24 If you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready (tips for aspiring expert media commentators)
G'day and welcome back to another episode of become your own PR machine. My name is Trevor Young. And in this episode I want to allude to a previous one which was episode number 18. So not that long ago and it was titled How to build a national media profile as the go to expert in your space. Learn from someone who's doing it.
TREVOR YOUNG:And and in it, I discussed or I discussed with a with a special guest. What does it take for a genuine subject matter expert to generate literally hundreds of items of media exposure? Because that's what a lot of thought leaders and business owners and entrepreneurs and solopreneurs and professional experts, they're keen to look at the earned media side of things. Remember, it's earned media because you are earning the right to for someone to cover you, for someone to interview you on a podcast, for someone to interview on TV or radio or, you know, allow you to do an opinion piece in a in a newspaper or, you know, in in someone else's newsletter or appear on someone else's YouTube show, you get the drift. It's it's being on someone else's or leveraging the power of someone else's audience and you are the guest and you make it all about that person or that media outlet's audience.
TREVOR YOUNG:So it's not about you. It's about the audience. So that's my little riff. But in this episode number 18, the success story, how to build a national media profile as the go to expert in your space from someone who's already doing it. My guest in that instance was Jake Moore, and Jake comes from the South Coast of England and he's he's a cyber security, works for a company called ESET and he's a cyber security adviser.
TREVOR YOUNG:So ESET is Europe's number one cyber security company and as well as conducting research and analysis into the latest cyber security and AI threats and trends. What Jake does is he also regular comment regularly comments on a range of cybersecurity stories in the media for major print broadcast and other online media outlets. And, of course, this is always big news. There's always something happening in cybersecurity, and Jake's been at this for a little while. So if you wanna learn more about it, I I do suggest you go back to episode 18 because Jake really unpacks how he's gone about it, what what he's doing today versus what he was doing, what his processes are, and and how he's been able to manage.
TREVOR YOUNG:And when I'm saying top tier, I'm talking really, really, really top tier media. And, of course, it wasn't always that way. So do check out episode 18 of this podcast. But for this particular episode, I I provide the Jake and episode 18 for context, that that episode. But for today, I just wanna talk to you about if you the title of this is if you stay ready, you don't have to get ready.
TREVOR YOUNG:And what I mean by this is if you are wanting to become a, you know, a a commentator on the media, then you then there's there's a bit of a game you have to play. You have to be ready. And I'm talking about ongoing, not just random one offs. So as the saying goes, if you stay ready and you don't have to get ready, Nowhere is that more true than in the media commentary game. And so if you work, this is probably again particularly true if you work in a a fast moving issues rich industry or environment and you want to this is the thing, and you want to elevate your profile as the go to authority for the media, then you'd better be ready when a journalist or a broadcast producer calls you up.
TREVOR YOUNG:When it comes to the news, time really is of the essence. Now depending on the topicality, I guess, of the story or the issue, you often won't have much time to get ready. Hence, the need to be ready. And what do I mean by being ready? Being flexible, knowing your stuff, and being on top of issues and trends and breaking stories relevant to your industry and your area of expertise.
TREVOR YOUNG:So the case in point, this is a long winded way of getting to circling back to Jake Moore, our UK based security expert guest from episode number 18. Case in point with Jake, he's nailed he's just nailed some amazing tier 1 media opportunities, tier 1 being the top echelon of the media outlets, in the wake of last week's Global CrowdStrike. Some people saying CrowdStrike stroke Microsoft, but the it's known as the Global CrowdStrike Outage. And I I came across this because, you know, I'm connected with Jake on LinkedIn and I'm always interested to see what he's doing. He does some terrific LinkedIn posts but he was I I I'm going to read out his very short LinkedIn post.
TREVOR YOUNG:It did come with some photos but I'm not going to describe those. So this is Jake's LinkedIn post and then we'll we'll get bit we'll stuck into it but the post will say everything. This is Jake's post. Being one of the hottest days of the year, I started yesterday with a leisurely sea swim with my local sea dipping crew. The next minute, the IT world collapsed and I was interviewed on.
TREVOR YOUNG:Here we go. BBC News Channel, Sky News, ITV News, Channel 5, CNN, BBC London TV, BBC London Radio, LBC Radio, Sky News Radio, Financial Times, Reuters, Forbes, Daily Mail, my voice is gonna go, City AM, CNA, Singapore and USA today. And he quips, I should have taken my laptop out on my paddle board and worked remotely at sea. Okay. Thought I'd just jump in here with a quick promo.
TREVOR YOUNG:Just this episode's brought to you by PocketPR Essentials Volume 1. This is my audio only micro coaching series for ambitious business owners and entrepreneurial professionals. Think training and inspiration in your pocket. Listen on the go via your podcast app. Go to www.pocketpressentials.com to learn more.
TREVOR YOUNG:And as I record this, a very special launch price is applicable. Now back to the show. Now that is an insane amount of media to be talking to in one day. Even a couple in one day is crazy. So, you know, obviously, the the you know, this was a major, major, major issue.
TREVOR YOUNG:And, you know, 99.9% of time, we're not gonna be faced even if you're a spokesperson on something. You know, these issues don't, you know, they don't get much bigger than this. But it's testament to the need to be ready, to be ready all the time if this is the path you wanna take. Now I know some people are happy to get the odd earned media coverage out there and it might be a bit more on the evergreen side of things potentially, profiles and that. I'm talking about people who want to comment on, you know, be a media commenter, breaking stories, news trends.
TREVOR YOUNG:This is where you got to move quick. Now, of course, Jake's been at the at this game for a long time. And, again, I do urge you to go back and have a listen to episode number 18 on on how that his story has evolved, but he's been building relationships with key media. You know, a lot of people say, oh, PR's publicity and everything. This part of PR is called media relations, and that's media relations is when you're doing it strategically.
TREVOR YOUNG:You're building relationships with the media, with the producers and the researchers and the journalists and the editors. And they know and that over time, you've built, you know, a degree of trust or they've built trust in you, which is really really important. So, you know, when you do get a shot at a radio interview, when you do get a shot at providing a quote to a newspaper or, you know, the holy grail of being interviewed for TV news. If you, you know, perform well and it is a performance, you give great quotes, you provide insights and stories and, you know, provide a a bit of meat and you're you're credible, you come across as credible and you perform well, if it is TV and radio, then you're going to that again that adds value to the story. Then you're going to be hopefully in their little black black book and called back.
TREVOR YOUNG:Apart from being good at what you do and adding the insights and providing, you know, this great information in quotes, giving them you know, adding value to the new story. The other part of it is turning up on time. It's answering their call. When they call, you get back to them as soon as possible. If they're ready and they need you to jump, well, you know, if you could fit it into your day, do it because that will go a long way.
TREVOR YOUNG:They when these news break and particularly something this big, they're gonna wanna talk to you pretty damn quickly. And so, again, depends if it's live or not, might make a bit of a difference. But, a, you know, take the call if you need to gather your thoughts. Take the call and say I'll ring you straight back. I'm just fixing finishing something and I'll call you straight back.
TREVOR YOUNG:Do stop, gather your thoughts, and then ring them straight back. And do deliver. This is what Jake's been doing, you know? He's been building those relationships but he's been delivering immense value for years and consistently building and building and building his profile and authority as a genuine cybersecurity expert in the eyes of journalists, editors, producers, and presenters. He's turned up.
TREVOR YOUNG:He's delivered value, and he's done it again and again and again and again. And they've, you know, they've built trust. They they trust him. And they've got his number and he turns up and does the job and everyone's happy. Everyone's happy.
TREVOR YOUNG:So the lesson here is play the long game, deliver value and always be ready to go at the drop of a hat. So, again, this is not if you're after some random, you know, coverage. We got a launch, we got something happening or, you know, I want to go out test the waters or do the occasional opinion piece. This is when you want to be seen as a genuine media commentator, and it might be radio. You might be suited to radio.
TREVOR YOUNG:And if they need an expert in bang, whatever your your area of your topic or area of specialty is, and you can break in and you get a shot at the title, I. E. An interview on, you know, TalkBack Radio, you do that, you add value, you're ready to go. And if they call you back the next time, you're still ready to go, you know. So you do have to be on top of trends.
TREVOR YOUNG:You do have to be on top on top of breaking news stories. You do need to know what's going on. That is extra extra work over and above potentially your day job. But if you wanna go down this path, it's a great way of putting distance between you and and other people in your space because you're going to get the the media's attention. And, hey, it all adds value.
TREVOR YOUNG:The the content you create in your own media channels, the social media do, that's all great, and that builds a foundation in the base for your earned media efforts, which is what this is. And then you do something like this, and then you put it back on social media, which is what Jake's done. And you can you can, you know, ring a lot more out of the, the interviews and everything you've done as well. So, again, this highlighted to me this Jake Moore story and the fact that he was on so many tier one media outlets on in one hit. It certainly brought home to me the importance of always being ready.
TREVOR YOUNG:If you stay ready, you don't have to get ready. Catch you in the next episode.