A simple trick to sell your ideas to a journalist

There’s a way of making your ideas stand out and travel far and wide in the press. In this episode of Dauntless PR Unfiltered, Catherine Ball and I share a simple trick to sell your ideas to a journalist.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to Dauntless PR Unfiltered. Today we're going to be sharing with you a simple trick that you can use to really sell your ideas to a journalist.

Speaker 0:13

So one thing, I don't know if you've also noticed this, this is something I've noticed a lot of, that you will often, when you open up a magazine or you look on a website or something, you'll see like a clever phrase to describe something, like a trend, like a lifestyle thing. And often when you actually look at what this thing is, the thing itself won't actually be something that's never happened before, but there'll be a new clever way of describing it. So one of the things that is really, really useful if you want to be in the media talking about your approach, your ideas, your concepts, is to find some really simple but memorable ways to describe what you're talking about. So let's think of some good examples. So there's one that I keep seeing today. Friction maxing. Yeah. Last week, if you'd have said the words friction maxing, I'd have said, Oh, are you are you all right? Are you injured? Like, what is this for friction maxing? So friction maxing, if you haven't yet seen it, has been coined, I think, by a journalist in an article, but it's kind of like taken off, and people really like it. And it's deliberately making your life a little bit less convenient because they're saying it's actually better for you to kind of give yourself some challenges. So instead of like doing everything the easy way, create a little bit of friction in your life and it's good for your personal development. So that's the kind of idea behind it. That idea in itself, you might kind of go, well, that's nothing new. That's like going out of your comfort zone, similar to that, or even that, that's a thing in itself, isn't it? The comfort zone. It's a memorable way of describing what you could describe in hundreds of words. You could be like, oh, you know, the wanting to stay doing the same thing every day. But once you have a really good phrase, it's like a shorthand for people to know how to refer to what it is that you're doing. So the reason why it's a really good idea isn't, I'm not necessarily saying every label you give to something is going to become a trend and everyone's going to be using your thing. But journalists thrive on simplicity, they thrive on the new. So, like what a journalist is really, really looking for is something interesting and novel, and that isn't something that's been like overdone, but they also want a concept that is interesting but simple enough that they get it straight away and they can then share it with their audience. What often happens when people put together, they might have put together like a really great programme, or maybe they've written a book, or they've got, you know, a many-stepped plan, they'll be kind of like, oh, but no, I want to tell you my 52 steps to success. That's too complex for a media piece. No one's going to talk about 52 steps. If someone's working with you for a year, brilliant, one for every week. You know, that works brilliantly. What they want is tell me something right now that's super simple that I can grab. So you all have heard loads of things that fall under this category. Glass ceiling is just a very simple phrase to talk about that the barriers that women might meet when they're trying to achieve success. Touching grass, that's quite a similar one. The whole idea of you know getting away from the screen and getting outside and having some sort of authentic life, similar to that one, going analogue. I've seen that on TikTok a lot. And all these things are things that we've described in lots of different ways, but once people find like a clever way of saying it, it sticks in the brain and it makes you more memorable. And it's gonna make you more memorable to journalists. If you pick something and you consistently describe it in this way to your audience on your social media content, maybe you have a blog, whatever you have, and then you're also in your pictures to journalists and in interviews, you're using this clever phrase, then you're straight away kind of getting to the heart of what it is, and it will force you as well to really think what is the simple message of what I'm saying? Like, how can I describe it?

Speaker 1 5:08

One of the like, probably not even one of the most, but the most common mistake, probably in in you know, from what I've seen, is that people try to sound too smart, don't they? Like they they tend to complicate things. And it's because they are smart and they've spent all of these years, you know, working on their craft and they've got so much depth and things that they want to say, but actually, what the media wants is simplicity, yeah. So people can describe something in a way that's really simple, really catchy, really memorable. That is what's gonna travel, and that's what that's what people are gonna remember. Even like books like the the let them theory, you know, is one of those where it's nothing new about it, is there? It's something like detachment theory, it's it's you know, it's something that's existed, but it's almost been rebranded and repackaged and just delivered in a way that's simple, clear, and that people really understand. So I think from from the past week, actually, from speaking to clients, I think the most common phrase that I've said is you don't need to sound fancy or clever here, you just need to be clear.

Speaker 6:38

Yes, absolutely. And I think people want to appear expert, they want to show their training, their education, and that sometimes does lead to that common trap, like you say, of trying to overcomplicate it because you know it might have taken you maybe six years to learn this stuff. So you want to be kind of like you you almost resist subconsciously, not you're not consciously thinking, I'm going to resist making this simple, but on a subconscious level, you're thinking, Why I want to make this really simple because this wasn't simple. I I spent ages learning this, but you know, very simple concepts doesn't mean that there isn't more to it. You know, you're you're working out ways to lodge yourself in people's brain so that they really remember that. You know, one of the reasons that the Let Them Theory book was such a success is that people were able to go, there's this thing, it's called the Let Them Theory, and tell people about that, about it. And to them, they were like, This is something I really get. Lots and lots of people I've spoken to who might have done like NLP and other things like that, will go, well, you know, I've I've been doing that stuff for years. Yeah. But you maybe didn't say it in a way where people go, I know what you mean, I know what you're saying, I can now tell somebody else about it. And really, journalists are the people doing that on a supersonic scale. If you think about when you tell somebody something and they get it and they tell a friend, well, journalists are doing that on a huge scale. You're telling them, they're going, I get it. You've given me like a great light bulb moment about something. I now am going to tell it to my audience. And then what you will find is that then that sort of travels because then other people will read about it and they'll go, I get it, and they'll talk about it because it gives it something that's explainable that people can kind of go, great. And you know, we we use these sound bites because that's what they are effectively. They're when you coin a phrase or you give it something, you're giving yourself like a media-friendly sound bite that they're going to be able to use. I mean, if you're in the UK or well, I guess anywhere around the world, when you think about the UK leaving the European Union, how would you describe it? You probably wouldn't go, the official withdrawal of the UK from the you'd say Brexit. Brexit was something that again a journalist came up with. They are the absolute, you know, pinnacle of coming up with these types of phrases because that's what they know their audience likes. So if you can come up with something great for them, that's brilliant. They're gonna they're gonna latch onto that. But one thing I will say is don't get caught into trying to come up with something that you then own as a concept. So, like, come up with these things, but be prepared that if they are successful, other people will use those phrases too. And that's okay. Yeah, that's a good thing. It means that you've done your job well. You know, the guy that came up with Brexit, not a clue who he is. If he was racing around going, you can't say that because I came up with that, you know. But really great ideas are the ones that travel, are the ones that people like pick up on. So I don't know who came up with, you know, a lot of the phrases out there. You know, I don't know who specifically came up with them. But if they were talking on that topic and they were the one that came up first, then they will be leading the way in that discussion because they came up with that phrase. So it's not the same as coming up with things that you're going to trademark for your business. It's about finding a simple way of getting across the core part of your message in a way that appeals to journalists, that they get, that they understand, and also that's really easy for them to pitch to their editors. So this is one thing that maybe most people don't understand about like how it all works. If you're pitching to a journalist, that journalist, unless they are a sole creator, like maybe if you were pitching to a podcast host and they are the one that makes the decision, am I going to put someone on my show? Most of the people that you would approach, producers, journalists, they have somebody above them that makes the final call. So you not only have to give them an idea that they love, it has to be a simple enough idea that that journalist can then go to their editor and say, I've got a great idea for a story. This person's emailed me and they've done this or they've got this approach. And then the editor has to go, okay, so you've kind of got these layers of people. The simpler and more effective your idea is, the easier it is to get over that hurdle. If what you have to say is something that requires them to get like a whiteboard out and start drawing a diagram and being like, oh, and it's this, and yeah, there's actually 23 elements to this, and you do the they're just it's gonna fall at some point. You know, one of the things I often say to people um is if your idea can't be explained in a sentence, it's probably too complex for like pitching to the media. Like it needs to be something that you can just say to them. Clearly, you need more than a sentence to like it explain it fully, but you should be able to give them the core thing of what it is you're saying, like this is the main gist of what I'm gonna tell you, and then go into more detail. Because really, anything that's got too much nuance, too much need for clarification, it just gets lost in translation when it ends up appearing in in newspapers in on websites, because you know, if if it required a whole book to say it, then people need to buy the book. You need to be thinking, what are the things that can come out of that book and be like a shorter version to like bring people to you?

Speaker 1 13:18

That's it. Like one no one piece of media will ever give the full story, will ever share your full expertise, and it doesn't mean watering down or blurring your edges or none of that, it just means sharpening it, making it clear, making it memorable. And then it doesn't mean that you don't go into depth with the rest of your things either. You know, this is just the entry point so that people can quickly understand a section of what it is that you do and come into your world that way, you know. And then, of course, on your socials, you've got your content there, you've got your content there just for your for your members and everything else that's going on. And that's where you can start to give more depth when people start to get to know you more. So this is very much a way of initially like getting that thought into the press.

Speaker 14:18

Yeah. And getting you known for some of the things that you can then go on and tell you. So, for example, if you were to watch a TV interview with a doctor talking about, I don't know, gut health, like something you could do today to improve your gut health. You're not gonna go away from that going, this guy only knows this one thing that I could do to improve my gut health. But that might be the thing that sticks in your brain, and you go, Oh, they were really good, I really like them. So then maybe you're gonna go and look and find them and see what else they've got to say about other areas of your health and things you can do. And that's really what you're aiming for, is giving people those little like personal epiphanies where they kind of go, that makes sense. That makes sense. I'm gonna remember that. And you know, you will all have all of these things where you maybe you went to a talk and somebody said something that just like landed in your brain, and you're like, that makes sense to me. We've all had those moments with people, and it's about thinking of what parts of your message could be those moments for other people.

Speaker 1 15:29

That's it, and everybody wants to feel like, yes, I've got it. Nobody wants to feel like they're slow or you know, are picking things up or that they don't understand or confuse. Like if they feel like that, they're likely to switch off. So sometimes when people are, you know, highly, highly accomplished and very smart and they've been working on their topic for so long, it can sometimes be hard for them to remember, like because to them it's like it feels too simple. It's like they feel like they need to to prove something, and and it's almost like, well, they'll already know that, but it's not about knowing, it's about it really, really landing. There's a difference between knowing something and it really landing.

Speaker 16:22

And I must say, like any of the things that I've said, I I was probably the same when I first started giving people advice about the media from the standpoint of someone who'd been in the media for a long time. Most of the things people really needed to hear were very simple. And at first I didn't realize what those things were because I was in that world. So I'm thinking probably of like really complex things and thinking, oh, I'm gonna start telling you about this or this like different thing. When actually what they really needed to hear was like those starting points of things, and that's usually when you are a coach or a therapist or you're running some sort of a business where you are wanting to like make a difference to people's lives, the thing that will bring the people initially will be those kind of simple moments, then they will go, Well, what else have you got? What else can you tell me?

Speaker 1 17:24

Yeah, 100%. Okay, so we will finish up there for today. So just think about how you speak about some of your ideas and how you could wrap it up in a nice catchy little package. We will end there for today. Any questions or comments? Hello at dauntlesspr.com.