2168 - The Bold New Approach to Public Relations with Don’t Be a Little Pitch's Bryce North

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1:05With us right now, it is Bryce North. Bryce, you are the CEO and founder of Don't Be a Little Pitch, found on the web at don'tbealittlepitch.com. Bryce, it's great to have you. It's great to be here. And just for the people listening, that's pitch with a P, just so people kind of can get the right mindset there. And if you haven't figured it out, we're talking public relations. We're going to get to that in just a second. But Bryce, before we do, tell us what you're into in your personal life. Like, what are you watching, listening to, having fun with? Yeah, I love this question. Culture and values are super important to me.

1:40So let's dive into it. I'm kind of geeking out on bachata dancing right now. And yeah, I'm currently in Mexico. I spend a lot of time in Latin America. But funny enough, like, I find, like, an awesome way to communicate. It's always body language, right? And, like, this is just fun. This is just fun for me to do. It's fun to get out there and meet people. But also, like, learning to dance, because I'm not a great dancer at all, is so much fun to kind of understand how to communicate without saying anything um which that is an awesome lesson for that okay so how does one communicate like how are you communicating in dance uh really like through movements and hand expressions like how you turn and how you move all depends how you position your hands what direction um you know kind of indicating movement and uh you know confidence with your body uh my job is to lead and make my partner you know look look great and look special with the way they're dancing essentially so yeah it's my job to make them look great and pull them in the right direction how long have you been doing this oh my god like i would say on and off about a year and a half but now i'm kind of going more full into it trying to take lessons every single week that's incredible so when you started this like was like what what prompted you to get into this okay uh i like to do something just weird every single year like i try taking singing lessons because that's that scared me and um And then for this, because I was in Columbia, like the country for a little bit, it's kind of required to meet some people.

3:04So I tried dancing and people laughed at me and I thought this kind of angered me a little bit. So yeah, might as well learn to do it. And I just fell in love with it. The music, just the culture and the way you kind of move. Yeah, yeah. For folks that have not spent much time, can you tell me just one last thing? Do you know maybe just a little bit about the culture? Like, why is this, what is this, what's this social interaction like in, in kind of the, you know, in meeting together, dancing together, that sort of thing? Yeah, it's a very close culture. Well, you know, in North America, I see like US and Canada area is where we're very distant.

3:41You know, when we meet people, we have our guards up and we need to get to know them before we, we interact. Well, like in this part of the world, when you meet people, you have to touch them. Like, you know, grace them, you kiss them on the cheek when you meet them. But the way that people actually earn trust and earn that respect is to actually have those close moments. So there's dancing, there's touching, there's this closeness. You people talk very close. So there is no distance at all. And so you have to get to know someone, get very intimate right away. And this is just a really interesting way for you to actually break down that barrier and get into someone else's space.

4:14It's something super foreign to us, including myself. And it's the way the culture works and thrives. It's just a community that communicates through body language. which it's incredible. All right. So Bryce, let's talk about Don't Be a Little Pitch. Why did you settle on that name, by the way? It's a little provocative. It's been a lot of fun. Well, it's kind of scary to launch that too, but this came from a Gary Vee moment, and he says a lot of great stuff, a lot of nutty things at the same time. But one thing that really stuck out with me about like five years ago is just polarizing people.

4:46You play in the middle, what a lot of people do. You're just not going to find your true evangelist. So my company was actually like a venture capital, an angel capital company before, so selling dollars for people. And I just found the issue of like people having problems raising money because no one trusts them or trusts their expertise. And they weren't the CEO that they were claiming to be. So we got down this rabbit hole. I found out like, how do we prove trust in all this? Well, PR was the best thing for that. So more on that later. But I found that, how do I stick out through everyone else?

5:18um this pissed some people off because on the side of making people angry you have your true fans and that's what polarization is is actually finding those evangelists that'll scream your name and love you through who you are you get better customers you get to charge more but that's not the point is you can actually enjoy working with those that truly fit your voice um because you got to stand out stories are absolutely everything and i think we lack on that and so how do we show our personality more that people are going to say all right is this person a little nutty or do they have something interesting to say, let's find out.

5:49Yeah. Yeah, no, clearly. And by the way, you know, I've talked about this a couple of times recently. You know, I do really like the idea of setting up negative and positive filters, right? So, you know, for example, like, I talk a lot, like in my emails and stuff, I talk a lot about the fun things that I do. And if that is offensive to somebody who is way too buttoned up, I don't want to work with them. Like, that's very intentional absolutely there's two laws that we run by like anytime we're doing like pr stores even business in general law number one that i think people have a problem like a hard time following is that people are attracted to other people's rough edges and when i'm like like your question in the very beginning like what do you do on your free time like what makes you fun outside like work right this is the vulnerability to trust the transparency that people want because you do not and are not attracted or have anything in common with your heroes right we have this pedestal moments where we put those businesses we aspire and want to be want to work with but how can we relate with steve jobs and elon musk and all those people we don't but once we learn their struggles and their stories and there's this humanizing moments we then can trust them more because we see ourselves in them once we have that trust law number two kicks in people always buy better versions of themselves that's better moments flexibly freedom more money well all of that but we can't get into that that movement that momentum of wanting to be better if we can't at least relate with people that we want to do business with or trust them with what we're doing Yeah.

7:18Well, Bryce, what is working well in public relations today and what is not working well? Yeah, there is a dirty side to PR and a clean side. So when I say dirty, you can go and pay off reporters under the table, get your published links and all that, which honestly, I don't think any feature does anything. Now, when I say that as a public relations company, a lot of people go out and say, I want to get into Forbes, I want to get into Times, or I want to get featured here. we've got a lot of people there and it doesn't work and we've got a lot of people that does work so what is working in PR frameworks and stories and what I mean by that is reporters these days don't care about what's interesting they care what brings them clicks and so what brings them clicks is your job to understand what they wrote about what makes you unique and then what should they write about based on trends and so we are driving and getting stories for people that we think will help bring another viral moment to their publication, but also more importantly, ones that actually make things seem a little more interesting for their audience.

8:18It has a follow-up additional stories. So a lot of people are going out and trying to get coverage everywhere. We build frameworks in terms of setting nets and like really widespreading yourself and your name on the lower mid tier outlets that people can recognize your name. Why is this important? Well, if you're featured in Forbes, no one's ever heard of you. Why are they going to click on you? They won't. They don't know who you are. They don't care about your story. So visibility is extremely important in the smaller and lower areas. And it doesn't take years. It takes months to build this, you know, get there and then stack up where a lot of people start, stop or getting features.

8:47We go deep into things that are important, customer journeys, culture, and customer stories. Your job as a brand or a company is not to promote yourself and your team while you're great. Yeah. People convert on that. That's the final straw, but you're talking about these transformational moments of your clients and their customers and what they went through. This is law number one. If you can't make people attracted to you and your vulnerability and your rock bomb moments, talk about the moments of transformation with your clients and customers. These are the case studies and so forth that people don't champion enough, but promote these in the media.

9:18Have some sort of progression trajectory of what and how they went through their progress and tell these stories. This will actually set that net and get people to understand and see your brand. Then you need to climb that ladder of getting to bigger places, podcasts and interviews and speaking. These things only work when people recognize you and trust you. So why go for the big fish in the big publications right away? A lot of people do, and it doesn't work. You spend a lot of money, you get nowhere. You say PR doesn't work. I agree with you. It doesn't. But if you do the right thing and build frameworks around your voice and your personal brand, which should be a complete separation from your corporate brand, build these storylines of expertise where people are knocking on your door after a while because they trust who you are and what you have to say, that's done in many, many ways than just getting featured.

10:02Like I said, it's the podcast, it's the eBooks that we, that we can write. It's the awards and contributed calls, all those kinds of stuff. And, you know, obviously Bryce connecting the dots on business. Can, can you go and kind of finish that cycle of like, you know, why would someone want the visibility, the perceived authority the association yeah yeah absolutely and that's a really good question um on the side of personal brands uh because these corporate brands and personal brands must be separate so why do people want this authority on a personal side i say pr is not meant for lead gen you want lead gen go run some ads pr is trust gen trust generation and i aim for opportunity opportunity means more investment it means partnerships it means better retention on your clients it means you know maybe new employees we've seen some talent coming in your job as a leader is someone is to build one of the hardest things is culture and so you're building culture through stories and moments and attracting people so you got to show your expertise on your personal brand that you know what the hell you're talking about that people trust you and vouch for you that you have a direction for this and you're not another crazy person with an idea you're someone that actually has a vision we do this by talking about moments in time and your expertise and your rock bottom moments and stories that guide you as the expert, the guru in this space.

11:23This is extremely important for that visibility, but also for that leadership. We do this quite well. That sets that foundation of people understanding that you are the person that we need to work with. Now we have to separate this with corporate brands because companies can't just scale on the founder story and themselves. It's needed that they're beginning to build that connection of trust. But once people understand where this is going, B players, hire A players. And your job is to dictate that you know so much that you're doing, that you've assembled a team that's better and smarter than you, that actually knows how to carry through.

11:51This is the brand. This is you having a solution through your company. Now, as the owner and CEO, your personal brand and why they need to be separated, because your company is not your only project. You sit on board, you're part of funds, you're probably running a lot of other things. These are all the solutions to all the problems you're dictating on your personal brand and having your company come in and tell the transformation and journeys of your clients and your customers and your features. It's the roundups, the interviews. It's the solutions you're putting through the market, through your products.

12:20And that's why we need a clear separation. That's why authority is important. Your personal brand makes people trust you. Your company then comes in and says, now we're solving that. We see boosted traffic and numbers and conversions. We see conversions rates work better on pages and within ads. There's ways to leverage stories in PR for your corporate brand that help you gain more attention and money. But that should be the end goal. It's the byproduct of actually having a substance, a vision people really truly believe in. Yeah. Bryce, tell me about your company. Don't be a little pitch. Who's in the company?

12:54What are you doing? What are the outcomes you create? What do your offers look like? Yeah, this is exciting for me because no one in our company has had experience with PR, and I intentionally hired for that. My story is I've launched a lot of IoT hardware projects. I've done the whole Shark Tank, been online. got myself covered. I never done a dollar paid ads. I've never done any social content. I just told good stories. And so everyone on my team has built something, created something, launched a company, exited a company, done something tremendous. That's outside of actually a marketer trying to help other marketers because half the time agency owners are people who couldn't do it themselves.

13:31I'm going to go out there and say that. Right. So, and, and, and here we go. So everyone on our team is actually, and I have this in my presentation. Um, I can probably pull it up right because my screen is going to change a little bit um our team has actually done shit and everything from launching and growing and scaling i come in and i'm 100 pr i state that but i understand at least every single part of you through the growth of your company whether that is launching your products to series a and b we've been a part of and so everything through this in my team is people that actually have written stories and launched books and then like built a brand, so before some paid ads, the onsite optimization, the raising capital, we help guide and fit in this integrated mix of what your marketing is and what your sales strategy is.

14:15I want to know your numbers, your conversions, your competitors. I want to know your keywords, your click through, your close percentages. PR can help in all of these, but I can't move that needle unless we actually fully understand where we fit in. And so my team is diverse for that reason. I want experts in places that actually have done stuff and failed, spent a lot of money in the crash, those that hit their rock bottom moments and know how to get out of it. It's that hustle that makes us get to those next moments. And at the same time, that passion that makes us push to the crowd. And so that's, everyone on our team is someone that I'm proud to say that's done something significant in their life and built something.

14:52So like, what are the outcomes that the folks are typically after? Yeah, I mean, really good question. Let me ask it this way. what makes a really great client for you and what makes a not good client for you? All right, bad clients. Talk about that. Hey, marketing's not working and this is my last hurrah, right? Can you, the ads are not working for me. I need to increase sales in the next three months. Absolutely not a good fit for me. Or those, like I would tell everyone this. I don't have the heart or the stomach for you to grip your seat every single month thing. This has to work. I don't have a crystal ball.

15:25I wish I could tell you how many people are going to feature you in real PR. It's not about guarantee I'm going to get you here. Like we do have our guarantees that I'm going to get you covered. If I don't, I'll refund you. I don't guarantee where it has to be something significant, but the clients that don't work for us are those that have a really big expectation that this is going to change a business, make a movement and all of that. And so I can't bring you sales and traffic as a by-product of you telling good stories. And if your product is good, that will come. But the clients that work really well for us are doing other marketing, other socials, other paid ads.

15:54And they're saying the mix of PR is meant for that. When people see your ad or see your story, they're Googling you. They're searching you on GPT or perplexity. They're validating their assumptions. I want them to choose you over their competitors. I want them to choose you as an alternative. I want them to trust that, hell, I don't need to think about this. I want to do this. And so my best clients are those that we understand that we're building opportunity and opening doors. Opportunity is, hey, I like what you're doing. You seem interesting. I trust you. Here's an investment, a retail partnership deal.

16:25Here's a joint venture. here's an acquisition, whatever that is. We build these opportunistic moments of trust and movement in the space that we're opening doors for conversations. Those are my best clients that are patients. Like I don't need years. Like usually we're quite successful in eight to 12 months. And like, and like a sidebar, what I do here is like, I built frameworks so that it's evergreen organic attention. My goal is to bring PR internally for your company. After a while, I build everything under their brands. The media doesn't know about our company name. Don't be a little pitch yeah we've got connections we we intro ourself but they own everything and that goal is to bring pr essentially when i do my job right you bring it internally or you've hired us at a lower rate to handle the inbound but my goal is to build that opportunity that flow of attention people are knocking on your door and saying come on my podcast or give me inclusion for this story or hey um we need you to speak at this event that's what i'm building for people and it's not one-off features it's a framework of stories enlightenment podcasts and all that stuff the VCO authority.

17:24So patience and understanding that we're probably not going to hit our mark in the first couple of months, but understanding that we're quite transparent. Things do take time. No one's going to drop the ball to feature you tomorrow. Forbes yesterday could mean article three months on the line. Yeah. And Bryce, for our friend that's listening right now, again, what I love about your brand is it's memorable. Matter of fact, I think I first heard of you guys maybe a few months ago and we all had a chuckle about it now we we kind of work adjacent to the the entire pr agency so i can't tell you how many brand names out there are like lbj communications wow that's not going to be remembered but um don't be a little pitch is memorable so kudos to you on that but um for someone that is following along and is at your website right now, don'tbealittlepitch.com.

18:19I know you have both resources and obviously, you know, some next steps for someone that might be curious about having a conversation. Do you mind kind of giving next steps? Honestly, just book a call with me. I don't believe in selling. I believe in informing. And our calls are fun. They're storyable. Like I haven't really interacted with the presentation, but I love every single conversation going through and debunking PR and talking about people's stories, I'd say about 80 % of my calls, I tell them not to do PR. I think people are in the wrong position and I'm very open about that. Um, and I think there's a lot of scammers and a lot of crap out there, but from someone who did not come from PR or study PR, who was really good at doing himself.

18:59And from my experiences, I've now made this really successful with others. I just like having conversations. And so if this is a good fit, cool. We'll talk about how it works. If it's not, then I'm going to direct you somewhere to go with someone else to talk to. But I'd say stop assuming and just start asking the right questions. And it's the one thing we don't do enough is talk to our customers or at least the end goal of people that can help us. Yeah, yeah. Well, Bryce North, again, your website, don'tbeatlittlepitch.com. You're the founder and CEO. Bryce, it's been a great conversation. Thank you so much for joining us.

19:30It's been awesome being here. Thanks for the awesome questions.

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