PR Doesn’t Have to be Pushy, But It Can Be Powerful!
How to Get Visible in a Way that Feels Good!

By Sarah Lloyd, PR Alchemist

People often ask me if there is a secret sauce to getting yourself in the press. I wouldn’t say there is, but to quote an old boss of mine ‘There is the traditional way of doing it, and Sarah’s way.’

I wasn’t sure how to take this in the past, but now I get it.

‘My way’ is not new; it is not my way. My way is following my gut instinct, my intuition, the whispers and nudges.

In fact, many have spoken about using our intuition in business for years in this new age of Aquarius and the rise of the feminine business owner. When you are tuning in, listening to the heart, and using your intuition as a guide, you cannot fail. It is also a gentler, fluid, and more feminine way of ‘doing business.’

When individuals or brands step out of their comfort zone, they widen their immediate sphere of influence. Contrary to what some coaches will have you think, gaining awareness through publicity is a slow and continuous journey.

It is all about showing up in your truth – it is also about connection and chemistry. Because, after all, people buy people. People buy people who provide relevant, inspiring, and educational content.

The journey will invariably take many twists and turns – there is the expansion and contraction as we level up, and sometimes that can hold us back. In the media, we are slowly moving away from the ‘witch hunt’ reporting style favored in the past. We are seeing a shift from the old way of doing things.

Readers desire a more truthful and meaningful connection through storytelling.

Over the years, we have seen a lot of fear-based reporting, mainly in the news segments of shows and publications, scaring us into submission, ensuring we are doing as we are told.

However, where there is fear in the news, the features and stories often in the same publications carry balanced, happy, and motivational messages.

Unfortunately, society has become a slave to fear and sharing a message of fear. Working in the corporate world amongst suits who only understood or cared about numbers, your driver became that – a numbers game… We invest X$ equals XX amount of results. We tell ‘them’ what we think they want to hear. Equals sales and getting ahead of the competition.

The fear is that you won’t meet your numbers, make sales, or beat the competition.

It gets you so far – of course it does. It is the way we have always worked.

But this way is killing our world slowly… We are consumed, we are all junkies, we all want more, and our phones are designed so we would fall off a cliff taking a selfie instead of enjoying the scenery.

It is never enough. It has to stop. It is time to take back our Power!

The good news is consumers are more intelligent than ever before. They are waking up and smelling the bullshit. Some are switching off the news or limiting the types of information they consume; some are researching, comparing, and contrasting before making a decision. Thanks to the COVID years and the subsequent cost of living crisis, we don’t mindlessly buy things we don’t need – not after toilet rolls and pasta became like gold dust… remember that?

Some are so clever they can see brands and copy-cat marketing campaigns a mile away.

Crudely, if you were to strip it all back, one or two tiny things usually make the products you are comparing different. It’s like when you make a cake – some taste amazing and melt in your mouth, others not so much, but essentially, the same three key ingredients are in both cakes.

I am not trying to bring fear into publicity, it is the opposite.

Love and embrace that there will always be the same ingredients in a service, product, or offering. And yes, some things set your offering apart from the others – because what you have created is needed for at least one person – which essentially will change their world.

You literally can change ONE person’s entire WORLD by sharing your experience!

When we get caught up in the push around something, we get into our masculine energy (sorry, chaps) and can forget why we started on that road in the first place.

We get caught up in the mindset of ‘keeping up with the Jones.’’ ‘I want to appear in that publication because she is.’

The wrong kind of #metoo.

Publicity plays to the Ego, and people often ask me how I can provide a PR service that doesn’t play to the Ego and is more conscious.

Easy. You check in with yourself A LOT.

You open up to vulnerability. You are Brave.

You ask the questions…

What drives me to make this phone call?
Why am I chasing this feature opportunity?
Why do I want to be in this magazine/on that sofa?

If the answer is something like,

Because they are my people, and my people watch that show or read that magazine.
I just want to be in service.
I will make a difference to those readers/viewers

Then, you are in alignment with your purpose and truth. And it will become easy to get results if you take inspired action.

If it’s because someone else is impacting your why, you are in Ego mode. ‘I want to be in that magazine because ‘x is’ or ‘she did it.’

You are, in comparison, jumping into someone else’s lane and out of your alignment. And most likely, it will be hard to get results.

If you are thinking about telling your story or promoting a product through the media, you can do it gently, slowly, with purpose, and on your terms! I have a membership group with whom I am working who are securing excellent results because they work with their energy and flow.

They check in at every opportunity to ensure that it feels good and matches what they do in their business and recognize that if something isn’t flowing, it may not be the right choice or time for you.

If you have set the intention you wish to share your story often, that is all it takes, and opportunities will spin towards you that you never even dreamed of because the universe has a sense of humour.

You don’t have to go into full-on ‘hard’ launch mode. You don’t!

Whatever is meant for you will never pass you by – in fact, being pushy sometimes means you push it away until you are ready to share your story from the right place.

This article originally appeared in the Winter 2024 issue of CHOICES Magazine