Transcript:

Michelle Grasek: Hi Larissa, how are you today?

Larissa Banting: I’m fantastic, Michelle. I’m so excited to be here.

Michelle Grasek: Thank you for being here. Before we get started, do you mind introducing yourself to the audience?

Larissa Banting: I would love to. My name is Larissa Banting. I am an accredited publicist and I help experts, coaches, consultants, entrepreneurs learn how to use publicity for profit.

Michelle Grasek: I love that. And we had some email conversations before we hopped on today. And one of the things that we talked about was how for AI to recognize us as an authority in our niche, we sort of have to give it the content to know like, oh, I can pull from this.

This person looks like an authority, right? AI is not making it up. It has to come from somewhere.

And I think that’s really fascinating.

Larissa Banting: It is. And I, the easiest way, cause I mean, a lot of people are like, oh my gosh, what is this? AI, AEO, GEO, what is all this stuff?

So I boiled it down using that seminal flick, Mean Girls. And I love it. I love it.

So I want you to think that Google SEO is like Regina George. The past 20 years, she has ruled the school. She is the queen of the plastics.

She is all about who’s the most popular, who’s spending the most money on ads, who has the biggest, the biggest number of backlinks, who has the backlinks to the coolest websites, right? So it doesn’t matter if you’re an expert, if you’re not playing the game, if you’re not, if you’re told you can’t sit at our table, then you’re going to be relegated to the Siberia of the internet, which is basically anything page two onwards. Yes.

And now comes along AI, which is like Katie Heron. So she’s, she’s like super chill. She’s a mathlete.

She doesn’t care about who’s popular. She cares about who knows their stuff, who actually is talking about something that they are knowledgeable that they, other people are saying, yes, this person knows what they’re talking about. They’re the person who’s an authority and we should listen to them.

So that’s really where we’re at the moment. And so the old guard, the old Regina George SEO is slipping away and there’s a whole new approach to being found. And I think a lot of people don’t realize that there has been this seismic shift in search right now.

Michelle Grasek: Out with Regina George. Let’s get rid of her.

Larissa Banting: Finally. Yes. So to bring it down, like, so we can understand it really easily, what the algorithm is looking for right now is what we call credibility signals.

And what that means is looking to third party platforms where other people are saying, Hey, Michelle, he’s really an expert on like, on marketing. And it’s not you saying I am the best thing since sliced bread when it comes to marketing, because, and that’s essentially what advertising is. That is what your blog posts are.

That’s your social media, because you’re the driver. You’re the ones saying that. And what AI is saying, well, no, because that’s what we’ve been doing for the past 20 years and it’s not working.

So we want to see where are those neutral third party sites where you cannot pay to play and you can’t be the one that saying, Oh my gosh, I’m so amazing. So things like press releases, for example. So press releases, they used to be like back in the day, back in the day, when I first started with fax machines, that’s how we got the news to the media.

Now, then with the onset of the internet and email, that they kind of took a back seat. They’re back now, because what happens when you write a press release, first of all, it has to have a news angle. It cannot be self-promotional and it has to go through editors before it is distributed.

And when it’s distributed, what happens? It will go at the same time to literally hundreds of media outlets and they will publish them. So you will have your media release on literally like 400 or more websites for ABC, NBC affiliates, all those, the big networks, radio stations, magazines, newspapers, the works.

And that is a credibility. That’s one of the signals. That’s a platform because when AI goes, someone says, Hey, I’m looking for an expert who is in marketing for acupuncturists.

And so Michelle, if you had put in a press release out now, AI seeing that, Oh my gosh, Michelle’s got, she’s been quoted on 400 of these honest to goodness media locations. So that is a very strong signal because it’s a third party platform. Now, podcasts are a huge signal because again, you’ve got someone like I pitched you and you were like, Hey, Larissa, I like what you’re talking about.

This is a value to my audience. So I’m coming on. So because you are someone that’s saying, Hey, here’s someone who I’m saying is credible and expert in this topic, the transcripts that you put up from the show notes, that is a huge platform signal to AI.

Michelle Grasek: I never thought about that before as a, the idea that it’s the information should come from a third party, right? So it’s sort of vetted and that podcast can fall under that label because I guess, I suppose you could say that podcasters are curating carefully, right? Not quite to the same degree or intensity as like online newspapers, but still the same concept.

And I don’t know if acupuncturists realize this, but there are so many podcasters out there and YouTube channels who like the YouTubers have podcasts who would love to interview acupuncturists about their unique perspectives on health and wellness.

Larissa Banting: Absolutely. And that’s, you just touched on another thing is because YouTube by far and away is the number one platform that AI is looking to for social media or the social of all the social media platforms. YouTube’s number one.

Michelle Grasek: I don’t know if this is true, but I read that AI can more or less read what is on YouTube and understand it in a way that it cannot read, for example, Instagram. Have you heard that before?

Larissa Banting: I haven’t heard that, but I think, I mean, I’m sure because of the transcriptions and whatnot, there’s must be something with the software, but the other things, again, Instagram does that’s largely a first party, right? Like it’s largely material content that is being driven by the creator.

Michelle Grasek: Yeah.

Larissa Banting: So it’s not being vetted. So that’s why it does not have the weight when it comes to the AI algorithm for the search.

Michelle Grasek: Gotcha. How do we submit these press releases then? I’m sure the audience is like, wow, I need to be submitting press releases.

Larissa Banting: There’s a very specific way to write a press release. It has to be like under 500 words. And there’s a whole specific way you lay everything out.

Now, luckily you can get them. There’s the distribution channels that do this often will offer this service for you. One of the best that we use is, well, there’s Cision, but that’s very expensive.

So I, what I recommend for people like, you know, the people who are listening right now is EIN Newswire. And that runs, the cheapest one runs $149. I mean, this is as of July 2026, prices are, could change because he basically doubled a year ago.

So, but they also have an option where they can write, you can put in, send in your information and then they have writers that will write it for you.

Michelle Grasek: Wow. And is that price monthly, annually?

Larissa Banting: No. It’s like per press release.

Michelle Grasek: Oh, okay.

Larissa Banting: Yeah. What I recommend is like every six months put out a new press release. Now, the other thing is if you can get yourself on, obviously getting into magazines and newspapers, even online versions is huge, but it doesn’t have to be the New York times.

There are all of these micro outlets, specifically for acupuncturists, for examples, if you can get interviewed on one of those outlets, if you can be a contributor, write an article, and then you are being contributor. Now that’s a huge plat, that’s a huge signal for AI, but also for your clients. Because if you can say, oh, here, by the way, here’s my article that I put in, I was a contributor for in blah magazine, because it’s so niche, that has a lot of weight because only the people who really know what they are talking about are going to be featured in that publication.

Right.

Michelle Grasek: How do we know what is appropriate news for a press release?

Larissa Banting: Well, you mean something, if you’ve come out with, maybe if you’ve written a book, if you have hit a milestone of some kind, if there’s a new treatment, if you’re seeing, if there’s a new study, well, maybe you can be giving your perspective on a new study that has come out. Maybe if there’s something that, we have something we call news jacking. So if something has happened in the news, and you can do a release where you’re giving your perspective as a professional.

Michelle Grasek: Okay. So I don’t know why this comes to mind, but there are new plastic surgery things that are coming out all the time, right. Or new skincare approaches.

And one of the things that we do at my office is cosmetic acupuncture and microneedling, which is very natural ways to build collagen. And so it could be something like maybe there’s a press release with about, or a story about a model who gets this special kind of skincare thing. But then you could take that and write your perspective on why maybe cosmetic acupuncture would be a great fit for someone who’s interested in this, but also like less invasive, that kind of thing.

Larissa Banting: Yeah. Like for example, if you, or you could even just go do a Google search and say like, maybe like what has been the increase in Botox, right. Or if there’s been a study that shows the dangers of Botox and maybe the number of people who are now choosing to not to no longer use fillers or to get their implants removed.

Michelle Grasek: Ooh, I like that. Yeah.

Larissa Banting: And then that way you, what you can do is say, here’s the safe alternative. And then if you have, if there’s any kind of a study that you can refer to, because you’ve got to think about it. Press release.

Well, we call it press release because it used to be the newspapers and they were on a printing press, right?

Michelle Grasek: Oh yeah. Okay.

Larissa Banting: But now with the advent of radio and television, then we started using the term media release, but so the two are interchangeable. So you’ve got to think about, it is not marketing. You want to think when you’re approaching anything with the media, maybe I’m dating myself, but there was this TV show called dragnet.

And remember he was a detective, just a box, ma’am. So you want those facts, the five W’s of journalism, who, what, where, when, why. So who is it?

And it’s always written in the third person. You will have a quote usually from like, if it’s, if you were writing a press release about yourself, about your, something about your specific type of microneedling, for example, then you would have a quote from yourself and then maybe get a quote from one of your patients. Right.

So that, so you’re kind of giving like another level, but you’re talking short, like maybe like a two or three sentence paragraph, but you want to talk about what it is. Why now that’s the biggest thing when you’re thinking anything to do with the news, why now, why would anyone be interested in this at this time? Because for example, if it’s the middle of July, if I put out a press release about Christmas stockings, no one’s going to care because it’s like lady Christmas is not for another, like six months.

Right. So you’ve got to think, or like, likewise, if I was, if it was November and I’m talking about, doing a bouquet of cuttings from your spring garden, you have to say, why is now the time for this particular bit of information to come out? So if you can tie it to seasonal, if there’s a study, anything that’s happening in the news, if something, you’ve just released a book, anything like that, or there’s a new machine that’s come out for whatever it is you’re using, that’s a newsworthy angle.

Michelle Grasek: I think the timing is really helpful because one thing that my marketing clients are always asking me is how far in advance should they be planning their marketing and professional marketers are four to six months in advance. Like they’re planning Christmas in the summer, et cetera. And that’s really challenging for most small business owners.

I think we’re often doing almost like a last minute, like cleanup marketing where we’re thinking to ourselves, oh gosh, the holidays are in like three weeks. What can I do? What can I put together right now before new year’s Eve?

So we’re, we’re often feeling behind, right? But this sounds much more doable in terms of, you know, what’s trending right now and how can I write something relevant? So if I were to submit it, would I guess like, what’s the lead time?

I don’t know what it would actually be called, but is it three weeks? Is it tomorrow?

Larissa Banting: It could be going out either even today or tomorrow because the process is either you’ve written it or someone’s written it for you and you’ve approved it. Then you have to go and you have to upload it onto the site, which is really simple. They walk you through it.

And then once you’ve gone through the draft and you’re like, yep, everything looks good because they’ll show you how it will look once it’s finished and on someone’s site, once you submit it, then it has to go through the editorial process. So if it sounds too mark, like if it’s too marketing, like you don’t want to be using adjectives or adverbs or the greatest thing or, groundbreaking, like nothing like that. If it sounds like something that would be on a sales page, take it out.

You’re not blowing this up. You’re not trying to sell anything to anybody. You are giving the facts.

So think about this. If you’ve read this in the newspaper, would it come off to you as being advertorial, like a sales page dressed up as an editorial page? Then you need to go back to the drawing board and start taking out all of those adjectives and adverbs and just get to the heart of what is the information because you’re not trying to sell.

I want everyone to realize this publicity, which is public relations is the foundation on which your marketing and sales are built. If you don’t have that layer of trust, this is what publicity does for you. It gives you credibility.

It creates that trust and it gives you the authority because again, it’s third party who are saying, this is someone that you can trust. This is someone who knows what they’re talking about. If you don’t have that, then all the marketing in the world is trying to build your house on sand.

Michelle Grasek: I think it’s just so much harder to be found online without that foundation. Like you were talking about Regina and Katie. Regina really doesn’t care about the little people.

Really hard to get found on Google. For example, sometimes acupuncturists will write blog posts that they’re hoping will rank for maybe national searches. And mostly people understand they want to write blog posts that help them locally.

But it’s, if you think about like MindBody and the articles they’re writing about, does acupuncture work for back pain? It’s really hard for us to compete with that or something written by the Mayo Clinic or Yahoo News. How are we going to write a blog post that competes with those sites that are considered having a ton of authority?

And I think that is a challenge sometimes. But as you’re saying, that’s because we’re doing it ourselves and it’s on our website. I know that my website authority for my clinic is like 11 out of 100.

And then MindBody Green is 89. So it’s just so much more bang for our buck. It sounds like if we can have press releases that are published on these other websites that have so much more authority, and then that’s giving us our foundation.

Larissa Banting: Absolutely. So it is doing two things for you there, Michelle, because for one, now you have multiple signals across multiple platforms for AI, but the same token, when someone goes and Googles your name, those press releases are going to come up. And it’s like, oh, they were featured on ABC.

But the other thing is when you’re in, when you have your press release on those sites, what you can do is you can then take and get the logos for these because you are as seen on. That is a hundred percent true. You didn’t buy your way onto their site.

I mean, yes, you paid for a distribution service, but it still had to be newsworthy and had to go through an editorial process. And those sites had to choose to place your media release on their website. So you’re absolutely a hundred percent fine in using those logos because that’s also giving you the validity, that credibility.

Because think about it, if someone comes and is looking at you versus another acupuncturist, you have the media logos and the other person doesn’t, who are they going to go with?

Michelle Grasek: Yeah. Build so much trust.

Larissa Banting: And the other thing I’m going to say is just because AI is looking for consistency, just do a quick check of all everywhere you are, your digital platform, your footprint. Are you using the same terms over and over and over again? Or are you an acupuncturist for geriatrics on your LinkedIn?

Are you an acupuncturist for pain relief on Facebook? Because if AI can’t figure out what is your specialization, it can’t recommend you. Oh, right.

So think about what do you really like get micro focused on what it is that you want to be known for? And I actually have a free gift for everybody. It is my findable or forgettable.

It is an AI audit that you can go through. Yeah. But this is one of the things.

And when someone puts in a term in chat, GPT or, perplexity, whatever, and say, acupuncturists in New Orleans for pain relief. If you don’t have those terms consistently, then it’s going to go for someone who has it. And I want to give you a little story.

One of my clients is a coach for women over 50 fitness coach. So she’s been on oxygen magazine and a lot of like smaller blogs and a ton of podcasts. And a couple of months ago, I was talking to her, she’s like, oh my gosh, I woke up this morning and I had a sale.

I’m like, oh, that’s fantastic. She goes, but this website, I thought this is the sales page. I took it down like two years ago.

And it was this woman. I’ve never met her. And she said that she found me through chat GPT and the chat GPT brought up Alicia’s name.

It brought up this sales page and the woman spent $300 on a course because chat GPT brought up her name as being the expert. And Alicia said that it has gone, this has happened multiple times where people find her and say, oh yeah, you were recommended to me by chat or perplexity. Or Google AI or whatever.

And here’s the thing I want everyone to think about why this is so important right now, right now, 69% of people, when they go into Google and the AI box comes up at the top there 69% never leave the box. So you can be the first one on Google and you’re not getting clicks. And that’s going to go up.

They’re saying to 98% within the next two years. So this is, you need to get moving on this now because it’s not like one day it is happening right now. So if you’re not getting, you’re not going to be found by AI.

No one’s going to find you.

Michelle Grasek: I mean, that’s kind of heartbreaking thinking about the whole work that people have put into their SEO for decades at this point. But yeah, I definitely think about the way that I use Google and I used to skim past that AI summary because I didn’t trust it. But now eight months later, I’m definitely reading that first.

Larissa Banting: Yeah.

Michelle Grasek: I want to say for the listeners that I still think we should write blog posts on our website. I do think that helps us get found locally. Right.

But it’s just not going to help us compete on a national level with those super huge articles written by companies that are gigantic. But I think Google still likes to use that content to understand your business. It helps it give some context for when you are relevant for a search query, either for Google or for AI.

It’s like different levels of article writing and both are useful in different ways.

Larissa Banting: Absolutely. And the thing is, and with the press release, for example, you can take that press release and put it on your blog.

Michelle Grasek: Right.

Larissa Banting: And then use it for social media posts. You can use it for your email. You can repurpose it.

The other thing is that when you go into a podcast, by the way, everyone should be podcasting. Maybe I’m a little do. When you have the transcription, you can take that transcription, rework it into a blog post.

If you’re on LinkedIn, make it into a LinkedIn article, because that is one of the biggest platforms that AI is drawing from, not a post, it’s an article. And the other thing about the articles is that it is Googleable. So you’re going to be also getting SEO from it.

Michelle Grasek: I really like that idea. I love repurposing content in any context, in any way that we possibly can, because it just reduces your workload so much.

Larissa Banting: Well, and the other thing is now because of AI, here’s the little trick for everybody. I always say that, especially when it comes to podcasting, they’re like snowflakes. You’ve got your theme, which is basically like your water, right?

What is a snowflake? It is frozen water, but no two are ever the same because every single interview, you’re going to be going down a different rabbit hole. You’re going to be talking a little about a different aspect of your theme.

So like your theme is like the umbrella and every single episode is like a spoke. So what you can do is so that you are getting that same theme across these different platforms for the AI search, is when you take the transcript, look for, what was that particular rabbit hole that we went down in that article, sorry, in that interview, and use that as the focus for your LinkedIn article, for that blog post. And then that way you are benefiting from having that same topic showing up across those different platforms as a signal.

Michelle Grasek: I like that. And you know what? I think that it’s really helpful to keep repurposing that kind of content for your audience because it’s building authority with your audience over and over again.

It’s easy to assume, maybe I had an article or I had an interview, like with the local newspaper and I told my email list about it one time. And so now they all know about it. But the truth is maybe not everybody saw that email and maybe not everybody reads that newspaper.

But now we have the opportunity to share it on all of our social and as you said, make it into a blog post and not just sharing it once in our Instagram story, but maybe sharing it once a month or once every six weeks and just really trying to reiterate that authority that you’re building through having someone else interview you. I think that we underestimate the impact that has on potential patients. Like you said earlier, it really does help people choose you.

It’s that third party, not association.

Larissa Banting: Like validation.

Michelle Grasek: Yes. Yeah. Like someone else is saying, I trust this person and then it transfers, right?

Larissa Banting: Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And the other thing I would say is once you start getting a body of media behind you, have a separate page on your website, just for media.

Have the links to your newspaper articles, to your podcast interviews, even to your media releases. Because again, that is giving you, here is the validation I’ve received from these respected media outlets, third party platforms. It’s also giving another, for SEO and AEO, GEO, whatever you want to call it for AI, but also for your clients.

Because again, what’s that differentiator? How can you differentiate yourself and own that particular piece of the pie?

Michelle Grasek: I think a lot of people will be really interested in the press release concept. But before we got on, we talked a little bit about imposter syndrome. So I would imagine that they are thinking that they don’t have anything worth sharing.

A few people listening, I’m sure, have written books, which is amazing. And they should hear about that more often probably. But for the rest of us, I’m wondering for the EIN Newswire that you mentioned, is there any way that listeners could go to them and sort of discuss and say, here are some ideas I have for a press release.

Are any of these valid? Or does that website really want you to have an idea formulated?

Larissa Banting: I have to be honest because I’ve only ever given them a fully fleshed out press release. But I think if you look at them writing it for you, then yes, you would talk to the writer and let them know, here’s what I’m thinking about. Because most people, they have no clue.

Because again, I have tried to teach people for years how to write a press release. And it is not easy because you can’t be marketing, getting to marketing speak. And especially as small business people, we’ve been so inundated about having to market ourselves.

No offense to marketers. I also have a marketing hat, but the PR side of it seems because everyone’s kind of like, Oh, that’s a nice to have one day. They will help you.

Yes. There can go into Fiverr and there’s people that will write you a press release on Fiverr for sure. Yeah.

Either one for imposter syndrome. I always say, look at, there is no sign that says you have to be this high to get on the PR ride. Okay.

As long as you have put out your shingle and someone’s paying you for your expertise, guess what? You are an expert because everyone’s at a different point of their journey. So it’s not like, Oh, it’s only when you’ve been in the business for 10 years or only when you have reached, multiple six figures that they want to look at you.

No, because everybody has, if you know what your messaging is, if you know what your unique point of view is, that’s what they’re interested in. They want good stories or guests who are going to give their audience something to chew on and to walk away from going, Huh, what’s up? But I call it the little pebble in the shoe problem that you can solve for them.

Right. It’s like that taster, the little spoons that Costco is like, Oh, this was really good. And then you’d like, I’m going to buy the entire 10 gallon jug.

That’s what you want to be doing, giving them something that they can walk away with and they can implement and see a small change like that. And so that’s wherever you’re at in your journey. And I’m going to give you a really quick story.

When I was working on a movie in 2001, we were shooting in the jungles of Costa Rica, and I was a film publicist at the time, met this really cute actor on site on the set. I left everything behind and moved to Costa Rica in January of 2002.

Michelle Grasek: Amazing.

Larissa Banting: Now, some of you who are, I’m sure most of your listeners were born by then, but if you don’t remember, we were still on dial-up internet. There was no laptop lifestyle. There I am.

I don’t speak Spanish. I don’t know the landscape or PR at all. So I had to pivot and I pivoted and I opened up one of the first destination wedding planning companies in Latin America.

Michelle Grasek: Right.

Larissa Banting: And because I didn’t know the landscape for weddings and honeymoon or travel media, I hired a publicist in New York who did because there was no social media back then, none. And because of her, I was able to do all these press junkets, get to meet all the editors. I was interviewed on Martha Stewart living radio.

We had our weddings were the first weddings featured in major wedding magazines, south of Mexico. So what happened was because of that destination weddings and honeymoons magazine and a year or two later, they created the a-list top 30 destination wedding planners in the world. I was the only one south of Mexico that was named.

Michelle Grasek: Wow. That’s kind of a shame. I mean, I’m so glad it happened for you, but it’s shame there weren’t more.

Larissa Banting: Right. But I mean, and it wasn’t because I wasn’t one of the top 30 in the world. It was just because they saw me in the media and that Martha Stewart radio.

Well, yeah, seriously, because before people like, I’m asking these couples, Hey, yeah, have your dad wire $25,000 down to some woman in like Costa Rica. Right. Cause people couldn’t even find it on a other though.

I thought we were an Island. I’m like, no, we’re an isthmus, but because of being in the media and having these magazine features and la la, all of a sudden I had that authority.

I had that credibility. So we had seven figures. The following year.

Wow. And did I know a lot about weddings? Well, no, I had just started doing weddings.

Like I had done events, but you know, like weddings in Costa Rica were a whole new, I had a few under my belt, but that didn’t stop me from putting myself out there.

Michelle Grasek: That’s an amazing story of what like the authority of PR can really do for you. Like it launched you. Right.

And it’s almost like it’s snowballs. It sounds like you get some PR, you get some authority, someone else notices and it just keeps going and going and going. And then you’re on Martha Stewart radio saying, how did I get here?

Larissa Banting: Oh, it is crazy. Cause the other thing is like, look at one of my clients was on a podcast. Someone was listening to it.

They flew him to Paris to speak at an event.

Michelle Grasek: Wow.

Larissa Banting: With over 11,000 people.

Michelle Grasek: Amazing.

Larissa Banting: From one podcast, another one of my clients, I just pitched to a podcast and then they were like, Oh, can you come speak at our conference in London? Oh. And can you also be a contributor to our magazine?

When you’re doing podcasts, for example, because you’re, you’re having this discussion with someone like yourself, podcast hosts are connectors. They know all these different people. They know what’s going on.

And we have seen so many clients that walk away from an interview and they’re like, Oh, I need you to connect you with so-and-so or we’ve had clients who’ve been hired on the spot. Like, Oh my gosh, you’re who I’ve been looking for. So this is the thing.

Like the more you get out there, one of my other clients didn’t interview. And then six months later, cause the podcast hosts had mentioned him to somebody else. And six months later, he got like this multi, like a five figure contract.

Michelle Grasek: Amazing.

Larissa Banting: You never know where it’s going to go.

Michelle Grasek: Going back to imposter syndrome. Maybe some people in the audience are thinking that sounds terrifying. Like, what if, what if I’m on a podcast and someone’s like, this person’s really smart and insightful.

I’d like to fly them to Paris to speak at my event. I always like to think of imposter syndrome as it only gets better. The more you practice whatever it is that you feel like an imposter about and getting out there and being visible.

I’ve done some speaking at like different levels of conferences. And every time I feel like, Oh my, should I really be here? And then you do the thing.

And then the next offer comes and you’re slightly more comfortable, right? You’re like, well, okay. I was at that conference for therapists in Toronto.

And then I was at that conference in Melbourne. And eventually you’ll get an offer and realize you just said yes, without that, like spike of anxiety, because you’ve just, it’s almost like you consolidate your knowledge. You learn how to do public speaking or whatever it is.

And it just gets better and better. But I guess my point is you can’t really think or theory your way out of imposter syndrome. I think it takes action.

And that’s just my opinion. There’s maybe some mindsets that are helpful, but taking action, I think is the thing that makes the biggest difference. So I hope people will not be afraid and you probably won’t end up directly in Paris.

There’ll be steps along the way to make it less scary.

Larissa Banting: I always say to everybody, like, it’s like a muscle. It is a muscle. And the more that you talk about your messaging, the more it becomes easier.

It’s like going to the gym every day. You’ve got to get those reps in and think about the media as baseball. Would you really think that you’re going to get the world series and go up to that bottom of the ninth?

If you’ve never been up to bat? No. So start starting a little leagues, like the local newspapers on local radio stations, the smaller podcasts.

And I tell you, in fact, I just did an article about this. Well, LinkedIn thing today, I think people are trying to put, are you putting Kobe beef in front of a bunch of vegans? You could have the most delicious Kobe beef, but if you’re trying to give it away at a vegan festival, no one’s going to take it because it’s the wrong audience.

It doesn’t matter. You could have like 5,000 vegans at this festival and you’re there with your Kobe beef. You’re not going to get anyone to take it.

So don’t look at the audience size either. Look at, is this the right audience? And I tell you, the smaller audience, we had a client.

She was on an entrepreneur on fire, 3.5 million listeners. And they also have, but they also charge. They’ve now charged for that.

But the point being she was on this and it was a great, yeah, it was this big podcast. It didn’t move the needle because it was entrepreneurs and her target market was teaching women how to take old chairs and refurbish them into beautiful works of art. Right.

Yeah. So it was great for her. Like, yes, I got in front of Chicago, all these people and this big feather in her cap, but we got her on a small podcast called drift diving, taking secondhand items and repurposing them to beautiful works of art, perfect audience.

Like the alignment was crazy. She ended up talking for 90 minutes. She got a thousand subscribers within a week.

Michelle Grasek: Wow.

Larissa Banting: And then because she could track it because she had like an affiliate track, those subscribers went on to purchase $13,000 worth of her course two weeks later when she opened the cart and the YouTube version of that interview has over 124,000 views. This was from almost, four years ago, but it’s still bringing in new subscribers because it’s evergreen material. And because it was had so many listeners and so much interactions, like you were saying it continue it kind of like it’s a snowball.

Michelle Grasek: I think it helps too, that it’s on YouTube because it’s searchable, right?

Larissa Banting: Absolutely.

Michelle Grasek: It’s different than like we were talking earlier, for example, on Instagram, you publish something and it goes away forever, but that YouTube content really is evergreen. So to have a great interview like that’s very niche. It’s going to keep driving traffic.

Larissa Banting: Yes. And the other thing too, you got to think about people on Instagram and social media, they’re just scrolling. Whereas YouTube, people are looking for a specific topic.

Michelle Grasek: Yeah, they’re doing research and I think they’re more prepared to spend time on it. It’s definitely still for entertainment, but maybe less so than Instagram, for example. On Instagram, I really just want to see cute clips of cats.

That’s all I’m expecting.

Larissa Banting: You and everybody else.

Michelle Grasek: Yes. Well, thank you so much for this. Is there anything that you want to add?

Anything we didn’t cover?

Larissa Banting: I just want to say, please, now of all times in history, this is the moment that you have to understand that publicity is not a nice to have. It’s you must have. So get going, just start.

There’s over almost what 5 million podcasts in the world. There’s something for everybody at any stage. But remember, always come at it from how can I benefit the audience the best?

Don’t make it about you, make it about the audience. And that is what is going to be the key to success for getting into any media is having that mentality. But like Nike said, just do it.

Yeah, just do it. Do not just put yourself out there. And the more that you it’s a numbers game.

I also want to just reiterate that this is a numbers game. Right now, the response rate to putting out pitches to podcasters is about 11 percent. And for print media is less than 4 percent.

So do not get discouraged. Do not take it personally. It is a numbers game.

Just bless and release, bless and release just but just get, put out at least 10 pitches a week and then you’re going to start seeing the needle start to move. And then that’s when things really start to happen for you. I can attest to that.

Michelle Grasek: Yeah, I would definitely agree that it’s a numbers game, even as a podcast host, the number of pitches that I get every week, there’s literally not enough time in the day for me to thoughtfully review every pitch. And some I can tell are like canned emails. They have no idea how much they sound like each other, I think.

So when I get an email like yours, it’s sounded different and incredibly relevant and specific. Right. So I would say for the listeners, if you are pitching podcasters, A, if you have a great topic, it’s like a relief for a podcaster to receive a topic that’s a great fit for the audience because it’s less work for them.

Oh, this is great. Now I have next month’s podcast guest sorted. You’re doing them a favor.

But also if you don’t hear from them, it could just be that they’re it’s that numbers game thing. It’s definitely not personal and you should keep going and email them again. I get sometimes three or four emails from the same person and then I finally have time to say, OK, let me actually I’m going to check out this person’s website.

Let me see if I can listen to them on another podcast, et cetera, that just takes time. And that’s OK.

Larissa Banting: Yeah, we do at least two follow ups, at least two follow ups. Yeah. And about 85 percent of the yeses come on the follow ups.

Michelle Grasek: Yes. Yeah. That doesn’t surprise me.

Larissa Banting: Yeah.

Michelle Grasek: So I have one more question for you, and that is, what is your definition of success? Which I ask all of my guests.

Larissa Banting: OK, well, for me personally, success is having the freedom to make my schedule as I like. I want to go riding in the morning if I need to take my daughter to drop her off to work or whatever, taking her. She starts university next month.

So we’re flying up to Canada to get her, you know, so I’ll be gone for a couple of weeks and seeing getting her settled and getting to see my family and whatnot. That to me is success. Everybody else is different.

But yeah, for me, it’s just being able to live my life as I would really love to do so.

Michelle Grasek: That’s wonderful. Thank you. Well, where can everyone find you if they like to work with you?

Because I would imagine you could just take all this PR stuff right off their plate if they’re feeling like this sounds important, but also overwhelming. How can they contact you? I will make sure to include the download that you mentioned in the show notes so people can access it.

Larissa Banting: Right. That’s a 45 minute workshop that walks you through. It’s called Findable or Forgettable.

It’ll walk you through how to do an A.I. audit on yourself. And it talks to you about goes through the press release. It talks about how to get into podcasts and also articles.

Authority magazine is a big one, for example. So anyway, so you can go there. I’m the only Larissa Banting in the world.

Very small family. Very unusual first name. So Larissa Banting dot com.

And you will find I have freebies there to help you get started on your PR journey. I have a monthly membership called the Press Club. It’s only twenty seven dollars a month.

And every month we are working on a different visibility asset. And you can try the first 30 days for free.

Michelle Grasek: Amazing. Oh, I love that. That sounds really fun.

Larissa Banting: Yeah, I try.

Michelle Grasek: Well, thank you again so much for being here.

Larissa Banting: I so appreciate it. Thanks, Michelle.

Michelle Grasek: As always, thanks so much for listening. If your marketing is feeling stuck, I’d love to help you figure out exactly what to focus on next. The Marketing Breakthrough Audit is a personalized 30 minute video review of your website, your Google business profile and other parts of your online presence with clear practical recommendations tailored to your practice.

No generic advice, just the changes I would prioritize if this were my own clinic. You can learn more and reserve your spot at Michelle Grasick dot com forward slash audit. Thanks so much for being here.

I’ll talk to you next time.