Episode Transcript
Adam O'Leary (00:00.878)
If you're a business owner struggling to stand out in a crowded marketplace and build trust with your ideal clients,
without relying solely on social media, then our guest, Laura Perkins, is about to give you a simple win you can implement today. Laura is a PR strategist and founder of PR with Perkins. She's on a mission to help entrepreneurs stop failing like a best kept secret and become in demand industry icons using her niche famous framework. Welcome to the show Laura, so excited to dive into this with you.
Laura Perkes (00:32.462)
I'm so excited as well, mainly because there is such an outdated belief about PR that for me, I just love the opportunity to come in, bust some myths and really get people excited about utilizing it for business growth.
Adam O'Leary (00:45.836)
Let's go, that's awesome. I've heard you discuss how entrepreneurs often feel invisible or limited by social media alone. Why is shifting from just social media to a more strategic PR approach so crucial for cutting through the noise and building real credibility?
Laura Perkes (01:04.684)
It's a really great question and I always answer it the same way is PR has existed for a lot longer than social media. So social media really has only been around what 15 years before that we've seen brands, legacy brands continue to build and grow and sustain their place in the market because they've used what we'd class now as traditional PR tactics. So yes, there's advertising, yes, there's marketing.
But PR also played a really vital role in that because before social media, PR was the only way that really you could get in front of your ideal clients from a real kind of top of funnel perspective. So for me, I class marketing as middle of funnel. That's where you're allowing your audience to get to know you and build that trust and get involved in maybe decision-making and creating new products and feedback. Whereas PR is really that ultimate kind of credibility builder.
because with marketing, we can all say that we're amazing, but actually when you are featured in the press or interviewed on a podcast, somebody else is telling their audience that you're amazing. So it just lands differently.
Adam O'Leary (02:16.449)
love that. And what sort of results have you seen from implementing PR?
Laura Perkes (02:21.326)
They have been varied and it always depends on what the individual client wants and needs. So sometimes if they are fairly new to the market, they just need to get out there. They literally need to be seen everywhere. Whereas the more established entrepreneurs that I work with, they've pretty much already built their credibility, they've built trust. Now it's about going out to a wider market. It may be that they are launching in a new territory. It may be that they're launching.
a subdivision of the brand, new products. So it's just making sure that they are constantly top of mind so that their consumers or customers or clients don't forget they exist. Because the world moves so fast these days and social media does contribute to that. It's about being memorable and unignorable. So for me, PR is really that kind of, hi, we're here, get to know what we like. And then the marketing does the kind of the heavy lifting in terms
of the nurturing.
Adam O'Leary (03:19.821)
Okay, so let's actually look at this and let's kind of walk through this step by step So it sounds like what we need here is we need some level of a foundation I guess if somebody is looking to go ahead and start a PR campaign What is that foundation that they need?
Laura Perkes (03:28.419)
Yes.
Laura Perkes (03:32.708)
Mm-hmm.
So I always say to clients, and I'm guessing most of the listeners who are listening to this have already established this foundation. It's absolutely know what your message is, make sure that your message is actually converting into customers and clients, that you've got your website optimized, that you've got a lead magnet to capture data, that you're actually analyzing and tracking the input coming into your business so that you know what to double down on.
and you know when to tweak and change things. So for me, that foundational piece is very much the marketing piece. It's making sure that all those cogs are wearing at the same time and it is automated. When I started my business, like automation wasn't a thing, everything was done manually, but it's making sure that every part of that process is talking to the next part.
So for me, for entrepreneurs, I wanna free up your time so that you're not in the weeds of your business. We want that seamless process so that when you start to be interviewed on podcasts, once you start being featured in the press and it's bringing people into the business that way, everything else is running seamlessly behind the scenes. yeah, it's very much know who you're talking to, what it is that they need from you, why are they gonna buy?
So yeah, it's very much that message in peace, but also making sure that marketing machine is well-oiled.
Adam O'Leary (04:59.999)
Absolutely and one thing that you just talked about there is making sure that your message converts to clients Do you have any tips or tricks that you can use to really make sure that your message is converting and that it is ready for PR?
Laura Perkes (05:13.028)
So I'm now probably gonna completely contradict what I've just said because your PR message will be different from your marketing message just in the terms of not necessarily the language, but how we're presenting that message. So again, on social media, it might very much be like the work that you've done recently, could be new products, new services, client testimonials.
Journalists, TV producers, podcast hosts are not interested in that. They are interested in the journey, in the experience, in all the data. Like where did you go wrong and how did you course correct? So for PR, it's more the personal journey. It's the personal experience and expertise. I guess the baseline of the message is the same, but we're kind of having to ramp it up from more of a personal perspective. Whereas obviously with marketing,
Unless you're a personal brand, it's very much focused on the, I was about to say the business brand, terrible way of explaining it. But I think as kind of the brand grows, there still needs to be some input from the founder, because it's the founder that people are interested in. They wanna know, what are you doing in the morning? What are your five tops for success? Or how did you cope with your first failure? Like that's the information that works really well for PR. So it's very much, know.
you really taking the lead in PR and allowing people to see you as the founder. And that will over time also help kind of grow the brand behind the scenes as well.
Adam O'Leary (06:49.397)
Absolutely, it sounds like what you're talking about here is a story, right? So making sure that your messaging comes across as a story. Is that a correct assumption?
Laura Perkes (06:52.644)
Mmm.
Laura Perkes (06:57.39)
Yes, absolutely.
Adam O'Leary (06:59.553)
Fantastic. Okay. So once we actually have that story once we have that flow that message that we know we can go ahead and start pushing out there one thing that you just mentioned was targeting Okay, so now that we have that message now that we've made sure our websites optimized It's time to go out and find those winning PR targets How do we go about do that? And how do we make sure that the targets that we're going after are the correct for what we're trying to get?
Laura Perkes (07:09.272)
Mm-hmm.
Laura Perkes (07:24.9)
Of course, this is where I would always recommend working with a PR specialist, even if it's just short term, even like it's two or three hours, just to really understand. Because as an entrepreneur, you're busy in your business, you're busy working on your business development, product development. You don't know who you need to speak to. You know the end user, you know that you need to speak to them, but you don't necessarily know
Which podcasts are they listening to? Or which radio stations are they listening to? What media outlets are they consuming information from? Are they getting a lot of their information from TikTok? If so, where's the original source of that information? So this is where public relations specialists absolutely come into their own because this is the knowledge and expertise that we've been building for years. For me, I've been doing this for over 20 years. PR is definitely not dead. It's just evolved and grown. And it's all about
especially when clients work with me, it's about actually, where do you need to be seen? So when I talk about PR, yes, I'm talking about podcasts, but it's also what events do you need to be seen at? What events do you need to be part of the panel or speaking on stage? It's very much like, where are your people hanging out? And what do we need to do to get you in front of them? So it's very kind of old school demographic based. That's how a lot of media is created.
And I was actually having a conversation with an entrepreneur yesterday and she said, well, where would you put me? So I was, you know, sharing some different publications with her. And I said, some of them, they are talking to an audience between 20 years old and 45 years old. My job as a PR is to weave your story into a feature idea that's going to work for both ends of that spectrum. So, you know, this is where the PRs really kind of deliver bang for the buck. It's just...
historically having that knowledge of the publications, their demographic, what stories work really well for their journalists. It's kind of crazy. It's like, I have to have like a newsroom in my head all the time and constantly like be plugged into what's going on in the world. But again, using social media as well to listen and see what are the people talking about and what a journalist is gonna be interested in. it's, I love it. mean,
Laura Perkes (09:49.292)
I do have ADHD, but the adrenaline really pumps when I'm working with an entrepreneur who is just really open to being directed and hearing, this is where you're gonna get faster access to your audience. Let's focus on building your presence and credibility there. Then we get to analyze the data. Has it worked? Has it been driving people into your sales pipeline? Has engagement been higher on social media? So I always say to people,
PR is often the missing piece of the puzzle because it's so easy to focus on marketing. That's the fun part, isn't it? Whereas I think with PR, it's that kind of extra layer of, God, I've now got to be more visible. I've got to lead from the outside. You may not want to be public facing, but it's just all part of that brand journey. And it's those stories that people trust. Anyone can say, we've had a million five-star reviews. Yeah, but have you really?
It's the experiences, it's the conversations that really kind of enrich your brand and bring more kind of customers and clients in.
Adam O'Leary (10:56.012)
love that. And so when we're going ahead and we're actually on, say, a podcast or on the news or whatever it might be, how do we go ahead and leverage that opportunity to build trust and a relationship with the audience?
Laura Perkes (11:07.748)
So one thing I learned in the summer actually, so I've started hosting intimate PR and private dining events. And for me, it's to give entrepreneurs access to journalists, TV producers, podcast hosts. And I had a TV producer from Sky News join us. And he said that the best people to interview are actually the founder led.
entrepreneurs because they are way more open and honest as opposed to a lot of the global brands that we know and love because they've got a much bigger reputation to consider. They've got shareholders that they need to consider. So they're often a lot more perfectly polished, whereas a founder led entrepreneur is more realistic, more honest with their thoughts, their feelings, their opinions. So
I would always say, look, be true to you.
but in maybe a slightly more filtered way. So if I was gonna be interviewed on TV, I probably wouldn't show up as this and being all bubbly and effervescent. I would kind of control it slightly because I want my words to make the impact. I don't necessarily want people to read the energy or judge how I look. It's definitely kind of what I'm saying. So it's just making sure that what you're saying is true to you.
is being delivered in an impactful and meaningful way. And that's something that I have to work with with clients because it's just a different form of communication.
Adam O'Leary (12:47.134)
Absolutely, and I know one thing that a lot of founder led entrepreneurs will struggle with this time They're so busy right there. They're putting out fires. They're dealing with clients They're trying to get new clients and so there's all this type of stuff when you throw PR in the mix Obviously now you're adding more time How do you go about time management when it comes to working with your clients?
Laura Perkes (12:52.996)
Mm.
Laura Perkes (13:05.444)
Mm.
Laura Perkes (13:09.998)
So I always make sure I kind of understand their business model and what their day-to-day priorities look like, because for so many founders, they're involved in a lot of things that maybe they don't necessarily need to be involved in. And it could just be a case of, is this something that you can delegate to someone else to free up your time? So, you know, when I work with clients on a done-for-you basis, clients will often say to me, how much of my time do you...
do you need? And it's like, we literally have a catch up once a month because we want to keep on top of what's going on in the business, what's going on in the industry, what do we need to know about? Anything else is literally the opportunities. So if a journalist wants to use your quotes in an article, they might need 10 minutes of your time on the phone. Or if it's an interview where the media outlet has sent us the questions, it's a case of you answering them.
But if you don't have time to type them out, send me a voice note. Like I am the voice note queen and I'm very much like, if this can be said in a message, don't send me an email, send us the voice message, we'll then do the kind of typing for you. So for me, it's all about making sure that we are communicating as efficiently as possible.
I've had conversations with clients in an airport before and they've literally like, I'm 10 minutes before I'm boarding and it's like, it's cool. We'll get this wrapped up super quickly, leave it with me. We'll do what we need to do our end. So yes, there is a time element, but it's not time draining if that makes sense. Cause the way that I communicate with clients is very much just send me a voice note, send it in the back of a cab on the way to the airport.
I was about to say in the loo, don't send me a voice note when you're on the toilet. So it's just making sure that I understand your schedule and your priorities so that we can absolutely become a part of your business and how it runs rather than feeling like it's just kind of stuck on the end and it's a drain.
Adam O'Leary (15:19.092)
Absolutely, and so this podcast is named simple wins So what would you say would be one simple win our listeners could implement right now? To whether it be to go get more PR to go get their voice out there. What would you recommend for people?
Laura Perkes (15:34.786)
I don't know if I could answer that succinctly.
I would always make the invitation to start taking PR more seriously. Because one thing I've definitely noticed since social media has become such a cultural trend and is such, it's so consistent in all of our lives and is a really easy way to get in front of customers and clients is.
For me, PR is almost like the legacy piece because you're creating a digital footprint. And yes, so does being on LinkedIn and so does it being on Instagram and Facebook. But if social media disappeared, like when we've had outages and all of a sudden you've lost your entire audience, so many businesses are like, my God, what am gonna do? And it's like, absolutely you need social media. It's such a crucial part of business growth, but.
it does sometimes feel like you're building your business and your audience on quicksand. Cause it's like, if those disappear, where are you going to go? The brands that will survive or not take the hit as much are those investing in other areas of visibility. So podcasts, press, TV, radio, the old school tactics that do take longer to materialize. And they are
They're not a quick win. They don't provide the dopamine hit that we're now used to with kind of shorter term tactics. But that's very much your point of difference as well. Like if anybody was to Google you and you've got three or four really strong pieces of media coverage, because don't forget as well, this feeds into SEO. So it's all kind of tying into.
Laura Perkes (17:29.636)
the kind of sustainability, longevity and legacy of your brand as well. It's not just what can we do now, it's what foundation can we lay for the future of the business.
Adam O'Leary (17:38.444)
Absolutely, and where can people go to learn more about you?
Laura Perkes (17:41.24)
The best place to find me right now is not my website because it's having some reconstruction surgery. It will be either on LinkedIn as Laura Perks or on Instagram at PR with Perks.
Adam O'Leary (17:57.77)
Very nice. Well, Laura, thank you so much for jumping on with me today. I love this episode. It is so cool to know just about how important PR is because seriously, I believe every founder-led entrepreneur should be using PR. It is such a great way to grow your business. So thank you so much, Laura, for jumping on.
Laura Perkes (18:13.686)
No, thank you so much. look forward to hearing this episode and receiving feedback as well, because it's always interesting to see where it lands with people.
Adam O'Leary (18:22.825)
Absolutely. Well, thank you all for listening and I will see you on the next episode of Simple Wins.
