Liz Nable 0:00
As some of you may already know, I'm taking my Pitch Perfect workshop on tour around regional New South Wales over the next few months. Pitch Perfect is a one day media and PR workshop that's designed to help launch your business to the world. Whether you have an existing business and you want to grow your audience using the media, or you have a business on the back burner that you're preparing to launch, this workshop is for you. In six hours, we craft your brand story, draft media pitches and prepare you the head honcho to become the best known expert in your industry, ripe for the media to showcase over and over again. We've had one sellout event in Sydney. And now we're taking it to the bush, because there's some serious talent out there and women doing incredible things in business. The first stop is Dubbo on Friday, the 22nd of July. So if you're in the hood, or you know within a cheeky cooee of 500 kilometres or so, be sure to book your spot now at www.liznable.com/pitchperfectdubbo. Next up will be Wagga in September, so stay tuned for dates for that one.
So in line with my regional tour of Pitch Perfect. The next four or five episodes will be dedicated to women in business in rural and regional Australia. There's so much talent in our regions and the wonder of the Internet brings it all straight to our laptops, anytime we want to support small businesses from any town or country. So sit back and enjoy the next few weeks because I've hand picked not only some of my all time favourite businesses and their products, but my favourite female entrepreneurs taking risks, backing themselves and putting even some of the tiniest country towns on the map with their expertise. So my first guest in this series on loosely calling it country women's business is PR guru Georgie Quigley of Georgia Quigley PR born in Warren population 1530. According to Google, she spent her high school years at boarding school in orange before eventually settling in Sydney. But George's strong ties to the land has seen her gravitate back to her roots over and over again to help small business owners in rural and remote areas doing incredible things get the PR exposure they deserve. She understands her clients challenges coming from small country towns compared to big city organisations. She understands the media and so naturally, she gets them incredible results. Her clients include lady Kate women's knitwear, incy, interiors, the design paddock, Marg studio, Barney and Jack fetched and borrow. Collectively her clients say George is seriously well connected, a breeze to work with and consistently generates amazing results. This episode is chock full of tips and tricks from Georgie on all the hacks to getting the best PR when you're in small biz, whether you have a big, small or no budget. So settle in. And let's learn from the PR master herself.
Hello, I'm Liz Nable, and you're listening to Nable My Business, the podcast. When I first started in small business almost 10 years ago, I had no idea what I was getting into. You see my background was in the media. I had spent 15 years as a television news journalist and reporter working at several major networks in Australia. And then as a freelancer in the US and around the world. I spent years dividing my time between working long shifts on a news desk and travelling the world chasing stories. It was unpredictable and exciting. Until it wasn't anymore. I decided I wanted to live where I was in charge of what happened next. And where I was working to build my own empire, not someone else's. I also never wanted to work a midnight new shift again. Now, I don't have to. There was a lot I had to learn about running my own business. But one thing I already had in the bag was how to get media coverage and free PR. I knew what the media wanted. I knew the secret formula for what made us and I knew how to leverage those organisations to build my business, get more exposure and ultimately make more sales. During my decade of building my business, I have managed to get featured in almost every major news outlet in the country. I've been interviewed on television countless times had personal profiles written up in women's magazines, done point of view pieces for large newspapers and been listed in Top 100 List women in business and in my industry. And I've never spent a single cent on PR. I took that knowledge for granted until it dawned on me one day that I could teach what I knew to other businesses. Let them in on the secret and they do could build their businesses, leveraging the media and gaining free PR. They could use my insights in the industry and my behind the scenes experience and take their business from best kept secret to a well known brand, simply by following my formula. Welcome to enable my business, the podcast.
Unknown Speaker 5:23
Hi, Georgie, thank you so much for joining us for this episode of Nable My Business.
Georgie Quigley 5:28
Thank you for having me, Liz. It's fun to be here.
Liz Nable 5:32
Yeah, I'm excited because we haven't had a PR, like a specialist in PR. On the podcast yet. We've had journalists and we've had various different small businesses. We've had a few other experts, but I'm really intrigued to get your insight into the PR world. And particularly, because I know you have a lot of regional and rural businesses that you help and the flavour of these next few podcast episodes is women lead, regional and rural businesses. So I'm keen to hear all about what you do.
Georgie Quigley 6:08
Yeah, no excited to share. I think PR is a very unknown world to anyone in it.
Liz Nable 6:14
Yeah, absolutely. Tell me a little bit about so let's just start at the beginning. What what is PR? And how does it relate to someone in small business? Because obviously, there's big PR teams and PR machines if you're in a big global corporation. But what's PR, in its essence? And what does it mean for small business?
Georgie Quigley 6:35
So it's a good question. I feel like even people who work in PR don't even know the answer to it. I didn't actually even know what it was. Until I started my first job. I didn't study PR, I purely fell into it by accident and thankfully, loved it and have stuck with it ever since. I guess what I see is the biggest role of PR is proactively putting out your brand or your organisation or your company's message to the public in order to build credibility and your profile.
Liz Nable 7:13
So tell me a little bit about how you got started in PR, you mentioned that you didn't actually intend to be where you are right now.
Georgie Quigley 7:20
No, I didn't. I was one of those tragic arts students who, you know, started off their arts degree thought I'll just give it a year or two. And then I'll figure out what I want to do and make the switch Arts degrees very quick, was over in three years, I probably put too much energy into socialising and not enough into career development. But I was working a part time job just you know, kids retail store to help fund the uni lifestyle. And one day, lady came in there and I was just bored and got chatting to her. You know, oh, you on your lunch break? What do you do for work? And she said, our PR is like, Oh, what's that? Like? I said, I'm one of those tragic arts students that doesn't know where they're headed in life. But PR has always jumped out at me. And she said, Oh, here's my business card. We're always looking for interns. And I followed up with her intern for four days. And then she said, Alright, you've got our junior job. Wow. Yeah. Which was wild and very exciting. And I can remember in my job interview her saying, you know, what are you looking forward to most about PR, and I was like, I just everything like, General, I had no idea what I was aiming for. But, you know, I worked with her. She was my first job for three and a half years. And I sort of see her as a bit of a mental figure. And yeah, really responsible for my learning and my love for the industry. Wow.
Liz Nable 9:02
And I know you're from you're originally from Warren in Northwest New South Wales, so you have strong, you know, personal connections with the land and with rural and regional Australia. Yeah. And have you ended up going to specialise for what of a better word in helping rural and regional businesses with their PR?
Unknown Speaker 9:21
Yeah, I think it's definitely, by default become a bit of a passion project for me, I suppose. Yeah. As you said, I grew up in Warren, I then went to boarding school in Orange, and then I'm now based in Sydney. So I feel like I've kind of had that good stepping stone between like, quiet, you know, remote sort of rural areas, then, you know, some place like Orange where it's, you know, you've got access to a little bit more and then get now in Sydney where everything's here, that I think there's very few people When you live in Sydney that actually get what it's like to be a rural or regional business unless you've lived it. And so I think for me, knowing the difference that something like PR can make for those small brands, where it is often a one man show, you really feel the weight of your efforts on the other end, and it's super rewarding.
Liz Nable 10:25
Tell me a bit about the work you've done with with small businesses in rural and regional areas. And I know this applies to obviously small businesses in cities as well. And what kind of results that that work has created opportunities for those businesses.
Unknown Speaker 10:41
Yes, so I work in what is referenced as consumer lifestyle, PR. So that's pretty much any brands or businesses that you and I, as consumers would purchase that in the lifestyle space. So it might be travel, food, fashion, health, beauty, pretty much anything in that remit. And so within that, I guess, depending on the client and what they've been looking for, there's always different reasons for doing PR. I think a really good example of one brand that I worked with super early doors is called The Design Paddock. And they're two girls by the names of Trene and Millie and they're interior designers that basically found that there weren't many interior design studios that were based in Sydney that were happy to travel to regional or remote areas and help them with their, like houses or businesses. And so they saw that there was a gap there. But what they found being two young girls, was that one, again, people I think, don't understand what interior designers do. And often think of them more as interior stylists that kind of fluff cushions. And that's what they were having a bit of trouble with. They were like, No, we know our stuff. But we don't think because we're young, and we're female. And people don't necessarily understand what we do, that we're missing that credibility piece. So for me, pitching them out to get media coverage was, you know, that kind of tools that they then had in their ammunition to be like, no, no, we know what we're, we're what we're talking about. We've been in the Sydney Morning Herald, we've been on Vogue Living, we've been on domain, you know, we've been in some of the home media, magazines. And it was sort of that tool that then they had. So people went on to their website, or when they were talking about themselves and pitching to work that it was just like, you know, we are actually credible, and we know what we're talking about. So that was a really useful tool for them and also lead to new business leads.
Liz Nable 13:06
How do you decide with a business like that? A, who you're going to pitch and what the narrative is going to be? And is it the same narrative for each media outlet? Or are you you know, doing like a personal angle, and then a business angle, then and then a women angle? How does that work when you're when you're doing what you do for these businesses?
Georgie Quigley 13:24
Yeah, no, it definitely varies, I think, gone are the days in PR, the whole sort of one pitch that can appeal to multiple outlets, because people know that their readers want the tailored content that is to suit them. So and like for example, for interior designers, one of the biggest things is sharing their knowledge. And so one of the best ways to do that is by them sharing their expertise on, you know, with tips of like, the best ways, like three clever ways to create a study knockout home, or something like that. And you can't roll out that same content for each publication. So you absolutely have to tailor your pitch to suit them and what their audience is looking for, what their budgets might be, and as well as their style.
Liz Nable 14:23
So, I know a lot of small businesses when I speak to them, they they say I actually spoke with a business this morning and their sort of response to what I do was, well, isn't traditional media dead? Like what's the point of you know, if I'm trying to grow myself locally, or, you know, I'm a small business, I can't say, you know, I'm not a big international conglomerate. They sort of FOB off the media as being traditional media is being something that's that's done and dusted. How do you kind of get the word out there for small businesses? In you know, not necessarily big major publications. shouldn't but smaller, more local publications and how do you get creative with with with doing that?
Georgie Quigley 15:05
Yeah, that's interesting you say that. And I think that's something that we, as publicist have run into, and probably will continue to run into, particularly when some of these businesses are looking for PR to drive sales, which you would know is a disaster if that is the reason that you're undergoing PR in order to make sales, you probably shouldn't be doing PR, you know, PR is all about building brand awareness and credibility. And so those are usually your two main objectives. And so yeah, if that's what they're focusing on, then it's probably not a good idea. How do I go about competing with bigger companies that, you know, may already sort of own a space, I guess that's where the value in your publicist relationships with media lie, it is quite hard to get cut through. And, you know, I know that from when I started in my early days of PR, compared to where I am now. And, you know, you've got those journalists that you can call or they'll see your name pop up in an email. They'll be like, Oh, it's Georgie. Oh, I remember, we did that story with her on, you know, X, Y, Zed. That was really good. I wonder what she's got this time. So I think that that really helps. And I do think even though there are major companies out there, doesn't mean that they want to feature them all the time. You know, they're looking for something different in something new, which is what the small, often regional businesses are offering, they're not doing, you know, the same cookie cutter, you know, business idea that these bigger companies have, it's usually something new and exciting that they haven't heard before. So that's always good for them. And for those publications, to be sharing something with their audience that they might not have seen, they don't want to be sharing the same stuff that's in every other publication.
Liz Nable 17:18
It's interesting that you say, you know, people in businesses shouldn't do PR to drive sales, because there's such a big misunderstanding with PR. And the difference between growing brand awareness and you know, growing, you know, building your reputation as a reputable brand, as opposed to hitting a sales target. So how do you quantify good PR?
Unknown Speaker 17:46
Another good question, I think that, like, for me, it's about setting up kind of a bit of a target list of, you know, what would success look like to you as the brand when it comes to PR and then trying to figure out what we can do. I have worked on clients, for example, in the past, where they were a beauty brand, and their goal was to get stocked in Chemist Warehouse. So for them to be able to go and show. There like to show Chemist Warehouse, that we're investing in PR The this is what the media has to say about us. We're not going to just give you a product that's left on your shelf for you to deal with. We're being proactive ourselves. So, you know, for us, therefore, it was about getting media coverage in those top tier publications that Chemist Warehouse would care about. So I think in terms of measuring, you know, your ROI, we can absolutely do my readership figures or eyeballs, which is able to showcase, you know, this is how many people have now seen your brand or heard about it on a podcast. And yeah, that's sort of the major tool in saying that sales can and will happen. You know, but it isn't something that you should be measuring your publicist or your PR agency on. But it is really, it is, you know, really good from the brands and have things set up like their website traffic to be able to see Oh, something came out today in the Sydney Morning Herald our website traffic has spiked. And then, you know, following that for them to have it set up there and to retarget those people that you know, click through to their website. That's not my job to go and have that set up. But it is something I would definitely advise brands to have, you know, ready from there and in order to maximise The use of that media coverage and then, you know, they can amplify it on their own channels as well, by putting it on their website as seen in X publication, they can share it on their LinkedIn, their social media, all those things to build credibility and show that they've got something that's worth knowing about.
Liz Nable 20:18
It, I think in correct me if I'm wrong here, but PR is obviously a slow burn. So you need to be consistent, correct?
Unknown Speaker 20:27
Yes, you will, you know, kind of split sometimes PR into two things of proactive and reactive PR. There are some brands that are big enough that it's almost reactive, that there will be, you know, a journalist working on a feature, and they know exactly what brand they want to talk about. And they will come to the publicist and ask for images or to speak with the founders of the business. But because there are so many brands out there, you have to be part of the noise, if you want to get cut through and be proactively putting out your brand. You know, for example, you know, it's freezing at the moment, and people are doing features on knitwear. And you know, there's lots of knitwear brands out there. But if you're not being proactive and putting your brand forward that they're like, oh, here, I've got a jumper that I can use, I've got the price on just stand, you know a little bit about the brand. And what makes it different from other jumpers. Great, I'm gonna feature that. But if you're not putting that information forward to the journalist, you stand no chance pretty much in being featured.
Liz Nable 21:44
So does that mean you have to have a PR? I mean, obviously, small businesses is you know, you're a small business you sell yeah, there's never a huge budget, if any budget for PR, two questions, does it mean you either have to have like a PR person all the time? And if you can't afford that, like, what can you do to do your best without a PR person like you on the team?
Unknown Speaker 22:09
Yeah, definitely don't need to have a publicist all the time. And sometimes it's not relevant. To be honest, like, I, for example, do work with a knitwear brand called Lady Kate knitwear. She's based out in Narrabri. And it's a 100%, Australian merino wool, knitwear brand, which you're obviously is only going to be relevant to the media during the cooler months, you know, there's no chance that they're going to put woolen knit in their Summer issue. So for someone like her, we worked together for half a year, just because it's not relevant. The other times, I think for brands, if they only have budget for a smaller, smaller budget, then you are better to consolidate your efforts and do PR for a couple of months and really go hard, get some good results. And then stop, you will notice the difference, once you stop you, you will stop getting media features, but it is a more effective strategy. And very few publicists probably would work on a brand that had a really small budget. And you know, you could only do one or two things a month, it's just not worth the brand's while and it's not worth our while as well. So if you were a small business that probably Yeah, had less phones, I would go harder for a shorter amount of time. But make it when you've got something to talk about, or it's a really seasonal time for you. So if you're launching a new product, that's probably a great time to have a campaign if you've got something new to talk about. Or, you know, if you ask something like a sunscreen brand, then summer is your key period. So, you know, concentrate your efforts, then
Liz Nable 24:10
is there anything that business owners can do then, if they have zero budget or be in their downtime when they don't have a campaign with a PR agency?
Georgie Quigley 24:22
I think that's probably you know, when you can get creative about thinking, you know, what can you do on your own, like most small businesses tend to run their own social media and I guess, you know, are there things that you can be doing on those channels, like giveaways or collaborating with other brands to do certain things? Is there something that you can be doing on your email, like marketing lists that you know, it's exclusive to those people to keep them engaged? Sometimes is is a good window almost for brands to do some planning and think about what they can be doing each year, like or for the rest of the year. And so sometimes it's okay to have those will lols so that you can, you know, think your strategy over 12 months. All right? These are our key periods. This is when we're going to go hard. What do we need to get organised in order to maximise that time?
Liz Nable 25:26
How do you feel about business owners pitching the media direct?
Georgie Quigley 25:32
I think it's, I think it's definitely something the media is open to and interested in. reading their pictures, I just think it is something you want to do with a bit of knowledge, you definitely want to like, listen to some podcasts or do some DIY Podcast, DIY PR courses. So that you when you are approaching media, you have some sort of an idea of what you're doing. I definitely don't think it's a bad idea. I think you just want to be educated so that you don't get, you know, email deleted straight away. And it wasn't worth your time putting all that effort in.
Liz Nable 26:16
Exactly, exactly. Do just going back to your your regional and rural businesses. Is there an advantage? Do you think to being in a regional or rural area, in small business in terms of the potential coverage that you can get? I know, like, there's always a really good engagement level of like local magazines and local content that you can looks at. I mean, I'm obviously in the city. But to me, it sounds like there's, there's more opportunity in the regions, which which would have sounded strange 10 years ago, but it's so much, it's so much more connected out there, then, you know, it's a very noisy in the city.
Unknown Speaker 26:53
I so agree with that. I think that I think that one of one of the first things about it is you've got that additional pillar to pitch out to media about your business from a starting point, like, you know, as well as, like, I'm sure you're ticking some boxes, whether you're like sustainable, whether you're a small business, whether you're female led, you know, lots of good things like that, but then you've got that additional one of being rural and regional. And obviously, we've seen the impact of something like buy from the bush and, you know, creating that connection between city and country, and people want to support that. And as much as we've had other things still going on in the world over the last few years. And people still, you know, when it comes to keep her it's like Christmas time and birthdays and things like that, you know, we're still looking to support small and regional where we can. So I think that is helpful. And I think the other thing is, though, you absolutely have that sense of community, like, you will notice that on brands, Instagram pages, when they are sharing media coverage of their little regional business that you know, has featured somewhere and the reception that that gets because there is such a community is honestly amazing. Like, I know, for example, there's this feature that we just recently did for Lady Kate knitwear, who. Penny is this amazing woman who also runs a podcast with Sky Manson called Women Behind Wool. And it is about, you know, shining light on these amazing women who have been doing fantastic things in the wool industry. And as part of that story, we collaborated with a regional photographer, in Narromine, Clancy Payne, to pull together that shoot, which we then pitched to The Women's Weekly, they got Skye another regional lady to write the article, all of a sudden, it's this piece where we've got a photographer, a regional photographer, a regional journalist, and then we've been able to hero four different women in the wool industry and put together this amazing spread in The Women's Weekly. And so something like that absolutely fosters that sense of community that you wouldn't have had if that was a Sydney based story.
Unknown Speaker 29:26
No, absolutely not. And it's interesting because we talked about quantifying what PR means to a business because, you know, all small business owners, including myself, say, okay, so how much money is this going to bring me? You can't really put a price on a four page featuring Women's Weekly for the cost of you, let's say for a three month campaign. I don't know what that is, but I would say it more than covers what that would cost to put an advert in the Women's Weekly.
Unknown Speaker 29:52
Yeah, definitely. And I think the other thing that people may not understand is that like you think about yourself, when you look at when you look through a magazine, I seen an ad, I flick straight to the next page, my eyes barely even registered because I know that it's paid for and it's advertising. I don't want to read that advertising. I want to read the editorial. So yeah, it's not even just like how much that would have cost. It's also how much value you'll get out of that, because people will read it. They're not going to flick to the next page. Yeah, because there's a
Unknown Speaker 30:31
story attached. I think I explained to me I talked about this on my stories today, because it's Australian made week. And I was watching the Today Show randomly. And in the weather section they're featuring Australian-Made businesses, they've been doing it all week. And, you know, there were a couple of businesses that I had never heard of before that they do you know, it's two minute weather break. There's someone talking authentically about your brand, trying your product, you know, making great comments about it, you know, it say, for example, it's the host of the show, who is someone who is liked and known and trusted to the viewers. There's so much value in that as opposed to, you know, the next ad break when an ad for you know, a Big Mac comes on or whatever. Can you explain a bit more about like the editorial and like the value in being part of a feature or being part of something that's not direct advertising, and how that how that works?
Georgie Quigley 31:34
Yeah, I guess, the biggest thing about that is the sort of trust that comes from it, because anyone knows with advertising, you know, you speak to someone, they give you a cost, you send them over the assets, they printed or televise it, or record it, word for word, pretty much how you said, and you pay for it. The thing with editorial coverage is, although you might be paying a publicist to put out the messaging, you're not paying for the feature. And so having that third party endorsement from, you know, particularly if it is from a credible journalist that is, you know, talking or sharing or writing about your product, gives it almost that like, Oh, my business is legit, like, you know, because they don't have to write about it. And they don't have to write about it favourably. No one's paying them to do that. And they could have featured any brand or any product in that space, and they've chosen to feature yours. So it's a massive, like talk ability point for brands to have and you know, you can absolutely amplify that sort of media coverage as well to really get the most out of it.
Liz Nable 32:53
How important do you think it is for small even in small business, obviously, in a small business, you wearing lots of different hats, you know, everything from accounting, to sales, to marketing to you know, obviously media and PR, which for a lot of people is not their strength, not because they don't necessarily like it, but they don't know much about it. I talk a bit in you know, podcasts and on my socials about being easy to work with, both with someone like yourself, who's a PR person, but also with the media directly as well. Can you sort of shed any light on your thoughts on how small business owners can be even if they have limited knowledge, easy to work with? And why that's, that's a smart idea to to encourage being asked to back again.
Georgie Quigley 33:34
Yeah, absolutely. Media, some of the busiest people, we know, they, unfortunately, lots of publications now have such a reduced amount of staff working for them. So it's something they used to have, you know, five people now has to so everything that you can do as a business owner to make their job easier, will be very much appreciated. So you know, whether I'll give you an example like so, with the today's show in May, that we're doing a segment for Mother's Day gift guides, and I'd been speaking with the producer of the show, and he was like, Look, send send your products in, I can't guarantee that they'll get a mention because everyone's just sending products in but they'll be on set. And it'll just be up to the host as to sort of what gets said, and I and I hadn't been dealing with the host and I was like, right, what can I do to make this as easy as possible for the journalists so that she doesn't get there on the day? And he's like, What are these random products? It's got no backstory. And because I guess I work for, you know, a couple of different brands. I was like, Okay, I'm gonna break These down into dog points and sort of say, here are the three brands that I've sent across. And this is the type of mom they're best suited for. And then I gave her a ride a rough price bracket for the products too. And I said more than happy to give you a call if you want to talk. And she was like, thank you so much, Georgie called me straightaway, we had a five minute chat, where I was able to say, you know, this is during cinco, they're a beautiful ceramics brand. Great for the mom who has everything next, and, you know, talk her through a couple of brands, and because that was smooth sailing to her, took her, you know, five minutes to get some information on three different brands. And when it came to the day of the segment, she referenced all three brands. You know, she had some context on them. Yeah. So it's like those kinds of things about thinking, you know, if you were the journalist, what would make this easiest for me? And it's like, someone just giving me a quick rundown on the brands, while I've got them here in person, and I know what they're talking about. It's just kind of thinking about those sorts of
Liz Nable 36:12
things. Yeah, absolutely. making it as easy as possible to deliver it to them on a silver platter. So they don't think about it. Yeah, yeah. Do you have any other kind of top tips for small businesses who perhaps might have budget in the future to get a PR person or might just be thinking about PR for the first time about some of the basic steps they can take? In the interim?
Georgie Quigley 36:38
Yeah, those up, I think, definitely, one thing they can be doing and should be doing is just making sure that everything from there and is up to scratch, like, make sure that your socials are, you know, I guess like, I don't know about you. But for me nowadays, when I hear about a brand, the first place I look is on Instagram, if I don't, I don't even go to the website, like I do go to the website, but not as the first point of call. So I think you know, you want to go and see that they're active, that it looks professional, you know that they're not just all pictures taken on an iPhone, you know, that they've invested some money into getting some proper imagery taken both, you know, lifestyle, sort of styled shoots, and then also product based or, you know, if they're an interior designer, that they're able to showcase some of the beautiful spaces that they've renovated or before and afters, that sort of thing. And then you know, make sure that your website is up to date as well. And that, you know, it all looks great. Like, I think before you undergo PR like that is something that I would be looking at for brands. And there's some brands that aren't PR trouble in their current state. So I would say make sure you've got all those things sorted. And if you are ready to undergo PR, I think there's like two other things that you probably should be aware of. And one is just making sure that your images are media worthy. Again, that's both having some styled shots. But a lot of the time if you're a product based business, that is having those deep edged high resolution, product images. And so, you know, you might have the best, the best brand and the best story in the world. But if your images aren't up to scratch journalist will not feature you. So I think that's really important. And then I think the second thing is that I sometimes find brands will do is they'll approach you, you know, this actually happened to me. Last week, I got approached by a vitamin brand that was like, oh, you know, it's cold and flu season, this is a really key period for us. Like, we want to do a PR campaign. And this, I got this call on the 31st of May, you're totally better. And I'm like, you know, winter starts tomorrow. Like you've missed the boat. Absolutely, I would, you'll be able to and so what I mean by that people be like New Jersey winters tomorrow. But, you know, knowing that long lead media, like magazines work at least three months in advance, if you have a key period like that, that you want to be going after, you kind of need to be having these conversations in February, March in order to get to have your product ready for that specific time. So I think you know, probably feels crazy now but if Christmas is a key period for you, like you need to be thinking about what you're going to be doing for Christmas and getting that you know, all organised. So come probably August, or your assets are ready, you know what products you're going to be pushing. And you've got your imagery sorted and things like that, because that's when you know, media will start will start to be working on their Christmas gift cards, for example. Yeah, absolutely.
Liz Nable 40:23
I think that people, if they're not, if they're not clear on where they want to be featured, or they don't have a good understanding of the media, you know, obviously, perhaps if you wanted to be on the six o'clock news, that's something that can be done in a shorter term. But if a magazine is monthly, like you say, it's at least six months, if not more, any long lead magazines, or any sort of stories on long format, you know, TV shows or lifestyle, lots of lead time. And, you know, talking to someone like you or making sure they're informed about different publications, and when they need to be, you know, advanced knowledge of what's happening.
Georgie Quigley 41:03
Yeah, definitely. And again, it's not one of those things that's assumed knowledge by any means. But, you know, I guess your comment before about should businesses do their own PR? That's a perfect example of something you want to be aware of, if you are pitching, because if a journalist or women's health gets an email on the first of June about, you know, tips for the cold and flu season, they're going to be like, you know, it's not going to be received? Well,
Liz Nable 41:35
no. And then you lose your credibility with that journalist, and they won't listen to you again. Yeah. Just a couple more questions. Before we wrap up, how important is it for small business owners to know how to talk to the
Georgie Quigley 41:47
media? Yeah, I mean, I think it definitely makes a huge difference, like in terms of, it's not just like, understanding what it is that they need to know, and what's relevant and relevant. Like, I think something that brands probably need to be aware of is, it's you need to be conscious that your brand or your expertise, or whatever it is, that you are putting out needs to be as unbranded as possible. Because like, particularly for something like TV, like, it is quite hard to get on one of those morning TV programmes, for example, like the Today Show, or sunrise, if you are a product based business, because for them, you're then coming to compete with their advertorial and you know, the infomercials. And then, so that is not something that they're going to sort of allow to run. So it needs to be, you know, what is something that if I was almost watching this, as a viewer, I'm gonna get something out of and I might think, Oh, she was really knowledgeable, you know, naturopaths, and nutritionists, for example, but it wasn't heaven, Lee branded with, you know, I'm a nutritionist from this brand. Yeah. So I think like understanding that sort of thing when you're pitching out. And therefore with, you know, what you say, and how you do it is really, is really key. Because, as you also said, if you do a good job, you'll be invited back. And, you know, that is the case for something like an expert, where, you know, there's not just going to be one nutritional thing that's of interest to talk about in a calendar year, there's going to be multiple opportunities. So if you're good talent, and you do a good job, you know, it is likely that you'll get another opportunity.
Liz Nable 43:51
Again, because it's easy for them to ask you back then to try someone fresh and risk run the risk of they're not good talent on TV. Yeah. So So basically, what you're saying is it needs to be if you're if you are going to pitch the media, if you are going to try and get a spot get yourself a spot on a big primetime TV show like morning show or evening primetime show. It needs to be about the story not about selling, not standing there like you're on sale.
Georgie Quigley 44:22
Don't be doing that. Don't be
Liz Nable 44:23
doing that your your your product is the byproduct of the whole segment. It's about the story and the contribution you make as the expert not about you selling the product directly.
Georgie Quigley 44:35
Yeah, yeah, there might be some very, very examples where it goes the other way. Like maybe there has been some, you know, a celebrity or something that has worn your product or, you know, endorsed it that way. And then they might be like, Oh my gosh, this is a random small business in the middle of Timbuktu. Let's get them on. And you might be able to talk about your brand that way. which case it's the reactive PR. But if you are proactively putting your brand out there as unbranded as possible is kind of the way to go.
Liz Nable 45:12
Is there anything that you kind of love the most about working with women in business in rural and regional areas?
Georgie Quigley 45:20
Lots of things. I think it's, I think something for me, it's just people are really genuine. And you know, I have clients who will be like, I can't talk today, I'm on holidays with my family, like, I'll be away for the next two weeks. And you know, that, I actually just appreciate the love that honesty wears. If you were in a bigger brand, I feel like there would be someone who is sort of like covering your spots. So I think there is just this really nice two way street of, you know, honesty and being genuine. And I find lots of people are really real about their brand too. Like, they kind of get it and sometimes, you know, they know that they need to be doing more in order to compete with what other brands are doing like that. I don't know, people just tumble and I don't know, it's just got a good, wholesome sort of vibe.
Liz Nable 46:22
Yeah, yeah, I get to I feel exactly the same way. And there's so many small businesses and brands in it feels like it's exploded in the last couple of years like in rural and regional parts of Australia and they're just kicking massive goals. And it's just awesome. And so many creative talents and like, just incredible clothing, brands and jewellery and amazing. How can people get in touch with you?
Georgie Quigley 46:45
Definitely the easiest way is probably via email. My, if you're interested in PR, that's definitely the best way to go. So it's Georgie at GQ pr.com.au. But if you want to just like follow along and get a little bit more with PR and see what I'm about, then my Instagram is Georgie Quigley underscore PR.
Liz Nable 47:10
Perfect. And I'll drop those links into in some of the links of your clients as well into the show notes so that people can quickly reach you whenever they need to. Thank you so much for being our guest today. So fascinating. I loved it.
Georgie Quigley 47:24
I look as a publicist, I always love to chat. So that was an absolute treat. Thank you for having me.
Liz Nable 47:30
Thank you for coming on. We loved it.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Nable My Business. If you've loved it, please share it on Instagram and Facebook for your friends. I'm all about listening and learning from you my audience. So please pop a review on iTunes and let me know how you're enjoying the show. I'd love to hear from you. So if you have any questions, email me at Liz at www.liznable.com And if you want to know more about what I do, head over to liznable.com I truly hope this podcast is a game changer for you. Whether you're a small business owner, franchisee you have a side hustle or you're just starting out. This is where you truly begin to build your own empire and the life of your dreams.
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