10. Making PR Authentic with Podcasting with Karen Windsor

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Welcome to podcasting for business owners. If you’re thinking of launching a podcast

Laura: Welcome to podcasting for business owners. I’m your host, Laura McCrae, a podcast consultant, educator, and self confessed podcast nerd. If you’re thinking of launching a podcast or want to grow the one you.

Laura: Have, you’re in the right place.

Laura: Hold on to your headphones and let’s go.

Karen Windsor offers tailored pr strategies that help small business owners

Welcome to another episode of podcasting for business owners. Today, I’m thrilled to introduce you to Kerrin Windsor, the powerhouse behind your PR assistant. Karen offers tailored pr strategies that help small business owners, coaches, and professionals. If youve ever wondered how to amplify your impact, secure that dream podcast interview, or align your pr with your true values, this is for you. Karens approach is all about tapping into your uniqueness and making PR feel authentic and aligned with who you really are. In today’s episode, we talk about how PR can transform your business, the power of podcasting as a pr tool, and how to share your story in a way that feels true to you. So if you’re ready to take your visibility and credibility to the next level, keep listening. Hello, Karen, and welcome to the show.

Karen Windsor: Oh, uh, thank you for the invite. It’s really exciting to be here. And I also like you could talk about podcasting all day.

Laura: You’re a woman after my own heart.

Laura: Can you tell us a bit about your business and how you started your business and how you help your clients?

Karen Windsor: Yeah, so I feel a little different in that I call myself a specialist virtual assistant. My main focus is media relations, publicity, pitching for clients to essentially share their story, whether that be as a podcast guest or on main media online. So that’s sort of where my focus is. But my background is in house marketing communications, which is where I fell in love with media. It’s one of the things that I love doing because I realised that, especially in in house marketing comms, that you’ve got such a small marketing budget, but the power of engaging with the media and sort of leveraging that kind of activities, that you really could create a lot of value for a small business. So I’ve always loved that and I love helping people to share their stories because stories are so powerful.

Laura: Yes, I totally resonate with that.

Laura: Having worked in the marketing department of numerous companies over the years, the marketing budget is always so small, and I think the services you offer are so valuable.

Doing podcasts is a natural way to dip your toe into PR

So why is PR important for small.

Laura: Business owners and professionals?

Karen Windsor: Uh, in terms of PR, doing podcasts is probably one of the really easy, more natural ways to dip your toe in the water of PR. The wonderful thing about it is that you’re able to have some amazing conversations. And it actually feels probably more natural to jump on a Zoom call and have a chat with a podcast host, then say it would be to speak to a journalist or be interviewed for tv, or, um, you know, even sometimes sitting down and writing sort of 800 words for, say, a guest blog post. So the wonderful part about podcasting is the ability just to have a beautiful conversation with somebody about areas that you usually mutually have in common.

Laura: Yeah, it comes so naturally, doesn’t it? It’s just more of a conversation. And, um, because there’s not that pressure of the cameras and everything either. If you’re planning not to go on YouTube, of course there’s not that pressure of looking glamorous and being your best and you can always edit bits out and. Yeah, that’s the great thing about podcasting, isn’t it? It can be more natural, definitely.

Karen Windsor: You know, for me personally, I am more of an m introvert, and I love that I can be at home in my comfort zone. And you can also, you know, you can pick what times you do the interviews. So, you know, if morning doesn’t work for you, then don’t do a podcast interview in the morning. Do them in the afternoon or in the evenings. So in that sense, it really works for a lot of small business owners.

Laura: Yeah.

Podcasts can help business owners increase visibility and credibility

And how does PR help business owners increase their visibility and, um, credibility?

Karen Windsor: So it is all about reaching a new audience. So a lot of us now, if you’re not on Instagram or LinkedIn or Facebook, you know, which we probably all are. Ah. But a lot of us focus on those areas, and we’ve usually developed like, a wonderful network from there. But after a while, you need to go bigger than that. And pr is a wonderful way to attract an audience from further afield that has no idea who you are. So you basically leverage the reach that a online news platform might have, or a podcast host will have to get you in front of a brand new audience. And when you get in front of a new audience, you basically open yourself up to having the potential of attracting new people to your business. And that could be new Instagram followers, it could be some DM messages, it could be sign ups to your email list. And ultimately,

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Karen Windsor: you’re hoping that it will be people that want to work with you as well.

Laura: Yeah, I’m a sucker for that. When I listen to podcast interviews and I enjoy listening to the interview and the guest, I, um, always end up following that person and then following their own podcast or following them on Instagram, I do it all the time. And so that’s why I know it’s really good and beneficial for businesses.

Karen Windsor: Exactly. And that’s where the visibility comes in. Like, you become more visible to people that weren’t even in your sphere before, and you bring them into your world and then they get to know you. And that’s where the, you know, the credibility comes in as well. Because when they come to you, they listen to a, uh, podcast episode you’ve been on, for example, and they start to go, oh, this person really knows what they’re talking about. Or I love the way they talk about this subject, or they make it so fun. Or, you know, they tell a story that you go, oh my gosh, I’ve had a similar story. You have that wonderful ability to connect to somebody, and that’s where the relatability starts to come and the credibility as well, because you know that this person knows their stuff and you go, I have to have more of that person in my life.

Laura: Yeah.

Karen Windsor: But I love podcasting because it’s a long form type of content and we consume so much short form content. That’s your social media and things like that. And we’re so overwhelmed with that. And we’ve all been in the doom scroll, haven’t we? You know, and you’re scrolling and scrolling. You’re looking at things, but you’re not actually consuming or engaging. When you’re listening to a podcast, you know, usually you in a space where you’ve got capacity to do that, or you’re doing a mundane task like me driving to pick the child up from school, for example. You know, you’re doing a mundane task and you’re wanting some information. You’re actually available to listen and to absorb, which makes podcasting so wonderful.

Laura: Yes, me too. I listen to podcasts whenever I’m doing a mundane task, like cleaning, washing up, or in the car and listening on my morning walks, too. I wanted to share a story of my client, Louise. Her podcast has been going for about a year now, and she was recently asked to do a spot on Sunrise, which is a morning tv show here in Australia. She got the spot because a producer listened to her podcast and loved it. This is where podcasts are great for public relations and getting yourself in the media. Erin, have you got some success stories or examples where being a podcast guest significantly helped a business or a professional?

Karen Windsor: Ah, uh, this is a good one. And often that’s the tricky thing with PR. It sometimes can be really hard to measure your return on investment. But, um, one wonderful example that I have from a client of mine. She was a podcast guest, and after doing that podcast, at the very end of the interview, the host said to her, I, I need to have you present in my mastermind because you have got so much to offer and you know so much about this topic. So, yes, then they went on to be involved in a mastermind presentation which brought in a whole new audience as well. So, yeah, that was really exciting. I was jumping when I heard that.

Laura: Oh, wow, that’s so good. And from doing these masterminds could lead to potential new clients too, just from that one interview. That’s so good.

Karen advocates aligning PR strategies with personal values, vision and vibe

Karen, you advocate, ah, for aligning PR strategies with personal values, vision, and vibe. Can you explain why this is crucial and how it can impact the success of a PR campaign?

Karen Windsor: Yeah. So one of the things I love to talk about is making sure that PR doesn’t feel icky. The difficulty with PR is that often we associate it with celebrities and paparazzi or politicians holding press conferences because I’ve been sketchy or billion dollar industry. So that’s the difficulty with PR, is that people often jump to sort of thinking at that, where on the day to day basis, it is really just about connecting people. So by making sure that it’s not icky, it means that you feel good when you’re sharing a story, basically. So that’s why I like to talk about it in terms of aligning, ah, with your vision, values and your vibe, because I want to actually make sure that we’re capturing an authentic story, a true person, a real story, something that you love talking about as well. So it needs to feel right when you’re sharing it, because that way you can talk about it for hours. You can talk about it really easily, it’s not stressful. And you’re also proud when you show up sharing that story or that value or these tips from a business owner’s perspective. So that’s why I feel that when you’re aligning those things to you, then you actually are showing up in a really powerful way, and you’re more relatable, you’re more expressive, you’re more passionate, and they’re all the things that people on the other end who are watching, reading, listening are wanting to engage with a real person.

Laura: Yeah, that’s what I always say to people when I hear people say, oh, I can’t think of enough content for a podcast. I’m like, well, if you do a podcast about a subject you’re really excited about and love with a passion, then you’ve always got something there, because you’re going to come on, you’re going to be enthusiastic, people

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Laura: are going to know that you’re going to be knowledgeable. There’ll always be something there.

Karen Windsor: Absolutely. And sometimes we forget how much we know. And that’s where like, podcasting, PR is wonderful because you sort of go, oh, but that’s common knowledge, or everyone feels that way, or everyone knows that. No, they don’t. They really don’t. You have so much wisdom, um, that people need to know, and that’s where podcasting is so, so fantastic for being able to share that, and you can share it in so many different ways. And every time you jump on and tell that story or that information, you’re probably going to share it in a slightly different way or have a different view or perspective, or have had a recent experience where you can pull that into this episode today and really sort of make it something more.

Laura: Yes, absolutely. We all know more than we think. When we’re passionate about something, I’m sure we’re all guilty of just talking and going on and on about a subject and not realising until we’ve stopped talking about it. Uh, we’ll think, wow, I know a lot about that. Maybe I should start a podcast.

How can business owners effectively leverage their podcast content for pr purposes

And I wanted to talk about repurposing content. How can business owners effectively leverage their podcast content for pr purposes?

Karen Windsor: Love this. Because a lot of people either jump on as a podcast guest or as a podcast host, and they record the podcast, they release it, and they’re like, okay, tick. Oh my God, no, we need to jump into that next stage. Which is why it’s so important too. Do things like sort of, if you’re a podcast host, for example, I hope that everyone is transcribing their podcasts because out of that you can then even chuck it into AI, for example, and say, give me ten key take home messages or points from this podcast episode and you can turn that into social media posts, you can turn that into email marketing, you can turn that into so many things. Even people, um, start off with podcasting and they sort of like transitioning into, say, becoming speakers at events and that it’s also a wonderful tool to then use, to sort of start crafting what your speaker profile, your speaker topics may be as well. And then if you’re a podcast guest, after they’ve had the episode released, that’s when you then jump on your own social media and do a live or do some stories, talk about the experience that you had, the information that you shared. Make sure that you pop it on your website as a link, because I want everyone to have a media speaker page on their website as well, because it’s so valuable and it’s a wonderful place that people can sort of like house. All that beautiful experience they’ve had, as well as even jumping on your emails. Send an email out to your email list. Doesn’t matter how big or small it is. You know, that’s the beautiful thing about a, uh, podcast. It’s between a host and a guest. It’s a collaboration. Just as much as you’re the, you know, from a pr perspective, you are using the host audience to attract new audience. They’re asking for your help as well. They also want to use your audience as well. So it’s a beautiful collaboration, and the more that each of you can share it, the more that you can go from there. Yeah, that’s where the beauty of podcasts really comes in.

Laura: Yeah. Podcasts are a great starting point for everything. I think I’m all for that. Repurposing.

Karen Windsor: Yeah, and that’s it. Repurposing, that’s what saves us time, doesn’t it? You’ve just spent sort of 15 minutes, half an hour talking and creating beautiful content that is valuable, that is relatable, that has so much juicy stuff going, that next level to make sure that you really get as much out of it as possible.

Laura: And what you were saying there about when you’re a guest, what I recommend people do when they’re a guest on other people’s podcasts is create a Spotify playlist of all the podcasts you’ve been a guest on. And then when you pitch yourself to be a guest on other podcasts, you can send this playlist to them so they can see what you’re like on a podcast. It’s just a great way to promote yourself, isn’t it?

Karen Windsor: Exactly. I say exactly the same thing. And the same thing can be true also, if down the track, after you’ve got a bit of experience in speaking and podcasting, if you decide that maybe I’m ready for, say, like, you know, some tv or some radio, for example, you can use all that speaking experience that you’ve had either as a guest or a host on a podcast, and you can send it to the person you’re pitching to to show them that you have that credibility in that space as well.

Laura: Absolutely.

Laura: I love this about podcasting. It makes sharing what you have to say so easy. No writing long media releases anymore. You have so much information there.

Are there specific topics that tend to resonate more with audiences and the media

Just on a Spotify playlist are there any specific types of content or topics that tend to resonate more with audiences and the media?

Karen Windsor: Oh, this is a really big question, and it, uh, sort of depends on what part of media it really is. Um, such a diverse opportunity out there for stories. But this is also why I love talking to business owners about having some personal stories they’re sharing as well as some business stories they’re sharing as well. Because as a small business owner or entrepreneur, or, you know, a coach professional, you can’t really split out your personal from your business because you are your personal nature and your personal experiences, you bring those into your business because you are the business. So I love working with clients to sort of share both their personal and their professional story as well. And sometimes

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Karen Windsor: as women in business, we often feel like we can’t bring our personal side into things. You know, we’ve grown up and, you know, we’ve been to university or we’ve been in the workplace, ultra corporate, where it’s like you cannot show emotion. That stuff’s for the staff room, not for when you’re in work mode. I call b’s to that. And it is definitely not the kind of pr that I like to do. I like to use PR to actually allow people to get to know you personally and on a business sense as well. And, um, the beautiful part about personal stories is you can dive into any aspect of your life. It could be current life, it could be past, it could even be to do with your business as well. We forget sometimes how far ahead we are and how much information we actually have that we could be sharing. I’d start with looking at sort of your social media posts, for example. Which ones go off, which ones get the most likes the most comments. What do you also find yourself talking about over and over again that you love talking about as well? So those things can be a beautiful guide. The media will always love something that’s timely. Like, I was reading an email this morning and it had some business tips leading into the end of financial year. Perfect. You’ve got some timeliness to that that becomes very newsworthy because obviously all the business owners at a particular point in time are either thinking about Black Friday sales or end of financial year, or, you know, what’s going to happen over Christmas shutdown periods. Like just some examples. Personally, things sort of come up as well. You’ve got timeliness too, in terms of like mother’s Day or end of a school year or start of a school year. So all those sorts of things come into the mix as well. But I really like to make sure that business owners know that they get to decide what stories they share because there might be some personal stories you don’t feel like you’re comfortable sharing, even though you know that the media might be really interested in that, especially if it’s got a bit of a shock value or, uh, oh my gosh, what happened? Kind of angle and business stories as well. Sometimes when we start stepping into the pr media space, we can feel a little bit uncomfortable, you know, stepping outside your comfort zone, really putting your hand up and saying that I’m actually an industry leader in this particular area that can feel really overwhelming to start with. So going slowly and taking it step by step definitely is what I would suggest. I’m not shying away from the opportunity experience, because it’s part of being a business owner is to grow and evolve and to do things that can be uncomfortable, but allowing it to be in the most gentle way possible still feel really authentic to you and making sure that it feels right when you’re doing it.

Laura: And that’s where I think guesting on other people’s podcasts is great, because if you’re not really, really confident in telling your story yet, it’s a good way to go in slowly and, um, get some experience on talking on other people’s podcasts before you start your own one.

Karen Windsor: Definitely. Absolutely. Yes. And the more you tell your story, the more you’ll realise what your story actually is as well, and the bits you do love talking about. Because sometimes it can surprise us. You get asked a question that you weren’t expecting and you go, wow, I had a lot to say about that particular topic, you know, more than I thought I would. So, yeah, uh, it’s a wonderful discovery, but it’s a fantastic way to get started in PR to start sharing your story.

Karen shares tips on how to pitch podcast content to media outlets

Laura: Yes, I should mention that Karen and I met on Instagram because she shared a post saying how important podcast guesting is for PR. Uh, and I thought, I really need to meet this lady. So we’re both really passionate about podcast guesting. Karen, please, can you share some tips with us for pitching podcast content to media outlets? How do you help your clients with this?

Karen Windsor: We get some juicy content when you record podcasts, so the start would obviously be transcribing it. And the thing that the media wants is you need to make it very easy for them to say yes. So when you’re trying to find the right topics, it needs to be very clear. And what I love to do is when you’re pitching to media would be to actually highlight why you’re the expert in this particular topic would be to give them a really catchy headline as well, or subject line and opening in the email to sort of say why they have to sort of read this email or this message and to make it, ah, really relevant to their audience as well. So there’s no point in pitching a business story to a more sort of entertainment social platform unless they can see that there is that social entertainment value in it. So you’re actually getting the right content to the right audience via the right media platform and journalist as well. The media will always love either like a juicy angle on something. Maybe it’s a new perspective, maybe you sharing a topic and a point of view that is in contrast to what’s being shared around at the moment. Maybe you want to go deeper into something that they’re talking about lots as well. So yeah, there are lots of opportunities to take what you’ve done from a podcast and share it with the media. And that might be in the form of letting them know

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Karen Windsor: that you’re available to be interviewed or some new platforms even just accept written content as well. So you can actually then take your podcast, write it up into more like an online blog perspective, and you can submit that. So it doesn’t always have to be the pitching to be interviewed perspective. You can actually write it yourself based on what you’ve spoken during your podcast episode.

Laura: Wow. Easier than it used to be and easier for them too.

Karen Windsor: Yeah, that’s it. Yeah, exactly. And media is like every industry. They’re being affected by AI, they’re being affected by lack of funds, all those sort of factors, increasing costs of things. They are a regular business and a regular industry instead of media itself as well. So if you can make it easy for them and make it a no brainer that they’re going to say yes, then that you’re already, you know, so much further along the way to get a yes.

Nick Hayes says that the media release is now dead

Laura: I was listening to Carmen Braidwood’s podcast modern media recently, and she was interviewing Nick Hayes, who said that the media release is now dead. Do you agree with that?

Karen Windsor: I would agree, yes, I definitely would. I think the media release dates back so long ago and it really was basically making sure that the journalists got all the information wrapped up in a nice neat package. In a media release, you’d include like quotes from the business owner and maybe there’s some research statistics and you sort of wrap it up in like a one to two page document. But now you can do that via email in a lot of instances you could do that via video message or voice note. So I definitely think, and this is a bit of a, you know, some industries, you would still put out a media release if it was very technical and there was a lot of technical stuff to it. Or you might send an email with the pitch in the body of the email, and you might attach an FAQ type document or a one page, or going deeper into the business model, whatever you happen to be talking about. But just sending out a media release to a journalist and saying, please see attached media release from X Company. Definitely dead, definitely long gone.

Laura: No chance. Yeah.

How do you see podcasting evolving in the next few years

Laura: How do you see the role of.

Laura: Podcasting in pr evolving in the next few years?

Karen Windsor: It is so hot. Podcasting in 2024, and that’s fantastic. I love that. And I think that’s also a lot to do with people wanting to connect and to have real conversations and to get back to a more personal way of communicating. So I think that it’s only going to get bigger from here. What I’m seeing now is I’m seeing more and more podcasts with two hosts doing more like panel style, which I really like as well. But I think there’s room for all different types of podcasts. There’s room for short podcasts, solo episodes, guest episode panels, longer episodes. There really is such an appetite for this content, and it’s a beautiful way to communicate and connect and have some authentic conversations and connect and to share what’s going on in our lives and our business and to, uh, sort of help each other out and build a beautiful community. So I think podcasting is only going to get bigger, uh, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what the next couple of years in podcasting has install.

Laura: Me too. I feel like it’s the new social media and everyone’s going to get on it soon. I hope so anyway.

Karen Windsor: Absolutely. It really is that next layer of social media as well, because it is so social. And you can have just voice podcasts, but you can also upload them to YouTube. You can snip their content for your socials. Like there’s so much that you can do with it and it’s really exciting to see.

Laura: Yes.

You’ve met some wonderful business owners because of podcasting

Laura: What has been your personal experience with podcasting? As a guest?

Karen Windsor: I have met some wonderful business owners from across the world because of podcasting, and I love the collaboration that comes between both of those. I love having a conversation about a topic that we have in common and being able to provide value and some information behind the scenes, some juicy info to those listening and it’s a really personal way to do that personally in terms of seeing the results of podcasting. I’ve had new followers to my instagram. I’ve had DM’s, um, asking me about things. You know, I’ve been invited to be a presenter in a mastermind, you know, all those beautiful connections that sort of come from doing podcasting and being a podcast guest. So I absolutely think it’s wonderful. And put it out there. I was like, I’m available for other podcasting guest opportunities and what an amazing guest you are.

Laura: And I’ve seen the power of podcast guesting myself. I’ve gained new clients from people who’ve heard me interviewed on other podcasts. And like I mentioned earlier with my client Louise, who got a spot on tv from her podcast, from the producer here in her, uh, podcast. And I’ve got a few clients who’ve ended up having close friendships with people they’ve admired for years, and they’ve met them through being a guest on their show. It’s incredible. You don’t get that with many other platforms.

Karen Windsor: No. And online business and small business. And it can be really lonely. It’s very different to the corporate world where you’ve got sort of so many people around you all the time, you know? So I think it really does allow for, uh, connections and building that beautiful

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Karen Windsor: network and, yeah, like you said, friendships. There’s so much potential.

Laura: Yes, definitely. So where can we find you and start following you and work with you?

Karen Windsor: Yeah, so mostly on my instagram, so you can follow me on pr, uh, assistant, but I’m also on Facebook and LinkedIn as well. Or you can hit me up my website as well. And I do have a beautiful freebie opt in as well. So if you head to my website, you’ll be able to download that. And it actually includes 20 Pr ideas for introverted entrepreneurs. So it’s very exciting.

Laura: That’s brilliant. And I’ll put links to those in the show notes.

Karen Windsor: Anyway, thank you.

Laura: Excellent. Thank you so much. And thank you for coming on the show today and telling us all of this interesting and helpful information. I’m sure everyone’s going to get so much out of this.

Karen Windsor: Oh, uh, it’s been my pleasure. Like I said, I love speaking about podcasting. There’s so much value there. And I love talking to somebody who also geeks out on podcasting as well.

Laura: Love it.

Karen talks about aligning pr strategies with your values and vision

Laura: What an incredible conversation with Karen. I loved her emphasis on aligning pr strategies with your values, vision and vibe. It’s such a refreshing take on pr, making it feel more authentic and less icky, as Karen put it. I couldn’t agree more with her point about the power of podcasting for small businesses. It’s such a natural way to share your story and connect with a new audience. I’ve seen firsthand how podcasting can open doors and create opportunities you never expected. Karen’s approach is not just about getting your name out there, it’s about doing it in a way that truly represents who you are. I hope you found as much value in this conversation as I did, and that it inspires you to think differently about your pr and podcasting strategies. If you’re looking to do more guesting on podcasts, I have a free podcast pitch template that I’ll put a link to in the show notes. Thanks for tuning in and speak to you next week. If you found value in this podcast, please leave. A five star rating and a review would be even better.

Laura: Your support shows that this is a.

Laura: Good show which will attract high profile guests and in turn deliver greater value to you. This podcast is produced and edited by me. Don’t waste your time on editing. Let me help you with your podcast. Cheque out the links in the show.

Laura: Notes to get in touch.

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