That Solo Life: The Solo PR Pro Podcast

That Solo Life, Episode 251: Finding Balance And Minimizing Burnout In A Chaotic World In this Episode In this episode of "That Solo Life," co-hosts  Karen Swim, APR and Michelle Kane delve into the topic of navigating fatigue and finding balance in the midst of global stressors and personal challenges. This Mental Health Awareness Month episode kicks off with a discussion about the impact of external factors such as the pandemic, economic instability, and political tensions on individuals' energy levels and overall well-being. Karen and Michelle reflect on the collective exhaustion felt by many in 2024, highlighting the ongoing effects of the pandemic and the relentless stream of stressors that continue to weigh on people. They emphasize the importance of recognizing and addressing burnout, citing articles that discuss how work environments can contribute to physical and mental health issues. The conversation shifts to the changing landscape of work post-pandemic, with Karen and Michelle acknowledging the need for individuals to reassess their priorities and boundaries. They explore the challenges of returning to office work, the impact of technological advancements, and the importance of self-care practices in maintaining resilience. Throughout the episode, Karen and Michelle offer practical tips for managing stress and prioritizing well-being. They emphasize the significance of self-care routines, healthy eating habits, and coping mechanisms such as deep breathing and mindfulness. The hosts encourage listeners to set boundaries, prioritize their mental and physical health, and recognize the value of saying no to commitments that do not align with their well-being. As the episode concludes, Karen and Michelle underscore the importance of self-awareness and self-compassion in navigating the complexities of modern life. They challenge listeners to prioritize their own needs and to approach each day with a sense of balance and grace. The hosts invite feedback from the audience and share resources available on the Solo PR Pro website to support listeners in building their businesses and maintaining personal well-being. Tune in to "That Solo Life" for insightful discussions, practical tips, and inspiring conversations on navigating the challenges of solo entrepreneurship and finding balance in a fast-paced world. Episode Highlights:  00:01:19 - Global Fatigue and Burnout 00:04:01 - Shift in Work Dynamics 00:05:27 - Uncertainty and Event Attendance 00:09:48 - Frustrations with Corporate Expectations 00:10:09 - Self-Care and Well-being Practices 00:12:02 - Managing Energy and Reactions 00:13:09 - Embracing Grace and Understanding Sensitivities 00:16:05 - Setting Boundaries and Prioritizing Self-Care 00:17:05 - Finding Balance and Self-Awareness 00:18:09 - Encouragement to Prioritize Self-Care and Share the Podcast Resources: National Institute of Mental Health - Support and Resources 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline - Online Chat Job burnout: How to spot it and take action Work Burnout: How It Affects Your Mental Health Enjoyed the episode?  Please leave a review here - even a sentence helps. Share and tag us (@SoloPR, @SoloPRPro) on social media so that we can thank you personally! Your support helps us keep bringing you insightful content every week. Thank you for tuning in! Looking for more insights and support for your solo PR biz?  Head over to Solo PR Pro and become part of our community. Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter for the latest tips and trends.

Welcome to another episode of That Solo Life, where we dive into the world of PR and marketing for independent professionals. In this episode, we discuss the power of personal branding in the PR industry. Publicists have recently been in the spotlight, from the Oscars to various articles highlighting their work. This recognition serves as a reminder for solo PR professionals like us to also focus on promoting ourselves, not just our clients. Karen and Michelle delve into the importance of personal branding and how it can impact our businesses. While some may feel uncomfortable with self-promotion, they emphasize the need to market your skills and expertise in order to attract clients and stand out in a competitive industry. The discussion offers  practical tips for building a personal brand, from updating headshots to engaging on platforms like LinkedIn. We stress the value of sharing our knowledge and experiences, whether through writing articles, speaking engagements, or social media posts.

  That Solo Life, Episode 249: How to Avoid the Dreaded Reviewer's Remorse   In this Episode   In this episode of "That Solo Life," Karen and Michelle dive into the common struggle of "reviewer's remorse" that many PR pros, marketers, and communicators face when working with clients. They discuss the frustration of finalizing a project, only to have last-minute changes or new reviewers throw a wrench into the process.   They  emphasize the importance of establishing a clear review process with clients, setting expectations early on, and limiting the number of reviewers to essential personnel. They also highlight the significance of trust between the client and the solo PR professional, ensuring that the end goal and messaging align seamlessly.   Throughout the episode, the hosts stress the need for open communication, patience, and understanding when dealing with clients experiencing reviewer's remorse. Karen and Michelle discuss the need to provide practical tips, such as creating a document workflow process, setting clear review criteria, and allowing sufficient time for discussion and revisions.   With personal anecdotes and insights, the episode aims to help fellow solo professionals streamline their review processes, minimize last-minute changes, and build stronger relationships with their clients. Tune in and let’s navigate the complexities of client feedback and strive to deliver the best possible outcomes in our solo careers.  Episode Highlights:   00:01:19 - Reviewers' Remorse Discussion 00:04:09 - Minimizing Reviewers' Remorse Occurrence 00:07:04 - Digging for Core Issues 00:10:27 - Importance of Trust in the Review Process 00:11:29 - Considerations for Printed Pieces 00:11:52 - Limiting Number of Reviewers 00:13:18 - Streamlining Feedback and Input   Enjoyed the episode?  Please leave a review here - even a sentence helps. Share and tag us (@SoloPR, @SoloPRPro) on social media so that we can thank you personally! Your support helps us keep bringing you insightful content every week. Thank you for tuning in! Looking for more insights and support for your solo PR biz?  Head over to Solo PR Pro and become part of our community. Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter for the latest tips and trends.

That Solo Life: Episode 248 The New Balancing Act of Communication In this Episode   It’s a balancing act! Karen Swim, APR, of Solo PR, and Michelle Kane, of Voice Matters dive into the challenging topic of addressing current social and political conflicts in the workplace. The episode opens with a discussion about the ongoing Israeli-Gaza conflict and the protests happening across the United States, setting the stage for a conversation on how communication professionals can guide their clients through navigating these complex issues.   The conversation also touches on the evolving role of public relations professionals in shaping conversations and promoting sanity in communication. Throughout the episode, we highlight the importance of maintaining open dialogue, fostering mutual respect, and creating safe spaces for discussions on contentious issues.  As you listen, we hope that you will gain valuable insights and practical advice to help you face the complexities of addressing social and political conflicts in today's world. Episode Highlights: 00:01:05 - Addressing Current Conflicts : Discussion of the Israeli-Gaza conflict and protests in the United States. 00:02:33 - Navigating Conversations in the Workplace : What PR Pros can do to guide clients through addressing conflicts in the workplace. 00:05:19 - Misinterpretation of Company Statements : Discussion on how people interpret company statements and the need for clear communication. 00:08:48 - Importance of Context in Communication : The hosts emphasize the importance of context in communication and avoiding misinterpretations. 00:11:55 - Living Out Mission, Vision, and Values : Michelle and Karen stress the importance of companies aligning actions with their mission, vision, and values. 00:13:55 - Asserting Professional Counsel : The hosts encourage communication professionals to assert themselves and provide professional counsel in challenging situations.   Resources: Cultural Intelligence in Communications Enjoyed the episode?  Please leave a review here - even a sentence helps. Share and tag us (@SoloPR, @SoloPRPro) on social media so that we can thank you personally! Your support helps us keep bringing you insightful content every week. Thank you for tuning in! Looking for more insights and support for your solo PR biz?  Head over to Solo PR Pro and become part of our community. Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter for the latest tips and trends.

That Solo Life: Episode 247 Everything Old is New Again In this Episode Karen Swim, APR, of Solo PR, and Michelle Kane, of Voice Matters delve into the importance of getting back to basics in our PR and marketing businesses. Today’s  conversation is sparked by an email from Peter Shankman, the founder of the original "Help a Reporter Out" platform, which was eventually sold to a large corporation. Shankman has now launched a new platform called "Help Every Reporter Out," and in his announcement he shared his “back to basics” inspiration and how it led him to return to something he was no longer doing.   As PR professionals, we often find ourselves constantly reinventing our workflows, tools, and client work in an effort to keep up with the ever-evolving industry. But new is not always better. Sometimes returning the old things can improve not only how we do our jobs but how we feel about them.    We delve into the topic of technology, staying true to our natural skill sets and passions in our careers, and how the basics include having a supportive community of fellow professionals.    Episode Highlights: [00:00:18] - Old but new. The value of getting back to basics and the importance of realigning and retooling. [00:02:09] - Be a hero.  How Peter Shankman, Help Every Reporter Out inspired us to be a hero to ourselves by focusing on our areas of expertise. [00:05:04] - Reevaluating Tools and Subscriptions. All the shiny new tools hold so much promise and you can accumulate a pile of clutter.  [00:09:35] - Recognizing Natural Skillsets. It is important to recognize and focus on your natural skillsets and passions in order to maintain satisfaction and success in a career. [00:10:29] - Scaling Back for Success. Karen and Michelle discuss the idea of scaling back team members or business models to maintain a manageable workload and find fulfillment in solo work. Resources: Help Every Reporter Out (HERO) - free sign-up for PR Pros and Journalists Back to basics in your business model -From Solo PR to Agency and Back Again Enjoyed the episode?  Please leave a review here - even a sentence helps. Share and tag us (@SoloPR, @SoloPRPro) on social media so that we can thank you personally! Your support helps us keep bringing you insightful content every week. Thank you for tuning in! Looking for more insights and support for your solo PR biz?  Head over to Solo PR Pro and become part of our community. Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter for the latest tips and trends.

That Solo Life: Episode 246 Ethical and Legal Challenges of the Modern PR Pro with Special Guest, Cayce Myers New episodes every Monday In this Episode "That Solo Life" podcast hosts  Karen Swim, APR and Michelle Kane sit down with Cayce Myers, Ph.D., LL.M., J.D., APR,  an experienced public relations professional and author. In this episode, Myers discusses his latest book, "The Rules of Public Relations, Legal and Ethical Issues and Contemporary Practice," which tackles the intersection of public relations, law, and ethics. Myers emphasizes the importance of understanding the legal implications of PR crises and the need for transparency when using artificial intelligence (AI) in PR. He stresses that PR professionals have a responsibility to navigate the challenges of disinformation and misinformation during election years. Brands are advised to align their communication strategies with their mission, vision, and values. Throughout the episode, Myers draws from his extensive experience in the field to offer valuable insights into the ever-changing landscape of PR.  Whether you're a seasoned PR professional or just starting out in the industry, this episode is packed with practical advice and thought-provoking conversations about the legal and ethical challenges surrounding public relations. Don’t miss out on this fascinating discussion! Cayce Myers, Ph.D., LL.M., J.D., APR Cayce Myers is a professor of public relations and director of graduate studies at the School of Communication at Virginia, where he researches and teaches about the legal, regulatory, and ethical aspects of public relations. As a lawyer who also holds a Ph.D. in mass communication, Myers has authored five books and sixty publications including peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, law review articles, and trade press pieces, covering topics such as public relations history, strategy, political campaigns, and related laws and policies. His newest publication, "The Rules of Public Relations," delves into the current laws and ethical challenges in the field of PR practice. The release is scheduled for this July. Episode Highlights: [01:58] Risk and reputation. Lawyers and communicators view crises through a different lens, but do not have to be in opposition.  [06:37] Oh my AI. The murkiness of AI and what PR pros need to navigate this new technology. [11:27] I’ll just wait it out. PR Pros are reluctant to use AI, fearing it could create issues. [14:29] Embracing the future. The bright future of PR and what companies need to know when they hire younger workers. [18:56] The politics of it all. Elections, elections all over the globe and the impact on PR pros in 2024. Resources: The Rules of Public Relations: Legal and Ethical Issues in Contemporary Practice (Publisher) (Use RLFANDF25 to save 25% off print book ) The Rules of Public Relations: Legal and Ethical Issues in Contemporary Practice (Amazon) Enjoyed the episode?  Please leave a review here - even a sentence helps. Share and tag us (@SoloPR, @SoloPRPro) on social media so that we can thank you personally! Your support helps us keep bringing you insightful content every week. Thank you for tuning in! Looking for more insights and support for your solo PR biz?  Head over to Solo PR Pro and become part of our community. Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter for the latest tips and trends. Say Thanks to Cayce Myers!  If you liked this episode with Cayce Myers, please say thanks on LinkedIn and follow his author page on Amazon. Listen to the episode on our website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. You can watch the interview on YouTube here.

That Solo Life, Episode 244: Language, Landmines And The Peril Now Facing PR Pros That Solo Life, a podcast dedicated to PR professionals, marketers, and individuals who work for themselves.  In this episode hosts, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro, and Michelle Kane from Voice Matters delve into the topic of avoiding generation gaps and cultural miscommunications. In our discussion, we highlight how the emergence of a multigenerational workforce and multicultural society has made communication more complex. Together, we explore examples of misunderstood terminology, redefined norms, and quickly shifting cultural contexts. All of which could potentially influence the reception of our messages and client communications. We also bring to the table the reality that not everyone has the same bank of references or base of knowledge. The universality of business references, iconic books, or even pop culture references is no longer a given. We navigate this landscape by encouraging PR professionals to provide context, or use universally understood language, thus facilitating clear and effective communication. We also examine political influences, shedding light on how political parties or global events can assign new meanings to well-known terms, creating potential pitfalls for those unaware. We encourage communicators to be savvy, removing barriers, biases, and assumptions to truly connect with diverse audiences. Closing the conversation, we impress upon our audience that everything communicates – the things we say and do (or don't do), often carry a message. PR professionals and communicators need to be involved in all sectors of an organization, as their insights could safeguard against reputation damage. Episode Highlights: The modern communicator’s conundrum.  We can never assume that words have a universal meaning. It is important to check everything. Multi-generations and the mix-ups that can happen.Each generation has shaped language in their own way. PR Pros have to be careful to ensure that they are saying what they mean to say across all generations. The predicament of politics. How politics has influenced the way we communicate. Why PR needs a seat at the table. Why PR should never be siloed in companies. More on this topic: Managing Across Generations  Talking About My Generation Call to Action: Looking for more insights into the PR world? Head over to Solo PR Pro and become part of our community. Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter for the latest tips and trends. --- Enjoyed the episode? Give us a rating and share the episode with a colleague. Your support helps us keep bringing you insightful content every week. Thank you for tuning in!  

That Solo Life, Episode 243: What They Think We Do, What We Really Do And How To Bridge The Gap Welcome to the latest episode of "That Solo Life", the podcast passionately crafted for PR professionals by PR professionals. In this conversation, your hosts Michelle Kane and Karen Swim take you through the frustrations and challenges of people not understanding the role of public relations and the overlooked intricacies of articulating and demonstrating the value of public relations to clients and the public. In this episode, you'll discover: The Perception Dilemma: Why the general public and even clients may have a skewed understanding of what public relations truly involves. Beyond Media Relations: How PR is much more than just press releases and media engagement; it's about vital strategic thinking and communication. Showcase Success: Why PR pros need to embrace measurement and demonstrating impact. Join the Conversation: An invitation to become a part of the growing Solo PR Pro community, where you'll find camaraderie and support from fellow professionals. Key Takeaways: Recognizing the misunderstanding around the value of PR. Reflecting on the role of PR in shaping their own perceived value. Practical advice for PR pros to better communicate the wide array of services they offer. Effective strategies for PR pros to articulate their true value with confidence and clarity. Rate, Review & Share! If you found value in this episode, please rate and review our show, and share it with your networks. Connect and Discuss: Don't miss the opportunity to join the insightful discussions in the Solo PR Pro community. Connect with industry experts, exchange ideas, and get support from your colleagues. Listen, engage, and grow with "That Solo Life." Happy listening!

Show Notes for That Solo Life: Episode 242 In this episode: That Solo Life co-hosts, Karen Swim, APR and Michelle Kane talk about some of the insights from the "Muckrack 2024 State of Journalism" and discuss the emerging trends shaping media relations today. Episode Highlights: Discussing the Muckrack 2024 State of Journalism Report. We dig into the latest findings and what they mean for the future of journalism. What are the new challenges and opportunities for those in media relations? Check out the full report here: Muckrack 2024 State of Journalism The Art of Storytelling .Why storytelling remains the heart of compelling communication and how it's evolving with the times. Beyond Earned Media. How can PR professionals leverage their creativity and expertise beyond traditional media? We explore strategies to amplify your message and engage your audience. Resources Mentioned: Muckrack 2024 State of Journalism: Read the report Call to Action: Looking for more insights into the PR world? Head over to Solo PR Pro and become part of our community. Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter for the latest tips and trends. --- Enjoyed the episode? Give us a rating and share the episode with a colleague. Your support helps us keep bringing you insightful content every week. Thank you for tuning in!

In This Episode: Join us as we dissect the implications of the Department of Labor's recent rule changes and what it means for solo PR professionals. We welcome Nathan Gibson, an authority in Employment Law and Independent Contractor Compliance, who is the Senior Director at MBO Partners. Nathan provides in-depth insights on staying compliant and the potential impacts on solo public relations businesses. Episode Highlights: Understanding the Rule Change: Explore the specifics of the Department of Labor's new guidelines with our expert guest. Impacts on Solo PR Pros: Learn what solo PR professionals need to do differently to stay aligned with the new rules. Strategies for Compliance: Discover actionable strategies to maintain compliance without compromising on flexibility and freedom as an independent professional. Featured Guest: Nathan Gibson, an expert in: Employment Law Independent Contractor Compliance Current Position: Senior Director, Risk Management at MBO Partners Connect with Nathan on LinkedIn for more insights and personalized advisory. Resources Mentioned: Join the Solo PR Pro Community: Solo PR Pro Premium Membership Signup MBO Partners: For additional tools and expertise to manage your solo PR business, visit MBO Partners. Free Resources: Stay informed with the latest solo PR trends and tips by signing up for our newsletter at http://eepurl.com/deC06f. --- Be sure to subscribe to our podcast for more episodes packed with expert advice and the latest updates affecting solo PR professionals. Share your thoughts on this episode using #SoloPR and stay connected with us on our social media channels. Thank you for tuning in, and keep thriving in your solo PR career! Note: This podcast episode is not intended to serve as legal advice. For specific legal concerns related to the topics discussed, please consult a qualified attorney.

If you’re still feeling the effects of springing forward into daylight savings time, recovering from St. Patrick’s Day or are still wondering what is going on with the royals, in this episode we talk about it and how there’s a PR lesson in everything.   Special Offer for Solo PR Pros, Freelance Consultants, and Small business owners: 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.   Get News from Solo PR Pro: Join our email list.   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 Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hey, Karen, how are you today? Karen Swim, APR (00:17): Hey, Michelle. How are you? I am, I wasn't drinking last night, but I was partying with my family. We threw my sister a big birthday bash, and so I have a party hangover. Michelle Kane (00:31): There we go. Karen Swim, APR (00:32): I'm not sure if you're seeing straight. I'm tired, but so happy. My voice just came back like an hour ago. Michelle Kane (00:39): Well, that was good. That was it. And for our listeners, this will hit March 18th, but we are recording this March 11, which is the day, also the day after the Oscar. So since that's my Super Bowl, I have an Oscar hangover. Not to mention, we all lost an hour this weekend to daylight savings, so we're all just kind of coming into this day going like, what? But we're here, so we're going to keep it a little light. We're dubbing this The Hangover Episode since, hey, not for nothing. It's going to be airing the day after St. Patrick's Day. So if you all do your due diligence, you'll be feeling like us when you hear this so, Karen Swim, APR (01:19): So true. Michelle Kane (01:20): We'll try and keep it a little quiet. Karen Swim, APR (01:21): Okay. Michelle Kane (01:24): But yeah, it was an interesting weekend, I have to say. And we're just really going to riff on some things that we have seen. Of course, the Oscars usually give you a lot of things to chew on. And during the Oscars as I was too, screening the event as I do, this weird thing came up with, in the UK it was Mother's Day, Mothering Sunday, and this weird thing came up with a photo that the Princess of Wales had posted with her kids, and four major – AP, Getty -- agencies issued a kill order for this photo, which apparently is not done very often. And due to it not being what they called a true photo, apparently there was some manipulation that caused concern. Now, I'm not going to wear a tinfoil hat today and get into the weeds of all the conspiracies of Catherine. Where is she? I mean, look, this is not Scientology and Shelly Miscavige. No, but it's just like you're already watching a major event and you're scrolling. What? Huh? And people are pointing out some Photoshop issues. And although to say AP is saying, look, we expect things like if you do some burning, you do some tone changes. Those are okay as if you're a comms pro. But I don't know, it was just weird. Another weird blip in our lives of where every day is like, huh? Karen Swim, APR (02:54): Yeah. What's interesting to me about the recall. And then she had to apologize. And so I think as communications professionals, we all know that we hire photographers for clients, for events, for headshots, and we edit the photos. I believe that we are all safely in the zone of what passes as ethical and truthful editing. Correct? Correct. You're editing out flaws, you're editing for a better resolution, but you're not changing the narrative or presenting something that may have been a previous photo as brand new. And we're starting, I feel like this leads into this whole new era where we are with AI being able to create things and to change things so easily. There's an AI tool for absolutely everything these days. And it's interesting to me that, especially in the UK, that the news agencies recall the photo when they, in my opinion, very routinely cross ethical boundaries when it comes to reporting on the royal family. So they don't cover things that are truthful. They have these backhand deals with the royal family, and the way that they operate is so far outside of what I would consider to be ethical. But you have a problem with a photo that was manipulated. Yeah. (04:30): Really, how ironic. Michelle Kane (04:32): That certainly adds to the weirdness of it all. But as you say, it does open us up to the broader concept of how AI is. I'll use the negative connotation of infiltrating. I mean, we've already had an AI-created robocall, allegedly from President Biden, to influence primary voters in certain states in a negative way. So we know to be on the lookout, but people who aren't in this field of work, they're not expecting it as much as we are. And it's really going to be, I'll say a bumpy ride, but we really all need to be vigilant about what we consume. Even silly stuff like Royal news. Karen Swim, APR (05:25): Yeah. Honestly, we are seeing more and more AI generated content, and it's not necessarily coming from our traditional news outlets where they're adhering to a standard of journalistic integrity. This is coming from other outlets and they're flat out taking articles from other outlets and just rewriting them in ai. And we're going to try to discuss this topic in depth and with some seriousness at a later time. But it's worth calling it out at this time that, again, as you, not it, Michelle, and this is really important to us as communicators. As communicators, while we can, we have a trained eye and we're looking for these things, and we understand how to tell human generated content from AI content that's not always clear to consumers of information. And it makes our jobs a lot harder because at one point, I think we were all battling the battle against social issues and political issues and fighting against mal and disinformation. He also knew that it could come for our clients. But today, it's easier than ever, as I said, with AI bots taking articles and resending them out. And that means your client's quotes could get manipulated. Information about your client can be used in a malicious way. It's very concerning. And I think, if I'm being honest, for myself personally, you feel like you're fighting it and it almost feels like playing a game of whack-a-mole that you're never going to win. Michelle Kane (07:14): Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it really amps up the reputation management portion of our work, whereas it's like, okay, keep my eye on Google reviews and things that people say and alerts, and now it's like, oh, okay. It's just a whole new sphere of potential influence that can harm clients. And again, I think vigilance is the word of the day is vigilance and just needing to try and stay ahead of this, but knowing that it is happening more and more is a definite good first step to that. Karen Swim, APR (07:56): True. Michelle Kane (07:56): So that's that. I'll be watching that silly story the rest of the day. I have a feeling it's just in case of, I dunno, they're tripping over themselves. I'm like, whatever. Karen Swim, APR (08:05): Well, we've had the photo things called out in the United States as well. There've been incidents with the Kardashians and their bad photo editing and fans have called it out on social media. Yeah, that's not your hand. That's not, and so photos, I would say, listen, the woman had surgery, apparently. Basically, she probably is not looking yet in her best self in a way that she wants to present to the public, but obviously we as PR people know, so just post a collage of old photos or post little from the past. There's so many ways that she could have managed this. She could have posted a photo to say, one of my favorite Mother's Day photos and post something that is not how you look right now in this moment and pretend that it's this year's Mother's Day photo. That was just dumb. Michelle Kane (09:02): That was dumb. There's so many different ways to play this. Take a picture of the pretty flowers that William should have bought. You Karen Swim, APR (09:09): Just photograph the Michelle Kane (09:11): That's true. Yeah. Karen Swim, APR (09:12): These are my loves. I mean, come on. There's just a million different ways to have handled that that would've been smarter than getting called out and then letting people spit out. Because even though I don't follow the royal family, I unfortunately cannot escape it when I'm reading news. And so I see these headlines about her being spotted and grainy photos, and I'm like, oh, for Pete's sake, it feels like she is a criminal. It's creepy. Michelle Kane (09:46): Well, one thing I did see, which I thought that's like a recipe for a hot mess this morning, saying that, and I guess I knew this on one level, again, it doesn't affect my day to day, but that each house, so to speak, has their own comms team independent of one another. So there really is no united fronts. So you've got the king and the, I can't say queen, the king and his wife have their press, and there's allegedly no uniform coordination. Yes. Karen Swim, APR (10:21): I think I had heard that in the Michelle Kane (10:25): They need to fix that. They need to fix that. Karen Swim, APR (10:28): Does that not speak to a lot of what happens in corporate America as well? There's no unified messaging or teams that people are disjointed. And when you have everyone operating on their own agenda, chaos rains. And so here's a lesson for brands out there, and I know that our solos have to work against these circumstances. In many instances, when you can't speak with a unified voice, you are going to have a problem at some point. And how it shows up can't, we can tell you some examples of how it shows up, but you will have a problem, not you might. You will for sure. Definitely. So it's a good less

It’s no secret the media landscape is changing and it’s only intensifying the effect on how PR pros do media relations. In this episode we talk about taking the time to evaluate our tactics and get creative  to reach our client’s audiences.   Special Offer for Solos: 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.   Get News from Solo PR Pro: Join our email list.   Transcript Speaker 1:           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 are you doing today? Speaker 2:           Hello, Michelle. I'm doing good. We are currently in the month of March. I had a client that was asking me for Q1 stuff this week and I'm like, yeah, I'm going to give it to you when Q one's over. And they were like, it's still March. And I'm like, it barely started so that many people are feeling exactly like my client. Speaker 1:           Yes, yes. I've had to remind myself what month, wait. Oh, okay. Speaker 2:           It seems to be running over us. It's not that it seems like it's later in the month, it just feels like it's running over us and then backing up in reverse and doing it again. Speaker 1:           Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if it's that we're just so eager to maybe get through this calendar year for many reasons or maybe just afraid of falling behind. I don't know. There are a lot of factors at work, I think. Yeah, stuff's been a lot. It's been a lot. And to add to that, I mean we talk about this often about how our job is as the storytellers for our clients to really sing their news and their praises and their efforts and how the media landscape has changed. And it's really even changed that I've seen on the hyper-local level that what used to be the extremely low hanging fruit of Yay you gave so-and-so a something, lemme send a picture and it would be an easy get. And it's not so much anymore, which in a way it's been kind of fun to pull back and think, alright, challenge time, how do we get more creative about telling our story to the people we want to see and hear it? So we thought we'd riff about that a little bit because I'm sure many of you out there are experiencing that on a number of levels Speaker 2:           To say the least. Media relations has undergone a significant shift and a lot of that is really due to the shrinking number of outlets and the lack of money with publications. So in addition to layoffs, there's just fewer publications altogether. And then publications that even used to be free are now charging. So you can get in there if you for a fee, but then that really harms organizations like nonprofits and smaller companies that had a fair shot at doing some of those things. And those publications targeted their audience. I mean, I think the other thing, Michelle, and I'm sure that you're seeing this, is we really do have to take a step back and say, where's our audience at these days? Because it used to be pretty clear cut, but I feel like that is changing so much. And it's because coupled with the shrinking media outlets is that consumers do not trust institutions. They don't trust employers, they don't trust companies, they don't trust media outlets. And so where are people really going for their information, Speaker 1:           Right? Because we also know that while some may give social media as the easy answer, that's not the complete picture either. There are people that you might think, oh, I bet you're on Facebook who don't have Facebook accounts, or are you doing TikTok? Are you not doing TikTok? So you really do. It's not as simple as it was not too long ago. Speaker 1:           And I think in many ways, perhaps the answer is in hyper targeting your digital advertising efforts, but that's a whole other conversation for a whole other day. But perhaps even doing that to an extent with your information. I mean one perhaps snooze worthy example is just the small thing of, okay, you have a client that yes, they still want to grow their Facebook page, that's great. But I have found over the last couple of years it's far more effective if I use interesting, informative content than the blah like my page ad. People don't they want. So people want to interact with your information. It's like you say, it's finding them and making sure that we are in front of them and keeping in mind that any given client's audience is in a multitude of different segments at any given time. You've got the casual people, the ready to make a move. People, I don't even know who you are people. Speaker 2:           And I think it's also important because of all the challenges, more important than ever, this has always been true for PR pros to really take a step back and force their clients to answer the right set of questions. What's my goal with this? I have announcement, and we all know that clients think every announcement is news. A product announcement is not news. That's not something that reporters will be interested in. Product announcement will be interesting if it helps the people who buy your products and services. Yes, they will be interested in new features and new things or people that were looking at you. So potential customers, so who can use that information, your sales team, your customer's teams, and then any outreach that you have to your audience. The media is not always the answer. And PR pros really, I get it. Our clients always see this as this is the thing that's going to change our life. And that's never been true, but it's definitely not true today. I feel like in this day and age, we cannot assume that everybody's on social media. They are not. Speaker 1:           Right? Speaker 2:           They really are not including younger generations. This is funny, yesterday I caught 10 minutes of the news. I wanted to see the weather and they were talking about a local trial here and the jury questions and they questioned a juror that was younger and she had not heard about the trial because she doesn't watch or read the news and she's not on social media at all. And they were like, yes, she's not on social media. And they were like the anchor people were shocked. Speaker 1:           But you know what? Speaker 2:           Don't think that just because someone is in a demographic that they're on a social media site. Exactly. Facebook too. Facebook usage, I'm sure the daily usage has declined greatly. And if you're targeting people that are making decisions about your product, Facebook is probably not your answer today. It was 10 years ago, but in 2024, it's not the answer. If you already have a nice community there and they do engage with you, definitely you want to nurture that, but you really need to rethink these strategies. The one thing that has consistently over the years been effective and is I believe and underutilized tool is email. Speaker 1:           I was just thinking that email and even I'm going to say it, direct mail depending where you're, but yeah, I mean your email database, that's your gold mine. Truly, these are the people that I don't care if they want to engage with you, if they hear from you once a year for a special offer depending on what your type of business is or these are the people that have said, yes, I want to hear from you and you own that land, so to speak, and you can really be effective. And Speaker 2:           Yes, and I mean that means investing in email marketing software. We're not talking about sending emails from your company email account, whether or not a lot of companies still do. We actually want to go to the process because you need to be smart about sending emails. So you don't want to send out an email every day. That's just because people will feel like they're being spammed. You really want to use the analytics, you want to segment your audience types you want to target specifically because you want to really personalize it and tailor it for the members of your audience. So there will people that will gobble up more. There will people that maybe just want to hear from you for certain things. You need to give them options about what they receive. Email marketing software allows you to do that. But when you build a healthy list, you really have such a golden opportunity to really nurture those relationships and really build your audience and you can build community with an email. Speaker 2:           It's funny because a lot of journalists have turned to Substack and other communities like Substack for that exact same reason. It's very focused, it's very targeted around content and a very specific type of content. It's not the noise of social groups. You really have to opt into this information to receive it and all the content is not free. So keep in mind that there are still ways to reach people today, but you really do need to think about maybe walking away from some of the broader, throw it all on the wall and see what stick strategy and getting down into more niched communities and really refining those processes that still work. And I love email for marketing. I love it. I think we're all missing out on leveraging it for the powerful tool that it remains in 2024. Speaker 1:           Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And just remembering too, the broader integrated picture of, I forget what the number is these days. Is it 14? 27? How many times does someone have to see something to engage with it, even when asked, oh, so what made you actually contact us? Oh, I saw a billboard. It's like, well, no, we didn't do a billboard, but okay, fair enough. You saw something. So keeping that in mind too. But yeah, I mean these are certainly challenging times and you definitely need to step back and take a look and say, okay, what am I doing? What's working,

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.   Special Offer for Solos: 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.   Get News from Solo PR Pro: 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 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

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.   Special Offer for Solos: 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.   Get News from Solo PR Pro: 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

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

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 g

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 th

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 m

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. I

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 tha