Using PR to Build a Rich Life with Selena Soo

How can entrepreneurs identify the right moments to seek publicity to maximize the impact on their brand and business?

Join us in today's conversation with the incredible Selena Soo as we delve into the transformative role of publicity. We explore how it can be a game-changer, creating opportunities that enrich various aspects of your life.

Selena shares her personal journey of transformation and how she's harnessed the art of engagement, making waves as a publicity expert. 

We chat about why it's crucial to weave in publicity as a strategy in your business, not just as a bonus, but as a foundational piece in building and recession-proofing your entrepreneurial empire

So if you're ready to carve out your slice of the media's spotlight and craft a legacy that's both lucrative and lasting, let's turn up the volume! You don't want to miss a beat of today's episode..

IN TODAY’S EPISODE, I DISCUSS: 

• Selena Soo's personal journey and how she leverages PR for business success
• How to use PR to scale your brand and open countless opportunities
• Strategies for crafting a rich life that transcends financial wealth

CONNECT WITH SELENA:
Grab Selena's PR Calendar here: impactingmillions.com/mel 
Visit her website: https://www.selenasoo.com

RECOMMENDED EPISODES FOR YOU
If you liked this episode, you'll love these ones:

• Are You Really Living a Rich Life or a Bankrupt One?
• Doing Nothing with Your Money Isn't An Option!
• Fulfillment & Wealth Through a Personal Brand with Rory Vaden
• How to Live a Fully Expressed Life with Rachel Luna

TAKE THE FINANCIAL FREEDOM QUIZ:
Take this free quiz to see where you are on the path to financial freedom and what your next steps are to move you to a new financial destiny at http://www.YourFinancialFreedomQuiz.com  

OTHER RESOURCES:
7-Day Money Plan Workshop: https://www.TheMoneyPlanWorkshop.com
Affluent Entrepreneurs Private Facebook Group https://www.melabraham.com/group/

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Transcript

Mel Abraham [00:00:00]:
Wow. Just, wow. Just finished a conversation with Selena Su. If you don't know her, she's a queen of publicity and pr. She has built careers in the expert space. Now, you might sit back and go, why do I need publicity? What does that have to do with anything?

Mel Abraham [00:00:17]:
Here's the thing.

Mel Abraham [00:00:19]:
If you're trying to find your path to financial freedom, if you're looking at trying to build that money machine so your money works harder for you than you did for it, one of the quickest ways to accelerate it and get you there is to make sure that you have a bigger shovel of income to work with. And one of the best ways to create that bigger shovel is to get.

Mel Abraham [00:00:39]:
Paid for what you know, because it's.

Mel Abraham [00:00:42]:
One of the highest margin businesses you could create. Now, it could be a side hustle or otherwise, and you might not even be thinking about it. But the things we talk about here and some of the tools she gives us from her framework to her calendar can help you start to put some things out there and maybe make a little bit money on the side or a lot of money on the side. So you got to check this episode out, and I'll see you in the episode. Welcome to this episode. The affluent entrepreneur show.

Mel Abraham [00:01:10]:
This is the affluent entrepreneur show for entrepreneurs that want to operate at a high level and achieve financial liberation. I'm your host, Mel Abraham, and I'll be sharing with you what it takes to create success beyond wealth so you can have a richer, more fulfilling lifestyle. In this show, you'll learn how business and money intersect so you can scale your business, scale your money, and scale your life while creating a deeper impact and living with complete freedom, because that's what it really means to be an athlete entrepreneur.

Mel Abraham [00:01:46]:
Selena, it's so good to have you on the show. God, it's been such a long time.

Mel Abraham [00:01:52]:
Since we first met.

Selena Soo [00:01:55]:
Did we first meet at James Wedmore's mastermind? I don't remember.

Mel Abraham [00:01:58]:
We did.

Mel Abraham [00:01:59]:
We did.

Mel Abraham [00:02:00]:
You came in and spoke, and that.

Mel Abraham [00:02:02]:
Was a lot of years ago.

Selena Soo [00:02:04]:
It was, yeah. I think that was like four years ago. Time has flown.

Mel Abraham [00:02:09]:
It has. So I thought about this episode and wanting to talk about the idea of publicity and what it has to do with wealth creation and living a rich life and what it can do for people. And I'm trying to figure out, well.

Mel Abraham [00:02:24]:
Who do you bring on?

Mel Abraham [00:02:27]:
And for me, it was like, you got to bring on someone that has this success one, but there's plenty of people that have success. There's the other side of it is that someone that I actually really trust, that someone is someone that has got a good heart, a good soul, and bring this, because you get into pr and publicity, there's so many different stories about it, good, bad, and different. It's a good spin, but I see what you've done with some of your clients over the years. And so I thought, I want to have a conversation with Selena, partly, like I said, y'all just listen to part.

Mel Abraham [00:03:10]:
Of this is selfish because I don't.

Mel Abraham [00:03:13]:
Understand the publicity game and PR at the level that Selena does. And so I thought, what better way than us to have a conversation? You all eavesdrop and everything because she's got some gold to drop and she's got some value to bring.

Mel Abraham [00:03:29]:
So, Selena, let's just start this whole.

Mel Abraham [00:03:33]:
Thing off for those people that don't know who you are, where you are, how you got to where you're at.

Mel Abraham [00:03:39]:
And let's just start with that.

Selena Soo [00:03:41]:
Yeah, absolutely. So my journey began when I was in my late twenty s. I was living in New York City, working at a nonprofit making $42,000 a year, and I had a quarter life, Cris, and I became clinically depressed. I had trouble eating. I had trouble getting out of bed in the mornings. And things got so bad that my mom actually flew all the way from Vancouver, Canada, to New York to be by my side. And I remember her accompanying me on the subway and literally walking me to my nonprofit office door where I was working. And I just felt like I was a schoolgirl who just needed her mom.

Selena Soo [00:04:19]:
And I remember just feeling so bad. It was just such a struggle to get through life. And I asked a friend, do you know someone who can help me? Because I just can't keep feeling this way. And she told me about this life coach, and I signed up for her program. It was a group program, and there were in person meetings at her home on Saturdays. And I started to learn about all these incredible know, Louise Hay and Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williamson. And all these ideas were really helping me take personal responsibility for my life, realize that I was the creator of my life, and I started to change. And I remember my boss.

Selena Soo [00:04:59]:
Like, I feel like something has changed inside of Selena. Like, what have you been doing? And it was the personal development work. And that's when I realized, know, when people are struggling and suffering, they don't just need more information. They are also looking for inspiration. And so my big passion is elevating role models, people who embody a message of possibility and hope and show people that there's a better way to live their life. Right. They've come through the other, you know, like, Mel, you are a role model to people who are looking to create wealth and a truly rich life. And it's exciting for me to be in community with these role models, to elevate them.

Selena Soo [00:05:36]:
And so that's really how I fell in love with the work of publicity, because I feel that publicity is one of the fastest ways to elevate your brand, for people to really see you as that credible expert to take you seriously. And with media opportunities, you can be reaching hundreds, thousands, even millions of people through those various opportunities. It's a thing that also opens up doors to other things, like people seeing you as that top expert, speaking brand partnerships, clients. And so, yeah, that's why I'm a big fan of publicity, because I would also talk to my friends and say, have you heard of this person and that person? Because their work is changing my life. And they didn't know about a lot of the experts that I was talking about, both the well known and the emerging experts, and just made me realize that sometimes the people that have the most powerful message that could change someone's life, maybe even save someone's life, can still be that best kept secret to the people that need to know them the most. So publicity is really a solution for people who feel like there are more people that need to know about their work.

Mel Abraham [00:06:39]:
So, cool.

Mel Abraham [00:06:39]:
Were you doing publicity at the nonprofit? Is that how you got to learning?

Selena Soo [00:06:44]:
No, I was actually fundraising and organizing professional development events. But I feel like a lot of the skill sets were transferable because when you're fundraising, you're persuading people, you're enlisting people. And we would get these really well known female ceos and media professionals to come to our events and do programming. And so it was all about the art of getting people on board and excited about what we were doing.

Mel Abraham [00:07:09]:
And I love what you said. You're getting people engaged and enrolled in something great, bigger than a transaction.

Selena Soo [00:07:16]:
Absolutely.

Mel Abraham [00:07:17]:
Yeah.

Mel Abraham [00:07:22]:
So you go through this because I totally agree with you. I tell people that if you want personal development on steroids, become an entrepreneur. It's going to test you.

Selena Soo [00:07:32]:
Yeah, that's true every day.

Mel Abraham [00:07:36]:
And become an entrepreneur in the expert space where you're putting yourself out there and trolls are all over the place, you want to toughen that skin and get yourself developed.

Mel Abraham [00:07:48]:
Yeah, that's the way to do it.

Selena Soo [00:07:50]:
It's so true. Yeah, because all eyes are on you and people are looking at you as a leader and you have to be really intentional about what you're saying, how you're putting yourself out there, what you're sharing. So, yeah, I definitely am so grateful for the entrepreneurial journey. So I love supporting other entrepreneurs and I'm grateful for the personal development journey I've been on myself.

Mel Abraham [00:08:13]:
So, cool, because I've watched you grow. Here's a question, and maybe just getting really clear on how you see what.

Mel Abraham [00:08:24]:
Is pr, what is publicity?

Mel Abraham [00:08:27]:
Because it can be easy for some folks that are starting out. Let me preframe some why I want to have this conversation, aside from the selfish reason of understanding how to use it, is that I believe that everyone that is watching and listening, that wants to take their expertise, that has a message to take to the world, that has something that's going to serve, solve problems and improve the human condition. It's one, you're doing good for the world and the world needs it. That's probably the biggest thing. But at the same time, it is one of the highest margin businesses we can create. And with a high margin business, you have a big shovel of earnings you can use to build your money machine to have the freedom that you want. And this can accelerate it, I believe. But let's start with the fundamentals of.

Mel Abraham [00:09:25]:
Publicity and pr and what it is.

Selena Soo [00:09:28]:
Yeah, absolutely. So publicity is all about sharing your message on other people's platforms. So there's traditional media like magazines, tv, newspapers, but then there's also new media, like being on people's podcasts or speaking at their mastermind group, or even if you're doing like an IG live interview. But it's all about well respected media platforms, individuals that have their own platforms and an audience, and you really leveraging those platforms to get your message across to more people. So I think that everybody can benefit from publicity because it's one thing for you to tell the world, hey, I'm really good at what I do. Like, look at me, trust me. But it's another thing when you have media outlets or influencers and experts in your industry that are endorsing you and choosing to open up their platform to share your work with their audience. And there's so many different types of publicity opportunities, they're not all created equal.

Selena Soo [00:10:25]:
So sometimes, speaking at a mastermind group, maybe there's only 20 people in the room, but they're all paying $25,000 to be there, and they're very motivated business owners. That could be an ideal opportunity for someone over, an opportunity where they're getting in front of 20,000 people if it's not quite the right audience. And so it's really important to figure out what are the right media opportunities for you. But I really believe that everybody should be getting themselves out there and not just trying to build their business and get attention on their own. I mean, it's one thing like, yes, it's important to be active on social media and sending newsletters, but at a certain point, we really need to grow our audience so that more people are aware of us. And publicity is one of the best ways to do that.

Mel Abraham [00:11:09]:
I love this because I think about.

Mel Abraham [00:11:10]:
It and go, there's folks that sit back and say, well, publicity matters, but.

Mel Abraham [00:11:19]:
Not for me because I'm just a small, I'm just starting.

Mel Abraham [00:11:25]:
That.

Mel Abraham [00:11:26]:
I'm guessing that the reality is you.

Mel Abraham [00:11:29]:
Actually need more if you're just starting out.

Selena Soo [00:11:32]:
Good point.

Mel Abraham [00:11:33]:
Yeah, no, I love that.

Selena Soo [00:11:35]:
Yeah. A lot of people will come to me and say, selena, I feel like I'm not ready for publicity. I feel like publicity is for Internet superstars, six and seven figure entrepreneurs, bestselling authors. They're the ones that can get publicity. But really, publicity actually helps someone become a bigger name, and it opens up the door to many of those kind of opportunities in tandem with other key actions in their business. Or I also get a lot that people are like, my website is not 100% perfect. I'm rebranding this and that, but publicity is all about sharing what you're already sharing with others, what you're already sharing with your clients, one on one or in small group settings, and amplifying it and getting it out to bigger audiences. And so there's a lot of publicity opportunities.

Selena Soo [00:12:22]:
I would say most publicity opportunities, they don't care about how many Instagram followers you are or how much money you have in your pocket. It really doesn't matter. It's really about your expertise and if it's something that is going to be valuable to their audience. So when people are, whether it's an expert that's receiving a pitch or it's someone in the media, there's really, like three key things that they're looking for. So one is that it's a service driven idea. It's not just like, oh, look at how successful this person is. But let me show you how you can use these ideas, tools and steps to change your life, to improve your life. So service driven is something that they're always looking for.

Selena Soo [00:13:02]:
And then number two is that they're looking for things that are timely and relevant right now. Right. So what are people talking about right now. What are the major problems in the industry? What's happening in the news, if you can tie it to something, or even if it's like Valentine's Day is coming up or the summer or the winter holidays, like having a timely seasonal angle. And then the third thing is that they're looking for stories that are going to evoke people's emotions, whether it's something that really inspires them or angers them or is counterintuitive and really gets them to think differently and sparks curiosity. So those are the three things you really want to keep in the forefront of your mind when you're thinking about what kind of story ideas to pitch when you're looking to get publicity.

Mel Abraham [00:13:49]:
I'm going to go back to number two, and I'm guessing here, so correct.

Mel Abraham [00:13:54]:
Me if I'm wrong, is that there's.

Mel Abraham [00:13:58]:
Probably, you say, timely and relevant. There's some things that are newsworthy at a moment because things are happening, but.

Mel Abraham [00:14:05]:
There may be seasons which happen.

Mel Abraham [00:14:12]:
I'm assuming you tell me if I'm wrong. There's a tool that you have.

Selena Soo [00:14:16]:
Yeah, I have like a special tool. So it's my publicity calendar. So it's twelve months worth of story ideas, special dates and hooks to get into the media. So there's over like 200 ideas, prompts, dates that you can use to figure out how do I get into the media? Because every single month the media is looking for different types of story ideas. So it's important to know what they are actively looking for so that you can pitch the right story. So yeah, I would love to share that with people and actually they can go to impactingmillions.com mel to get that. But it's over 40 pages. A lot of people use that tool to also even map out their newsletter content or social media captions to make sure that it's really timely and relevant.

Mel Abraham [00:15:04]:
So good, and I appreciate that. We'll make sure that we hook it all up in the descriptions and the show notes and all that stuff.

Mel Abraham [00:15:11]:
Perfect, because I think that rather than.

Mel Abraham [00:15:16]:
Going at it with a, oh, this is a hot topic now.

Mel Abraham [00:15:20]:
Let me go after it.

Mel Abraham [00:15:22]:
You can actually plan this out.

Mel Abraham [00:15:24]:
You can actually schedule some of it.

Mel Abraham [00:15:27]:
And have a strategy behind it. Because my guess is, like anything publicity builds on publicity, all of a sudden we get momentum. The compound effect in wealth will also.

Mel Abraham [00:15:41]:
Happen in publicity by being out there doing it.

Selena Soo [00:15:48]:
Right?

Mel Abraham [00:15:49]:
Yeah.

Selena Soo [00:15:50]:
Once people start seeing that you're being seen in all the places, they're like, oh, I should invite her to my podcast or sometimes people are like, oh, my gosh, this person's really going places. I better sign up for her program, get enrolled before this person gets too big. Right. And it's harder to work with them. But, yeah, publicity can really elevate your brand and also just get people really seeing you as that go to expert.

Mel Abraham [00:16:16]:
So it's interesting you say that. I think I did some of this way back when, back in the pre Internet days. So don't judge me. Okay, here's why. So I came out of a big consulting firm. I was trying to start my practice valuing businesses, buying and selling, testifying at.

Mel Abraham [00:16:34]:
Trials, and no attorney wanted to hire me.

Mel Abraham [00:16:37]:
They said, you have no experience. I go, yeah, if you don't hire me, I won't get the experience. I might as well go flip burgers at in and out burger. I mean, with a hat and whatever.

Mel Abraham [00:16:49]:
I had this idea that I didn't.

Mel Abraham [00:16:52]:
Know the next best thing to them seeing me testify at trial is to.

Mel Abraham [00:16:59]:
Have them see me speak.

Mel Abraham [00:17:01]:
So I started to find speaking engagements for the bar association, for accounting, associations for financial. So I started to speak.

Mel Abraham [00:17:13]:
But what I did is every time.

Mel Abraham [00:17:16]:
I spoke, a week before I spoke, I would put out a press release. Two weeks after I spoke, I will.

Mel Abraham [00:17:23]:
Put out a press release, and then I would take the topic and I.

Mel Abraham [00:17:28]:
Would create a 500 word article on.

Mel Abraham [00:17:30]:
It, and I would take the attorneys.

Mel Abraham [00:17:33]:
That I had in the database and say, I spoke here. Here's an article that summarizes what I spoke about. If it's of value to you, and I just send it out, and, like, my team was sitting on the floor and I'm signing letters.

Mel Abraham [00:17:44]:
But what it did is that at.

Mel Abraham [00:17:49]:
The time, is what ended up happening is they actually stopped asking how much experience I had in testimony because they just saw me all over the place and they said, well, gosh, he's speaking, he's writing, he's doing. He's got to be good. So they just hired me, and all of a sudden, I think, here's the power of it. And I just didn't put it together until we were just talking.

Mel Abraham [00:18:15]:
Now is that.

Mel Abraham [00:18:19]:
It built an international presence for me.

Mel Abraham [00:18:24]:
I still do some valuation, but it's.

Mel Abraham [00:18:29]:
Very selective by me.

Mel Abraham [00:18:32]:
I have no website.

Mel Abraham [00:18:33]:
I have no business cards. I do know marketing. I do no networking anymore. I do no publicity. But if I wanted to, I could.

Mel Abraham [00:18:40]:
Do a million dollars a year just.

Mel Abraham [00:18:43]:
In valuation, because the phone rings, and it's this tail effect of what I did decades ago that's still living today. Because I have positioning in an industry.

Selena Soo [00:18:55]:
I love that.

Mel Abraham [00:18:57]:
So I guess I did some of it way back when.

Selena Soo [00:19:00]:
Yeah. So good. It's still paying off.

Mel Abraham [00:19:03]:
Yeah.

Mel Abraham [00:19:04]:
That's why I think that it's so important for us if you have a message, if you have something you want to take to the world that we.

Mel Abraham [00:19:11]:
Start to think about, not just I'm.

Mel Abraham [00:19:15]:
Going to do an IG live, not just social media, that there is something to be said for bringing in pr, publicity and things like have a, you have a framework that you kind of work through because it'll be maybe somewhat tactical for the audience to start saying, well, what do I do? What do I do first? Where does this really come in for my life and business and everything?

Mel Abraham [00:19:44]:
Maybe we can talk about that a bit.

Selena Soo [00:19:47]:
Yeah, no, I would love to talk about it. So this is how I've grown my business and how I help others grow their business. So it's my three p framework, publicity, partnerships and promotions. So publicity is all about getting your message in front of big audiences, elevating your brand, really becoming like a celebrity in your industry, which allows you to charge more, creates demand. So that sort of step one is getting that publicity, elevating your brand. And then number two is partnerships. So partnerships is all about collaborating with other business owners who have buyer audiences, who have relationships with people, who have trust with the people that they serve, and finding ways to work together, support each other, and have them send business and refer people your way. And then last but not least is promotions, because you can have relationships, you can have visibility and publicity, but if you don't have the offers and a proven process to get people enrolled that you don't really have a successful business and they all kind of work together.

Selena Soo [00:20:50]:
And I just am really excited about this because sometimes in business, people get exhausted with all the things they feel like they have to do. And both publicity and partnerships are really about amplifying things. So when I'm going on a podcast, obviously the conversation is a little bit different every time because it's with a different person and there might be some different things spoken about, but you're sharing your expertise, but you're not just talking to one person at a time. There could be hundreds of people, if not thousands or more, listening to that interview. And with partnerships, it kind of recession proofs your business because you can be promoting something. But then if you know that you have several other people, or in some cases hundreds, I've had up to 200 partners for a single launch when I would do my very big launches, then it's like no matter what happens, you know, sales are going to come in because you have all these people behind you. So it's kind of like promotions is almost like publicity, but with kind of like a business relationship with it, where when you win business, the other person wins, too. And then obviously it's so important to have offers that you love, because if you're not feeling aligned with your offer, then a part of you is going to sabotage and not really put yourself out there.

Selena Soo [00:22:06]:
So we have to have the offer that we love and then a proven.

Mel Abraham [00:22:09]:
Process to get people good. I think some people have the misconception.

Mel Abraham [00:22:19]:
That this idea of pr and publicity is get me on Ellen DeGeneres, get me on good day LA. But it's so much more and it's.

Mel Abraham [00:22:30]:
So much deeper than, okay, I got on a talk shore and used program.

Selena Soo [00:22:36]:
Yeah, no, absolutely. And it's also not about just doing one thing. If we were like, okay, we want people to enroll in our program. We can't just send one email and expect that, oh, my gosh, I'm going to have a sold out launch. And so with publicity, it is about putting yourself out there, consistently developing relationships, because you never know where that person will come from. And we really don't even need, especially if we have high ticket offers in our business. We don't even need that many clients to have a successful business.

Mel Abraham [00:23:07]:
So people that work with you, I guess they can do it on their own. They can hire you or an agency or something.

Mel Abraham [00:23:16]:
But if they're looking at publicity or.

Mel Abraham [00:23:20]:
They'Re looking at pr and saying, okay, I want to entertain this idea, what's some of the first steps? What's the first thing that they need.

Mel Abraham [00:23:28]:
To get clear on or do?

Selena Soo [00:23:31]:
Yeah. So one of the first steps is getting clear on what your expert topics are. I feel that as entrepreneurs, we wear so many hats and there's so many things that we can talk about potentially in an interview, but you really want to be known for a handful of core things. So some of my expert topics are, naturally publicity, relationship building, like networking. I also talk about building a seven figure business. I talk about being an introvert. So those are kind of like some core themes that people are really drawn know. When I ask people, why did you join the program, there are a number of people who are know.

Selena Soo [00:24:11]:
Selena is an introvert like me, and if she can do it, that gives me confidence that I can do this, too. Right. So your expert topic should really connect back to why people are buying from you. Why they want to learn from you. So as an example, at one point, I had a mastermind, and it was a high level mastermind for a small group of people. And when I was working with these business owners, we would talk about all kinds of things, like hiring a director of marketing or a senior project manager. But if I'm going onto a podcast and I'm talking about hiring, then people are going to think of me for that topic. And yet that was a mastermind for 15 people, whereas in my impacting millions program, I would have up to 500 people at a time.

Selena Soo [00:24:54]:
And that was really the core offering in my business. So I think a first step for everyone to take is to look at in your business, what are your core offerings? What are people actually paying you money for?

Mel Abraham [00:25:06]:
Right.

Selena Soo [00:25:07]:
And why are they also choosing you over other people? Is it a certain kind of expertise or something related to your personal story or a challenge that they have? And so those are some questions that you can journal on to really get clear on what your expert topic should be. Just like when a celebrity has a movie come out, they're going to go to all the different talk shows, and they're going to kind of talk about the same thing over and over again. And as experts, even though we could talk about many things, we really want to be talking about the same message repeatedly and be known for a few core ideas. One of my mentors, Ramit Seti, he talks know people are like, oh, is it too much? If people have heard it before, it's like, you should be so lucky that they have heard your message three times, four times, five times that you've captured their also, you know, for things that are really important, people do need to hear them multiple times for it to really sink in. So, yeah, I would say because I'm all about publicity to grow your business, not just publicity for the sake of publicity. So in order for it to be strategic, the publicity you get needs to be tied back to your business offerings. Why people are buying from you and.

Mel Abraham [00:26:10]:
What their challenges are, I love that.

Mel Abraham [00:26:13]:
It's not publicity just for publicity sake. We can do all kinds of stupid things, get publicity, but it doesn't drive anything.

Selena Soo [00:26:20]:
Exactly.

Mel Abraham [00:26:20]:
Other than your ego, maybe more than anything else.

Mel Abraham [00:26:23]:
But that's not the purpose of it.

Selena Soo [00:26:26]:
No.

Mel Abraham [00:26:31]:
This is a long term game. This is not something that.

Mel Abraham [00:26:37]:
I need some publicity. So let me go hire someone, get some press releases out there, maybe get an article in a magazine and that.

Mel Abraham [00:26:44]:
Kind of thing, and I'm done. Right?

Mel Abraham [00:26:48]:
This is part and parcel to your integrating it into your business strategy, your business growth strategy, your wealth strategy.

Selena Soo [00:26:55]:
But the other thing that I wanted to mention is that you don't need to be getting publicity year round. I know that people are doing a lot of things already. Chances are people listening to this have a newsletter that they're writing regularly. Maybe they're on social media on a regular basis, they've got a consistent posting schedule. But you don't have to be getting publicity year round for me. Traditionally I would do all of my publicity around my impacting millions launch. Now that's an evergreen program. But when I did a live launch, it was in March, and then I would record interviews in November, December and January, and they would all be released February and March.

Selena Soo [00:27:34]:
And so I was pursuing publicity for three months out of the year and tying it to the number one offer in my business. So I know people who are like, I've got so much going on. And so maybe it's like maybe you're doing publicity twice a year. Maybe there's like two key months, or maybe it's every other month you have two weeks in your calendar where you would be open to doing podcast interviews or working on articles and things like that. Because I think it's important to figure out how to make it manageable. In order for it to be sustainable.

Mel Abraham [00:28:10]:
We need to do it with a.

Mel Abraham [00:28:11]:
Rhythm that fits us and fits the business strategy.

Selena Soo [00:28:15]:
Yeah.

Mel Abraham [00:28:16]:
Otherwise it can suck us dry. It's not necessarily that we need this huge lead time. Then if we are in the game, we can turn it on for a period of time, turn it off and then turn it back on again.

Selena Soo [00:28:34]:
Absolutely. And it depends on what kind of publicity you're pursuing. Like if you're looking to be featured in print magazines, then typically four to six months is a lead time just because there's a print publishing schedule. But honestly, I think print magazines is very, a sexy thing. But I think online, like for example, with Forbes, they have a huge online site where people are submitting articles and things like that. A lot of the articles that I read are online versus I went to the store and picked up a magazine, even though that's great, don't think that if you can't get that, that's an issue, because with online, the turnaround is much quicker. You could submit an article and it could be published the next week or later that month versus having to wait like four or six months. And also with print, there's limited pages, which means there's fewer opportunities.

Selena Soo [00:29:32]:
But with podcasts, it depends on the person because some people plan out their podcast calendars far in advance, so in some places, you could be featured that month. But in other cases, they might already have two months worth of interviews already scheduled into their calendar.

Mel Abraham [00:29:48]:
Right. Okay. All right.

Mel Abraham [00:29:50]:
This is really interesting.

Mel Abraham [00:29:52]:
So it is for anyone that's looking.

Mel Abraham [00:29:57]:
To build something, even brand awareness, get their awareness out there, to get a message out and to have the opportunity to find an audience. Here's an interesting question.

Mel Abraham [00:30:11]:
And that is.

Mel Abraham [00:30:14]:
You want to be in front of.

Mel Abraham [00:30:15]:
Audiences that are your audience type of thing. Yeah. And so there might be.

Mel Abraham [00:30:22]:
Well, let's just.

Mel Abraham [00:30:23]:
Here. Ramit Sethi.

Mel Abraham [00:30:25]:
Okay. Yeah, we're in the same space.

Mel Abraham [00:30:27]:
Him and. Yeah, totally.

Mel Abraham [00:30:30]:
And I guess it depends on mindset of what would be the reason. He would sit back and say, I.

Mel Abraham [00:30:37]:
Want you on my podcast.

Mel Abraham [00:30:42]:
Versus looking. And I guess it might be mentality. We're looking at it as a competitive.

Mel Abraham [00:30:46]:
Space because.

Mel Abraham [00:30:50]:
I would bring other financial professionals. In fact, I have on my show because I think that other perspectives are good. It's not just my way or the highway. I'm just one dude that's done it one way, and I'm living a certain life. And there's some other perspectives that maybe hit better.

Selena Soo [00:31:10]:
Yeah, I mean, it depends on the person. I mean, for some people, they won't want people who are doing the identical thing to them. That being said, it's rare that something is identical just because everyone has such different takes and they have different ways of working with people. Some people only work with people one on one. Others only work with people in their group programs or only work with people through their books or whatever it is. So, yeah, I think that it really depends on the person, but you can very well be featured by someone who really shares the same target audience with you and even the similar topic, really.

Mel Abraham [00:31:57]:
Listening, don't shy away from it. Position yourself, have the conversations, and see where it goes. I think if you think about it, if you're a leadership person and speak on leadership or just even me, I just recorded an episode of. These are the top 25 personal finance.

Mel Abraham [00:32:18]:
Books that I've read and what I learned.

Mel Abraham [00:32:21]:
Look, I've read more than 25. I've read probably 200 personal finance, money wealth books over the years. It's a testament to my freaking age more than anything else. But the point being is that it wasn't just one way. I got knowledge from all these other books.

Mel Abraham [00:32:43]:
So you don't just read one book on the topic.

Mel Abraham [00:32:48]:
You don't listen to one podcast on the having.

Mel Abraham [00:32:54]:
Having multiple things the other thing that I think that we all should realize is that Microsoft sharpens Apple, Apple sharpens Microsoft. That's a good point.

Selena Soo [00:33:06]:
Right? Competition is.

Mel Abraham [00:33:09]:
And so if it's refining our delivery, refining our content, refining our thinking, it.

Mel Abraham [00:33:17]:
Makes it more valuable and everyone wins.

Selena Soo [00:33:20]:
Absolutely.

Mel Abraham [00:33:21]:
God, I love this conversation and the way you approach it, because you're not.

Mel Abraham [00:33:26]:
Approaching it as advertising, publicity and pr.

Mel Abraham [00:33:32]:
You're approaching it as a business strategy and an overall holistic look at business.

Mel Abraham [00:33:38]:
And saying with the greater good in.

Mel Abraham [00:33:43]:
Play, which is how do we make a difference in other people's lives? And if you have a good message and you have a good process that helps people, then it's not that it should get out there.

Mel Abraham [00:33:55]:
It needs to get out there. And publicity is the path to do it.

Mel Abraham [00:34:00]:
Oh my God. You have worked with some.

Mel Abraham [00:34:03]:
Like if you all go to her website and we'll hook it up, you.

Mel Abraham [00:34:08]:
Will recognize the pictures, you will recognize the folks that she has worked with.

Mel Abraham [00:34:16]:
And helped in this space.

Mel Abraham [00:34:19]:
And some of them we talked before we started recording. We won't use any names at this.

Mel Abraham [00:34:25]:
Stage, but the fact is that you've.

Mel Abraham [00:34:28]:
Been with some clients from inception almost. You've taken them, you've nurtured them from the beginning to where they are today.

Selena Soo [00:34:38]:
Yeah, no, it is really rewarding to, because I've been in this industry at this point for almost twelve years. And when I got started, some of these people were getting started too, or maybe a couple of years in, but really building their brands and now a number of them have been recognized by Oprah. One of my past clients even wrote for Oprah magazine as an ongoing columnist. My mentor, Ramit SeTI and know supported him in different ways with, you know, later on got his own Netflix tv show. And so it's so wonderful to see things like that, know and see just people that I care about and see clients really break into the mainstream with their message.

Mel Abraham [00:35:28]:
So good. So as we kind of put a.

Mel Abraham [00:35:33]:
Cap on this one, I want to make sure that we give them the opportunity to connect with you. We'll make sure that we hook it up. But one of the biggest things that you want to make sure that they have access to is the calendar and to use the calendar as the vehicle to start this journey of planning, strategizing.

Mel Abraham [00:35:53]:
And it's a beautiful time of year to do it. We're at the beginning of the year and everything. So the other thing, and I know we didn't really talk about it, but.

Mel Abraham [00:36:05]:
You also are doing some sort of virtual event.

Selena Soo [00:36:11]:
Yeah.

Mel Abraham [00:36:13]:
Can we just touch on that because I actually don't know a lot about it. So you'll help me out. But I want to make sure that they're aware of it, too, because it's a virtual event. You don't have to get on plane if it serves you.

Mel Abraham [00:36:25]:
Let's get them in there.

Selena Soo [00:36:27]:
Yeah, absolutely. I have an event coming up called impacting Millions Live. It's happening virtually, and it's a three day event. And we're talking about how to create a truly rich business and life, because, as you talk about, having a rich life is not just about financial wealth. It's about all the other things that matter, too. And so really helping people think through what does their dream life look like and how do we make it happen. So, yeah, I'm really excited about that. I'm going to be going into my framework, publicity and partnerships and promotions in more depth.

Selena Soo [00:37:02]:
So that is happening soon. And if anyone here wants to attend, they can message me on Instagram. Selena Sue. S-E-L-E-N-A underscore S-O-O. And just let me know that you heard me on Mel's podcast. I'm happy to gift you a free ticket, but, yeah, I would love to support people in that way.

Mel Abraham [00:37:23]:
Sweet. All right, we'll make sure that we hook it up. All your socials, all the stuff and everything.

Mel Abraham [00:37:29]:
Y'all, remember, one of the quickest ways.

Mel Abraham [00:37:33]:
That you can build wealth and create the life that you deserve. Remember, financial freedom is your birthright. We just got to go claim it. And one of the quickest ways we can get ourselves there is to have a larger shovel of income to work with. And one of the greatest ways I think you can do that is by building an expert business. Even people. Yeah, I get know Richard Branson and Elon Musk are really popular entrepreneurs. But if we look at them, they are also personal brands beyond their other brands.

Mel Abraham [00:38:05]:
And so you have the opportunity to do the same thing, and by doing the same thing and using publicity right, using pr right.

Mel Abraham [00:38:13]:
And getting the word out, you may.

Mel Abraham [00:38:15]:
Have a great and highly profitable side hustle, or you may find yourself in a whole new trajectory and a whole new business that you didn't even imagine and a whole new life that you couldn't have even dreamt of. Because I know that Selena's living her.

Mel Abraham [00:38:34]:
Dream life down there in Rico.

Mel Abraham [00:38:39]:
As Stephanie and I are also. And it's been following opportunities, doing things that served and all that. And I know that you do that. So, as we start to close out, what would kind of, like final words, thoughts, inspiration, hope for folks as they're.

Mel Abraham [00:38:58]:
Moving into this next year of their.

Mel Abraham [00:39:00]:
Life, what you see and what you.

Mel Abraham [00:39:02]:
Invite them to do.

Selena Soo [00:39:04]:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I love the saying that I didn't come this far just to come this far. And so I feel like the people listening to your podcast are people that are ambitious go getters or making things happen. But on some level, they may feel like they're scratching the surface of their potential and they just feel like there's not enough people that know about their work. And so if you really want to make your biggest impact, you have to put yourself out there. And publicity is just such a great tool for you to get in front of new audiences because there is someone out there whose life could be changed or maybe even saved by knowing about the important work you're doing. And so if people are interested on going on that publicity journey with me, the first step would be to check out the publicity calendar, which is over 40 pages worth of story ideas, special dates and hooks and tips to get into the media. And they can get that@impactingmillions.com.

Mel Abraham [00:39:57]:
Mel so good. As I always say that it is.

Mel Abraham [00:40:04]:
Up to us to always strive to live a life that outlives us. All right, until I see you guys or talk to you on the road on another episode, on a video, try to do that. Cheers. Thanks.

Mel Abraham [00:40:20]:
Thank you for listening to the affluent entrepreneurship. With me, your host, Mel Abraham. If you want to achieve financial liberation to create an affluent lifestyle, join me in the affluent entrepreneur facebook group now by going to melabraham.com/group, and I'll see you there.