E209 – Christina Daves – An Inventor of a product that became a DIY PR Expert

Junaid Ahmed 0:00
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In the last episode, we got to speak with David William read 20 years of experience and I first met pleasing photos. David is an amazing photographer with this daytime work as a marketing guru and passion for photography. We're speaking with expert who knows what it's all about. On to our interview with Christina Dave's In this episode, we get to talk to Christina days. She's a high energy keynote speaker, she will get you PR famous when you take her 10 Day Challenge. And she has given many talks, I had the opportunity to listen to her one of her talks on this PR extravaganza. And I was totally blown away. So here we have Christina Dave's Welcome to the show.

Christina Daves 1:41
Thank you. It's great to be here.

Junaid Ahmed 1:43
You're welcome. You're welcome. So tell us a little bit about yourself. And, you know, how did you get into this PR business?

Christina Daves 1:51
That's a funny story. No, I invented a product. And I invented fashion accessories for medical booths. And it was this great idea, and everybody loved it. And rah, rah, rah, this is going to be so great. So we did a business plan. And we did focus groups and into the product and got the product into the US and ready to sell. And what I didn't realize is that I had created a whole new space in the market that nobody knew they needed to decorate medical boots, nobody knew was even an option. Yeah, so it was will have you tell people well, we didn't have any money left. I couldn't afford advertising or PR. So I basically became a do it yourself publicity expert. And got myself my first year in business. I was in over 50 media outlets. And that included the Steve Harvey show, and Fox and I realized, wow, this is pretty impactful. And you can it really helps your business grow. So I just kept doing it and started teaching people. And the rest is history.

Junaid Ahmed 2:57
That is absolutely an amazing story. I mean, I'm thinking about it. And like, wow, you know, I could definitely use some PR for hacks and hobbies,

even though it's not my main business. But hey, who knows? Right? So how would somebody getting some PR for themselves?

Christina Daves 3:17
Yeah, so I have a formula that I figured out, it's a system, it's a system that works, you need to be newsworthy, which is, and I'll give you guys some tips in a minute, like, you know, outside of the box, creative things, you need to create great hooks, which is your subject line. Yeah, how people, you know, how you get the journalists to read the email, and you need to make sure you have the right journalist, you need to find, you know, you don't want to pitch your business story to the food editor, because they don't forward it for you.

Junaid Ahmed 3:44
Yeah,

Christina Daves 3:44
it just, it doesn't happen. So it's, it's getting creative. It's thinking of outside of the box, things that you can pitch the media.

And the key is the value that you provide the end user who's the audience, you know, do your homework, who's reading that magazine, who's reading that newspaper, who's watching that TV show. And if you pitch your story idea around the audience, and how the value is provided to them, you'll have a much better chance of success.

Junaid Ahmed 4:14
Nice. It's like you got to figure out who wants your product, right? And then go to them,

Christina Daves 4:20
right? Well, where's your audience? Where are your customers? Well,

Junaid Ahmed 4:23
my customers, I don't know if I have any customers. I mean, I do have people listening to this podcast. So it's also says that you're a best selling author. So what did you write,

Christina Daves 4:34
I wrote the book is called PR for anyone, 100 plus affordable ways to easily create buzz for your business. And it is the story of what I did to get my product out there. It's a book of tips, you know, maybe you don't like a TV thing. Yeah, but you like podcasts? Or maybe you want to try social media, or there's so many different options of things you can do? Yeah.

Junaid Ahmed 5:00
What would you like to talk about? I mean, this ocean is an oyster. Yeah,

Christina Daves 5:04
yeah. No, it's just, you know, people are so afraid of the media. There's, they think, Oh, it's this top secret. Yeah. Group insider club. And I can't be a part of it.

Junaid Ahmed 5:15
Just feel like it right.

Christina Daves 5:16
Yeah. But it's, it's not. You got to think of what media is today's 20, 473, 65.

I mean, it's crazy. Yeah. And a lot of them now have to do their own stuff. tv. People have to write their own stories, edit their own story. Well, you know, do everything. So if you can become a valuable asset to the media,

Junaid Ahmed 5:36
they'll keep calling. Interesting. Oh, that makes a lot of sense. So I watch a lot of movies and TV shows, there was this one TV show that I can't remember. But they would keep looking. And they would have these morning meetings where all the turn of the reporters come in, and the main production guy to director be like, Okay, what stories do we have today? And then everybody would pitch their ideas. And they're like, all right, your story is good. You're gonna go on page or Yeah, the main news, right? And you're saying that it is a very accessible I mean, are these people very accessible? They are, I

Christina Daves 6:11
mean, you have to think about social media. Today, we have Twitter, I'd say 95% of journalists are on Twitter, you can get to them

Junaid Ahmed 6:18
easily. And they definitely do advertise that are not advertise. But whenever they do have a news segment data, they'll put their Twitter link right up there. Like this is my Twitter

Christina Daves 6:30
Of course. Yeah. So they do and how often now, when you watch your local Evening News, they tell you to go look at them on Facebook Live, they do going off the air, but now you know, we're going to switch over to Facebook Live. Come join us. Oh, wow.

Junaid Ahmed 6:44
So you could literally talk to them like human beings? Yeah, yes. I guess the interesting part, or what we've been accustomed to growing up, right, is that, okay, this person is behind the TV screen, and we're just the listeners. But now it's social media. It's become a two way traffic, because now you can talk with these people because they're on the same medium as we are through social media,

Christina Daves 7:08
right? Wow, you can you can get to anybody. You really cannot. Now, would I go right away and pitch right off the bat? No, I build a relationship. You know, it's like dating, you know, get to know them a little bit, share their work, show them that you're worthy of a relationship.

Junaid Ahmed 7:25
And it's a full time job, I'm sure. No, no,

Christina Daves 7:28
no, I say 10 minutes a day. Okay.

Junaid Ahmed 7:30
10 minutes, or that's, that's doable. It's doable? Yeah.

Christina Daves 7:34
Now, is it going to take a couple hours to start to figure out who these journalists are? And, you know, read their stuff? Sure. I mean, with anything that's worthwhile, you've got to put a little bit of time into it. But once you have it up and running, it's it's 10 minutes a day. So,

Junaid Ahmed 7:48
um, how would somebody get started in this?

Christina Daves 7:51
Well, like I said, I would, I would go on social media, I would connect with them, I would share their work with with my tribe with my audience

Junaid Ahmed 7:59
to start, I would probably,

Christina Daves 8:02
and then, you know, follow what they're doing. And if you see you have a good fit for a story picture.

Junaid Ahmed 8:07
Well, that's really amazing. I like that. I don't know if I have the time, but I will definitely see who I would be able to reach out to.

Christina Daves 8:15
So people say that all the time. I don't have the time. But if you got in a media outlet that has 7 million people, wasn't it worth your time? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, of course.

Junaid Ahmed 8:27
Yeah.

Christina Daves 8:28
Yeah, I'm sick of I don't have time. So you're on your hamster wheel. But yeah, you know, Albert Einstein says, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results will do something that will get you different result. That's so true.

Junaid Ahmed 8:41
All right. So what can somebody do? I know, you keep telling me, you keep telling us, the audience here is, you know, just get on Twitter, start talking to your or start connecting. But how do you find a good story? Or how do you know what's a good story to pitch to a the store to a reporter Well, that's where your homework comes in. You've got to know the kinds of stories that they cover. So you know, your industry inside and out, right? You're an expert in your industry. Yeah. So if, if you start looking at some of the articles that they're doing, you should be able to see where your expertise that's it That's right, and then you should be able to pitch something that they haven't done, hey, I've read a bunch of your articles. And they're awesome. And, you know, you talked about x and y and z. But have you ever thought of A, B and C, that's what I do. And I would love to provide, you know, here's some things we could talk about. Nice. Do something simple like that. That's really cool. Because I am part of a few groups on Facebook like the anchor community, which is all about podcasting, the LinkedIn mastery community, which is all enter entrepreneurs, getting to know how to get good at LinkedIn. There's a TV community where all the TV producers and and videographers in DC Maryland Virginia come and talk and they're talking about how there's film sessions happening they have Film Festival they just had a film festival last Friday I get emails from people who are pitching their movie ideas and they have Kickstarter campaigns going and they're looking for money and like recently I got an email like we've got 11 days left and we need to raise $29,000

yeah

I don't know if I can help you

but I will share what we're wherever I can get somebody get that can use that can definitely use this information or pitch that hey we're local to this community our local to the city and we we making a film and you know we're looking to raise money find some local people who would like to support think that would definitely get them some money off the bat

Christina Daves 10:51
absolutely absolutely they've got to come up with some you know outside of the box and tie it to something going on in the community something going on in the world yeah and and you know and again it's muscle memory you've just got to start and I say are you gonna get it right out of the gate probably not but a lot of people have mean I have clients who literally the first time they pitch got on Dr. Oz they got to the Washington Post wow they got a national magazine so if it is possible and you know say be prepared for you know I mean I've gotten a gazillion knows along the way but then over 1000 media outlets I use a lot of no's before those yeses but if you make it part of your daily routine and part of everything you do you will see success

Junaid Ahmed 11:37
No That is very true okay so um I was mentioning that that 11 days left and they had the left to raise 29 K so today's email it says to have 17 hours to go and they have met their goal so very happy for them wow that's great this is a color of the sun the first low sprints fired live action film set in New York City so that will be a nice little movie look forward to know I am very involved in the in the Kickstarter community have backed over 300 products services on that community and I'm basically out to help whoever I can help and and that's that's where I'm spreading myself then by doing too many things for too many people. Maybe I watched you at the LinkedIn local last last we had in Clarendon, those awesome mind blowing and you know i opening event

Christina Daves 12:47
good,

Junaid Ahmed 12:48
I like to hear that. So let's get to the hobby part. Right? You had mentioned that if you had the opportunity to work on a specific copy. So tell. Tell us what that would be.

Christina Daves 13:00
I would have gotten into photography. I wish I knew how to take good pictures. Yeah, I love photography as a kid. You know, we only had the little to film cameras. Like I remember. I remember my dad with the Polaroid. Yeah. And then the cameras and yeah, yeah, if I could do it all over again. I would have I would have definitely learned photography

Junaid Ahmed 13:21
there's hope because

because you know um, if you go to flicker a few basically look up any stats on which is the most popular camera in the world. take a wild guess by phone. Yes, absolutely. It really it is. iPhone is the best and most popular camera in the world. They have 2 billion iOS devices that's crazy in the market currently, right. And these devices are being used by every single person I believe in put up a campaign that says shot on iPhone. And you can go to this site see all the beautiful shots taken from an iPhone and they're just amazing noteworthy pictures and photographs. People have taken out, believe in, you know, invested in billboards, huge building size billboards that these photos are printed on. So just think of that. And, you know, and all it takes is just some time composed composition, the golden rule, which is you know, you have because you can put also put up a grid on your phone when you're taking photo. And, you know, you can then easily line up the horizon, the horizon and the vertical lines. And there's, there's a few things you could do to start taking great photos. Okay, you know, we're all have that capability. Just like I have the capability to learn to do this PR thing. You have the capability to be a better photographer. So excited.

Christina Daves 14:53
Yeah, so I'll work on it. I'll use my muscle memory work on that. I'll send you some links.

Junaid Ahmed 14:59
And you can take look, um, is there anything you'd like to share with our audience?

Christina Daves 15:05
Well, I have the PR challenge that you you mentioned earlier, if you guys want to give it a try. And you know, you kept saying, where do you start where you start? If you join the challenge. I take you step by step through it. Yeah, it's a 10 day challenge. It's 10 minutes a day. It's free, and it people having amazing results. So just go to your PR challenge. com.

Junaid Ahmed 15:25
Fantastic. Folks, check out your PR challenge. com. You can also find the link in the show notes. And what Christina? Where can people reach you?

Christina Daves 15:34
That's the easiest way. Christina at PR for anyone calm. I'm all over the place. A few look for PR for anyone, anywhere on social media. You can find the perfect and I'd love to connect. And you can find me on LinkedIn and Twitter and Facebook and Instagram. I'm everywhere.

Junaid Ahmed 15:51
Everywhere. Awesome. Yeah, I like that. I will make sure to follow you on all those platforms, hacks and hobbies is also on all of those platforms, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. And we'll definitely get you connected with our audience. And I've signed up for the challenge though. I'm waiting to get in the group. And we will I really enjoyed speaking with you.

Christina Daves 16:15
Thank you so much for having me. always loved it. Yeah, anybody can reach out and take the challenge because it's pretty, pretty exciting. And we've seen a ton of results.

Junaid Ahmed 16:24
Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for

Christina Daves 16:28
having me. You're welcome.

Junaid Ahmed 16:33
In the next episode, we'll be talking to Katie D. From Luxembourg. She saves people from boring workshops, speeches, and presentations. She's a speaker and a public speaking coach. She helps the audience to feel how a speaker feels and keep them engaged. And she's here to teach us all so tune in again tomorrow.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai