Please note this transcript is created by AI - apologies for any mistakes!

Pippa Goulden (00:01)
Hello and welcome back to another episode of PR Made Simple. Today it's just me talking about how you can use September as a bit of a PR reset, how you can get back into the PR game and how you can take action to make things happen in your business. September energy is my absolute favourite. The back to school vibe, everyone focused on the last few months before Christmas. It's like New Year without the pressure.

and the New Year's resolutions and the freezing weather. So I wanted to do a quick episode today on my tips on how to make the most of this September energy, how to get your PR started or restarted, how to start taking action and how to use what is going on out there to your advantage. The key thing is going to be working out the priorities in your business. So if you have a Christmas-focused business,

then you're going to be looking at short lead, short term opportunities for Q4. And trust me, there are still a lot of them. I am working with a client at the moment and we have lots of PR opportunities for her coming at the moment. So I want you to know that there is still time for you if you are Christmas focused. You'll want to be focusing your efforts if you are Christmas focused on the right places.

So for example, a lot of the monthly magazines have already done their Christmas issues. So there's still lots of opportunities in what we call the mid and short leads. So that's your magazines like Grazia and Stylist, the kind of weekly and online titles, for example. And don't forget there's so many other Christmas opportunities for you from podcast interviews, events, collaborations and panels. The key is knowing what's gonna work for your audience and putting a plan together around that.

And I'm always a big advocate of having a plan for whatever you're doing in your PR, because just going out there willy nilly and trying everything is going to make you feel incredibly overwhelmed and incredibly like you don't have enough time to do it. So what I want you to do is to have a little think. It doesn't have to be, you know, a 60 page PowerPoint document. You just want to have a think about who your target audience is, what PR opportunities there are.

So you just wanna have a think about what you're trying to achieve within your business, who your audience is, and put a plan together that's going to help you to reach that audience. It's really simple. Don't let the word strategy put you off because honestly, just think about it like having a PR plan. If your business isn't Christmas focused, then I would be looking at PR opportunities that build for you from now into, I'm going to say it, 2026.

it is just around the corner and starting now is going to give you the best chance at hitting the ground running into the new year. I spoke to a journalist this week who was working on her February issue for example, so there are opportunities happening now that will take you into the new year and this is a key time especially if you are in the well-being, health, fitness world, those new year, new you, how to...

do your news resolutions, all of that kind of content will be starting to be thought about by the longer lead publications. So whatever type of business you have, there are opportunities for you out there. And like I said, look at your business objectives, look at your target audience and build the strategic approach from there. A key thing to do now as well is to think about what you want to get known for.

When are the key times for your business? So if you're not Christmas focused, there's still lots of opportunities for you to be had for the rest of the year. Don't just write off the next few months and don't just think that people are only writing or talking about Christmas because they are absolutely not. I actually have secured myself a couple of opportunities in the last week or two that will be for me to be doing things in October and November which have nothing to do with Christmas.

whatsoever. So know that there are lots of opportunities still to be had in 2025 for you, whether you are Christmas focused or whether you are not. If it starts, if it, if it feels overwhelming, and if it feels overwhelming with where to start, then have a think about what you'd love to do in your business. Is it a speaking opportunity that you've never had the guts to pitch yourself for or a podcast you'd love to be interviewed on? Maybe it's a magazine that you think you'd be perfect for.

And the key is taking the action to make those things happen. The autumn is great for multiple layers of PR opportunities. There's more networking and industry events taking place. The seasonal story angles, we start seeing award entries opening up and the buildup to Christmas, of course. So many different angles that you can tie your products or your expertise into depending on your business.

Now want to talk a little bit about the things that get in your way when it comes to this September reset and you think, I really want to get on with my PR and there's a couple of things that I see time and time again that get in people's way when they're doing their own PR for their business. The first one is time. I don't have enough time to do it. I see this time and time again but I really want you to reframe it. There is...

absolutely enough time to do your PR. You're just not prioritizing it in your business. Perhaps you're defaulting to the things that you know well, like Instagram, for example. So maybe this next week, I would suggest doing a really strict audit on where you're spending your time, because that will help you to see where there are pockets where you could prioritize your PR. And then the next thing to do is to really commit to it.

Now I would really suggest for you to know whether PR is going to work for your business and it will do if it's done in the right way, is a three month commitment. But that might feel a bit overwhelming for you for now. So I would suggest at least four weeks. And the way to do that is either to commit 15 minutes a day, which is what I do, or an hour or two a week and block that time out in your diary. Make it a non-negotiable.

because you actually have to do it to know whether it's working for your business or not. And this September reset will actually help you to create habits that will take you into 2026 and mean that you are ahead when we have get there. And trust me, January you will be very grateful that you have started hitting the ground running now. And the next thing that I want to talk about is taking the action because so often, and I know this because I do it myself,

We spend time overthinking, we worry about what people are going to think about, and the next thing I want to talk about, because again, I see this time and time again, and don't worry, I've done it, I do it myself, I have to... And the next thing I want to talk about is taking action, because so often, and I know this from a personal perspective, we spend too much time overthinking, worrying about what people will think of us,

worrying that they'll think we're too big for our boots or worrying that journalists might think we're silly for getting in touch with them instead of actually doing the thing that's going to drive us forward. I've deep dived into this in previous episodes of the podcast. I'd really recommend if this is something that you find yourself doing over and over again, a really recent episode that I did with Leela Ange on imposter syndrome or imposter phenomenon as she calls it and

an early episode that I did with Caroline Britton on fear, I really recommend listening to both of those. If you are getting stuck in a mindset rut, those two episodes will really help you get out of that because we spend often more time thinking about RPR than actually taking the action and it's the taking the action that gets the results. And you're not going to know what people think of your business just by thinking about it, okay?

you are not going to know whether a journalist wants to hear from you or not until you actually send that pitch. Don't think for them, okay? The best PR strategy is one that you actually implement. So I'd recommend for this September reset, picking one thing from this episode, whether it's a 15 minute daily commitment or whether it's actually finally pitching to that podcast you've been thinking about for months and just get it done this week.

Your future self is going to be really grateful to you when you are already building that momentum and everyone else is kind of starting to think about in January. This time now is a really great run-up, a springboard into 2026 and to get you to Christmas, to get you to that finish line. So whichever one is right for you, I want you to start thinking about taking the action that's going to make these things happen because the opportunities

are out there for you and your business. My DIY PR members, my one-to-one-ers, my get-known-ers are all absolute hard-breathing living evidence that you can do your PR for yourself. The key thing is taking the action to make it happen. So if this has inspired you to take some action, there are a few different ways that you can work with me to do it. I have my DIY PR membership, which is an ongoing monthly or annual membership. You can cancel at any time, but come in, that will give you

all the infrastructure and the support you need to get your PR done for your business and you can use the code POD50 to get 50 % off your first month. I have Get Known which is my six-week group sprint which is really focused on people who want to build their personal profile and get known for what they do so brilliant for service businesses it also works for product businesses if you are ready to kind of step in front of the business and build your own profile rather than just focusing on your products.

that start in October and the doors for that are opening very very soon so there's a wait list in the show notes or it might be open by the time you listen to this so yeah you want to jump into that quickly because spots will go quickly for that and finally I have my one-to-one accelerator which is where we work for a six week or a three month

And finally, I have my one-to-one accelerator, which is my done with you service where you are doing the PR, but you have me in your pocket helping you all the way. And that is either a six week or a three month deep dive. And all three of those get incredible results. So it really just comes down to how much support, how much budget you have, how much time you want to commit, all those things. But by all means, drop me an email, drop me a DM.

Set up a call with me to chat through and let's get your September PR party started.