REACTIV PRESENTATION CARMELIA RAY

Right. So, uh, Carmelia is coming on stage now. I'll give give you a quick introduction. Carmelia. Carmelia I've known for many years actually. And Carmelia has served the matchmaking and dating industry for 30 years, no less, and is a celebrity matchmaker on M mom versus matchmaker. So, Carmelia has worked with 8,000 matchmaking clients at this stage and has had more than 65,000 conversations with singles around the world about love and relationships. So her topic for today is the future of content marketing, social selling and brand recognition through TV and media. Carmelia, thank you. Take it

away. Oh, can't hear you. Car turn on your There's a button on the bottom. I think you got to press the button for voice. There we go. We've got you. >> Hello. Oh, can you hear me? >> Yep, sure can. >> Hi. Hi, Mark. Is that okay? Can you Can you hear me now? >> Yeah, that's good. Maybe come a little bit closer to the mic. >> There we go. That's good. Perfect. All right, great. >> Okay, welcome everybody. Mark, thank you for having me. Um, it's an honor to speak after Jeff. Hi, Jeff. I've

also known Jeff for a little while and many friends here in uh in the LTR conference. So, I'll get right into it because I have a lot to cover and uh I want to talk about the future of content marketing, social selling, and brand recognition through media. And so, throughout this presentation, I'm just going to be giving some ideas to attract media to your brand and reach your target audience. So, here's some things to consider. I have and because you don't know a lot about me, I'm going to talk a little bit about me, but

I really want to mo focus more on how you can get your brand in front of the media because I've had a lot of media experience. I'm going to teach you what uh to learn what producers and journalist journalists are looking for. How to actually pitch to the media and the power of leveraging media once you have that and then of course how to increase your visibility and authority through storytelling. Okay. So the one thing about PR that you should know is that it creates instant visibility and authority. And uh Bill Gates was quoted if

I was down to my last dollar I would spend it on PR. So PR is really the persuasion business. And what's great about PR is that I can tell you how great I am or you can say what your company does, but when an outlet, a distribution channel, a a network says that you are the expert for whatever that topic is, it's no longer what I say, it's what a distribution platform says. And when people see you on TV, all of a sudden they think you're this big deal. Now, during the pandemic, what happened for

many businesses, they imploded. I don't know about many of the people here, but in my business and for many of my collaborators, matchmaking actually saw a big surge in interest and the news was all over. How are people going to date? So, if you were somebody who had a brand during a time of crisis, this is a time that you can take advantage of the fact that how are you going to solve problems for people in a worldwide pandemic. So in this particular pitch that I had sent uh actually it was uh they had reached

out to me because I had already built a brand but they were interested in knowing how are people meeting right is quarantine putting stress on couples think about that is quarantine putting stress on couples now I'm a rel I'm a matchmaker but yet they're coming to me and asking me about couples advice and that is because I built a brand as a relationship expert. Okay, I want to discuss very quickly the three types of media. I know that we have a very experienced and senior uh people here and I also know that there are some

people when I was networking in the room that are just starting out and they're here to learn. So there's three types of media that you should focus on. The first type of media that everybody should have especially if you own a brand or building a b a brand is your owned media. Now your own media refers to anything that you produce, you publish. It's content that you create. And by the way, social media is uh owned media. A blog is owned media. Your website is owned media. Any comments that you put on LinkedIn, anything that

you produce on your own is your media. And the beauty about that is that you can completely control your media. And owned media, by the way, is what gets you to earned media. I cannot tell you how many times I get contacted by a network because I I published a piece of content either I wrote an article um I was published as someone quoted me I did an Instagram post and all of a sudden they're like we like your advice we'd like you to come on our network in fact on my telephone right now I

got a I got a call from connect TV I've appeared on them three other times they said we have a last minute person can you be available in 30 minutes. I said I can be available in 45 minutes because I'm delivering a keynote. So, I'll check my message after that. But that's another key thing about getting in the media is when you develop your brand and people know that you are the person to talk to when it comes to dating advice, LGBTQ, Filipino dating. I mean, I know there's a lot of different people that I

talked about. People here are managing events. They're serving certain communities. So, it's really important that you take advantage of your owned media so that you can get this earned media. It's any content where other people are talking about you. And that's the position that you want to be. Here's the other thing. Unless you're producing content, how do people know what your voice is? How do they know what you stand for? And how do they know how you're helping people? Now, one thing about paid media, there are opportunities for you to pay your way into a

magazine to buy time to pay for advertising. Paid media e efforts for most people, especially as a startup, are um expensive there. I I got another offer in my DM on Instagram saying, "Hey, we have an LA weekly article last minute 2023 entrepreneurs. Would you like in?" It's $1,000. Now, for someone who doesn't have media, that might be attractive. But what spending $1,000 when you don't have that much of a budget may not be in your best interest when you can control fully control your media. All right. The the first way to get um media

is to build PR relationships. Successful media outlets is all about relationships. In fact, look at the relationships of people in this room. look at the attendees and see there's so many of my friends on here and there's so many new people I haven't met. So, if you're going to be here today and you're gonna speak to other people, make sure that you are building those relationships. Building relationship is actually your best chance of getting covered. And if somebody else was covered, one of the things that you can do, first of all, is create a list

of people that you know in the industry that you've built a relationship with that could potentially connect you to someone uh in the media. I have gotten a lot of press because I I I um you know built a relationship with either the journalist, a producer, or someone who already has a show. Now, it wasn't that I built that relationship because I wanted to get in the media, but there's nothing wrong with you developing and fostering a relationship with somebody who can get you press as long as there's alignment there. Okay? So, publicity is an

absolutely critical. A good PR story is infinitely more effective than a front page ad. Okay? So, everything that you see here, all of these different logos, is an outlet that I've been featured on and sometimes multiple times. All right? So the question is where do you start? You want to start first with your story and create a a strong brand. The reason being is I'll I'll continue to go here and for anybody who would like this deck, I've given it to Mark. So I want to go through as much of it as possible and leave

more time for Q&A. All right. A big mistake that a lot of people um in the industry, I would I wouldn't necessarily say corporations, but small business owners, entrepreneurs, is they want to get on TV, but they don't know why. And they don't know when. They just know they want to get on TV. What do people say when they want to get on TV? I Oh, well, maybe not Oprah. I want to get on Oprah. Oh, I want to do Ellen. I want to do GMA, Good Morning America. The first thing that they're thinking about

is the highest level of media. Start local and start with your own. I cannot overemphasize the fact that nowadays social media is most important. This topic is about brand recognition, social selling. It starts with social and it starts with you taking ownership of the content that you're putting out. So when I say establish reasonable media goals and targets, what outlets who which outlets do you want to be featured on and why do you want to be featured on there? What is most important about the out outlet? It is not the logo. It's their audience. Who

is the audience that is watching this show, reading this magazine, um on listening to this podcast? Those are all forms of media. Who wants to go on, you know, you don't want to go on a show that is not relevant to your industry just because it's popular? You have to be able to send a message to their audience. Again, building relationships early and before you need them. All right. Um, so here's a here's one part of building a relationship. Uh, this was from Tanisha Harris. I did the morning segment on quarantine. Is quarantine causing stress

for couples? She I sent her here's another here's a way to build a relationship. After doing that, I asked her for her email. I asked her for her address. It was one of my bigger features in at that time. Uh, because I wanted to get on CNN. I wanted to get on HLN. So, I really wanted to thank her for featuring me. I sent her a physical gift. Now, I know we have real gifts here. We have other opportunities where you can send gifts. Take advantage of that. Here's what she said. Thank you, Carmelia. This

is also my love language. Didn't know she liked receiving gifts. And yes, you really didn't have to get me anything at all. You brought your expertise to the show. That's more than enough for us. Thank you again and see you soon. Tamisha Harris from HLN. She has now moved on to an even bigger network, I think. Um, and I I reached out to her when I had a story, but she was covering specifically politics. So, as much as she likes me, she's not going to put me on a show that is a political audience that

I have no business speaking to or that I don't have um a way to serve her particular audience. Next, PR is really about performance recognition. All right? And these are it takes 20 years to build a reputation. And I'm sure some people have uh experienced the downfall of how quickly you can ruin your your reputation. So, here's a little bit of a of a of an example of w of what would take for you to have a diversified um method or strategy for your business. Number one, HARO. For those who do not know this, I

know some of you will already know this. It is the acronym for help a reporter out. If you've subscribed to help a reporter out and you put in that you want to you're an expert in say parenting, dating, online dating, um affiliate marketing, whatever it is, you will get a notification in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening. Shout out to Hunt Ethridge because he often sends me um he subscribes to Haro as well and he'll say, "Oh, a dating expert wants a perspective on, you know, um single moms who are are finding it

difficult to date." So, I have friends sending me things to say, "Hey, they need an expert's voice." So, they're subscribed to Haro, help a reporter out. That is that means journalists are actually seeking experts. So, if you're not subscribed there, you're never going to know about it. Referrals, really, really important that you foster those relationships. A lot of people here are in high levels, senior positions. Some of us are are friends with one another. If someone was featured, you can ask them if they can make that introduction. I have a little more on that as

well because you just don't want to do a cold outreach, right? Press releases are are important. Now, press releases are usually there when you have an important announcement, a change, you're adopting a new tech, you're hiring a new team member, you have an incredible success story, becoming the expert, pitching to the right platform, and then of course surveys and stats. Every year um match.com publishes the singles in America survey and every year they do a big press release um sorry they they do a press tour for their experts um their match.com experts to comment about

the findings that they found in the survey. Anybody who's a dating site owner, you have access to a lot of data. You can ask your your your members a ton of questions about their experiences. What are they finding the most difficult? What are they most annoyed with? Any question that you think would be newsworthy. Okay, you can publish that. All right, here's a list of questions that I often ask when I'm working with a client in the media perspective that's looking to earn media. Number one, who are you? You have to know who you are.

You have to know how to define it. And by the way, if you look at this, this was I forget which show this was, but I am a celebrity matchmaker, an online dating expert, a relationship expert, a parenting expert, whatever outlet that I'm in. They're always going to ask you for your by line, like your title and your website. So, I don't think I have to tell anybody here, you have to have a website to start to launch your brand, okay? You've got to find a place where they can find you and be discoverable. The

next thing, what problem are you solving? Now, it's not just any problem. Most people solve a specific problem. Okay? So, whom do you h whom do you help? Is it the LGBT community? Is it entrepreneurs? Is it single moms? Is it divorced dads? Is it Jewish singles? whatever that is. You can't help everybody all the time unless you're like a match.com or a meet group or something like that. You're gonna have a much a very diverse community. But when they go to press, if you want to talk about a specific community within your big community,

that can often be pressy because now you're talking about a niche group of people that you can specifically help. Here's the other thing. Why is it you? Why am I the person that you're going to feature to talk about how you're going to solve that specific problem? There's thousands of coaches, hundreds of dating sites. There are, you know, competition is fierce when it comes to PR. So, you have to understand why it is you. If you can't answer that question, then, you know, it's something that you need to revisit with yourself, your team, or a

consultant. How is it that you do it? Do you have a signature program? Do you have a five-step strategy? Do you have a, you know, x number of years of experience? Have you written a book? Why? How is it that you do what you do to get your clients the results? And I got to tell you, if you talk to any publicist, journalist, broadcaster, the number one thing they say is, "Who cares?" So what? For you to be newsworthy, you've got to answer that question. Who gives a, you know, who cares about it? So PR

is a str a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between the organizations and their public. So NBC is not putting you on NBC unless you're speaking to the NBC audience. Morning news is more happy, light, fun. Evening news is the time and place where you can pitch a little more risque things. Maybe sexual content, maybe disturbing content, maybe things about scammers. Nobody wants to wake up in the morning and hear about how somebody was scammed $100,000 in a romance scam. So, you have to do your research and understand who's the producer for the

morning show and the evening show because they are two different audiences. Okay. Next thing, these are just examples of of uh City Line is a a popular morning show. Four online dating red flags to look out for. Six new dating terms you need to know. Four steps to follow when dating after divorce. These are the best locations in Canada for dating. Each of these different ones, this is April, this is June, this is May, this is September. The other thing that's really important when it comes to dues is it has to be timely. Right now,

do you guys know that we are in breakup season? Breakup season happens during the turkey drop. Turkey drop doesn't mean that somebody's walking around and you dropped the turkey. It means you got dumped around Valent around um not Valentine's Day, around Thanksgiving. Nobody dropped the turkey. You're the turkey that got dropped. So, this is what people are talking about. By the way, we're still in breakup season. Breakup season ends just after Valentine's Day. It's actually high. More engagements are going to happen, but a lot of people are going to have some broken hearts. If you're

in this industry, you got to take advantage of that. What kind of content should you be should you be producing then? Content that speaks to that painoint. So, here's ways to get featured in the in the media. either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. Okay, so I'm just going to adjust this a little bit. Finally, here is what producers are looking for. Now, I um have I do coach a lot of people in media, how to get into the media, help them to write their stories, and I have a content library of

producers that I've talked to one on-one and sat down with them and interviewed them. And each one I asked similar questions. What do you look for in a guest? How do you research them? Do you use keyword tools? What is it that you're doing to get somebody to make a decision whether or not they come on your show? Marissa Simmonian, former morning show producer that I built a really great relationship with. She's moved on now to do shows. Um, and remember these relationships carry with you. I still talk to Marissa, right? Um, I Google what

this is what she does. I Google expert in any field and then I go to their Instagram and I look for video content to get an idea of what they're going to be like on air. Now, if you're a writer and you want to get published in Forbes and Entrepreneur and Success, fine. You don't need video evidence. If you want to get on TV, if you want to get on a show, if you want to get on a video podcast, you have to have evidence of yourself on video. And it's got to be like this.

They got to see you the way you actually are. um Beyond the Plate, Heidi Small, she pitched uh a a a TV show to the network that she was on. I forget this particular network, but the way that she wrote the pitch was kind of like a love letter. At least that's what she said. I wrote a love letter to the producer and I tried to, you know, create this very delicious, this flavorful kind of feel and it and it worked. Now, how she gets people on her show, she likes messiness. Here's the other thing,

guys. A lot of we I don't know the backgrounds of the different people that come here. You do not have to be polished. People actually prefer to hear uh a story, the underdog story, what you struggled with, you know, the rawness, the realness. When we when we hear from Jeff Cook and you see Jeff Cook, if you follow him or read any of his content, it was not an easy journey to to be where he's at. There was a lot of challenge. There was a lot of difficulty. And I think we can relate more to

that difficulty than the lives that most people see on the Kardashians. That's more like nobody lives those lives. What what 0.5% of the world lives that life. We can relate to struggle. We can relate to difficulty. So don't be afraid to share your messiness. Okay? That's that's what people look for. They don't want to see all the polishness all the time. All right. Then Angelie Bonichi is a senior publicist um for a Super Connector Media, which is also um a media company. Follow up with enthusiasm. Most pitches don't get placed because there's no followup. A

lot of And you know what? I get nervous about that, too. I sometimes feel like, oh, I don't want to I don't want to bother them. But you know what? I'll show you another slide. They get 38,000 emails. Their emails are full of requests. Everybody wants to get on TV. And I'll talk a little bit about headlines as well, but what you got to know who does what. So, an associate producer or segment producer is the person that you probably want to be pitching to. The producer is the one who does the show, but it's

the writers. It's the people that do the groundwork that you want to build those relationships with. What they typically do is they research topics. They find the experts. They're pre-intering you. They're writing scripts and storyboards. Sometimes you'll go to um and for those who've never been on TV or media, you'll sometimes free flow, but most time you have to present specific talking points. When you see most people on television, I'm sorry, there is no teleprompter. The host gets a teleprompter. They're lucky enough to sit there, look great, and read the words coming out, but you

are the expert. Do not go on television or on a show if you can't free flow your information and have to refer to Q cards. You need to practice or you need to have that message or know your stuff. Otherwise, when the TV comes on and the camera comes on, it is live and people do like when you do I don't want to make people nervous here, but it it it's live. So, you can't undo a live segment. So, make sure that you practice. Even at the level where I've been in front of camera, I

can't tell you how many times. I've done a a TV show for four seasons, 60 episodes. I was just at Sandance Film Festival and Ann Hathaway was coming um my way. Some of the people who are here know this, but I literally um she came to me and even at this I was like I froze. I froze for maybe like 30 seconds. I fumbled a little bit. Why? I know why. I was too concerned about the question I was going to ask her as she was coming up instead of just being in the moment and

asking the question um and just being with her. So when it comes to live television, what you have to know is that you should that's why you should go local and work your way up. All right? They also review materials and they ensure that your information is also compliant with their audience. If you're coming in with a more risky topic, you want to find out, can you swear? Can you s use certain words? Can you bring sexual content, whatever it is that you're not sure about, make sure you ask questions. You also want to ask

about dress code. I ask for the color of the studio. What does the set look like? I look on TV. I look at the segment because I want to go as prepared as possible as if I'm already in the room. I'm sitting in that chair or I'm I'm uh visiting like I'm literally doing the production. Next, you want to have your key message points. So, in this particular segment, Valentine's Day, I forget, maybe a couple years ago, I pitched a gift guide to spoil your partner, no matter the relationship rank. Because you know what? Let's

talk about everyday issues that we struggle with. Gift giving. I don't know what to give my wife. I don't know what to give my girlfriend. I don't know if if this is too expensive or or or not expensive enough or this is too needy. These are all things that we struggle with. So, pitch uh and have solutions for that. So, the gift guides that I did get ranked from friends with benefits, someone you just dated, a lover, or a long-term partner. And as you can see, there are a lot of different gift ideas and we

run through it one by one. The I pitched this to a number of outlets and I think I had three outlets that like the idea. So, I was able to do this pitch for three different outlets on three different networks. And if you've got a great idea, run with it, pitch it. Um, and and and sometimes you can use that idea and say, I was previously I previously did this gift guide, but and now I've got a new set of gifts to give out. A great idea possibly for real gifts, right? Um, so these message

points are also synonymous synonymously referred to as talking points. All right? When you're delivering a speech, when you're delivering a talk, you want to have key messaging. So, normally it's about three to five. Now, the list that I've been on many, many times is infamous for three tips. Okay? So, make sure you've got the three best tips. And when I pitch, I sometimes do a tip four and five. And I'll say to the producer, "These are my three tips. These are some alternate ideas. Let me know which one you prefer." Right? And most times they

they like my third or they'll say, "You know what? Let's squeeze in a fourth if you can do that." Um, all right. Here's when I want I want to talk about what makes the news. The reason I'm bringing this up is that again, what makes newsworthy, what makes headlines are things that are related to making an impact, making a difference in with your clients, with the world, things of that nature. Another way that you can get newsworthy if you become a writer for a magazine or you get involved in communities where you can position yourself

as an expert. So, Cointelegraph is a popular um distribution and news channel for the crypto industry. I am part of the innovation circle part of a strategy that um I pitched to kindly which is a cryptocurrency company that is dedicated to social impact and sustainable development goals. There are 17 sustainable development goals published by the UN. uh no poverty, zero hunger, um quality education, reduced inequalities. There's 17 of them. You guys can Google it. If your company, you're making a certain number of revenue and now you want to allocate some of your funds or with

every membership, a portion of their sales goes to a social impact by your company. That would be newsworthy, right? And not only is it newsworthy, social impact is is a decision make um impacts the decisions of consumers. More people will tend to buy from companies vegan, non-GMO, uh animal uh you know, not cruel to animals. There's a lot of different reasons why one person would shop from this brand over another. And I got to tell you, social impact is a big reason to do that. All right. So that's what I wanted to talk about with

respect with respect to that. Next, these are just examples of newsworthy content. You can kind of take a look at the titles. You have to get creative of writing a great pitch. All right. The thing is there's this the same problems happened year after year after year. For those of you who do not know me, I started my first job was in 1992. I was a te part-time telemarketer for a company called Together Dating. So, I was here before match.com and internet and and everything, but the same some of the same challenges that happened in

1992 are here today. So, you want to take advantage of that and put your own unique spin on how you, your company or your community is solving that problem. Okay. Um, all right. Crafting the perfect pitch. A great pitch can read like a love letter rather than asking for a favor. Here's the thing. When you are pitching to a network, don't take the position that, oh, please get me on television. You need to hear from me. No, you are solving a problem and you are providing a solution to their audience. It's not the other way

around. Okay? They want to hear from you. They want to help their audience. So, don't be afraid to pitch that, especially if you got a solution. Now, create great stories with good data. Data is super important. I mean, Jeff provided a ton of data. Any of the data that he provides can somehow be pitched to a network if they can tie it in to solving a problem, educating the consumer, and or coming up a solution to that problem. Okay? Again, do the so the so what test all the time. When it says consider an exclusive

offer, you could say, "Hey, I've got this story. I'm using this new tool or or we're launching video a platform on on this, you know, app that didn't have video. Um, we want to release this new uh story on your platform. So, that idea of exclusivity that you're not going to do what I did with the Valentine's Day gift thing and go to network after network after network. We're going to say we're going to exclusively share that. We'd like to exclusively share this with you. Okay, that's another way that you might be considered. Five elements

of a successful pitch. It's got to be timely. You have to sell the topic first. You second. Don't lead with dear uh journalist Carmelia has been a matchmaker for 30 years. She knows what she's talking about and he's helped 8,000. No, you don't do that. You say today, now more than ever, loneliness is the pandemic. uh you know 90 there are more suicides uh divorces uh mental illnesses as a result of loneliness here are three tips to solve loneliness one live stream video I'm just making this up guys as we speak solving loneliness get entertained

you don't need to be single right so as an example and then say our expert then talk about yourself quote the quote the problem with data share your talking points, then discuss why you. Okay. Um, five elements of a pitch. Solve a problem. Provide value. Facts and stats. Always refer to either a recent study, a new survey, a study that your company did that only you would know is super important because no one else is going to have access to that. But when Singles in America pitch it uh releases their survey or it could be

Date Lab or any one of the companies here that publishes a survey. Guess what? Everybody who knows that people are going to be reading this uh stat, it's their survey. They're getting the press. You're the expert getting on the news, but you're publishing data of another person. So, partnerships are really great um for dating sites and for relationship experts and dating experts. Consider working with the dating expert or influencers to share your message, share your dating because they have an audience. And of course, follow up with enthusiasm. All right. Making the most out of your

media, sharing it, creating a newsletter, offering coaching, analytical tools. Um, I want to keep going because I don't know how much time I have left. Uh, Mark, how much time do I have? I don't know if you can hear me. I'll keep going until um I want to leave room for for Q&A. How to continue to get booked. Be on time. I be be half an hour early. It's not eager. It's better that you're waiting instead of them waiting. Be easy to work with. Don't be a diva. And for the gentlemen, don't be difficult. All

right? If they need to make a change, you want to be on that outlet. Don't complain. Say yes every time. No problem. I'll make it happen. Obviously, you can make it happen. Foster your media relationships. Always be grateful. Always be thankful. More media allows you to generate more income. You attract brand partnerships. You can raise your prices. You can launch a speaking platform. You can get paid to promote. There's so many different things that you can do with your media. All right. PR for profits. This is just how you can reach me. I want to

blow through this. All right. So I this is just a a final breakdown of all of the different ideas that you can create to attract media. Number one, the biggest question is how does your company make headlines? You can do it through social selling. Social media live streaming by the way is one of the best ways I think to be selling a product, a service, and even a matchmaking service, a sign up form, whatever that is. You want to be able to use influencer marketing. There are influencer marketing tools that give you the data that

allows you to reach the expert that gives you data about their audience so that you're not wasting time on paying an influencer who says they have a certain audience reach like captivate could be one of them. Consider a rewards program or referral program. Make an announcement about that. Um you can do industry awards or gala awards. We used to have the I date awards, but anybody who has a brand can create their own award or brand recognition for philanthropy, for being the best dator, to being the most eligible, being the kindest, whatever that is. All

right. When it comes to press releases and announcements, I tend to reserve those for real announcements, company changeover, company acquisition, new hires, success stories. Everybody loves a success story. Okay? And right now we're leading up to Valentine's Day. One of the things I want to share with you all is that when it comes down to press and television specifically, TV networks right now it is um February 1st, they're thinking about content for end of March, April. Okay. In April, they're thinking about summer content. I just submitted my um article for Bella Magazine, a New York

lifestyle fashion magazine that I'm a writer for. I submitted that deadline in January for a March, April spring cover. We are six to eight weeks in advance. So, you're too late to do anything in the next two weeks. You want to be thinking six to eight weeks out. And you want to be looking at what's going on six to eight weeks out. The only time that press will take over that you have an opportunity is that there's breaking news, a breaking story, a George Floyd moment. Bill and Melinda Gates get divorced. Jeff Bezos has another

girlfriend. Whatever that is, that's the only time that you can probably take advantage of that. Provide commentary. Provide commentary on your own media. News will come to you and they'll want to ask for your perspective. Okay? Partnerships in our announcements are a great way to attract media. Partner with someone with a great profile. Look for that collaboration. And of course, it's all down to brand. Brand brand. You got to be considerate about brand recognition, brand awareness. How are you getting your message out? Is there a jingle? Is there a slogan? Do you have a do

you have a custom music? Are is your logo recognizable? Because that's brand recall, right? The instant connection. When you walk into a store and you see the Pepsi sign or you go down the street and you see the big M, you know that that's McDonald's. And finally, something that may not be familiar to everyone as a word is the brand salience. At the point of purchase, are they emotionally connected to your brand enough that they want to purchase from you? Okay, they're like, I need a band-aid. I need Kleenex. Those are all, you know, all

of these words that are synonymous, they're actually a brand. And even though you might buy a different version, you're still thinking this is Kleenex, right? or Clorox or whatever those brands are because at point of purchase, you don't have to think about it. You're automatically going to go I think I have my Starbucks here. I kind of bounce between I'm Canadian Starbucks and Tim Hortons. But there's no thought when I want to buy a coffee and when most of you want to purchase a coffee, you already know where you're buying it from and how you

like it. So think about how you can convert your brand, your story, and to be something that someone goes to is easily recognizable. They know how you can help them and they're going to want to share your story, story and message for free. Free media is the best thing. Word of mount advertising and marketing is also viral content really really important to consider. It's not some you can generate that but you have to have all those tools in place. Ah so Mark I think I I I think I'm done. That's my last slide. Yes, this

is my contact information. That's my real number. That's my real email. And this is my real um website. So you guys can take a look at that. So glad that you had me. Um yeah, so Mark, I am all yours for >> I've got a couple of surveys which I'll put on the screen now. Uh by the way, we've got one quick survey. Is it coming up? Hold on. Is that coming up? Should come up. Oh, maybe it's just gone into the chat. Let's see. It just disappeared. No worries. Uh, so if you got questions,

please Oh, there we go. That was a delayed reaction. So, my company has done okay with press because A, we've got a great PR agency. B, we've got a great story. C, we are controversial or perhaps you do lots of outreach or we're just not doing any PR what you think of that. So, I'll let you answer. question is would you sorry the question it's a poll I'm just running a poll on screen but let me ask a question of you what do you advise if you get asked a zinger question you're sitting in the

hot chair and you're on live TV perhaps and then you're asked a super negative question about your dating service how do you recover what do you do >> a super negative question number one I would just I would be as authentic and and real as possible you know never I'm never going to come from a place of defense. Uh you all, it depends on what your brand is. If you don't care, if you have a brand where it's like, I don't care, they're stupid. Um that's their problem, which some people have. Uh then you would

take that approach. But if you have an empathetic style and you actually care, then you would probably make an offer to resolve that uh to come back and you know, I'll address it immediately. I was whether you were aware or unaware actually that is that is something that is that we're currently dealing with. So it's really really important that you do you already know you should already know the problems anyway Mark. So for people who get blindsided like that uh they probably uh don't know enough about their business. Most time you're preparing for that question.

Uh and that's a great point because there are things about people's business and matchmaking in particular that are not nice. Nobody's 100% happy. I don't think anybody sitting here who ha who is a matchmaker when that phone rings, they don't know whether to cringe or whether to smile. Okay? We we don't we don't we don't make everybody happy. So, you should absolutely have a way that you can address negative press and work on reputation management ahead of time. >> Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, down to practice, isn't it? You've got to have uh you got

to be wellversed in what could happen and try not to be too surprised and you know quick thinking does help. But I think that's one of the underlying concerns that people have about getting on to say live TV is uh you know having that zinger question getting nailed on on live TV basically. Um you know I don't know I'm not sure you know it's not entirely I think the most important thing is to be human. And another trick I I hear PR agencies saying is uh answer the question you really wished they'd asked you, which

is a funny one. >> Oh boy. >> Be careful with that. >> Yeah. Put it this way. If ever if anybody here ever gets on to Joe Rogan, you better, you know, buckle your seat. >> He's not gonna >> Yeah. Just just buckle your seat belt, right? Like so so pick and choose. There are there are outlets that I will say no to because they're just not a good fit or they're too risky. So that that's >> uh if he'd have me I would totally do Rogan and it would be worth the embarrassment. >> Yeah.

And you know sometimes you're going to get embarrassed. It's you got to take the rough with the smooth. So how to find the direct contact, right? That's probably something others are wondering about. Okay, you want to contact a particular outlet, you can research it, but then how do you find the actual contact information and the actual mode in which that reporter is mo most likely to respond? Uh so uh when you want to get serious about PR you will purchase the tech that goes along with it. So I have a sision um.com fully I have

sision right there's there's many other ones that you can use I don't guess >> a year right >> uh no it depends on the one that you have mine is closer to 10 or 15 based on the fact that you can just have print and you can also because they also analyze data and metrics they have mentions you can set alerts you can I have alerts for different things for different people that are talking about so you can get on top of it but the the the technology. It shows you the reach, the readership, the

direct email of that. Hoda's on there. Uh the the the national hosts on all of the morning shows, their direct emails are on there and you can directly pitch to them. Now, there's a lot of people that subscribe to those, too. So, it's not necessarily about you can have someone's email. It doesn't mean they're going to open it. So, it's still going to be about the tagline, the subject, your brand, and why it should be you, right? So those are all important factors. Having an email doesn't mean that we'll open it. >> Sure. Yeah. Absolutely.

But um a couple of other sources I quite like are Rafonic. I mean a good place to start is podcast, right? Rafonic just does podcast. That's R E P H O N I C. That's a nice inexpensive tool. I think 50 100 bucks a month something like that. Um and then um uh actually just for finding email contacts, Rocket Reach is amazing. Rocket Reach. Profile. Type in the profile. Put it in Rocket Reach. You get the email address and it tells you the accurate one, too. That's a phenomenal. >> I'll tell you, uh, Instagram DMs.

When you look up producers, they don't have a lot of following. They're behind the camera. You can actually get to a producer through their DM. You can get to them through Twitter. I've had I've had um I've had multiple media requests in my Twitter inbox, my my social my uh Facebook requests. Like I'm like, is this the new way to communicate? They don't even go to your email. They just go straight to your social media. So guys, that's why it's important to have a social media presence and you can reach those producers through their their

socials. >> That's golden. LinkedIn. Do you like LinkedIn as well? >> Absolutely. I would pay for inmail. Pay for the pay for the inmail. uh ask for the request and don't send a blank request. Uh here's another tip that I would say. Um comment on the the topics they produced. Reshare the articles and segments they produced. Um comment down their thread when you have it and then not only share that post, but when you have interesting data, you can you can bring it to them. By the way, uh if you have a lif of someone

who's talking about lifestyle and dating, I have a girl at Global News, her name is Ari, and if there's a report that she doesn't know about, I'm like, "Hey, Ari, I got this juicy piece of content. Um, let me know if you feel like this is something you want to talk about." You know, maybe eight times out of 10 she's like, "We covered that or about to cover that." Oh, yeah. When can we get on a call? If you don't ask, you're never going to know. But help the reporter out. Also, when you're on that,

you're helping the reporter out by saying, "Would you like me to be an expert?" No. Say what you can talk about and why you should talk about it, state the problem and and uh and the solution at the same time. You do all the work for them because that's their job. The associate producer is supposed to look for the expert, find the content, and write the script. Uh you got everything here. You got the content, the idea, and the script. So, all they got to say is yes or no. >> Golden. Uh so we've got

the results for the question. My company has done okay with press because 7% of you in fact I'll say the top answer is we have a great story. Oh thank you. Thank you Ren. We have a great uh great story is the top answer followed by we do lots of outreach and we've got a great PR agency. Yeah. So focus. Oh actually no that's not correct. We're not just not doing any PR. Oh interesting. Well there's a whole why not put Can you put in chat why are you not doing PR? what what's holding you

back? And I'll throw up the next question actually. Um there we go. Next question is, are you as a leader at a dating company okay with interviewing on live TV? See how you do with that question. And uh Carmela, I've got a question for you, I think. Let's see. We've got here. Oh, one from Adam's bubbled it up. Thank you, Adam Cohen. Should one do PR internally or externally? and have and do you evaluate success of a PR agency? Uh how do you evaluate success of a PR firm basically? >> I you know >> internal

external and how do you assess a PR agency? >> You know I that's that's that's a loaded question but I'll answer it as as best as I can. If you have even if you have budget um you want to consider the new ways to market nowadays. Influencer marketing working with a nano influencer a micro influencer the difference between that is from zero from zero to 10,000 or from 10,000 to 100k. Um I've I've been doing a lot of research on this to be honest. If you have a PR agency and they are quite pricey they

they should be able to give you specific deliverables and you want to see their client list as well. start with your maybe you want to start with your budget or with your um with with your outcomes. I think in-house PR is always great and or influencer marketing or collaborating or or hiring a um a dating expert or working with a dating partner that already has press because they've already built those contacts. PR agencies are a marketing vehicle. So, it's really a matter of you what what data are they going to supply to you? What is

the platform that they use to to outreach these people? Are they using uh software? Do they have a press release? Usually, they're the ones that are going to pitch to you to tell you what they plan to do with the dollars that you're going to give them. And if you're not seeing anything new, anything innovative, and they're not including an influencer campaign in there, I' i'd probably question that because influencer marketing right now is is really hot and really effective. >> Thank you, Kalia. And so I've got another question for you actually from Richmond at

Couplet. What tips are there for solo founders with no marketing experience to grow their personal brand? Where would you uh for the smaller startups? Where would you recommend they start? >> Uh that was me uh 10 years ago. I had nothing. I had no brand. You googled me. I was on page nowhere. Uh so you want to start with, you know, your your your story. Look at look at that. Uh who are you? What do you do? Who do you do it for? Um, produce your own content. Have you have to have a blog, you

have to be giving advice. You've got to start with you got to do video. You have should have a social media page. Start with producing content because how else are people going to get to know you or produce results for your clients and have your clients be your advocates. You have to do a good job for people. You have to have a pro a proof that what you do is the you're the only one that can do that or that you're actually helping people. If you're not helping people, no one's going to write about that,

right? U they'll write about if you're not helping people. And so just keep at it. Content marketing is really a long form strategy, right? Going on popular blogs. You're right um about that, Mark. getting on to a blog, sharing your story, story, uh coming to these conferences and connecting with a lot of people here have their publications, they have their own blogs, they want to collaborate, write for them, offer to not ghost, write, offer to to contribute a piece of content to a higher blog. Um I wrote for Plenty of Fish in the very beginning.

Um I wrote for I did match.com webinars um to get my face out there. Uh I did a lot of work. work. I did a lot of writing and I was my number one marketer. You got to be a fan of yourself and you got to tell the world who you are, what you do, and you got to do it all the time. You You are never not a matchmaker. You are never not a dating site owner. You are never not a coach. If you're a coach, you're always a coach. So, live, breathe, work your

brand, and make sure that people know who you are and why they should come to you. >> Well said. Thank you, Carla. And if you haven't answered the survey, if you could just put in your answer, and I'll give the results in 10 seconds. Nine eight and Carmelio thank you very much for your time that was a fantastic presentation >> and why don't we go into the networking we've got we can still go into the networking I'll let that run out >> three two one and the results of the survey is for are you as

the leader at a dating company okay with interviewing on live TV majority of you are very brave good staff. Why not? Okay, good. So, the majority of you are fantastic. Close the poll. Great. All right. So, um let's go into the networking. I'll see you in the networking. Oh, uh one more thing. By the way, thank you very much to our sponsors. We've got live box and real gifts as our primary sponsors. Uh we appreciate uh their supporting these LTR conferences and the idea summits on an ongoing basis. And uh the other thing to remember

by the way is if you've if you if there's a person that you wanted to connect with today and you met them in passing and you'd like to make sure you make that connection uh please email me and I and ask me for that connection and I will intro introduce you to them. Kind of what I really recommend you do is that you form your own little circles of two, three, four people that are non-competitive that you can essentially have your own little mastermind with, share notes with and learn, share and connect with. Thank you

very much. See you in the networking.