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Pippa Goulden (00:43)
Hello and welcome back to PR Made Simple. Now I did have a different episode planned for this week, but I ran my free training yesterday and it changed my mind because I see something coming up time and time again, something that is stopping you from doing any of this work and something that actually, once you nail, opens up so many things for you within your business, not just your PR, but so many other things too. So I want to talk about

your positioning, about what you want to get known for, about how you figure out what you want to get known for. Somebody who came to one of my trainings from a while ago wrote on my LinkedIn this week, until you know what you want to get known for, everything else is just noise. And I'm like, that is it. She's got it. She's nailed that. It is so true. So today we're going deep on positioning, on getting really clear on what you want to get known for, because I genuinely believe, I know, I see this with the people that I work with,

that this is the foundation that everything else is built on. Your PR, your authority building, your content, your pitching. It goes way beyond just your PR. All of it gets so much easier when this is clear. It's what links everything together throughout your business. It's like the golden thread. And I wanna say something before we go any further that I think is really important for you to hear. This is not just a beginner problem. I work with six and seven figure business owners who still find this genuinely difficult.

established successful brilliant founders who have built incredible businesses and still struggle to articulate clearly and confidently what they want to get known for. So if this is where you are, whatever the size of your business, however long you've been doing this, do not panic. You haven't failed. This is just the work and today we're doing it together. Let me start by defining what I mean by positioning, what I mean by what you want to get known for because I think

It often gets confused with branding or messaging or niche. And it's way simpler than all of that. Your positioning is what you want to get known for. It's the thing people think of when they think of you. It's the answer to the question. If somebody recommended you to a friend, what would they say you do? What would they say you're brilliant at what you do? If you're introducing yourself at a networking event, how do you say what you do? How do you explain it?

Here's the test I use with my clients. If a journalist called you right now and said, I'm writing a piece on X and I need an expert, can you help? Would you know immediately whether that was your thing? Would you be able to say yes with confidence? Would you know exactly what you'd say or would you hesitate? Would you think, well, I could talk about that or maybe this or actually I'm not really sure if this is my area. The hesitation is a positioning problem and it's costing you opportunities every single day, I think.

And this is why I think this is hard, even when you've been in business for years, when you start out, you know, you're doing whatever you can to get your business off the ground. You say yes to lots of things. You evolve, you pivot, you add services, you drop things that don't work. Your products evolve, your product range changes. It's totally natural. It's part of being a founder. And over time, you end up with a business that's doing lots of things, sometimes brilliantly, but without a clear thread running through it.

of what you are the go-to for, what you are the industry expert in. And then somebody asks you to go on a podcast or pitch for a speaking opportunity or write an article and you feel like you have to distill everything you do into one clear, compelling angle and that feels difficult. So I had somebody who came into my Get Known program. She's a brilliant founder. She's built an amazing community. She's so passionate about what she does. She kept getting asked to go on to...

other people's podcasts, really good podcasts, the right audiences, great opportunity for her from a business perspective. And she said no to them because, not because she was scared, not because she doesn't have things to say, but because she didn't know what she wanted to say on those podcasts. She wasn't clear enough on her positioning to show up and to own it confidently. And those opportunities were right there for her and she wasn't able to take them.

And I see this play out time and time again. I had another client, a brilliant established business owner, amazing business owner. She came to me, she'd spent thousands of pounds on PR and it didn't work for her. She got some press coverage, but it was like personal random stories that felt really disconnected from her business and didn't show her expertise. It didn't help her talk about what she wanted to get known for. They weren't linked to her and her business.

And when we looked at it together, the problem wasn't, well, it might have been the PR agency because they haven't done their job properly. The problem was that they hadn't done that positioning work first. She hadn't been clear enough on what she wanted to get known for. She hadn't connected the dots that this work actually was so important then to the PR work she was gonna do. So the coverage that came out didn't serve her business.

So PR doesn't fix unclear positioning. It amplifies whatever positioning you already have. So if your positioning is vague or scattered, your PR is gonna feel like that too. And I think it's important to understand what unclear positioning costs you within your business because I think sometimes we don't connect those dots together. I think it costs you opportunities like that founder turning down the right podcast because she didn't know what she wanted to say.

It costs you credibility because if you're not clear on what you want to get known for, no one else is going to be either. No one else knows that you're the go-to for no one's recommending you for the right things. I think it costs you time and energy because when you're positioning is unclear.

Your content feels scattered, your pitches feel vague, your marketing feels like a constant uphill battle. You're almost starting at the wrong end of things. You're starting picking up your phone thinking I need to post on Instagram, not really being clear about what you want to post about because you're unclear on what you want to get known for. And it costs you money because unclear positioning means you're going to bring the wrong people into your world. You're going to say yes to the wrong opportunities. You're never quite building the momentum that you're looking for.

So getting clear on what you want to get known for, I don't think is a nice to have. It's the foundation that everything else should be built on. And I want to talk quickly about something that I think stops a lot of especially female founders from ever properly doing this work. And I think there's a mindset piece here, as there always is, that's really important. And it's the fear of putting a stake in the ground.

The fear that if you get really specific about what you want to get known for, if you say, this is my thing, this is my expertise, this is who I'm for, you're going to alienate people, you're going to close doors, you're going to leave money on the table. I hear this all the time, but what if I focus on this and miss out on that? What if I put myself in a box? What if I change direction in a year? Can I evolve? But absolutely, I understand that fear, I felt it myself. But this is what I see happen, and this happened with me and my own business too.

Getting specific doesn't push people away. It actually draws the right people in. When you're clear about what you stand for, when you have a real point of view, when people know exactly what you're the go-to for, the right clients find you faster. They're more aligned with you. They arrive knowing that they want to work with you. They don't question your prices. They don't need convincing.

and the people who weren't right for you, they self-select out, which sounds scary, but it's actually one of the most liberating things that can happen in your business. And remember, your positioning isn't permanent either, it evolves as you do. So I talk about authority over visibility now, that's something that I've really honed in on in 2026. But five years ago when I launched the PR set, I wasn't talking about it in those terms at all.

My own positioning has sharpened, evolved as I've done the work, as I've seen what's going on in the wider world, as I've got clearer on what I believe in, as I've got more confidence and more courage in my conviction and what I see making a difference for my clients, it would have been really easy for me to just jump on the visibility bandwagon because it's what everyone else is talking about. It's the word du jour.

but I know that visibility isn't enough. I know that being seen isn't enough. So I've really stuck my stake in the ground there by talking about authority, by talking about getting known for what you do and not just seen. And it goes against the grain of what a lot of people are talking about at the moment. But actually I think it's done me a really good job because it's brought really aligned clients in. My one-to-one clients who really understand

that they want to be the authority, that they want to be the go-to in their industry. It's really helped me connect my work with theirs. And remember, you don't have to have this perfectly figured out, right? You just have to be clear on where you are right now and you can evolve and change absolutely. The other thing I want to say is the founders who are most worried about putting a stake in the ground are almost the ones who are brilliant at what they do. They've got so much to offer. Narrowing it down might be

feel to them like they're losing something, but you can't get known for everything. You can only get known for something specific, right? And the something that you choose becomes that thread that runs through everything, your content, your pictures, your PR, your client conversations. That thread is what is going to build authority for you. That thread is what makes you memorable. That thread is what makes people recommend you when you're not in the room.

So how do you actually do this work? Okay, so you can do this work with me, absolutely. My one-to-one accelerator, this is what we start with. There's tools in my membership that will help you to do this work. And I have my Get Known Day on the 3rd of June that will really help you to deep dive into this, all the infos in the show notes. But I want you to have a think, what do you want to get known for? Not everything you do, not your full service offering, not your services.

but the one thing that you want people to think of when they think of you. For me, it's not my one-to-one accelerator, it's not my membership. For me, it's PR authority building for female founders, that's it. Everything sits under that umbrella. Making PR accessible to female founders, helping female founders get known for what they do, those are the key things that I really focus in on. Think about what that looks like for you and you'll find if...

You're quite vague about this. Like, help women feel more confident is vague. I help established female founders build their authority so they become the go-to expert in their field is specific. The more specific with this work, the better. Think about what's your unique angle. There are probably other people doing something similar to you. That's absolutely fine. There is room for everybody. But what makes your approach different? What makes your unique methodology? What makes your framework, your way of doing things?

What's your experience that has led you to bring together all the sum of your parts? That is your IP. Name it, own it, talk about it. What do you have genuine expertise and passion around? Because you can't sustain talking about something unless you genuinely care about it. What is your why behind your business? The best positioning sits at the intersection of what you know deeply, what you love, and also what your audience needs to hear too. What specific problem are you solving for that?

specific person, not I help founders grow their business. What specific problem for what specific person with what specific outcome. Like I said, the more specific you can get, the more people will recognize themselves in it. And that journalist test, if a journalist called you right now needing an expert on your topic, could you answer in one compelling sentence, what makes you the right person? Practice that over and over again, refine it, say it out loud until it feels true and completely yours.

Go to networking, go to online, offline networking and introduce yourself over and over again and make sure that you feel really confident and comfortable. Stand and talk to yourself in the mirror and say this over and over again.

And if you are going to networking events, if you're struggling to know what to say, when to introduce yourself, that is your sign to spend some time doing this work. Because if you can't articulate what you do, while you do it, you can't expect anyone else to understand either. And AI can actually be a really useful tool here. Claw, ChatGDP, whatever it is, don't let it do the thinking for you, as in you need to lead it, but it can be really helpful to go back and forth to help you develop, to help you refine it.

to help get those ideas that maybe are stuck in your head out. And having something to react to is easier than starting from scratch sometimes as well. And something I wanna connect back to, the process of building your authority, whether that's creating your framework, developing your thought leadership, articulating the way that you do things is often what clarifies your positioning. The doing and the thinking can often happen together in tandem.

So if you're struggling with your positioning right now, if you're finding this hard, then an approach that you could start with is start creating. It could be an email, it could be a newsletter, blog post, record a podcast episode, write an article about something you believe strongly about. Like think about what you would talk about if you were standing on a stage. What are the key things that you want to communicate? The art of having to actually articulate what you think and why out loud in public.

forces that clarity that sitting and thinking can sometimes feel much more difficult to do. And often I see founders over complicating this. It doesn't need to be complicated. It needs to be simple. It actually really needs to be simple. It needs to be something that people understand in a couple of sentences. Your positioning isn't something that you figure out once and then go off and do your PR. It's going to emerge as you do the work. And as you get known for it,

It's gonna become clearer, it's gonna become stronger, you're gonna become more confident in delivering it, and it's going to evolve over time, and that is absolutely fine. And when you know clearly what you want to get known for, it's going to be a game changer for you. You will start showing up consistently around that thing. I see this shift happen. You go from pushing yourself forward and pitching yourself all the time.

to getting asked to speak on the right stages, to start getting featured in the right publications, you start getting recommended for the right opportunities. You become the person people think of first when your topic comes up. Getting seen is not the same as getting known. And you came here, you started your business to make an impact that's bigger than the sum of your parts. I know you did. And you can't do that unless you're really clear on what that impact is and what you want to get known for.

go back to my LinkedIn post earlier this week, until you know what you wanna get known for, everything else is just noise. And once you know, it all becomes clearer, it gets easier. Everything starts to work together. ⁓ I love it.

And if you wanna do this work in person, like I said, I'm running Get Known in a Day on the 3rd of June. There are limited places available and they have started getting snapped up. I've just announced it this week. This is a small group working day where we get your positioning nailed, your authority ecosystem mapped and your pitch is written.

And just so you know, you are not leaving the room until you've sent the fucking email. You will be pitching there and then, but I am on a hand to guide you every step of the way. 3rd of June in London, all the info's in the show notes. And if you want to do this work with me one-to-one, positioning is one of the first things that we tackled together in my one-to-one accelerator. Because until that's clear, everything else is harder. And it makes such a difference to people's businesses, to how they communicate, to all the different areas of their marketing.

I've had an Accelerator client add a new revenue stream to their business because the positioning work has become so clear. It's opened up new opportunities for them from a revenue perspective. That clarity is so powerful. That's why I bloody love it. The link to book a discovery call with me is in the show notes. You can connect with me. I'm Pippa the PR set on Instagram, Pippa Goulden on LinkedIn, and everything is at theprset.com. And I will see you again very soon for another episode of PR Made Simple.