What exactly is PR? What it can do for you and what it means for you and your brand

Want to know the truths about PR and what it takes to be someone who is in demand in the media? 

Here’s what it’s all about: 

Dauntless PR Unfiltered is a new no-holds-barred podcast revealing the things people really need to know about building their brand and getting into the media. In each episode, Luana Ribeira, founder of Dauntless PR, and Catherine Ball, an experienced UK journalist, share their PR secrets and tricks of the trade to help entrepreneurs and experts raise their visibility and reach more people. 

Offering clear no-nonsense advice and an insight into how the media really works, Luana and Catherine bust myths and misconceptions through a series of authentic and friendly conversations. Topics covered by the podcast include ‘Why consistency is the most important PR superpower’, ‘How being a nice person is more important than a long list of credentials’ and ‘How to share your opinions powerfully’.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Okay, so what we're going to talk about today is what exactly is PR, what it can do for you, and what that means for you and your brand. So, Catherine, where to begin?

Speaker 2 0:14

So, this is a really great question, which sounds like something everyone will think, oh, but I already know the answer. And you probably don't. There's so much misconception out there, isn't there? Um, so what we when we talk about PR, it might be slightly different to what a lot of people think in their mind that we're talking about appearing in the media. Um, and when we say media, it might be TV, it might be radio, it might be podcasts, newspapers, um, websites, um magazines. Yeah, magazines, it could be any of those kind of things. Um, but what we're not we're not generally talking about social media, although your social media is an important part of what you put out to the world. Um, yeah. It's and the biggest thing, and I you I'm sure you also find this when Luana with people you speak to, is people mixing it up with marketing. So much. Marketing and PR are not the same thing. Um, so people will think, oh, I've done lots for my PR because I've run some Facebook ads, or I'm doing PR because I've you know done some leaflets for the local area, or I've got a nice banner on my website, or any of those things are really important, but they're marketing and they're in hand with PR.

Speaker 1 1:52

Um and just on that topic, you know, when people do try and track their PR as if it's marketing, that's going to screw them up. So it is really, really important that people know the difference between marketing and PR.

Speaker 2 2:08

Yeah. So with PR, an analogy I really like to use with people is that um PR, good PR strategy is like a lighthouse that you switches when when you have a good PR strategy, it switches a light on that people can see from far and wide. It lights up everything you're doing. So people that didn't know you existed before now know you exist. Yes, they then can come and find your marketing, they can come onto your fancy website and they can see your social media and they can hear more about what you're doing. When you don't have any PR where you're going outside of your social media audience, you are effectively preaching to the converted. You are you have a little audience that you've cultivated, or if some of you might have a big audience that you've cultivated, but you're speaking to the same people again and again and again. What PR does is it amplifies what you're doing so that new people will learn that you exist, so that people in maybe who aren't active on the social media platforms that you're most active on will learn you exist, that you are widening yourself and your business up to a whole new crowd of people. That's if you're wanting to take your business to the next level, is kind of a crucial step in doing that, making sure that as many people within your target market actually know you exist, because let's be honest, that's where most people's businesses could do better. Not enough people know what they that they exist, right?

Speaker 1 3:58

It's it's just not enough to be the best at something. You can be the absolute best at something, and it's not enough if people don't know you exist. And the other thing is is as well, like with the difference between PR and advertising. Like, think about when an advert pops up on YouTube, on Facebook, or the television or whatever. What's your first reaction? Your first reaction is oh, and you have to get over that annoyance. But with PR, they're coming to actually, they want to hear that, they're coming for you, and it gives you that massive credibility and authority. So it's it's worlds apart, but it does do something completely different. PR is for brand awareness, it's for credibility, it's for authority. Where you know, marketing is for direct sales. PR can absolutely help with sales, but it's indirect, it's helping people to trust you, it's helping people, obviously, more people to know who you are and to see you as the authority and to resonate with you. It's so that you can connect with like millions of people all at once, and they feel like they know you. And what that does is it takes you from somebody, if they know you, it takes you from somebody who might be a great choice to the only choice, because when they feel like they know you on that deep level, one a lot of wonders happen.

Speaker 2 5:34

Yeah, absolutely. I often sort of say to people as well, if you think of somebody in any niche, the first person that comes to your mind is a person with great PR, unless it's someone that you personally work with. Yeah. So um, if I was to say to somebody um a personal trainer or a fitness person, one of the first people that might come to their mind might be someone like Joe Wicks. Yeah, exactly. The fact that we both said Joe Wicks. And that's not because Joe Wicks is the best personal trainer in existence. It's not that he has skills that other personal trainers don't have, or that he is inherently better than someone who might be working in a gym with a small clientele base who might be absolutely amazing at their job and really gets great results for their clients. He's not better, it's just that you know he exists, you know about him, you've seen what he does, you might never have worked with him directly, and most people who know who he is won't have ever worked with him directly, but you've seen what he's put out there, so he's who comes to your mind. Whereas when you only work with people and you just go on word of mouth recommendations, which is a great way initially, often to start a business, but when you eventually exhaust how big you can get at that level, because there's only so many word of mouth recommendations you can get, whereas PR is effectively like a word of mouth recommendation, but on a speedonic level, yeah. It's on it's a huge. So going back to when you mentioned about adverts, I mean you can now pay to not have ads, can't you? Lots and lots of platforms subscribe to be ad free, so people are actively not only clicking off ads or not paying attention, they're actively paying money to avoid advertising. Um, whereas the content, which is what PR is putting out, so the the actual shows on the TV or the programmes on the radio or the podcast itself or the articles in a newspaper or magazine, that's what people are there for. So they are actively opting into hearing what you've got to say, they're actively opting into your story, and also the trust element is hugely different. That's a huge issue. So with an advert, you know somebody has decided what the advert will say. They've said, this advert is gonna say, I am the world's best, whatever, I'm amazing at this. Here's my program, here's how you can work with me. Whatever, whatever the advert says, it's curated by the person who's put it out there. And it's sort of you're taking their word for it, aren't you? So when you see an advert, you don't watch an advert and instantly go, yeah, that must be the best supermarket because it's oh my god, you you know, you're making your own judgment call. If you see an article written by a third party or somebody who has spoken to that person and is sharing what they do with their audience, that's completely different. It's written in somebody else's words, or it's edited. If it's a program, it's someone else has been involved and they've decided that this is what you should hear about, this is what you should see, this is what you should read, and that this is worth talking about. It's not just somebody saying, I want you to know this, and I'm gonna pay money so that you know it. It's somebody else saying, This is interesting, this person's got stuff to say. This they've got a story, they've they've got expertise that's gonna help you, they've got wisdom to share. That's it.

Speaker 1 9:50

So that's it. Anyone can pay money for an advert, anybody can, anybody can post on social media. Um, but you know, those who are regularly in the media, well, they're just at a completely different level. And it doesn't mean that they're at that level before they go in the media because that's another misconception. Like people think that they people think that PR is just like for celebrity, celebrities and the royals and everything like that, that they need to be at this massive level first, and that's not it. Like, these people, like, let's look at Tony Robbins. Like, he he's probably the biggest name as a life coach. Well, he started PR in the 80s, he's still getting PR. Like, he's never going to stop getting PR because he knows that without it, he would lose his relevance.

Speaker 2 10:44

Yeah, I think that's the big, the big misconception is at both ends of the scale, isn't it? Because there's people who think that they're too small for PR, and there's people who think that they are too big for PR. Oh, and oh yes, there is a big, and my my answer to everything is nobody is too small or too big for PR. It's relevant to everyone. You might not quite be ready for PR. That's a different story. If you've literally, your business is pretty much just an idea, you're just getting started, you don't really know what you want to say to the world, you haven't really got a clear message, you're not sure who you want to reach. Is that the right time to jump into PR? Probably not. You probably want to get clarity on what it is that you're doing, how you can help people, what you've got to say. But just having a small working from your kitchen, you know, only having a small number of customers doesn't mean that your voice isn't important and you haven't. Completely, yes. And likewise, if you go, oh, I don't need PR because I'm doing really well for myself, and I've got, you know, I've got loads of customers, I've got all this stuff. I would sort of argue, like you say, Tony Robbins still gets PR. Kim Kardashian still does PR. People at very, very high levels of visibility and success still have a PR team, a PR strategy. All getting PR.

Speaker 1 12:19

Yeah. That's it. Um, and on the topic of you know, making sure that they're ready as well, having those things in place, like knowing their audience, their offers, and everything like that. It doesn't mean that it needs to be absolutely perfect either. Like it's finding that balance because as you do PR, all of these things will naturally refine themselves. And like you do, you need to have an idea of these things. You need to know what you want and then go for it. Say yes, you know, like your message will refine as you go, as you speak. It's action that refines these things, it's taking action, not sitting there and thinking, oh, what should I do? It's actually doing it, and the same goes for confidence. You know, a lot of people will say to me, um, I need to work on becoming the version of me who's ready for PR. And I'll say, Well, I feel that you're that version already. Like the way for you to really own that is to start a PR. And that's how your confidence is going to grow. That's how your message is going to get more refined. Not by sitting and hoping.

Speaker 2 13:46

And so many people that we've worked with have actually been inspired to like take on new things within their business as they do it because they they are learning more about themselves doing it by having to think about what they've got to say to the world, what stories they've got to share, they learn a lot more about themselves. They end up often having these amazing epiphanies about actually, I spoke to a journalist about this area of my expertise, and I've now realized that there's a bit more to it, and I want to do even more of that. And so it can be a really great sort of personal development and growing. It's like it's like the kind of world's biggest secret personal development. Nobody ever thinks of PR as they think of all these other things that they need to do as personal development, but actually learning to be comfortable, putting yourself on a above the parapet and saying what you've got to say is a huge leap in your personal development. Being comfortable with people seeing you, hearing you, reading about you, learning about you, that's huge in personal development. Like clarifying your messages so that you're not just happy to say, tell your, you know, your mum and your auntie and your best friend, but to tell like the whole world, that's a huge step. But people don't sort of, it's almost like the hidden benefit of PR that you actually end up learning so much about yourself, your business, your expertise. It it forces you in a way to stay on the top of your game because you're having to sh keep showing up, and not just to a small audience, but to a big audience, keep showing up and backing yourself as the authority in your niche and stepping into that um position as someone who is an expert and is happy to call themselves an expert. And when we talk about people not being ready, it's often their own fear that makes them think they're not ready.

Speaker 1 16:08

100%. 100%. And it is scary. It is, and people get scared at all levels as well. Because sometimes, you know, I'll speak to people who are just at the beginning of the business journey, and they'll say, Oh, I'm I'm too scared. And what they what a lot of them don't realize is that that fear is never gonna go away. It's never gonna go away, and we should we shouldn't also try to block it away, you know. We need fear, it's great, it gives us energy, it gives us motivation, but use it in the right way, bring it along for the ride and use it for for what you want. But people feel that fear at all levels, and you'll know this, Catherine. Like when I've been, you know, I've been in the media since 2011, it's now 2025, but I still get scared. Like so many times I'm saying to Catherine, oh my god, Catherine, uh I'm freaking out about this story that's just gone out. I'm feeling so exposed and vulnerable. Like I I still get it, and so do so does everybody.

Speaker 2 17:25

Yeah, it's a very confronting experience to put out your opinions, to put out your experiences, your stories for other people to digest, to potentially judge, to uh have an opinion themselves on, and so it it doesn't really matter what level you are, you are there are gonna be times where you share something and then you are uncertain about how you feel about what people's reactions will be. That doesn't mean that they shouldn't do it, it's that thing of um, but it's normal to have reservations, particularly on the things that are really important to you. So the things that really matter will feel more confronting than the things that don't. If it's something really, really shallow and frivolous and that you don't really care about, you don't mind either way, whether it goes in the paper or it doesn't, you've got no personal attachment. But if you're sharing your, for example, if you've undergone a big journey in your own life, you have overcome some big adversity, you have learned some real life lessons that you really want to tell people about because you know that that could help people, that matters to you, so you are gonna feel worried about it. That's natural, and that's a sign actually that you should lean into that and do it.

Speaker 1 19:02

Completely that I was just about to say that, Catherine. That isn't like all of these feelings are so natural, but it's definitely not a reason not to do it, more of a reason to do it because when you feel like that, that means it's the right thing to do. And guess what? Most people are not brave enough. This means that when you do it, you are setting yourself apart from the crowd. Everybody says that their niche is crowded, and maybe it is, but do you know what? It's not crowded in the media.

Speaker 2 19:41

No, that's the thing with every single niche. If you actually sat down and thought of who do you know in the niche that has that a media presence, there will only be a handful, really, for any sort of area that have actually really broken out and who are regularly and consistently appearing in the media. I don't mean that they they once featured in an article in 2008 and then that was it, they were done. And that's it can be a common thing as well. People will say, Oh, I've done PR, as if it's like a final thing. You wouldn't say, Oh, I've done my taxes, I'm I'm never doing them again, or I've done my personal development. It's a constant, ever-evolving journey. Yeah, I've done my and social media is probably the most closely related in that you wouldn't put one post on Facebook and it does really, really well. And then you go, well, that's done really well. It said what I wanted it to say. I'm gonna stop now, and then you would just leave your account dormant. And that's what a lot of people are doing with their PR. They are getting one piece, and then they've gone, oh, that's really good. I've I've done that now, I've ticked that box, I've I've got some PR for myself, and maybe they saw some good results from that. Maybe lots of people came and followed them, or they had lots of inquiries on their website. So they kind of go, that that worked really well for me, and then they stop and they go, I've done that, I'm gonna move on to the next shiny thing. Whereas what you really need to be doing is going, that's working well. Now I'm gonna show up again, and I'm gonna show up again, and I'm gonna show up again, just as part of your normal business strategy, not something that you do for a couple of months and stop, but in the same way as you don't do your accounting or your um any element of your business, your business admin, you don't do it for a couple of months and then just stop. Whatever it is you do, you do it consistently, whether you do it yourself or you have a team to do it, you have a consistent thing that goes throughout for all time. And PR is the same. Whether you do your own PR or whether you hire a team to do your PR, it needs to carry on being something that is a Feature of your business and carries on being a feature of your business and not a one sort of one strike, yep, that's gonna do everything for me.

Speaker 1 22:11

That's such a great point. So, like imagine, imagine if I went on social media today, posted one post, didn't do anything for a year, and then at the end of the year I said, Oh, yeah, I did social media back back months ago because I'd done one post.

Speaker 2 22:30

Like, and this is where the part of the issue with when people say, So another thing that I'd I'd love to kind of at least briefly mention is when people say, I did PR and it didn't work, and that's something we often will hear from people not who've worked with us, but people who maybe are unsure about whether PR is something that they want to carry on with or that they want. And what usually that m means is that they did it for a little bit and it's not continuing to do lots of things. Maybe they didn't see any dramatic results because they actually only dipped their toe in the water of PR. Yeah. Um, and what I will usually ask people to think about is their own response to when they are reading a magazine or they're listening to a podcast. If someone was on and they had a £10,000 offer and you heard them on the podcast and you thought this person sounded amazing and great, really interesting. Your first response wouldn't be, I am going to immediately bring this person up and I'm gonna send them £10,000 immediately and work with them. What your response might be though is I'll see if they're on social media, or if that person mentioned that they had a book, you might go, oh, read the book, or if that person um had a free offer or a low ticket offer, you might opt into that, or you might just lurk about and say, Oh, they're interesting, and you might not really do anything, but then if you see that person again in the media and again, that's the power you feel yeah, it's when it's when that that name pops up over and over and over again, and eventually people start to pay attention.

Speaker 1 24:32

Now, this is where I think there's a big misconception because, like, just to be clear, we're talking about earned media here. We don't deal with pay-to-play whatsoever, but I see a lot of people when they sell pay-to-play media calling it PR and making out that once they've got this feature live that they're going to be inundated with people clamoring to work with them instantly, and that's just not the reality, is it? No, you have to see something.

Speaker 2 25:04

Um, anyone who's a parent who's listening, they always have the idea that when you introduce a child to food, you have to introduce them to food lots of different times before they will eat it. And the public are a little bit like that too, in that the first time they learn you exist is probably not the time that they're gonna decide to work with you. Yeah, they're gonna need to keep seeing you, showing up, sharing your messages, talking about the things that you know about, the things that you're good at. And once they keep seeing you and you're in their mind, that's when they're gonna be like, Yes, I really want this person. So each piece of media is not the full picture. You're not gonna get this one magical piece that does all your work and carries on doing it forever and ever, and just sells all your products or services and does all the stuff that doesn't exist, but what you want to do is each piece being like a jigsaw puzzle that builds up into creating your online presence, your visibility, your uh perception of what you're putting out into the world. So if somebody is on the radio, on TV, in magazines, in a newspaper, people will get that idea of familiarity and trust, and they will think, oh, they won't remember every single time they've seen that person. Anybody you can think of that's an expert, you won't go, oh well, I've seen them exactly seven times in places. You won't know at what point you started to think that person is a real expert. Um a good example would be um someone like um an expert that you would see on, say, like a TV show like this morning. Um you wouldn't doubt that that person is you'd be like, yeah, they're they're an expert, that TV doctor or whatever, they they know their stuff. And if you then saw them in a different area and you had the opportunity to work with them, you'd probably jump at it because you'd be like, they're somebody that I know knows their stuff because I've seen them on a TV show, or I've heard them on a radio, or I've read them in a newspaper. But having one single piece is just never gonna do enough in the same way as one social media post wouldn't. It it might get some immediate results in the form of people following you or people coming and having a look, but it's not gonna do everything. So when people say PR didn't work, what they actually mean is I didn't give it long enough, usually.

Speaker 1 28:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Or they bought you know a pay-to-play feature or whatever, which is fine, um, but it's more like advertising pay-to-play. Um, so yeah, completely.

Speaker 2 28:19

Yeah, absolutely. Um I think the biggest the biggest thing to remember with PR and just to kind of have in your mind, if you're on the fence about whether it's something that you actually need, and you're kind of like, okay, do I really need this? Is this something that would benefit my business, me personally, whatever questions you're asking yourself about PR is if you had the opportunity to get like a megaphone that could reach millions of people, have you got things that you want to say?

Speaker 1 29:03

That's the biggest question to all such a great question, and that leads to what is the bigger purpose behind all of it? Because really, this is so much more than you, it's so much more than your business. This is about your message, changing lives. This is the ripple effect, you know. You reach, let's say you go on TV and you speak to two million people. Let's say, let's be really conservative and say that only 10 people are really impacted, and then they carry that message on to their family, their friends, the people they are yet to meet, the younger generations, then you have had a huge impact. And imagine you doing that over and over and over and over again.

Speaker 2 29:52

Yeah. And there's the unseen impact, which is just as important that you might never know all the people that your story will touch, will meet. You won't know. You won't. And it's not just, I would hope that most people who have a purpose-driven entrepreneurs, purpose-driven coaches, um, and they have a real mission and something that they want to achieve and they want to make the world a better place, I would hope that those people, it wouldn't just be how many sales did I get from this completely about sharing what they had. And actually, if say you are a health expert and you are sharing something that somebody reads about, and it makes them go and get checked out, or it makes them make a positive change in their life, they they won't come and tell you that they did that, but your message may have done that without them ever speaking to you, without them ever letting you know, and that will be making a difference, and that's putting out there. So it might not be a tangible impact, but if you are if you have something that matters to say, do people have to pay you? I think that's another question to ask yourself. Is my wisdom something I am only prepared to give if they hand over some money? And for some people, the answer to that might be yes, they might only want to tell people stuff if they are actively receiving money from that person.

Speaker 31:36

Yeah.

Speaker 2 31:37

But if what you care about and what you do, and you it matters more to you that people learn these things, that people make these changes in their life, that you have a message that you want people to know, and you want them to know whether or not they work with you or not, you want to help them, you want to make the world a better place, you want to, for example, going back to Joe Wicks, when he during lockdown was doing the free YouTube videos for children, yeah. He wasn't receiving direct money for that. He wasn't saying, I have an exercise class children can do, and I want money from each person, but that massively helped his profile. Everybody knows who he is.

Speaker 1 32:23

He made him, didn't he? That that's that's the decision that made him.

Speaker 2 32:28

So now he has got lots of brand deals, he's got lots of people who will pay absolutely top dollar to work with him because he was he was sharing and giving of his time and expertise. He wasn't jealously guarding it and saying, I'll only tell you I've got, you know, sometimes people will be like, I've got, you know, five steps to um a great relationship or four steps to becoming healthy. But I'll only tell you if you sign up to my six-week program.

Speaker 1 33:02

That's it. But by doing that, they haven't built the trust to make people want to sign up for the program.

Speaker 2 33:08

So people need to know, people need to know what you're about, they need to know that you're an expert, they need to know you've got stuff to say that they want to hear more. Then they might want to pay you to find out more. You're never going to um tell too much in the media, you're never gonna go into a magazine and tell them everything they need to know so that they then decide not to work with you. The opposite's true. If they hear you sharing your stuff, they will say, I want to know even more for this person. They're not gonna say, Oh, well, I don't need to work with them now because I I read an article where they read this one article.

Speaker 1 33:44

Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 2 33:45

What they might say is they're amazing. I want, I'm desperate to find out more of what this person has to say. Um, so yeah, that unseen ripple effect is not something you can measure, but it's absolutely if you care about what you're doing and you've got a lot to say, it's absolutely something to bear in mind that if you could if you could tell the world something, would you? Or would you just you know, and if the answer is yes, then PR is is absolutely the thing for you.

Speaker 1 34:24

Completely. And on that note, if anybody watching or listening to this has any questions, any comments, then get in touch. Hello at dauntlesspr.com. Right, we will end it there. Contact us if you want to hear more, or yeah, if you have any questions too.

Speaker 34:49

And that's it for today's dose of Unfiltered PR Truths. To find out more about how you can work with Dauntless PR, drop me a message on Facebook, Luana Ribeira, or email hello at dauntlesspr.com.