EP 5 - Angela Priestley FINAL
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Liz Nable: [00:00:00] In today's episode, you'll hear from journalist, editor and media founder Angela Priestley, the co-founder of Women's Agenda, one of Australia's leading daily news platforms, centering women's voices, leadership and stories. Angela shares how her early career in tech and business media. Including roles at titles like Lawyers Weekly and Projects with Crikey and Private Media led to the launch of Women's Agenda back in 2012 as a hundred 100% digital publication.
Across this conversation, Angela talks about what it has really taken to build and sustain a women focused media business in the industry that traditionally hasn't seen women's news as commercially viable. She explains the decision to acquire women's agenda while on parental leave with a baby and a toddler.
The reality of bootstrapping without outside investment and the slow, consistent work behind growing an audience, a team, and a sustainable company. You'll also hear how women's agenda covers news through a gender lens from politics and business to [00:01:00] entrepreneurship. Climate support, health, women's safety and domestic and family violence, and why this perspective changes.
The stories that get told. Angela shares how they now combine daily news with podcasts, leadership awards, research round tables, and partnerships to both amplify women and fund independent journalism. If you are a founder, small business owner. Or leader who cares about women's rep representation in the media and about building something that actually lasts.
This episode will give you both inspiration and a very real look at the work behind the headlines. Settle in for a thoughtful and energizing discussion with Angela Priestley from Women's Agenda. I hope you're enjoying this summer series. We're almost halfway through now, and I'm excited to deliver the rest of these episodes to you in January.
Hello and welcome to Media Magnet, the [00:02:00] podcast for female founders and women owned businesses, startups, and side hustlers who want to learn how to grow their business, leveraging the media and free pr. I'm Liz Nable, and I'm your host, personal publicist, PR strategist, and dedicated hype woman. My goal with this show is to give you a behind the scenes tour of how the media works to break down the barriers between your business and the big master heads.
So you can see how easy it is to get featured simply by giving journalists what they want at Media Magnet. You'll also get access to the top journals, editors, writers, and PR people in your industry and beyond sharing their secrets and expertise on the how, why, what. And when of pitching and getting featured in the media consistently, I will share with you how to build your reputation as an industry expert so successfully the media will be knocking down your door.
When I first started in small business 12 years ago, I had [00:03:00] no idea what I was getting into. I had spent 15 years as a television news 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 traveling the world chasing stories.
It was unpredictable and exciting until it wasn't anymore. I decided I wanted a life where I was in charge of what happened next and where I was working to build my own empire, not someone else's. There was a lot I had to learn about running my own business, but getting media and great free PR was not one of them.
I already knew what the media wanted. I knew the secret formula for what made news, and I knew how to leverage those media outlets to build my business, get more exposure, and ultimately make more sales. I was featured in every major media outlet in the country, and I never spent a single cent on pr. [00:04:00] 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 too could build their brands with organic media and pr. Let me help you take your brand from Best Kept Secret to household name. This is Media Magnet. The podcast and I'm pretty pumped to have you here.
Hi Angela, and welcome to Media Magnet.
Angela Priestly: Thank you for having me.
Liz Nable: Um, you are the co-founder of Women's Agenda, which is, um, one of my go-to media outlets when I want, you know, business news and, and news about women, you know, kicking goals in, in business and industry. Um, can you tell us a little bit about, um, we're here to talk about women's representation in the media today, which is.
Something we've both obviously, you [00:05:00] know, feel really passionate about. Can you tell me a little bit about, um, what you do and, and women's agenda and, um, your sort of experience as a journalist until now? Sure.
Angela Priestly: So I might start with, um, some of the early days, I guess, in terms of my experience in media, because I think it's relevant.
So my first jobs in media were in, uh, the tech industry, which was, um, you know, it was a, it was a time just as social media was becoming really big and prominent and happening and. Um, but it was also a time where tech was, um, you know, it was really about gadgets. And the people who were in the media and the journalists in tech were really into those gadgets.
And you might be, you know, what we'd call geeks, which geeks are fabulous, that's all good, but I wasn't that person. And so I'd often find myself as the only female journalists amongst the male journalists. And I certainly didn't come across many, uh, female sources as a tech journalist. Um, and to this day, I still have, uh.
You know, [00:06:00] some career regrets about not actually sticking with tech, because I just think tech is obviously fascinating today and every story is, uh, somewhat of a tech story. So it kind of starts there. But I ended up going into, um, you know, I was in business media for a long time. I, um, I had a period where I was the editor of Lawyers Weekly, which was really interesting and really fun and a lot of work doing a, a, you know, a weekly magazine.
Uh, every week as it goes. Um, and then I went into, um, private media. I really wanted to work with crikey. I loved what they were doing. I loved the style. Uh, I loved the format and how they'd put a newsletter out each day. So I worked with an initially with Crikey, uh, that they were developing called the Power Index, and that was with.
Private media with these really great journalists in Melbourne and a really awesome team. And they were launching a new publication for women called Women's Agenda. This is a while ago now. It was, you know, back in 2012, [00:07:00] a new, you know, daily publication that would have a daily newsletter and they a hundred percent digital and uh, was, you know, trying to look at careers and various other things.
And I got asked to come and launch that as an editor with, um, marina Go at the time. And so that was, um, and you know, we, we, we did it. It was a really interesting time. Um, there weren't as many, uh, digital women's publications as there are today. Um, there was a lot happening in terms of politics. You know, we're about to, Julia Gillard was about to do her, um, misogyny speech.
Alan Joyce, uh, not Alan Joyce. No. I hope that can be edited. So
Liz Nable: that's okay with what on the record, you're
Angela Priestly: correct. Self-correcting. There are plenty of stories about Alan Joyce that I've written as well. Alan Jones was saying how women were destroying the joint. Um, so there was so many things to write about at the time, and so we, we, you know, developed a audience really quickly.
Um, and then I went on, uh, parental leave. In 2016, [00:08:00] uh, with my second child and kind of a few weeks in, and the owner of, um, private media and women's agenda approached me just looking to see if I was interested in a management buyout, because as a publication it was, it was really hard to make work and part of a bigger publishing structure.
It just, you know, it didn't, it wasn't making the revenue to be able to support all these different shared costs, and I could see an opportunity too.
Liz Nable: Um,
Angela Priestly: create a small business that might support me through parental leave. Um, it would be, you know, I had this kind of six month runway where I didn't need to earn a salary because I was on parental leave at the time, and that's kind of how I'd financially factored things in.
So I acquired it and then kept publishing it with a small baby and a, and a toddler at the time as well. Um, and over those months in the coming years, um, we've been able to develop a team and I now have a co-founder in agenda media. We don't have any outside investment, but we do. So we are, you know, bootstrapped, but we do try to invest back into the [00:09:00] business and we've been able to build it to what it is today, still a small team or a team of nine.
And we publish, um, women's agenda. So it is a daily news publication that goes out just around lunchtime. We do six to eight stories a day and we look at the news with. Kind of place a gender perspective over the news, looking at everything from, uh, politics to business, entrepreneurship, uh, leadership, climate, sport, um, health.
Um, and also, uh, we obviously look at as part of health definitely, but, um, women's safety and domestic and family violence. Uh, so. Outside of that, we do podcasts. We do, uh, work with partner partners to be able to support what we do. We run a leadership awards program, uh, research reports, round tables and that kind of thing.
And that kind of brings me now to, to you and the conversation today.
Liz Nable: That's, that's incredible because the irony of, um. Private media wanting to offload the women's magazine or women's [00:10:00] publication that wasn't making any money. Of course we're not making any money. 'cause it's so hard to make money when you, you know, when you're trying to service women only.
Um, and we obviously in this game, 'cause we wanna change that. Um, and to be able to create this publication that sees, you know, news and, and current affairs and women's issues or, or, or just issues in general through the eyes of women is. Obviously you've, you know, you've hit a massive, um, gap in the market there because you know you've done so well.
Angela Priestly: Well, yeah, I mean I think that, and it was offload might be a too strong a term. It was more that,
Liz Nable: sorry, it was probably a little aggressive a term. Yeah. But, but it, it was not lost in me that, yeah, it was. Difficult. Yeah, yeah, that's true. And that
Angela Priestly: was, you know, it was hard. Like, and I, I still remember even as I was publishing it myself in the first few months, I remember, you know, the first time, um, I sold a, like a advertising [00:11:00] package for $2,000 and I was like, oh, wow, this is, this is amazing.
And. But you know, from that to be able to make it work and I did need to make a salary for myself. Um, you know, I, I need, uh, I don't have excessive, uh, financial resources or anything, so I absolutely needed to, um, be able to get to a point where I could pay myself. And then as we're building a team, obviously to be able to bring on a team, um, and.
You know, and it, and it, and it is, and that's the thing. It's been, we've been, we've approached things in such a small, uh, I guess, agile way as well. Yeah. So we, and it's been such a slow build, um, you know, getting to where we are on, across our socials or across our newsletter database, it's, there's no, there's been no overnight kind of fix of just finding thousands and thousands of followers or, or subscribers or anything.
Everything takes so much work and. Um, just this really, really slow, slow build and it's of consistency as [00:12:00] well, just the everyday consistency. And that's the thing. Every day we're, we're kind of starting again. Every day we are going and thinking about story ideas and sharing story ideas and pitching things amongst ourselves and getting up and writing, and then doing again the next day.
Liz Nable: Yeah, it's interesting 'cause um, I didn't realize that Marina Go had been a part of your, um, journey back when you first, you know, started women's agenda. 'cause she's, I'm, I'm in liaison with her right now to get her on an episode of the podcast as well, which is cool. Yeah. Um, so was there sort of a point in the journey of, of, you know, targeting women, um, or, or creating this guess like, safe space for, you know, women, women's, you know, news to be sort of.
Become mainstream where you sort of knew that it was working. Did you get feedback from people or was there sort of a point where you were like, wow, like we've really hit the nail on the head here.
Angela Priestly: I think, and I wonder if Marina would say the same thing, but I think in those early few months we, we definitely, we, we did build up quite fast [00:13:00] in those first few months.
Um, and I think maybe because again, it comes down to the consistency. So just every day and sort of. Going about it, putting this lens over it, and it is women's agenda. So there is a gender in how we approach what we're writing and what we're doing in the journalism that we do. And it was in a moment, like I said, it goes back to that sort of if you, you know, misogyny speech was huge.
I still remember us writing those stories around that speech and watching it in the office at the time. And it was so significant a moment. And this was also a time when, you know, we had our first female. Prime Minister, we had our first, um, uh, you know, she was sworn in by a first female governor General.
It was just this real sort of sense of optimism that we were on this like path to a lot of like really, um, considerable change and fast and immediate change and that things were, you know, we talk about how many years it will be to gender equality. It really did sort of think like, oh, maybe we're, maybe there is some progress happening here.
And um, we are here at this moment and we are doing all this publishing work and we are here to tell the stories of [00:14:00] all this change. And of course that change hasn't happened. Anything like. What we would've expected instead, other things happened, which, um, you know, people were wanted to hear about. And I think that's why they come to Women's Agenda and they wanna see it told like it is.
And we try to have, you know, we always still try to have positive stories every day. And there are heaps of really great fun and interesting positive stories to share, but there's also reality that we wanna be discussing constantly with, with our readers. And, um, I'm happy to see that readers are, are there for it every day.
And we see that with. How they do open that newsletter and they do consume that news.
Liz Nable: Yeah, it's amazing, isn't it? I, I just remember when Julia Gillard first became Prime Minister, she was just, and even like looking back in hindsight, she was just. Under so much scrutiny from the word go, like they just, it was relentless.
So, such an important story to be in, in time, to be around when, when she was, um, leading the country, I first [00:15:00] came across you, which we were talking about before we hit record. Um, because obviously I'm in the business of, you know, helping women in small to medium sized businesses grow using the media and pr.
Um, when I was researching for. Women in business, um, the online Women in Business program through TAFE New South Wales, about, um, why it's important for women to pitch themselves to the media, why it's important for women to build their reputation as industry experts and put themselves out there, um, you know, in the media, not just for women's specific media, like women's agenda, but into the mainstream media.
I was really interested in what you had to say. Obviously came across a lot of your articles online about why this is more than just about pitching your business or selling your business in the media or self-promotion. Can you sort of share a little bit about what you've kind of. Your experience in, in focusing on, you know, kind of showcasing women in industry and, and women in business [00:16:00] and what you've noticed about, you know, that gap between women being featured in men.
Angela Priestly: So firstly, I mean, just some of the stats. And so you'll see this in the Women in Media gender scorecard, which I mean, I think they publish it every year, but I'm just looking at a story now that we wrote on their 2023 scorecard. So they do an analysis across the print media, and I mean, you can just see it's that men.
You know, last year we're still making up 70% of those quoted, quoted sources. So there's expert sources quoted in those stories, um, and their print. Um, I mean that would cover, you know, the Australian, the Sig Morning Herd age, um, the Australian Financial Review. So there's really, um, big mainstream newspapers.
Um, and it's, you know, it's really interesting. I think that. In this day, 20 23, 20 24, that, you know, men are still making up the majority of those expert opinions. And then what you see with some of those stats is that when it goes into more, um, financial led news or business led news, that those quoted [00:17:00] sources actually drop again in terms of women's representation amongst them.
So. I also think you don't, you know, you can read and flick through the a FR on any given day, and you can see that women are not represented particularly well in the A FR. Um, I don't think that's a deliberate thing by their account, by any, by any measure. But, you know, it, it just, yeah, women we're just not getting featured as much.
We're just not getting, um, out there as much as expert sources. And there's also. You know, we, we look at the stats when it comes to business as well. And, um, entrepreneurs, when just 4% of VC funding is going to women, we can also see that then they're not going, women are not going to be featured as founders and co-founders because we're not seeing the opportunities that should be available to women who do create really great businesses.
And the evidence is there to show that women do, uh, produce, um, incredible ROI, um, that. Women are not gonna get these sort of $50 million raises here and there, seeing them getting those, [00:18:00] um, big feature pieces and quoted, and then often becoming the source that a journalist will return to constantly for a story.
Liz Nable: So why do you think that is? So, it's obviously not just a hunch, there's stats in this, in that gender score card. So it's, it's a fact. It's not just opinion. Why, why aren't women getting featured as much as men?
Angela Priestly: I mean, the first thing would be, I think, make, like if we go to that VC funding issue, I mean we can already see that women are just not getting the funding for their businesses as much as men are, and that is so clear.
I mean, I think that figure is so dire to see. Yeah. You know, 4% that the majority of founding teams are all male teams. So women are, all female teams are getting around 4% of that VC funding in 2023, and it does rise for gender mixed gender teams. I think it was. It was still less than 20%. I, sorry, I don't have the specific figure in front of me.
So that would be, that would be part of it there. But it's also, I mean, I think it might be often in that, [00:19:00] I think there's a bit of just gender stereotypes and maybe even a little bit of sexism that goes on in terms of who gets to be an authority figure or who is seen as an authority figure. What sorts of information and detail, you know, said authority figures are, are giving.
There's also, often this comes up in conferences, particularly, and it would translate to media too, is that, you know, a conference organizer might say, we are going to run a CEO conference, and lo and behold, the majority of CEOs out there are men. So then they'll say, well, we asked, you know, the three female CEOs that we could find to be a part and they couldn't do it.
And so that's why we've only got male CEOs on our list. Again, we just sort of need to rethink the parameters of like, why is it only a CEO who gets to speak at a CEO event? Maybe you need to rethink that and why is it only a CEO who gets to be quoted as an expert source in the media? So I think there are a lot of factors that come through there.
Um, and then the other thing is, if we're not seeing women in the media, then you, you know, you can understand that women may [00:20:00] not put themselves up for. Story to be quoted in the media as well. Yeah. And may not see themselves as being able to be that authority figure because they're already seeing, uh, you know, this sort of stereotype of what that authority figure is or, or should be or look like.
Mm-hmm. Um, I mentioned earlier, so I doing, working as a, you know, across different business, more general business as opposed to women's media. I did definitely find that, um, my sources list tended to be more male dominated, um, possibly way more well male dominated. Um, and I, you know, that certainly wasn't intentional from me.
Um, maybe at the time it was easier to pick up the phone and get a hold of a male source. Maybe because they were more likely to be in leadership positions, which is the reality of it still. But I'm gonna kind of going back 15 years ago now, and it was more so the case then. Um, and you know, particularly in tech, as I say, it was heavily male dominated and still [00:21:00] is today.
So yeah, there are factors like that. So a number of different things that come through in terms of, um, how journalists will find their sources and, you know, journalism, like a lot of work every day. Like I say, we're starting fresh every day in our publication. I know other journalists across other media are too, more and more as being asked of journalists.
So. It can, you know, people can default to what they perceive might be easier or to their existing kind of Yeah. Black book of contacts that they've used quicker.
Liz Nable: Yeah. Yeah. And you're under the pump and you've got a deadline and mm-hmm. And interestingly, like from my point of view, I'm working probably on the other side of the, of the card to you where I am working with women.
And I would say, I mean, I don't have a gender scorecard for my business, but I could estimate. Eight out of 10 of the women that I have in my courses or I work with in workshops, say at one point during the course of the day or, or the, or the course itself, that they don't think they're interesting enough.
Um, they don't think they're an expert because they, you, they're just in a [00:22:00] small business or they haven't made enough revenue. Or they, they just minimize their achievements, which is not an attractive thing to pitch when you are minimizing your experience or you are playing down, um, or you've decided before you've even pitched that you don't think you're probably very much of a very good expert.
So I feel like as mu, I'm not saying it's a woman's fault, but I'm just saying it, it, it, it seems to be this narrative that we've conditioned to believe that, you know, we, we don't, we are not good enough to, to pitch ourselves to the media.
Angela Priestly: Yeah, and I mean there might be differences in terms of whether that's a small business owner or an entrepreneur as opposed to somebody in an organization often.
Yeah. Like people don't have access to be able to pitch to the media, obviously, from a bigger organization or even to be. Um, and I think about my time when I was a, a legal journalist and editing a legal publication, um, it, it wasn't like often you would be speaking to the person that their sort of gatekeeper would put up, um, as the source.
So yeah, that could [00:23:00] depend on them. Um, so whereas, you know, there may have been plenty of women in those firms who did wanna be the source and wanna be talking to the media. So I do think that there is. A lot of that. And then it'll be different amongst founders and business owners where there is that, um, maybe that entry, I guess of that sense of where to start in making that pitch or having the confidence, like you say, to be able to make that pitch and knowing that it is okay to do so.
I say this as someone who I've pitched to media myself as well. I mean, as a media publication, we do heaps of other stuff. We do. Events and we do an awards program and reports and stuff like that that we're trying to get out to the media. And I understand that hesitation and how like, you know, terrifying it can be and you know, am am I really allowed to do this or can I go to them direct?
I can see their email here or I can kind of figure out their email according to, um, other emails that I can find here. So yeah. I understand that, that there is that hesitation and that, um, and you [00:24:00] know, again, where that comes from, I don't know. I mean, I imagine some men would feel the same way, but it definitely does seem, it, it's a different experience for us being a media publication that we are obviously gonna get in the majority of pictures coming from women.
So, um, whereas for a general business publication, it would be different. So,
Liz Nable: yeah. I, I just noticed with the, with the men that I have worked with one-on-one as well. 'cause I, I mainly service women, but there are men who, who do, um, my courses and that I do one-on-one work with. And I'm not saying those men are overly confident, they're just speaking.
They, they just use different language when they're talking about their businesses. They just have an innate sense of that they deserve to be there. Um, and I've found that, you know, a lot of women are. They've got this imposter syndrome or this, um, hesitation and that might just be an innate female thing.
I don't know whether we are scared of what people think of us, all those sorts of things as well. But like, how important is it for women to sort of think beyond like, [00:25:00] you know, rejection or what people think about them and, and to be able to like get, put themselves out there to, to get featured in, in your, from your perspective as a, um, as a co-founder for the women's publication.
Angela Priestly: Um, I mean, yeah, the first thing, so just going back to something that you said there about, um, like the, the fear of rejection or, um, of what people think him that's, yeah. What people think. That's what I'm looking for. It's, I do, I mean, the reality is, is that we've. Been up against what people think forever and that, you know, that starts for us in childhood and continues constantly for us.
So I think, you know, we can understand why. Some of us would be concerned about what other people think because that is, you know, the way that women and girls have typically been judged forever, based, often on appearance or whether you come across as, uh, too confident or not confident enough, or too [00:26:00] old, or too young, or, we all know that there's all these barriers that get applied to women that don't necessarily get applied.
To men and all these immediate sort of, these immediate, uh, judgments or words or being put in certain boxes. Like, you know, that woman is a mother or that woman is a, you know, a, a school mom or, um, you know, all these things that we kind of get conditional, like put into and almost suggest, well, that's your lane.
That's where you can stay while this world happens over here. Um, and then often, you know, often those things are reflected back because we use terms like, um, mompreneur or, um, oh yeah. Various other things that can be really like, just, you don't have to, you can be an entrepreneur. You don't have to sort of like, you know, stamp it down on account of also being a parent because we don't have these dad preneurs or, you know, no, we don't have to.
So I think that would be, is it, you know, women aren't judged constantly and we also see how women are judged in leadership [00:27:00] and the double standards that occur for women in leadership as well. We don't have to look far to see that in terms of, um, women leading countries, but also big CEOs of a SX listed organizations as well.
So that would be understandable. And now I can't remember the second part of your question
Liz Nable: there. I think the second part of the question was how important is it for women to sort of get beyond their own? Because within, within what I do, um, it just has only dawned on me once I've been doing this work with women.
I didn't intend to find this out, but that. They seem to feel like it. It's, you know, pitching yourself to the media role, putting yourself out there as a thought leader. It's like a self, um, promotion exercise, and it's really so much more than that, isn't it? Mm-hmm.
Angela Priestly: And it's not, yeah. It's a, it's a, I mean, also, first of all, it's a business exercise as well, so we, you wanna have the most successful business possible so you can understand you want to.
Get the media, you want your clients to see that you have that media and that you've been in front of media. It may not be about trying to get immediate [00:28:00] customers or clients, but it may actually be about your clients seeing that you have that, that leadership and that authority in the media. It's also goes back to that, you know, being, um, uh, trying to diversify some of these sources so we can actually get better media stories out there as well.
Because if we all have the same. Person reflected in those sources and the same, you know, opinions being shared, then it's not gonna be much of a story. So it's about trying to play your bit in making that ecosystem and the media as good as it can be so we can get this diversity of views out there so that we can also, when it comes to business particularly, and into entrepreneurship as well.
So we can then change the stereotype of what. An entrepreneur actually looks like and who it could be and maybe appeal to, to, um, younger women and girls to see all these other career opportunities that are out there, other than what they might perceive is there for them at that time.
Liz Nable: Hmm. And I, and I, the other thing I sort of find myself reminding, um, a lot of the women that I work with, and we talk about a lot on the podcast is.
There are lots [00:29:00] of opportunities out there to be featured. You just have to sort of pay a little bit of attention and bring your, you know, your experience or your, your opinion or, um, statistics combined with those things to have a mouthpiece, right.
Angela Priestly: There are so many places to be featured, and that's like over and over.
I see that where I, and I know how the hierarchy works and how PR companies are working, and often women's agenda is not necessarily at the top of the chain. Often we have come after, you know, this publication has said no, or the Today Show has said no or whoever it's right. So we know how that works. So, but then at the same time it's like just to, it may not.
Be there, there may be other op, it may not be that, you know, getting on, uh, the front of the A FR is necessarily the best option for you and your audience. It will look great. I get that in front of your clients and everything, but there might be other options that might be more appealing or may actually get you in front of the right people at that time.
So. To look beyond all the mainstream [00:30:00] media and the papers and to think about the other, um, media outlets that are out there, the business publications, the B, the B2B publications, industry publications particularly. I say that as someone who worked in a lot of different industry publications and it would sort of baffle me why more people actually didn't pitch to them.
And I say this also to freelancers, is that there are great freelance writing opportunities in. Business publications and industry publications. And it may not be as, um, you know, awesome as getting to do a column, um, about parenting somewhere, or, you know, that's more related to your experience. But it can be really solid and well paid work to be pursuing industry publications and the freelance opportunities that they have there.
But then also for. Businesses to actually like, think about what industry publications are relevant to their work and where their clients actually are. That goes beyond what they think would look good for them personally, but rather what's gonna look really great for their business and where they need to be and where, you know, more likely that people in that industry are [00:31:00] going to see the work that they're doing and, and see that, um, the authority and the expertise that they have in that industry too.
Liz Nable: Mm. Yeah. It's interesting you say that because, uh, you know, a lot of, um, a lot of us, you know, who don't have a huge amount of experience in media go, oh, I wanna be on the Today Show. Which, which is like more like a vanity piece because you might not have any clientele or any buy-ins from being on the Today Show, like it looks good on your social media.
But you could then go, let's say to if you're in the legal industry, you go and, and get featured in a legal trade publication, and that is 3000 people. But it's a captured market who are. You know, people who are so much more engaged and so much more, um, such, what's the word? Like warmer leads than perhaps a whole cold audience that are watching the Today Show.
Angela Priestly: Yeah, exactly, exactly. So I just always said like, just to look that there are so many opportunities and there are so many different publications and um, there are also so many different times, like when you pitch doesn't need to align with, um, certain times of the year or something. Or it doesn't need [00:32:00] to align with, um, a certain, you know, what we had Earth Day this week.
So it doesn't necessarily need to align with that just because you do something in the climate space. It can be any time of year. Um, it certainly doesn't have to align with International Women's Day. That is a huge one, and I'm sure you've heard that. Oh
Liz Nable: yeah. It's almost now so busy on International Women's Day.
You're better off holding onto that if it's a good story and pitching it later.
Angela Priestly: Yeah. We actually move projects that we are doing away from International Women's Day because we know that they won't get the space that they should and would deserve because it is so saturated. Often you'll find that, you know, big mainstream publications, there'll be something around International Women's Day, but it won't be, it won't be huge or excessive.
It might be a few different stories. Maybe they'll have a special feature or something, but the likelihood of getting that International Women's Day feature or special is probably pretty low. So. Think about how you might be able to pitch, you know, three weeks later or like in June or somewhere else, so that you are, you know, your press release or whatever you're doing, or the work that you've done or the [00:33:00] research or whatever is in that story that you are trying to pitch, that it doesn't get completely drowned out by everything else.
So,
Liz Nable: yeah, I, I think today in, you know, today's age with the internet and, and the way, um, media. Spreads you can that as much as being in a big major publication is, you know, some people's like be all and end all. It can work in the reverse. 'cause you see a lot of those little media publications, some of the stories that they do go viral or they might then, you know, that story might continue to evolve over a week.
Then, then you will get picked up by the Today Show or whoever because that story has started small and then for whatever reason it's picked up momentum or it's had all these views or like it can work in the reverse right? These days. I mean, anything's possible now.
Angela Priestly: Yeah, I think so. I mean, it might be that the journalists on the smaller publication will write it in a way that, um, more aligns to their organization or to their industry and therefore.
Has more likelihood of, um, not necessarily going viral, but maybe going into the right places in terms of being relevant to the [00:34:00] audience that that business needs to get in front of. Um, you know, we look at like the socials aspect as well, and that is that different publications will approach socials differently and that there might be opportunities again in smaller publications where you'll get more out of the social push that happens with that story or the podcast that you do, or the conversation that you do with that organization.
So. Again, just to, to really see this wide, um, ecosystem, I guess, of media that. Um, that, you know, you can play a role in, in, in terms of improving by being a source and diversifying perhaps a source mix, but also that you can play a role in, in terms of, um, supporting in that you are going direct to journalists and creating those relationships yourself as opposed to necessarily putting third parties in between you and the journalists.
So ultimately making the, the journalist job easier as well.
Liz Nable: Mm. And like
Angela Priestly: I say, like we know how much journalists have to do. Each day [00:35:00] that it's, um, anything that can make it a little bit easier for them is, is going to be beneficial.
Liz Nable: Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, to your point about, you know, it's not just being able to get yourself conditioned to being featured in the media, speaking to the media, sharing your story, you know, speaking in really concise, efficient grabs.
If you're speaking, you know, to tv, media and those sorts of things is really important in the evolution of you as the spokesperson for your business because you will. Or you may get to a point, like you say, only 4% of you know, women, um, led businesses get that big funding, the big funding dollars from VCs.
All of that is almost like a, like a dress rehearsal for being able to pitch a business. Right.
Angela Priestly: Well, yes, exactly. So all of it helps. That's what I think any work that you do in terms of trying to pitch yourself to media will ultimately help you in terms of trying to pitch yourself to everyone else as well.
Yeah. It's that practice of going, okay, how am I going to make this concise and make it appeal? How am I [00:36:00] gonna get the right subject line and just be to the point? Because I know that this journalist won't have time to look through paragraphs of information. So all of that will ultimately help. Lost or wasted.
If no, you don't get the story or the journalist doesn't buy it. So I, yeah, I think it, it, it's all relevant. All that work helps. We say that about when people enter our wards as well. It's that it is actually really beneficial to sit down and kind of write and think about what you've achieved over the past year or what you've done in your career or where you're gonna go next.
There is something that you personally will get out of that, even if you don't necessarily go on to become one of the award winners as well. It all, it'll, right, the self-reflection.
Liz Nable: Totally. It's like a cathartic exercise of giving yourself a moment to like document achievements or milestones or which we, you know, we're all guilty of not doing and just forging ahead to the next thing.
And even things like, you know, like, like you say, like pitching for awards or pitching to speak on a panel or, um, a keynote or any of those [00:37:00] things involve, it's a very similar process and something that is, I, I think, I mean, I'm obviously this is what I do, but I just think it's so important as women. You know, whether you've got a small business, medium business, massive, big, you know, company, like, it's so important for you to be able to, um, pitch yourself in a way that resonates with people.
Angela Priestly: Yeah, in a way that resonates with people. And I think for a journalist or like it's, there's some real basics that I think are easy to get across quickly in terms of trying to be as successful as possible. And part of that is, first of all, understanding the publication that you're pitching to and not trying to do like a blanket pitch to everyone.
Um, and that is, you know, just reading through a few stories, seeing what the interest areas are of different journalists that can really help. Um, things like just, you know, try to get the name of the journalist right. Just try to make sure that you are, you know, pitching something that is relevant to that audience.
Yeah. Or that you are not actually putting [00:38:00] it. That when we've had some ones that are just so they've seen women's agenda and it's like, wow, this is so off the market. It's not funny. I have people pitch the
Liz Nable: podcast to the same way. Yeah.
Angela Priestly: Yeah, exactly. So I know often we see that a lot with podcasts. You get that.
We get a lot of really random pitches for podcasts. That must be the thing of the moment right now is that anyone will pitch to a podcast, which, you know fair enough. But um, and I think like it could get. You could get lost in this idea that you need to have this perfect press release when I just don't think that you do.
I think it's okay just to introduce yourself or just to put something in a few lines. Just have something to share. Um, it's, and that's something probably needs to go beyond saying, oh, I've, you know, I've run a business and I've got three children, or what, you know, just go a little bit further than that to make it like, what is the actual story?
What is the, um, do you have data or clear points, something that you can highlight in terms of what is interesting here? Can you give specific comments about really current events that are occurring [00:39:00] right now? And can you demonstrate how you do that by even just offering up a couple of comments saying, Hey, just in case you're doing this, yeah, you might be interested in this comment here, or otherwise, you know, think about me for anything in the future.
Um, so I think there's a lot like that where you can get across. I, I, I think I'm, I've just mentioned subject line and um, yeah, that's so important. A few years back, like a survey where they found that 85% of media professionals, it was by fractal, um, 85% of media professionals would decide whether or not to open an email based on the subject line.
Wow. And I wanna relate to that a lot because. We get a lot of emails, we get a lot of unsolicited stuff. We get a lot of, we get trolls in there. We get a lot of like feedback that is pleasant and unpleasant. Um, and so
Liz Nable: I can only imagine there's a lot of like
Angela Priestly: delete, delete, delete. There's a lot of stuff that we'll go through.
That means it will often never end up responding to people, which I, you know, I hate being that person and not responding. But then [00:40:00] at the same time, we would have to. To be employing people to make it possible to appropriately respond to everybody. Um, also sometimes if people don't respond, this is my experience and I might be for other journalists as well.
It's not necessarily a, um, absolute no. It's more of a, well, that, not right now, but I'm actually filing this away because I'm gonna come back to you or I'm filing it away. Because when I'm, we might be doing a feature on AI or something later on, and you sound like you'd actually be a really great expert source, so it doesn't necessarily mean that all is lost if you don't kind of immediately get.
A story that week or something. You, it's, you've made that introduction. Um, you could always go back and email again in a few days. You could always go and email again in a couple of months. That's completely, yeah. It's, it's, it's fine. It doesn't mean that people don't like you or don't wanna hear from you or don't want to cover you just because they haven't been able to immediately respond to you.
Liz Nable: Yeah. Yeah. And that, and, you know, part, part of pitching the media is just being okay with rejection. Don't take it personally. You know, as we've said, you know, journalists are [00:41:00] super time poor, they're on deadlines. Whatever you can do to make it easy for them to work with you is what you should do, including having a really appealing subject line.
So you can, you know, I think probably one of the biggest hurdles is getting them to open your email and then kind of from there. Yeah, yeah. Get them to
Angela Priestly: open the email. Um, I also, I couldn't help myself, so I have gone back and looked at tips I wrote on these phrase, oh yeah, go for it. Years ago, and I mean, I was saying, we, we talked at the beginning of the conversation about how this was quite old, and I was like, oh, surely this wouldn't be relevant anymore.
But it is, like the stuff I've written here, I believe is still relevant. Um, so yeah, one of them is to deal with the rejection. That's fine. It doesn't mean, like I say, that people don't like you. It just means that it hasn't worked right now, it also doesn't necessarily mean that it wasn't a good pitch. It might just be that I know in our case, on our team, we get really busy.
We may already be doing stuff, and your story, you just happen to send it at a time when, yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't for us. Um, I would also say is that like if you are pitching, make sure [00:42:00] you're accessible. So put your phone number there or make it really easy that for the journalist to contact you. I know that I've fallen off away from stories because I just haven't been able to contact the person, or it could have gone through a third party PR person.
And I've been asked, like the P has come back and said, or can you share a list of questions that you're going to ask? And I'm like, will you pitch this story to me? Yeah. And now I have to go and write a list of questions. It is like, and I'm like, I, it can be, you know, you sort of throw hands up thinking, I don't have time.
I can't be bothered with this anymore. Which, you know, sounds awful, but that is going to happen. Yeah. Um. Also if you, uh, like make yourself, don't be, oh yeah, I'm available in two weeks time on, you know, the, at 3:00 PM that isn't going to work. Like we, we wanna get a quote or something right now, and that quote might be as quick as like an email back and forth, or it might be like a 10 minute phone conversation, or maybe we need to set up for half an hour.
It's like, just try to just make it happen then and there.
Liz Nable: Yeah.
Angela Priestly: The other thing is that sense of like worrying that like everyone's gonna do some kind of weird hit job [00:43:00] on you, which again, I don't. Like if, if you are pitching to media, it's why would, like, it's just not in my interest or nature or any, I don't like to go, well, I'm gonna try and catch you out on something here.
Like, we just don't wanna do that. We actually wanna make it a successful story. We, we probably wanna verify your figures and make sure that what you're saying about your business is correct. But we're not here to just go like, to do a gotcha moment. Like you're not an mp. You're not like, yeah, absolutely.
It's to trust.
Liz Nable: If you're gonna pitch a media out outlet, you need to. To trust that the media outlet is going to, you know, tell the story. Otherwise don't pitch them. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So I
Angela Priestly: think things like that. Um. I, I don't like people calling me, but that's me. Other journalists might really love that.
Yeah, I, I just like email. I like things written. I just wanna be able to see it in front of me because, you know, you might be writing or working on something else and it can be hard to go and answer the phone then because you know that it'll just put out everything else. Um, there's also much scope to [00:44:00] just build long-term relationships with journalists just.
Not even this necessary of you trying to get something out of it, but just it, it can be helpful to be able to learn more about what they do or maybe their ideas about the industry as well. So I think it's interesting to try and build relationships that don't necessarily have to, um, trans relate into anything,
Liz Nable: uh,
Angela Priestly: you know, really tangible or yeah, interest page or something that it could be beneficial for both of you.
Just getting the context right, getting the audience right. Um, I don't think you need buzz words. Just keep it short and simple. I actually think, you know, you could do bullet points, you can do, I always think facts. Some figures are really great. Um, if you don't have things yourself, if you don't have your own research, just look at, you know, go to a BS data.
Just find things that might be relevant there in terms of why the interesting. Um, and yeah, like I said, and then also just make it clear that your details are there, that you can be contacted. And then, you know, if you are putting your phone number somewhere and you're in that process of pitching, then make [00:45:00] sure that you are ready to answer the phone.
Then if journalists do call or that you're ready to. Respond to the email quickly. If you, you know, if you really want that media coverage, then really prioritize responding then. Mm. Um, another thing is just look at the opportunities to build yourself up across, um, social media too. Like I said, when I was looking at the tips that I wrote, it was a while ago.
It was back in like 2016, and social media was a very different place. I actually used to do, like, I used to work with Twitter running sessions with small business owners about how to become an expert source on Twitter, which is so weird to think about right now because I wouldn't. Tell anyone to get on Twitter.
Yeah. If you're not, if you're not already addicted to it, stay well away because it's just this, um, it's, it's not a particularly great place. I still use Twitter. I use it because I've got certain feeds and stuff like that that I've create curated, and I know people that I trust in terms of what they're sharing.
Um, but LinkedIn is really great. Yeah. Like LinkedIn, you know, I just think you can really access and reach your audience. If you have a really clear [00:46:00] niche and you are in a clear industry, you can be really specific about what you share on LinkedIn, like you will build your own audience there. You'll, you'll have something your own audience there that will be beneficial for journalists to see.
It might be a place that you can kind of subtly communicate with journalists there, or tag them in, or, um, try to do things that will see you get noticed. But also it's a way that you can really just control having, um, your own audience or a platform like LinkedIn too.
Liz Nable: Yeah, I agree about LinkedIn. It's really come a long way.
In the last, um, few years, even for my business, I was doing a lot of social media on Instagram and Facebook, and now for my next course launch, I won't do Facebook or do Instagram and LinkedIn 'cause I can see that there's a much, um, better fit for that audience, um, than perhaps the people who are seeing the Facebook stuff.
There's a lot of spam on Facebook and those sorts of things. Um, to give them, this is a bit of like an idea of, um. How much you need sources and how easily they can get themselves featured. Even if it's just a comment or a, or a [00:47:00] line. How often are you looking for sources in your business specifically and you're like, shit, we, we don't have someone for that.
And you've gotta go researching and, and if you had that person in your database, you'd be like, bang, that's the person I'm gonna call. Does that happen a lot?
Angela Priestly: I mean, it does, I don't, I don't do that sort of writing as much as I used to. So usually when I write, um, I tend to write more comment pieces. But our team, we do have journalists who will be looking for sources and I'll often suggest people to them or they'll have their people that they're going to.
Um, and I see that our team will often go back to similar people, especially where. They are more junior and they're developing their own contact list. So they're great, you know, great area of prime, um, you know, really talented journalists who would be great for people, more people to get to know. Um, so it would happen every, you know, every morning we'll be thinking about, there's a story we might think about who would be going to for as sources or who we might need to get input from.
We are really. Um, we're really determined to get a [00:48:00] diverse mix of sources as well to try and, you know, most of our sources are women, but like to try and get, um, women from different backgrounds engaged, involved, and make sure that we are really looking at things from different points of view and not trying to put out this idea that all women share the same experience.
We certainly don't wanna do that. Um, our, where we tap into sources and things also extends beyond just straight feature stories and news stories. We'll also do, like, we do events, we do round tables where we wanna bring together, um, say a group of women who are in, um, renewable energy or something, and so.
That's where we'll often go and think about who we know or think about who we've covered in the past or even think about where people have written opinion pieces for us. Um, and then, we'll, if we need to look further, we'll often usually go to LinkedIn. That that tends to be it. It's just a really easy way to search people.
So, yeah, be, that's what I just be, make, even if you are not active on LinkedIn, be have a really great. Yeah, have a
Liz Nable: good profile. You don't
Angela Priestly: have to overthink that, but just make it [00:49:00] clear that you're there. It can help to say, you know, the city that you're in. Um, think about how you are being headlined on LinkedIn as well.
So how you are showing up in results. Um, a while ago this was on. Twitter, but, um, you, you might find like the first thing that comes up when you Google certain names will be, um, your LinkedIn account or your Twitter account or whatever it is. So that is a really great opportunity to make sure that your bio on those platforms is really clear that it's showing up really nicely on, uh, as on Google results without anyone ever having to click into anything that they can just see exactly.
Who you are there and what you wanna have represented in those buyers there. So I, I think they're really powerful tools and Will, would use that. I don't know if I, I mean, I'm not saying everyone would, but, um, I certainly do know that people will use, because I've got great search functionality. Yeah. You know, I know that I can find, say, you know, women in, uh, deep tech.
I can go, okay. And then I can bring that audience into Sydney and then I can, you know, there's so many [00:50:00] filters that you can apply there that will make it clear. And then if people are going that one step and being active on LinkedIn, it also maybe subconsciously it makes it appealing as well because I think, okay, they're active, they're probably gonna respond to something quite quickly.
Yeah, they probably see the benefit and you know, they're comfortable with commenting, so therefore they seem like a good choice to, to try and to try and go to.
Liz Nable: Yeah, absolutely. Um, well just before we finish up, I know that I could talk about this all day. You probably could too. Um, how do you see, like if we, um, you know, what's the saying, like a rising tide lifts all boats.
Like if, if we could increase some of those stats from that gender scorecard even by, you know, let's say 5%, like where do you see like the potential for this to go, you know, it, the future of, of women being comfortable with this stuff? Um, from, from your perspective.
Angela Priestly: Yeah, well the first thing is, so the stats are that 70% of sources quoted in print media.
So if we're going to lift that one, then we need to focus on the print media and those like [00:51:00] mainstream, um, news publications, which I definitely think there is benefit in doing, and I hope more people will do. Um, and people might find it gets easier to do once you have been, uh, published in, uh, smaller publications.
Uh, I'll say pe I, I do get some people who will approach me looking for people to appear on, um, various shows and things like that, and they might come and ask my, you know, or do you know this person? Or Do you know anyone in this space? So again, it all helps in terms of just being a part of the industry and making those.
Contacts and Yeah. Being available and present and um, and I think like ultimately, if it comes back to entrepreneurship and women in businesses, what I see from what we cover is that women are creating really great businesses that are genuinely solving really, um, important issues that may not be as.
Sexy as the latest, you know, cryptocurrency thing or the latest FinTech or whatever. But you know, maybe it's in the care space or maybe it's in the health space or, um, you [00:52:00] know, maybe it's in the domestic and family violence space. Um, you know, things that have like really clear real impact. Um, I just like, I see those stories and I think let's get more of those stories out there so more men and women can be inspired to be that sort of founder, that sort of founder that has.
Impact that will have a genuine, uh, support genuine change for all of us that can actually make where we live and what we do and who we are all better ultimately in the future.
Liz Nable: Yeah. I love that. Um, oh, well thank you Angela. It's been an absolute pleasure having you on the show. Um, I certainly hope that we can see those statistics.
Um, I dunno about 2024. Um, we've got, don't have a huge amount of time to achieve growth, but, you know, for the future to be able to get more women beached in the media and sort of change the outlook, um, you know, in the long term. I think we can do it in 2024. Why not? Hey, so it's quick. Everyone pitch right now.
Things change quickly, right? So, yeah. Yeah. [00:53:00] Thanks Angela. That's okay. Thank you
Angela Priestly: for having me.
Liz Nable: This episode of Media Magnet was brought to you by my signature group coaching program, the Media Masters Academy. The Media Masters Academy is a live online six week course taught by me and designed to teach you how to become your own publicist and give you exclusive access to pitch the country's top journalists and editors doors open just three times a year.
Check it out@lizNable.com, along with a ton of free resources to help you get started taking your business from best kept secret to household name. Right now, if you love this episode of Media Magnet, please share it with your business buddies or on social media and tag me at at Liz Nable. And if there's a specific guest you wanna hear from on the show or a topic or question you want to know more about, please tell me so I can make sure the show stays dedicated, especially for [00:54:00] you.
