past couple of years, all of us collectively, the collective we of human beings that work have really began to take a deep look at how we work, why we work, what really brings us satisfaction and fulfillment in our careers. And so we've pushed back against some of those old narratives that were pushed on us. Thank God. We've seen death to the hustle culture. We've seen grinding go out of fashion. I never liked that. I don't think that. Why are we grinding as human beings, grinding ourselves down to a stump? And that's really what we did. And really we've reclaimed our desire and our hunger for having more in our life than just work and striking a different balance. So I feel like in this season, it is a good time for us to consider why we're building and scaling in that way.

Is it because we were on that train of build, build, build, and I got to have more and more and more because sometimes less truly is more and less can give you the freedom to explore some avenues of your business that you might be missing now that you really enjoy. And I will say that the older I get, the more this message resonates with me, that life is truly too short to not be fulfilled in your work, to wake up every day dreading what you do and to carrying around burdens and weights that you don't have to. So if you need to free yourself, free yourself, and guess what? There's so many clients out there that actually want to work with a solo, especially in these times. They want you, so don't be afraid to do it.

Michelle Kane (13:56):

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And I think that's what we've been speaking to as well. Life changes whether you're raising a family. And so as your children get older and age out and maybe you just want to work differently, and that's totally okay. And I think yes, the business landscape is speaking to that. Companies don't, even if you say, oh, it's a micro agency, or it's a small agency that may still, who knows some people that may still scare them away. But if you just say, no, I'm your comms pro, I'm your marketing department, you don't have one, now you do. It's me. And I think you can still have a very fulfilling, fulfilling career. And I encourage everyone just sit back and take stock. I think it's so easy for all of us to just steam ahead, okay, this is what I do.

This is what I do this month. This is what I do this time of year. And just take a minute and think, check in with yourself. Alright, how does this feel? Does this still feel good to me? Am I still doing this out of necessity or am I doing it because I want to? So there's all of our challenges. I'm talking to me too. Well, we hope you've gotten something out of our time together today. If you do, please do share this episode around. We would so appreciate that. Pop in a review here and there, and always be on the lookout. Sign up for news@celloprpro.com because as we announced last week, the doors will soon be opening for membership. So until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.

 

Let the Good Times Roll…And Roll

Did you start the new year determined to keep a calm and purposeful pace? How’s that going so far? In this episode, Karen and Michelle talk about how it is – really, it is – possible to be as productive as ever and stay off the hamster wheel.

 

Transcript

Michelle Kane (00:03):

Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves. People like me, Michelle Kane with VoiceMatters, and my wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. I don't know, maybe I'm working on a theme song for you.

Karen Swim, APR (00:25):

I love a good theme song. I think we should all have a theme song.

Michelle Kane (00:30):

My friends and I used to joke about that. What would be your walkup song? Of course, I don't have a good idea at the moment, but

Karen Swim, APR (00:36):

Yeah, when you're a speaker, you have those songs. I have songs that get me going, and sometimes I have a few that I have on rotation like, okay, I need my song. It's mine. But I mean personalized custom theme song. I think we should all have one.

Michelle Kane (00:53):

Yeah, absolutely. All right, well, that's something for all of us to think about and hit us up at soloprpro.com if you have some of them ready. But that kind of aligns with our topic today, since we are likely around mid-January by now, and the newness of the year might be the luster might be falling off and fading. So we want to talk about all the ways that we can keep ourselves motivated and keep ourselves shiny and just ready for this year, ready to make it as best a year as we can. And if that's a walkup song, awesome.

Karen Swim, APR (01:37):

I love it.

We all know what happens in January, bright shiny new year and we're ready for it, blank slate. And we're all full of, we're coming off that holidays where we celebrate it, although this year we're exhausted, but January's a good month. It's fresh, and we have these resolutions or these goals that we set collectively not just as solos, and then somewhere around mid-month, a lot of stuff starts to fall away because reality hits. Yet you come back to an inbox that's overflowing and your clients want stuff and the dog threw up and the kids got kicked out of school. There's projects due. There's too many athletic events. Your mother-in-law's is being a pain, whatever it is, life intervenes and suddenly those goals you miss a day, then another day, then another day, and then it's just a memory.

Michelle Kane (02:41):

Right. Then you're back on the hamster wheel.

Karen Swim, APR (02:44):

Yeah, you're on the hamster wheel. So what today we want to just talk about some of the ways that we can keep that positive momentum that comes in January going through the rest of the year.

Michelle Kane (02:59):

Yeah. I think one way that I'm really trying to be conscious of is to just take a pause when you sense that steamroll mentality or when that steamroll activity is about to set off and it does help, I think for nothing else, the primary point of I do have the power to take even 30 seconds and say, okay, what's next? And I think if you allow yourself those moments, even if it's just once a day, I think you'll see that your sticktoitiveness is definitely helpful. Yeah. Let's face it, by the time this time of year hits, we've blown through all the Christmas chocolates, so our sugar cravings are kicking in and we're like, what do you mean? I only have rice cakes and maybe you've finally taken down the holiday lights, which I am always sad about. I'm thinking leave them up through February. Winter is bleak enough. But I think just taking whatever time you need to reset yourself as often as you need to, I think is one helpful way.

Karen Swim, APR (04:23):

I also think getting in the habit of gratitude, so we know that gratitude journals or writing something you're thankful for on a piece of paper, putting it in a jar, so now you have a jar that you're collecting that you just pull out. But something that I've gone back to doing this year that I had gotten away from is at the end of every week, I just take a couple minutes and I already have a physical planner and I already have little blocks set up. I write down what went well this week and then what I need to improve. So if I am working on a goal and I didn't hit the goal every day, that's okay. What can I do to make sure that next week I'm getting better at it? And I always keep this mantra that has stayed with me for years progress, not perfection.

I think sometimes when we set out, we think that we have to be perfect at things, and then when we become imperfect, we let it go. I don't do that. I just look at, hey, this is my baseline and you're not going to start out something and be perfect. That's what the whole goal is about, and the whole journey is about, it's learning to get better at it. And so taking that time every week to just be honest about, okay, what could I have improved this week? And then write that down so that next week I have a plan to handle those little stumbles. And then what went well? What were the wins? Because what I find is that if you don't write it down where you can look at it, you forget about all the things that went really well because something goes well, and then 10 million things come at you and you forget and you're running to the next thing and you're doing the next thing, and it's like you forget, Hey, my client sent me this really nice email that said how great I was. Or Wow, this campaign went off flawlessly or, wow, this media hit that I've been chasing finally came through. We forget. And when you write it down, you have this nice little record from week to week. And I think that that keeps your positive energy going when you reflect on that routinely and you're not sucked into of it all.

Michelle Kane (06:43):

Yeah, I mean, it definitely gives you reminders of what you have accomplished. Not that accomplishment is the be all end all, but they're nice little pick me ups, little, little sunshine notes of, Hey, it's okay. And I think all too often we do not celebrate our successes enough. We don't celebrate our wins. And I think it probably has a lot to do with the fact that we're sitting at our desk by ourselves. I'm like, do I high five myself? I do. I might let out a little woo. But I think it is important to document those, and I think that's a great idea to keep track

Karen Swim, APR (07:21):

Yeah. I think also, I love what you just said about celebrating ourselves when you're working on a goal, they always have you build in a reward for yourself when you hit your goal, there's a reward, but I think that we should build in rewards for ourself, period. As so will PR pros, why not just reward that you're doing the work and that you are working towards something? It doesn't have to be fully formed for you to celebrate your progress and what you're learning along the way. And so treat yourself, maybe it's a once a month or a once a quarter thing that you do. Doesn't have to be something big, but write down a list of rewards that would really motivate you personally and build them into your year. Write them in your calendar when you're going to give yourself that reward and sit down right now and plan out the next three, six, or even the rest of the year with your rewards because that again, is a way to keep your energy levels high and to be positive.

Michelle Kane (08:28):

Yeah. I think too, especially coming off a holiday season where you may or may not have gotten the quality time off you thought you would, and I just mean that, hey, let's face it, it's buying gifts…it's so tough for some of us, it's cooking more, right? We're doing holiday meals and they are special things to us and we're glad we do it, but it may not have been actual time off. And a wise person once said to me that I should at least once a quarter have a three day weekend and have I done this? No, I have not. But this year I'm thinking, yeah, I probably need to do that. And when you plan for it, it's easier to actually have it. And I know this sounds so basic and probably borderline silly, but I have a feeling many of you are nodding your heads of like, yeah,

Karen Swim, APR (09:23):

Put it in your calendar. Last year I had marked off three days off the week after next, they were in my calendar. So guess what? Nothing got scheduled. It was already on my calendar. I made an appointment with myself to give myself three days off. And I don't know why I picked those days last year, but I'm glad that I have this practice of looking ahead and just looking at some days and blocking them off. Now, you also should block off time for, obviously you want to plan longer vacations for yourself or go away, but don't neglect to plan out those days where you're just off. And whatever you choose to do with those days, if you choose to go away for a weekend where you choose to stay home, whatever, just have the time off already planned for yourself. And don't give in to somebody saying, oh, well, can you meet on that day? No, I'm going to be off.

Michelle Kane (10:20):

Yeah, yeah. It's so easy to succumb to, oh, I can catch up on this or that. I mean, I have a friend who, she's had an ample break over the holiday and that's wonderful. And she's like, oh, I'm going to clean out my cupboards and we'd wipe this down. I'm like, wow, deep cleaning. That's awesome. I think, when would I ever time to do that? I'm like, oh, right, you have time off.

Karen Swim, APR (10:49):

You have time off. But there's something to be said for time off, really being time off too and a break and not doing any of those things that feel like work. Cleaning and organizing is my happy place, but I've also learned that there is something special about not doing those things and actually having a day off where you just are resting or reading a book or seeing a movie and not doing work-like things, things that are productive and adult

Michelle Kane (11:24):

Well, and isn't that the key? Right? Don't feel like you always have to be productive. Having a work ethic is a wonderful thing, but I think all too often we can use it as a bludgeon on ourselves of, well, I can't just sit here. I can't just sit here and stare at infomercials all day, even though sometimes that's what you need. You just need to disengage. But don't raise the bar so high all the time. It's okay to just not try and think of what would a perfect day look like if you could do whatever you wanted to do. And I'm not saying take the private jet that you don't have somewhere. I mean, realistically, what would you do? Would it be a novel thing to get your nail, go have a nail appointment at 2:00 PM on a Thursday? Probably do it. It's those little things that'll get you through.

Karen Swim, APR (12:22):

Yeah, but plan it. Write it down. I think that's the key to staying positive this year. And it doesn't mean that we're not going to have those days and have your go-to things that lift your mood. Maybe it's a playlist. Maybe it's a friend or a colleague. Maybe it's a particular book that always lifts your spirits, have your go-tos so that again, focus on remaining joyful and upbeat and positive this year because there's a lot of things around us out in the wild, in the natural environment that are trying to bring us down. And while we live in this world and we need to participate in it, you don't have to let it drain your mood. And so we want to make sure that you keep your energy level stable this year and that your enthusiasm for living your best life remains high all year long.

Michelle Kane (13:19):

Couldn't have said it any better myself, and doing this for yourself will only make you better at your business. Well, we thank you for listening. We thank you for taking this time with us, and until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.

 

The Problems and Opportunities of 2024

The data indicates the U.S. economy closed 2023 in a much healthier state than anticipated. So why do so many feel the opposite? Will this perception continue into 2024 and what can each of us do to remain resilient?

 

Reference links:

Weekly Workforce Newsletter

Kyla Scanlon Instagram

 

Transcript

Michelle Kane (00:17):

Thank you for joining us for That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with VoiceMatters, my ever-steady co-host, Karen Swim with Solo PR Pro. Hi Karen, how are you today?

Karen Swim, APR (00:32):

Hello, Michelle. I'm so excited. We are now. When our listeners hear this podcast, it will be 2024. So excited for a brand new year.

Michelle Kane (00:43):

Yeah, for real. It's really 2024 this time. Listeners. I know the last one that dropped on New Year's Day. We kind of did that before the whole new year thing happened, but we're here, we made it. We made it to January, 2024. And I know we spent a little time looking back last episode, but of course we're going to do the looking forward thing and just kind of taking stock really of what's been happening, what people have said is happening and is going to happen, and maybe do a little reality check against some of those things.

Karen Swim, APR (01:19):

I love it.

Michelle Kane (01:21):

Which is a good start. I know you looked up some great data just talking about how we spent a year, again, doom scrolling, being told a recession was on the horizon and oh, the sky is falling and hey, given the past few years we're kind of like, yeah, probably. Okay, why not? But according to reports, it's not exactly, it's not exactly been the case numbers, year-end numbers were far more cheerful than, well, at least as we in the public have been told to anticipate, if that makes sense. I know there's an economist on Instagram that I follow that, forgive me, I cannot remember your handle, but she brought up this amazing point about the actual economy versus the vibe economy and how that kind of predicates where we are.

Karen Swim, APR (02:18):

I love that because you know what? It doesn't matter what the numbers say, it matters how you feel, period. And I think we saw that in 2023, economically, it doesn't matter. That actual statistics now show that in many cases headcounts remain the same. It matters how you felt when layoffs were happening and how companies felt. Did they pull back and stop hiring because of the layoff news looming so large? Did PR pros perceive that there was less opportunity because there were cutbacks? So I think that's great that this economist calls out what's being recorded and then what the reality is, but most importantly, how people feel because the economy can be good, but if people don't feel confident, they're not going to spend period data be darned. We had so many people last year saying, we're going to have a recession, we're going to have a recession, and then we did not have a recession during the holidays. People spent more spending was up. And it's weird that that happened, but people felt either they were doing a little retail therapy or they thought this trash year is almost over and I'm going to buy gifts for everybody and celebrate because I deserve this. I mean, I don't know. But again, feelings do play into what really happens in the economy.

Michelle Kane (03:44):

Yeah, that's very true. And let's not discount that corporate greed still reigns. So some of our grocery prices are still a little bit up there, and that puts some of your restaurant prices up. And I know it has been, I've seen, at least in my region, it's been a very tough year end for some of those smaller entities and I totally get it and empathize with them. So here's my little shout out. Go to a locally owned place this week, just buy the coffee. Don't do as Susie Orman says, buy the coffee.

Karen Swim, APR (04:20):

100%. So one of the trends that we think that we're looking at for this year is that the economy, there's going to still be uncertainty, but for our PR pros, we say that uncertainty is where we thrive. I think that it's easy for us to allow this weight, and now experts are calling this in the workforce space. They're saying that we're now in the great gloom. People are just depressed about their jobs. I can confirm I was among those people last year as many of our audience members were too, where you just are like, Ugh, do I even want to do this or anything anymore? We were not very happy. However, I believe that all of this presents opportunities for us, but it's very important for us to first take care of our own mindset. We can't control everything that goes on in the environment and we never could, but we can impact the environment on behalf of clients.

So it's important for us to remember our value. Write it down. Have your value points somewhere where you can look at them frequently as well so that you remind to tell people, clients, potential clients, what it is that you offer. Let's remember that no matter how the world wants to just shove us into that media only niche that we offer far more. What can you do with internal communications? What can you do with all the new global opportunities? One of the trends that's happening is that there is still some remote work while people are still being called to the office, but there's some remote work. So that has spurred a trend of more diverse workforces and that diversity extends to global diversity because if you don't have to be in the office every day, then you can actually tap into talent from all parts of the world.

Well, many of our PR pros have global experience. Many of our PR pros have experience working with global teams and understand how to navigate things. That's a selling point for you. So I think look at the problems of the world and say, you know what? Problems really are an opportunity. Problems are how products get created. Products are how new innovations come about because somebody looks at that problem and goes, how can I solve that? And so I want our audience to do the same thing, look at these trends, look at the problems that we're having and say, how can I fix that? How can I be a small part of this solution? You don't have to fix the whole thing. We're not asking you to fix our US economy, although if you can please do, but there are parts of it that you truly can't impact.

Michelle Kane (07:13):

That's so true. A couple points that you said. I mean, it's never a problem, always an opportunity. And I first heard that take on it from the former manager of my favorite band in the world, Squeeze, when we had the good luck to be in their company and they were, I forget what the situation even was. And he said, oh, never a problem, always an opportunity. And that stuck with me. So I'd love that you bring that up. And really, what are PR pros other than problem solvers? That's what we are.

Karen Swim, APR (07:44):

We are,

Michelle Kane (07:45):

We're like a Sherpa. I mean, we've seen all kinds of businesses, we've seen so many different kinds of businesses. So we have all of that institutional knowledge as seasoned pros and we can offer counsel, no, are we attorneys slash MBA slash this, that, and the other one, not by degree, but by experience. You betcha. We bring a whole lot to the table as far as counsel. So I think it's so important. Like you say, oh my gosh, forget the vision boards. Remember your value and write it down and put it in front of you. I'd much rather stare at that than some picture of a beach somewhere that I maybe might forget to schedule.

Karen Swim, APR (08:30):

I feel like every PR pro should have that written and prominent and look at it daily because it's one of the things that I believe that we forget about ourselves and we take ourselves for granted. And if you're taking yourself for granted, it's going to impact who you target. It's going to impact your confidence going into sales meetings and it's going to affect your business. And so again, we're dealing with our own mind and how we think and how we show up in the world. And we've allowed other people in 2023, a lot of us to dim our light. Let's not do that in 2024. Let's go into the year. And when you look at these problems and you say, it's only a problem when I make it a problem, but you pick something that you're particularly passionate about, guess that's where your excitement comes back.

And when you're excited about something, think about how different your attitude is and how you work differently. We deserve to love our jobs again in 2024. I don't care that everybody else is in the great gloom. I'm not going to be gloomy. I'm not going to hate my job. I'm going to get rid of the things that I do not care for. I'm going to get rid of the types of people that I don't care to work with. I'm just going to keep saying no to the wrong types of clients. I'm not going to be driven by my bank account because I'm not driven by that anyway. I know that if I choose the right clients that allow me to do my best work, everything is going to work out. And I feel like we all deserve that. We should work with the people that energize us, that give us joy, that give us the types of work that make us happy. There's always going to be problem clients. There's always going to be times that work feels like work, but it shouldn't be drudgery day in day out. We don't have time for that.

Michelle Kane (10:22):

No, no. And I think, look, we're all realistic. Just because the calendar page turned to a different number of a year doesn't mean that everything is magic. However, coming off the holiday time when things might've slowed down, ha did not. But it was still a bit of a mental pause in many ways. And I know for myself as I'm doing my own reentry, whereas the last month or two, I would just hit it hard in the morning, okay, what do I have? We have to prove and not stopping to think, okay, why are you alarming yourself, Michelle, address this email and then move on. And yes, even take 15 minutes to just kind of check in with yourself and go, okay, what are my priorities today? We can slow ourselves down because rare is the time when something is 10 seconds from going to press or it's not. And I'm so guilty of that because you just want to keep going, keep going, keep going. Oh yeah, yeah, I got to think about that. Alright, okay, well one of these days and you end up being in the middle of that avalanche snowball going down the hill. And we don't want that. I don't want that for myself. So I'm trying very hard and I may still be in that reentry disillusionment bubble that it's possible, but darn it, I'm going to try.

Karen Swim, APR (11:50):

Another thing that's really been coming up is obviously AI and its continued role, and I can't say this enough, watch those trends, but be quick about making your own pivots and deepening your knowledge about the use of AI and thinking about different problems that AI uses are bringing up. Because again, where the problems are, there's opportunities for us as PR people. We're seeing that journalists are concerned when we look back at the challenges that they faced last year, I think it was a cision study, a big study on the journalist. One of the things was misinformation, but also accuracy of content. And AI plays into that. We're also seeing media companies suing AI companies for training on their content. So there's going to be a lot of battling, a lot of backlash, a lot of competitors springing up. And as always, we PR pros need to remember that a tool is a tool, is a tool.

Doesn't matter if it's the latest sexy technology. Where our value lies is in being strategic, understanding the appropriate use cases, watching out for ethical considerations, watching out for all of the nuances that AI models cannot handle, such as language around DEI and inclusivity. It's important. Those things are things that you as an expert in a professional can do. What about when you serve markets that are global, watching for those language nuances? AI can't necessarily do all of that. It can be a tool to help you with ideation and even with some content creation, but it still is going to require human oversight. There're more and more jobs calling for people in ai, AI script writers, people that are good at chat prompts. I find that with it being so new to the general public that many people are already stepping up and proclaiming themselves to be expert when it's very much an evolving field. But whatever I'm going to ask you.

Michelle Kane (14:03):

Yeah, right. We've seen it before. Social media gurus.

Karen Swim, APR (14:07):

Definitely. Definitely. So yeah.

Michelle Kane (14:11):

Yeah, I agree. I mean, we've long said it's a tool. It's here. There's no denying it. So rather than run away, it's best to be savvy about it, know about it, get good at it, get good at using it. You may just learn to like it a little bit, but just be aware of, yeah. I mean some of the shakeups it's going to be that are bound to happen. But I think most anything else, things do level off. It's just learning how to master yet another technology. And I think I found we tend, PR pros tend to be at the forefront of that. Honestly, we do. Because I've talked about it in some circles. I mean in some circles they think, oh, this will just do everything for me. I'm like, yeah, check the quality. I think you'll find that you'll be disappointed. And the others are like, what?

Karen Swim, APR (15:00):

Yeah. Well, in every profession there are those that will try to take the shortcut weight out. And those are not the true professionals and that's not our audience. I feel like our audience is the best of the best. The profession.

Michelle Kane (15:14):

You betcha.

Karen Swim, APR (15:15):

So one more stat that I want to say is I'm sure that you're all familiar with this longevity report. It's been 85 years studying this population of people. And one of the key predictors of long life and high quality of life are connections. And so personal plug, we know that these past few years have just been so different, but they're so much easier when you don't go it alone. So while you may be the founder, the CEO, the boss, while you might be a true solo or micro agency this year, please make this the year that you surround yourself with community because you do not have to do this journey on your own. It makes a huge difference when you can tap into your peer network with the highs, the lows, your questions, when you can be supportive to other people because that regenerates us as well.

The doors of Solo PR Pro will be opening back up probably next week. I was supposed to do in December, but I did not. I encourage you to watch on social media. If you subscribe to our newsletters, please watch our newsletters because I'll make the announcement. But join this community of talented people so that you don't give in to the great gloom that's consuming other people because it is more depressing when you are on your own. And just because you're a solo doesn't mean that you can't have community network and a virtual office of colleagues that will be supportive to you. And yes, this is a personal plug, which we don't do very often in this way. And I'm offering it up because I don't know that I would've lasted in this profession without this community myself. My personal testimony, this community has been life, life-giving to me. And it continues to be a place unlike many other places on the internet. It's a place where there's trust, where there's genuine love for one another and care for one another. And I just don't find that same mix everywhere else. And so I think that we're pretty special and would like you to take advantage of that as well this year.

Michelle Kane (17:46):

I concur. I can vouch for that. Solo PR Pro was the first organization that I found when I was starting my business that led me to believe, oh, I can do this because look at all these other smart, successful people who have been doing it. And every word you say is true. It is a place of trust, compassion, care, smarts. I mean, I only almost feels like every time I go in the group, I feel like I might be. It's as if you're walking down the hall of the office and you stop in the doorway of a colleague and say, Hey, got a minute. I'm facing this thing and I really don't know what to do. And instead of just one person's feedback, you'll have dozens coming at you and saying like, oh, me too. Or, well, yeah, this happened to me once. Here's what I did.

Or maybe try this. It's really an incredible place and I agree. I have not found or seen anything remotely similar to it. Not that other groups have their pros and cons. Of course they all do, but I've not seen something that even gets close to the value that it brings. So yeah, when the door's open, I can't say strongly enough to check it out. Well, on that note, we hope you've gotten something out of this today. We hope we've helped you to deserve, know that you deserve to have a year without gloom. We're going to kick out the gloom this year. Please share this episode around we would've really appreciate that. Shoot up some reviews about us. That would be kind of awesome. And until next time, yeah, and until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.

 

 

The PR Forecast for 2024

This episode was inspired by a recent blog post on SoloPRPro.com – The PR Forecast for 2024. What can we expect in – and from – our industry? How can solos get the most out of our businesses this year and beyond? Let’s find out together.

Transcript

 

Michelle Kane (00:17):

Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, and my ever steady co-host, Karen Swim of the hive of PR, the fabulousness of Solo PR Pro, and I should say, Karen, officially Happy New Year.

Karen Swim, APR (00:40):

Yay. Yes. By the time this episode hits, it will be 2024. So hello and Happy New Year, Michelle.

Michelle Kane (00:48):

Can you believe it's, we made it out of 2023. Hopefully

Karen Swim, APR (00:56):

Got out by the seat of our pants

Michelle Kane (01:00):

New year. Let's hope it's not a new dumpster fire.

Karen Swim, APR (01:04):

Let us hope, because 2023 was just a year.

Michelle Kane (01:10):

It definitely had a lot of moments, but we're not going to look back. We're going to look ahead. We are going to address some of the things covered in a recent blog at soloprpro.com, and I encourage you all to head over there and read it. The PR Forecast for 2024, who would we be if we didn't kick off the year just taking a look at what we think is to come? And there were some excellent points that you made, Karen, as always one. Of course, the big thing, and we seem to be talking about this a lot, of course, because it has become a part of our PR lives, is AI. In fact, you say it's raining AI. Yeah. Okay. No, I won't sing it.

Karen Swim, APR (01:58):

It's true. And sometimes I feel like, oh my God, AI again. But the reason that we're talking about it is because it's evolving so quickly. It's being adopted in so many ways in the workplace. And here's the thing that I think PR people need to really watch for, is that there are errors along the way as we're all learning to use the technology. And so we see companies quickly adopting it and feeling like it can replace human beings. It can never do that. And we're seeing this shakeup of people wanting to use this technology and harness the good things that it can do, become more efficient, streamline as everybody's looking to save dollars. So it does create this tension where there's this shakeup towards the end of 2023, we really saw content people being affected by AI and losing work because writing is being done quicker and faster. The AI tool, however, we also see things that are coming out that are not good. We see agencies that are getting pushback from clients because they're using AI to write everything. So we can't lean on the tool too heavily still. I think that the big story in 2024 for us should be the story that we should be writing is AI is a wonderful tool when used ethically, responsibly, and as a tool, not as the replacement. This is not Megan. This is not body in the firm of

Michelle Kane (03:36):

Yeah, no, I completely agree. It is definitely just a tool, a wonderful tool,

Karen Swim, APR (03:42):

A wonderful tool.

Michelle Kane (03:43):

But the fears of replacement, those that use it that way, well do it at your own peril because it is not perfect. I don't care how good it's getting. It's never going to replace the human touch. It's never going to replace, and I'm saying it - never. Just the experience and the depth and the layers that a person can bring. Does it help us? Absolutely. Does it help unpack parts of our brain? Because honestly, I love to write, and yet sometimes depending what I'm writing as I'm loving it, it so it drains you, right? But having this little bit of a help is great, but only you know how to finesse a sentence. Only you know how to make it sing. I forget, I saw it was one of those Facebook posts that goes around, but talking about writing and having a cadence and a rhythm and how that's important to the way your brain receives it, and it's just not there. And I know we were joking off before we started recording, and I won't mention it or read it, but I saw a social media post last night that was so glaringly AI written thanks to the flowery prose that did not sound natural or even it was just bad. I thought, oh, tell me you had ai write your social media posts without telling me you had ai. Write your social media posts.

Karen Swim, APR (05:10):

And let's face it, AI is being integrated into almost every single tool that we're already using media databases to our signature stamps. The world has gone AI crazy. And you know what? In some channels, in some instances, AI completely 100% AI written content may be just fine. It may pass. It's not very good, and it's not very good because for the people who are utilizing AI in that way, because there's plenty of social media platforms that now have an AI component, and yes, they'll generate your posts and generate your visuals. Inherently, there's nothing wrong with that as a starting point or as an ideation point. But again, what happens is that AI should not treated like another member of your team. So you don't want to do away with your marketing team and replace it with AI or you're going to be in trouble. And the laziness, like all laziness in the work setting, you're only going to be able to ride that train for a little while. It's going to stop at some point because people, your audience deserves more and they're going to want better from you.

But the scary part for I think communications people is that you will have these companies, we saw it in 2023 in a way that I have not seen in a long time with a lot of people not believing in PR anymore. They just don't see the value. Big companies, you have groups of CMOs who no longer see the value. And so for those people, they think AI is fine. We will just AI our press releases. We'll AI the stuff, we'll do everything on our own. We'll have marketing handle it because we can draw a straight line and AI will take the place. So I feel like there'll be a little bit of tumult, but I do believe that there will be backlash to anyone who is misusing AI in this way pretty quickly.

Michelle Kane (07:18):

Definitely. Because the people who are receiving these messages, they don't want fake, they don't want glossy, they don't want stuff that's churned out whether they're realizing it or not. Eventually, there will be a backlash. And I mean, think of it this way, as a company, do you do anything without reviewing it first? Do you put anything out there without taking a look at it? Because for those that just rely solely on AI as anything but a tool within your processes, really. Okay, good luck with that.

Karen Swim, APR (07:59):

Yeah, for sure.

Michelle Kane (08:01):

We'll be here to help you pick up the pieces. But yeah, and that is another thing that you did mention in this blog about just the value of PR and how yeah, it really does matter. And like you say, PR has always had a PR problem, haven't we? We're so busy singing the praises of clients and doing client work that all too often we ignore ourselves and our industry and how important.

Karen Swim, APR (08:29):

And I think that we've allowed, unfortunately, everyone else to write our story. We're not the best as an industry at owning our narrative. And it's unfortunate because we get reduced to being media hits and you're only as good as your last media hit. There are PR people, as we all know, that don't even offer media relations services, and there are some that specialize in that. I'm not diminishing the value of media relations. However, the people that specialize in media relations are far from what the public believes they are. They are strategic, they are aligning with the organizational goals. They are providing counseling much more than just, Hey, they're pitching all day. That's all they do. That's not what they do at all. And I believe that a big part of the public really doesn't understand the depth of things that we do as practitioners and the value that we bring to an organization. Unfortunately, what that means is because they don't see the value. We did see a lot of cuts in 2023, but I would like to say that I do believe that particularly for solos and small agencies, don't allow the negative news, the layoffs, and the cuts to drive your 2024 strategy.

Michelle Kane (10:00):

Agree,

Karen Swim, APR (10:01):

There is opportunity in 2024. You have to be willing to innovate the way that you approach things. You have to be willing to take a step back and look as a whole and see the gaps that you can fill and understand. And we did a blog post on this too, what your secret sauce really is, and lean into that because I'm telling you that those who differentiate themselves, those who are willing to modernize their approach, you are going to win in 2024. If you are so busy trying to make yourself look like the traditional agency, you're going to get lost in the mix because there are a lot of companies that would prefer to work with agile, non-traditional agencies. And again, I'm not bashing the traditional agency model. I'm saying don't try to be like them. Stand out and be who you are and lean even further into that special ingredient that is really unique to you and market the heck out of it because there's a place for us. But you have to own that place. You have to step up. You have to be bold, you have to be willing to do your branding. You have to be willing to do your business development outreach. But there is business on the table. This is a huge opportunity for people like us, and I do not want you to miss it in 2024.

Michelle Kane (11:25):

I love what you said. Lean into your secret sauce. And it's so true because all of us as solos at the very outset, our clients are getting advisement from a senior professional. And you're just not getting that elsewhere. And again, again, right? Not to bash agencies, of course not. But if someone needs someone who can come in, assess the situation, get things rolling without having to wait a week for 60 different approvals with the processes, again, that's fine for some. But if there are clients out there who don't necessarily need all that, not that we're not careful, I am the most paranoid, uptight, careful person in the world. But you, you're getting, as Liam Neeson would say, a special set of skills when you go with a solo. And we haven't said this in a very long time, and I am talking to myself again, but yes, put yourself on your client roster this year for 2024. I know I need to get back on that horse. I have not mostly, and I'm sure it's to my detriment, it feels good. It feels comfortable and safe to just serve our clients.

Karen Swim, APR (12:37):

Yes.

Michelle Kane (12:38):

But it's important that we put ourselves out there. We have to poke our heads up and go, “Hey, here I am. This is what I can do for you. This is how I can help you.” And I think getting back to what we were saying about what you were saying about the value of PR, everything we do, everything a company does, everything a brand does tells a story about itself, and PR professionals are the ultimate storytellers. We are the ones who can even look at a customer service interaction and help advise. We can advise on so many levels. Our consultancy is not merely, let's get you in the paper. It is. Okay, so the way that that transaction was handled, that's telling this kind of story. If we make these small changes, it's going to tell a different kind of story, and you're going to walk away with a heavier customer. This is how we affect the bottom line. And again, no, is it widget based? Not always. And that makes it difficult to prove your worth. But we do bring so much to the table at a senior advisory level and as solos, that's what we're bringing.

Karen Swim, APR (13:46):

I also want to speak to a troubling trend that I'm seeing, and that's fewer people accepting less than your market value. My desire is for everyone to have the practice that you want. And so I am not going to be that person that says, if you are not making millions, you're a failure. You are not because you have your own set of income levels and your own goals, but I want you to have what you want to have, not what I want you to have, but what you should have and what you desire. And I want you to have the lifestyle that you want. So we all know that all of us we're experienced, and if we were working in corporate America, we might be making $500-650,000, a million dollars a year, getting bonuses. But that would also come with another price tag. It would mean less flexibility.

It would mean that if you have kids that you couldn't always be home for dinner, that you would miss out on key moments. It mean that you couldn't take off and take three day weekend. So that price comes with another price. So consider all of that, because I know that 2023 was really hard on our industry and hard on us as individuals. We saw lots of talk and lots of attention paid to the mental health of solo PR pros or PR pros in general because PR is very stressful. And many solos really came to a moment of wondering if they wanted to even continue as a solo or if they wanted to go back into corporate America. Sometimes I think that we do look at salaries and benefits and paid vacations, and there are times in all of our careers, and it can happen multiple times where you're like, yeah, that looks pretty good compared to what I'm doing now to work where I want.

But in 2024, I really want you to be really strategic about the services you offer, how you package them, and the price points that you offer. And again, I'm not telling you to aim for a specific number because that's so tailored and so individual, but what I will say to you is, if you're somebody that's looking and saying that, Hey, the salary over here looks really good, I want you to make sure that you do the math that you should be doing, and look at what does that salary really mean? What is it taking to get there? How many hours are they putting in? And make a comparison that actually equates to what you're doing as a solo. And if that number is your goal, I promise you, you can get that number as a solo, whatever that number is, yes, you can get it as a solo.

And if that's your goal, then I want you to be more strategic in achieving your own goals because number one, you don't have to go it alone. I think all solos know that, that we can team up, that we can join forces. You can join forces as a true partnership, or you can join forces as just a consortium of solos. Working together on specific projects can offer a whole different set of services. I love the way that our solos are getting smarter about productizing things and realizing that, Hey, I can have my own little side hustle within my practice by packaging this up and offering this separately. We can all do that. I love that. Yeah. Strategy needs to reign at the top of our list for our own business. We are strategic for our clients. But now I need you in 2024 to make the trend that you're strategic for yourself and how you approach your business and how you offer your services and how you price your services. There is no reason that you should feel like you are struggling in the ghetto of the PR industry while your peers in corporate are thriving in middle and upper middle class status. That line does not have to be drawn. It's up to you. So I want you to be happy, and I want you to be successful because you have what you need that is going to make you feel satisfied.

Michelle Kane (18:07):

Absolutely. Well, with that, you've inspired me. Darn. I'm ready to go. Let's go until we stop recording and my to-do list takes over. But yeah, you know what? Let's promise ourselves, this is a promise that we can make to ourselves as PR pros. And why not start right now with this year? Well, we hope that this has been valuable to you. We hope this is giving you a juicy start to 2024. We will put the link to this particular blog in the show notes, and if you hey, inspire others, share this around, we would love that. And until next time, thank you for listening to That Solo Life.