Connecting The Dots: Making Magic with the Media - Up level your Brand on your terms

By Sarah Lloyd

Every business owner needs a brand framework and clarity of vision to take them to the next level. Securing the kudos of media coverage is the natural progression of any business owner looking to up level. The media is the ideal platform to share stories, products or services, and the results can be shared via social media and in your marketing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IndigosoulPR
• Release date: Feb 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781913479152

Sarah Lloyd

In the media and PR business for 20 years, Sarah Lloyd quit her global corporate role in 2017, to set up her own PR and Brand Consultancy - IndigoSoulPR. An intuitive and Reiki Energy Master herself, she specialises in working in 'flow' so has thrown the rule book out the window. She works with a mix of clients - including authors and entrepreneurs as well as small and large businesses - to build awareness of their brands and products.

Book preview

CONNECTING THE DOTS

‘Making Magic with the Media’

Sarah Lloyd, IndigoSoulPR

Copyright © 2020 by Sarah Lloyd

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations referencing the body of work and in accordance with copyright law.

ISBN:

978-1-913479-14-5 (paperback)

978-1-913479-15-2 (ebook)

That Guy’s House

20-22 Wenlock Road

London

England

N1 7GU

www.thatGuysHouse.com

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PRAISE FOR CONNECTING THE DOTS

‘It is time for us to consider doing things in business differently. More consciously, intuitively and balanced. Connecting the Dots challenges the way we have always done things, from measuring our success of brand awareness to doing PR without the Push. Giving us the time and space to think creatively and make more meaningful connections. If you are a soulprenuer looking to build awareness of your business, this book is a great place to start.’

Lynne Franks, OBE and founder of SEED Women’s Business & Leadership Network

www.lynnefranks.com

‘Sarah helps me connect the dots with her intuitive approach to PR, media communications and content. Working with her I am beginning to really understand the way PR can work for me in my business and for my calling. This book is a great resource and a reminder on how to do PR on my terms.’

Katie Brockhurst – Author, Social Media for a New Age

www.socialmediaforanewage.com

‘This book is a gem and an essential for any entrepreneur who wants to do PR in a soulful way that feels good! Sarah is so generous with her tips and stories and makes PR seem like such a magical part of doing business, which is what it should be.’

Tara Jackson – Author, Embodied

www.tarajackson.co.uk

‘In this magical book, Sarah points to what is at the heart of future spiritual business – the human power of connection. As society becomes fonder of meaningful truth - in a PR arena so often filled with ‘push’ - this fresh thinking about how we can more authentically and soulfully achieve visibility, by tuning into what is right for us, is an absolute necessity!"

Nicole Barton, Life Mentor, Speaker and Writer

www.wellbeingwriter.co.uk

Contents

HELLO

SECTION 1: SECTION 1: What is PR, why do you need it, and what is holding you back

What is PR exactly

Welcome to the Jungle

Being Conscious in our Communications

Know when to Say No and Yes

Shine Bright like a Diamond

Listen to your Gut

SECTION 2: The Dots – Good and Bad

The Dots

The Dark Side

The Mirror

Good Vibrations

SECTION 3: Tactics, Strategy and Measurement

Content is King

What Does Success Look Like?

Now What?

The Soapbox

SECTION 4: Do it Yourself – Resources

Press Release Template

Pitching

Crisis Communications

How to Find the Media

Talking to the Media – Tips

Recommended Reading

IT’S A WRAP – WORKING WITH ME

Gratitude List

"I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples’

Mother Teresa

Hello,

I’m so glad you have this book in your hand, that tells me you’re curious about working with the media or want to understand more about publicity and what it can do for you. Together we can explore how to reach the people who need to know about your brand, product or service. 

That’s where Connecting the Dots comes in. Connecting the right stories, to the right journalists, so they reach the right people.

This book is a three-act story: a bit about my own journey in PR, a version of my Brand Alchemy Session – which includes tried-and-tested publicity methods you can apply to your business if it feels right to you – and the tools you need to prepare yourself to be SEEN.

Even after 20 years in communications, teaching, and helping others talk about their stories, it’s still not easy for me to put myself out there. I understand the imaginary barriers we put in place to keep us playing small. Trust me, we all have them. This is something we’re going to explore in depth.

But before we dive into the practicalities, I want you to know why my approach to publicity is different. As a communications professional and coach, I’ve felt called to look at the way we’ve always done things and to shine a light on why we’re driven to do it that way. I want to help you to clarify your intentions, so you can create a clear framework for what you want to achieve. That will allow you to work with ebb and flow, rather than trying to push up stream - enabling more creativity and space to tune into your own wisdom.

It’s my mission to encourage businesses and clients to come from a place of pure authenticity. There’s a lot of chatter on social media about ‘speaking our truth’ and ‘being authentic’, but sadly there is also a lot of fake content and heavily edited storytelling. This isn’t new, but slowly and surely this type of media coverage is alienating readers.

Through clever publicity, targeted marketing, and ‘fake news’, media manipulation has changed the course of two superpowers in the same decade. I’m not even going to mention the ‘B’ word. The media wields immense power and influence which, if used in the right way, could change our world for the better. Look at how Greta Thunberg is using the media to share her environmental message and as a result, has created a global movement.

Most of my adult life has been spent promoting the fast-moving tech companies, fledgling start-ups and entrepreneurs. Being the woman behind the spokesperson has given me a powerful education in what to say and what not to say. This book is designed to give you pointers for creating your brand and managing the media in your own business, in easy-to-understand language.

It will also help you to make solid connections. My journalist friends might kill me for saying this, but without publicity professionals and their clients, it would be a lot harder to source and write the stories to fill today’s demanding 24-hour news cycle.

We need each other.

This book is designed to become a handy reference for you, so you can return to the practical sections with ease. There’s also some space to get creative and scribble while you’re reading.

Let’s make some magic together.

Enjoy!

Love, Sarah x

"People do not buy goods and services, they buy relationships, stories and magic’

Seth Godin

My Journey – it’s all about Me

My journey in PR started out 20 years ago. No, scratch that, it was before that, maybe 35 years ago. When I was given some money to spend at the school bake sale. I spent the £1 on shortbread and fairy cakes. I then proceeded to eat it all on my way home. Maybe even giving a biscuit to a friend, in a bid to make her my best friend. The story I spun was amazing, nowhere near the truth – I was caught out and sent to my room on a timeout for lying.

I failed at my first attempt at spinning a story. Which, like any scrappy 7-year-old, meant I’d be trying out a better story next time.

Cut to 22 years later, I was working as a secretary. I skipped university – whilst I enjoyed sixth form college I kind of only went because everyone else did. The careers adviser there pretty much told me I wouldn’t amount to much more than working as a secretary – hardly inspirational. All I knew is I wanted to make money, and that money paid for the things I thought I wanted.

I had realised that money made the world go round at an early age. My parents both worked hard. Mum put herself through night school so she could go back to work once my sister started school, an admin assistant for the army who ended up managing their IT installations. Dad, working for a defence company for most of his career, managed a workshop of engineers, working up the corporate ladder to sitting at big important tables. And both often working two jobs at points, because they wanted us to have everything they didn’t.

To earn money, you had to work hard, put the blood, sweat, and tears into it. That was our mantra. So, I followed that example. Often to the detriment of life around me.

So, there I was, meeting the lofty expectations of the career’s advisor, working as a secretary in the Occupational Health dept for three Sisters and two Doctors. My job was to ensure all the medical records were kept up to date, make tea, do some typing and ensure all patients samples were bagged and tagged – you get the picture.

One sister, tall, elegant with the longest blue-black hair, said to me one day, and I have no idea what sparked it, possibly I may have reverted to spinning a story somewhere around lost stool samples:

‘Have you ever considered a job in PR’?

I had no clue what PR was at that point of my life. I didn’t say that, I pretended I knew what she was talking about and took it as a compliment.

She just smiled and said I should consider it.

I think that was around the time Absolutely Fabulous was in its hey-day, so my research on PR consisted of watching Eddie and Pats get drunk and fall out of taxis. This echoing in my own life, as that’s essentially what I was doing with friends every weekend. And I figured if they could do it, then so could I.

None the less I decided it was a sign I should try and pursue this thing called ‘PR’.

So, I started job hunting and within a month, was handing in my notice in. I landed a sales job in a call centre, which was as near to PR as I could get. The day I was supposed to start, instinct kicked in. Everything inside me told me not to take it. But I needed to find something. So, I signed up to a temping agency looking for secretarial roles.

This changed my course for ever.

I got a ‘floating temp’ position in the big defence company in my town. The role I was assigned was within the Corporate Communications Department at British Aerospace. It wasn’t particularly glamourous; my first task was to sit in a meeting room with a tower of envelopes to my left, and I was to stuff them with the invitations to the Air show on