This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
What we all are trying to accomplish, one way or another, we want to reach people with our work. We want to reach the right people with our work. We've got something that we want to sell or promote, whatever it is. We're trying to create this product or service because we want to make extra money. The extra money may be connected to a greater goal such as getting out of debt or saving for our future, or just diversifying our income so that we're not dependent on a job or an employer.
That's what pretty much everyone who listens to pool, anybody in my network kind of wants to do one way or another. Because there is no single best way to reach people, like reach the right people with our work, most of us tend to flounder a bit. We tend to try a lot of different things. We might look for miracle cures, perhaps, like if a publicist or a company promises to open the right doors and magically get us on the Today Show or the TED stage or whatever the platform of our dreams is. This brings me to today's question, and by the way, welcome to Side Hustle School.
My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host. Today's caller is trying to build her brand as a lifestyle coach. Should she hire a publicist to book her as a guest on podcasts? Well, guess what? I have a clear answer to this.
Not to like foreshadow the whole answer, but since it's not a favorable one, I also have a suggestion. If I ever say that something's not a good idea, I try to come up with an alternative suggestion as well. That's what we're going to talk about today. Should I pay a publicist to book me as a podcast guest, and perhaps if I don't do that, what else might I consider? That's coming up after this quick message from our sponsor.
Hi, Chris. This is Bailey from Austin, and I've been listening to the show from episode one. Thanks to you and the team for the great content. I'm trying to build my brand as a health and lifestyle coach, and a friend suggested I appear on podcasts to gain followers and influence. How would I go about doing this?
No one really knows me yet. I did some searching, and I saw that I could hire a publicist to pitch me to various shows as an expert, but it's expensive and I don't have a big budget. Do you think this would be worth it? If not, what else should I try? Thanks Chris, and I'm looking forward to hearing from you.
Hey Bailey, what's good? Congratulations on your goal of building your brand as a health and lifestyle coach. I am excited for you. I hope you're able to reach a lot of people and help a lot of people. But guess what?
My answer to your question of should I hire a publicist to pitch me to shows as an expert? Don't do it. Give me some money, save your money because most likely it's going to be a waste of money. And I'm sure I'll get complaints for saying that, but that's true, that's the reality. So what may happen in that situation, most likely first of all you're not going to get booked on really big podcasts.
What may happen is you might get some chances to do podcast interviews for shows that have almost no audience. And of course we all start somewhere, this is no judgment on somebody who doesn't have much of an audience, but in that situation, it may be good practice for you, which still has value. Like I remember when I first started doing podcast interviews more than a decade ago, I was terrible at it. And I felt bad for the shows that had me on, but I got better eventually, right? So practice is good, but I don't think you should expect that it will have much of an impact business wise, okay?
And that's the key point. I get pitches every single day, probably five to 10 pitches from publicists who do exactly what you're talking about. And it's so obvious that these are blanket pitches that are going out, you know, to probably dozens or hundreds of shows. And what annoys me about it? Like I don't like to complain a lot because I have a good life and I feel very fortunate to be able to make this show for you.
But probably my only complaint about it is getting these pitches from people who don't know anything at all about the show, but they claim that they do. And they always begin these pitches with like, I'm such a big fan of the show, I listen all the time and guess what, I have the perfect guest for you. Well for anybody who actually listens to the show, you know, what's wrong with that? Like we don't have guests, 1300 plus episodes and there are no guests. Like I'm the one who's telling stories, I'm answering questions and there's a process to submit your story to be considered, you know, to be featured on the show, but anybody could do that.
You don't need a publicist for that. It's just right on the website. So that's just my own personal pet peeve, but I thought of it because this is what a publicist is going to do for you. So in a lot of ways it creates negative value. Now what is better?
Okay, it is good to go on podcasts for sure. What's better is to build those relationships yourself. And I know that you feel like, you know, you don't know people, well, it just takes time. It takes time. It takes outreach, being willing to connect email, direct message, whatever form is good, whatever form seems natural.
It will be more effective. So don't hesitate to reach out yourself to podcasters that you like, that you're actually familiar with the show. And you know, you don't have to necessarily pitch yourself too much. It's more just like, hey, I'm a fan and I'm starting this thing. Those kind of pitches, I get that all the time for other stuff, people who have written a book and I can't always help with it, but I don't mind those pitches.
Like that's totally fine. That's how relationships are built. And you know, I did a lot of that when I was starting and I still might do that from time to time. So don't hesitate to reach out to people. If you know somebody who knows somebody, then you can ask for referrals sometimes, lots of different ways to do it.
I've talked about it in other episodes and I think I wrote about it a fair amount in the side hustle book from idea to income in 27 days. But just to kind of close the loop here, I don't think it's a good idea to hire a publicist to do that for you. So my two cents. Good luck Bailey. Good luck anybody else out there in that situation.
If you have a question of your own, if you have an experience with this, if you have a different perspective for me, that's fine too. I'd love to hear about it. Come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We will continue to feature listening reports throughout the rest of the year. And thank you so much for listening.
It's a tough world out there, but you are amazing. I hope you do something today to get closer to the goal that you believe in. And until next time, my name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.
