2204 - From Press Releases to Podcasts Revolutionizing PR in the Digital Age with We Feature You PR's Zachary Bernard

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1:05With us right now, it's Zach Bernard. Zach, you are the founder of We Feature You. You are found on the web at wefeatureyou.com. Zach, it's great to have you. Happy to be here, Josh. Well, tell us a bit about, before we get into the work you do, what is Zach geeking out on lately? That's a good question. I've always been someone that loves to watch a few Netflix shows, etc., when I'm done with my actual work. So one of the things I've been really onto has been called a TV show called the Yellowstone. It's like a cowboy show. I don't know. It's definitely different from what I usually watch, but no, it's been, it's been really great watching it with a girlfriend anytime we eat.

1:45And it's definitely a fun time. No, Katie. I, you know, I love a great Western show. My wife and I are addicted to hell on wheels, which came out a while ago. But I love it because it's just, you know, it's, it's, it's just historical and you just get to, you know, they do a really good job of just like what life was like back then. but uh uh you know the stories and everything's just fantastic so yep yellowstones uh has come up multiple times uh that definitely has its fan following what do you like about it i don't know it's it's different it's like as you mentioned like historical in a way yeah but they're trying to keep like the like the normal traditional like cowboy aspect of things one but you're also dealing with like businesses companies trying to like build empires and it's like a clash of like both.

2:30It's interesting. Ah, nice. Maybe a combination of a succession meets an old west kind of vibe. Exactly. Well, Zach, listen, I love having our public relations friends join us on the show because that's certainly kind of my background. One thing that I've been such an advocate in, you know, my, you know, just kind of boost you up a little bit here in terms of like why folks might want to really pay attention to this topic. You know, I built a seven figure a year company with zero paid ads and nothing but PR. And it was such an enjoyable journey for me because I, it was just one where, you know, for me as a subject matter expert, I just got to serve people and provide value and, and not worry about selling, but let that be the natural by-product of generosity.

3:24and it works. Like it's, I really, really love it, but I would love your take on it. No, I mean, I completely agree. When you look at like PR, it's more so like getting in like the press, you're getting in like the media. It's like somewhat organic in a way if you know what you're doing and you can get like that earned PR. There's obviously advertorials, et cetera, you can pay for, but that's less like authentic PR. Pay to play. Pay to play to put it like simply that way. So I love that because I feel a lot of people are going to rely strictly on like paid ads. One, there is like traditional media sources getting into like the press.

3:59If you have like a really good press campaign, you can get a lot of traction. If you're able to be very specific with the trade publication, et cetera, that you go after, you can have definitely like a major impact if you do it effectively. If you don't, then that's obviously another story. Yeah. Well, let's talk about what is effective and what is not effective. I would say as far as like an effective media strategy, you have to look at where your target audience is. I mean, that's like the most simple somewhat pointer that you could think of. But there's a lot of people that they're going to go for a more like general like media publication, like where it's like a major demographic.

4:36You could think of the U.S. today, for example, it's like strictly U.S. 150 million monthly visitors. But then those are really like broad. You're getting the credibility, but you're less targeting the people that perhaps are the decision makers, are your target audience. So one of the things you could think of is there are publications such as, like I'll think of one, the C world, strictly for CEO, C suite, decision makers, leaders, et cetera. You're getting in front of directly the people you want to work with, as opposed to just trying to shoot a dart in like the open and hopefully it lands on like your target.

5:09So I think it's taking that strategic approach, getting in front of the right audience, but it also comes down to having like a messaging that actually resonates with them. You want to make sure to make your research, know what their pain point is, make sure that whenever you do pitch a story to a journalist, contributor, et cetera, it is actually something that they are like writing on that is topically relevant. First thing you could think of is going to be AI. I mean, literally everyone is talking about AI. It's probably the most common thing that's been going on around. So if you can have like a relevant topic to that, then you can hit the nail directly.

5:43Well, so that's my next question is how is AI impacting the world of public relations? That's a very good question. And let's just total like nerd out from a industry perspective right now. You got to catch me up to date because I've been paying attention to kind of what the PR people are talking about. Like, you know, are they, you know, how is that impacting their client work, their, you know, their personal kind of their own work, you know, and growing their own companies. I feel like it's an interesting topic because when you look at like journalist contributors, there's been like a big misconception with them where they'd be like, okay, they're going to be out of a job.

6:17Like you have AI, like writing everything, like we don't need journalists, et cetera, anymore. And I feel that's like totally off. Like what it does, it's going to improve their efficiency. We're going to have like better story, more informed, more like research. So overall, like I feel that our work with clients, journalists, et cetera, it has just been like more streamlined. where if we want to like write a certain story, we collaborate with a journalist, we can easily come up with like a lot of ideas by making market research with AI, coming up with some angles, topics, et cetera. And it's much more easier to somewhat convey like your messaging, what you're trying to get across.

6:51And you can make tweaks like really easily. Give a prompt, tweaks the entire thing for a different audience. And it really just makes your job easier. I think that's like the basis of AI, just more efficient. um what are the opportunities right now for uh you know founders of companies that are looking to you know they they want to get their voice heard they obviously they're really interested in being in front of um you know eyeballs and and in audiences where are the opportunities right now i think i think you're directly in the opportunity josh and what i mean by that is i think like the podcast scene is probably like one of like the most interesting thing that like i've seen over like the past few years where if you look more like press etc there is still like a lot of attention around it but people are moving more towards like that authentic voice like being able to like hear people talk hear about their journey background etc and if you just have like an article like it's great as your perspective exposure but you're not really connecting with like the person the company the founder but when you're going on to podcasts you post your own podcast for example it's much more easier to like connect with like potential client potential like customers etc and i feel like that's really where it is where a lot of people are going to go that route with content podcasts etc you know i have heard this now from a couple of different directions i watched this fantastic youtube video by the time i get your perspective on this i might see if i can find it so i can reference it for other people but is talking about uh the trend in music uh as as kind of a, an example of this.

8:27But that in the, in the, like we've been in kind of this, yeah, where music has been kind of lazy for, for a decade or so. Yeah. Matter of fact, someone can search this right now on YouTube. And I think you'll appreciate it. And there's, there's some similarities to what you're talking about. And it's by a YouTuber called Nathan Zed and it's the title is how trying became cool again. And I just, I really loved this video because he's, I'm like, you know what he's talking about? I'm seeing in other places. Okay. What this basically says is, or what he's basically saying is like, look, AI is giving us data.

9:03It's giving you unlimited access to data. And so for, for when you want information and you want data and you want quick answers to, to, to, you know, to, to fast problems, like we got you covered, but that doesn't necessarily fit the connection that people are seeking, right? And so there is this desire for authentic humanness and human connection that exists. And so, you know, putting down the facade in, you know, in social media. And again, I think there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of, and I'm not, I'm no prognosticator on this, but, you know, I kind of am suspicious is that this may be where the trend in social media might be going is people looking for more just authentic expressions of humanity, as opposed to propaganda and shouting and broadcasting and, you know, the same old same, I don't know, I'm no expert, but I'm just throwing these questions out here.

10:02I'd like your take on this, Zach. No, I agree with you. And one of the things I think is going to be really interesting in the upcoming years is, like, you've probably seen where there's like deep fakes with like AI, where you can you literally cannot tell if it's like a real video or not so people are going to become like more skeptical of like what they're seeing on like social media etc and when it comes from like a real person their own life experience like day into life like vlogs etc i feel there's going to be much more of like that authentic natural like connection where you can resonate with that person but if you're looking like ai there's probably going to be like less emotion into it and it's going to be much harder to connect with that i think that's really just how you're going to send out, just being yourself, to be honest.

10:45Yeah. So Zach, I see like on your website that you're a pretty big proponent of podcast booking. Can you share some tips for someone who might be listening and they want to be a guest on podcasts? First off, listen, if someone's listening, go work with Zach for sure. By the way, you may know we've launched a couple of hundred podcasts on b2b you come look at my website and you can just browse our directory for free uh but once you run out of shows there now i will say like our shows are pretty nichey they're and they're pretty picky and stuff so you could see what you can get there but definitely go work with zach but zach um what are some best practices for folks that want to be great guests on podcasts i mean like i'm with you like your website's probably the first thing i would look out there's other directories such as like pod match etc from like a quality perspective well yep i'd say those might be less relevant but once you go to like the bigger podcast etc you have to craft like a really great story so when it comes to actually like pitching it's less about you like a podcast i mean josh you're getting thousands of pitches probably every single week like you know that it's less about the person like who they are it's more about what kind of value can I provide to your audience?

12:01But you do have to like back it up with like, okay, like why am I an expert to speak on this topic? What have I done that's actually relevant to actually speak onto that in the first place? And you have to show that you care as well. Like you have to listen, like see an episode. Okay. You had a guest that spoke on this topic. They didn't speak onto this. I have this specific background. I think I could bring value to your audience by speaking to that. This is some extra value that I could bring to your audience and your podcasts so it's more so just being able to showcase the value proposition as far as like why you should be getting on the podcast and also the value behind it because the podcast also is doing you a favor getting on their podcast so you should be doing the same thing if you have a big following you should try to promote the podcast promote the episode just at the end of the day it is like a win-win but for anyone like starting off definitely josh website pod match any of like those other directories start getting like a little bit initial traction and then once you have like a few appearances, then it's definitely like a bit easier to reach out to the bigger ones once you have like that compound effect, like all your appearances there.

13:07You know, because your first podcast appearances, they're probably not going to be awesome. I'll just say it this way. It's not going to be your finest work. The more you do this, the more comfortable you get in your own skin, the more, you know, you'll kind of feel a lot more natural and comfortable in the environment. And you're right. So, you know, to someone whose hopes and dreams are pinned on, you know, being on some big, gigantic podcast, the same thing as in traditional media PR, right? It's, you know, when we'd have clients and say, well, can you get me on national or can you get me on Oprah?

13:39I'm like, well, yeah, if you're ready for Oprah, I absolutely can. Are you ready for Oprah? And they'll say, well, I think I am. I was like, well, tell me about your background. And then they just had no media to speak of. I'm like, well, it's, listen, I can introduce you to, you know, Oprah's people just like anyone can. I mean, you could go to their website and figure out, but if you're not ready, you're not ready. They're not going to be interested in you. You have to be media ready. So it's honoring this stair-step approach. Zach, would you mind talking about like when someone is ready for you, like what do your packages look like?

14:13I would say for us, we take really more like a flexible approach where it's really month by month approach. You take it one step at a time. you see the results that we get you either get you like two bookings a month we get you four anything that we do you get to approve the podcast i'm not gonna have you booked on a podcast if you don't like it i want to be able to make sure that you see the value you're getting in front of a good audience um yeah i mean that's really just how we structure it when you look at like press PR it's it's a bit different it's more based like opportunities when they come to us we have like mention quotes where a journalist is looking for like an op-ed piece etc so we base it more based on like the option that we have.

14:51And then when we look at podcasts, more we'll pitch you and we'll deliver like a certain amount of bookings every single month. Yeah. How are you getting, so tell me a bit more about traditional PR. Like how does that work? Like with your clients? Yeah. So for like press and articles, like we've of course built a pretty vast network of a lot of like journalists, contributors, publication, et cetera. So we rely like a lot and like really heavily with those relationships that we've built. but we are also within like network where journalists are going to have like a newsletter sharing that they're looking for a quote on like a certain topic and it's it's really being like timely as well you see an optry jump onto it like right away if you have a client that is like relevant to that and that's really like how we structure it where we're not going to promise a client that just starts to work with us so we'll get them into Forbes if we don't have an optry for a second if they don't have the background to get into Forbes there's a lot of people which you've probably seen that in the past Josh where they're saying like hey I want to get on to Forbes.

15:48They've been running their company for one year, have no credibility whatsoever, and they think they should be getting on that. A bit similar to your example with like Oprah. You think you might be ready, but that's not always the case. Well, all right. Your website is wefeatruyou.com. Do you have resources as well for someone that's like okay well this all sounds great um like if someone's whether or not they're ready to have a conversation with you um how can folks maybe see a bit more about your work or i don't know if you have resources that you can offer for folks that are interested in getting more visibility i would say if you go to your website wefeature.com there's going to be two videos the first one on the home page is going to be press specific and then the second one the podcast section is going to be specific to podcasts it's going to walk through that entire process how we do things examples and that's probably like the best resource that you'll find on that.

16:45All right. The website, wefeatureyou.com. Zach Bernard, again, you are the founder. Hey, Zach, you also have a podcast. Is that right? I do have a podcast. Oh my goodness. Two months ago. Tell me more about that, please. This podcast is like the Entrepreneur's Lockbook, we call it. So it's getting founders, business owners to talk a bit about their background, but we also want to be able to hear like their insight, expertise on like certain topics. So it's more about giving them like a platform to like promote themselves a bit similar to like your show, Josh, which I love the concept, a little bit of an inspiration to be honest, when I think about it.

17:21So we've launched that podcast that way. And then marketers, VCs, founders, anyone that has been in the marketing or business space for like a little while, they're not just starting. So you want to educate people, provide value based on actual experience there. Yeah. All right. WeFeatureYou.com. Zach, it's been a great conversation. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Josh. This was great.

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