Interview with Heather Wilson, Motorsports Marketing and PR Expert [91]

Interview with Heather Wilson, Motorsports Marketing and PR Expert

Interview with Heather Wilson discussing PR, Press Releases, Visibility, Getting Noticed for Motorsports and YOU!  Connect with Heather at HighGearSuccess.com she can support you with your marketing for racing, race recap, race report, dirtbikes, off-road racing, motorsports and more!

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/crissy-conner/message

OMNI - Become Known, In Demand, and Confidently Visible
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OMNI is your group coaching experience where you learn how to create visibility that works harder than you do. A strategic blueprint to become discoverable on the feed, search and AI. https://thevisibleceo.com/omni 

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Transcript

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It's November 2022 is not over yet. So ready to move. It doesn't mean we can't take a break. It doesn't mean we can't enjoy our holidays like what all is available are starting, ignite your visibility on Instagram coming up on the 28th of November and that is going to help you streamline your Instagram experience. Understand it fully know what type of content to be putting on there and understand all the ins and outs real stories. He posts all the things so that you can create a raving fan audience there. Make sure you check it out visibility queen.com Hello, and welcome to today's live interview. I am here with the one the only Heather Wilson Heather, thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview with me today. Do you want to give my audience like a little intro of who you are and what you do? And all that good stuff? Yeah, absolutely. I've known Crissy for a couple years now. And I've been in our programs for as long as I can remember. But I am a motorsports communications and marketing consultant. So I primarily work with racers, needs manufacturers, motorcycle dealers, motorsports organizations that are hosting events and getting them noticed, and getting them more fans, more sponsors and more engagement. So I noticed you said you're getting them noticed. Does that have anything to do with visibility? Yeah, absolutely. Yes, that all plays into it. So my degrees in journalism, public relations and marketing. So PR public relations is a big part of visibility, right? So you're trying to get either yourself or your clients noticed. And I mean, that's really my ultimate goal every day, because when you get noticed, you can make more money or find more sponsors or get discounts on product and stuff. So that's kind of the name of the game for sure. And let's think about this a second as a race car driver, or any type of motorsports racing, they have logos all over whatever type of vehicle they're driving, and that that comes from sponsorships Correct? Absolutely. So the bigger following that you have the better and brand ambassador that you are, you're going to get more sponsors, which are, I mean, going to give you product, they're going to give you money in exchange for having their logo and representing them. So the key really is visibility, and you have to kind of grow it first in order to attract those sponsors. But I mean, the ultimate goal is that you are getting more and more sponsors to make more and more money and support your racing career. I love this, because we didn't even plan this to go in this direction. But I love that literally, you're getting visible so that people sponsor you so you can do what you love. Absolutely. That's like insane. That's insane. And I'm sure, probably as a race, a racecar driver or motorsports driver, your ultimate goal, you don't think oh my gosh, I get to get like, I've got to get on video or I've got to get on social media. That's not what they think they just want to do the thing that they love, but they're willing to do that to fund the thing that they love. And even if like, they may not have the time to always do all those things. That's really where I come into play. Because I always say that, like, they should be focusing on crafting their skill. So they should be practicing driving or racing their motorcycle or working out whatever they need to be doing maintaining their machines, if they don't have mechanics, so they can kind of let me do the heavy lifting when it comes to the PR side of things as far as written text goes. So that kind of leads into press releases, or like what I call race recaps race reports. Essentially, recapping how you did and competition that weekend and putting that on your website, putting that on your social media, sending that and an email blast to your sponsors or even potential sponsors. Because if they get an email that's, you know, a press release that's really well written about the weekend, they're gonna take notice of like, Hey, who's this person that is actually taking the time to send me a report that's very professionally done has a photo from a professional photographer, is formatted in a way that is really presentable. I'd get constant feedback from sponsors that are really impressed with that level of professionalism from a writer. Whether they're a professional level writer or an amateur writer, it just gets noticed it stands out because a lot of writers don't take the time to update their sponsors about what they're doing. I love that. I love that. And it's also like, you can be like cut and dry like this is what happened or you can be a little bit more entertaining. Yeah, absolutely. And like it's a relationship that you're always building with a sponsor. So you're not just going to them like once a year, and saying, like, Hey, will you sponsor me, here's what I can do for you. And then like you don't speak to them again for another year, you're really continuing to build that conversation throughout the year. And just like any relationship, any business relationship or personal relationship, you're gonna stay top of mind. And hopefully, they're gonna keep continuing the sponsorship because they know you, they like you, and you're doing a good job representing them. I love that. So I want to talk about two things that I think they can kind of go hand in hand. So last year, you quit your full time nine to five job or I don't know, it was probably more than five some weeks. And then this press release came out about you and blew your business up pretty much right? Would you? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. about that a little bit. So it's always like a little nerve wracking, right, leaving your corporate job is going on, you're alone. But I was kind of hiding out for a while, and like, just not really sure if I wanted to, like, blast it out, or I kind of wanted to see how things would go. And finally, I was like, I need to tell the world about it. Otherwise, they're not going to know, you know what I mean? So I wrote my own press release, I sent it out to the industry media, posted on social media on LinkedIn, all those things. And I had like an overwhelming response that I was not even anticipating, of, like, how many people in the industry had been watching me for, you know, 10 plus years, as I was working in the industry and building those relationships, that, you know, we're sending work my way, and referrals were coming my way. And I have like more leads than I could handle, which was a beautiful problem to have. And I was just, you know, kind of getting my feet underneath me on my own. So it was, yeah, amazing and definitely worth doing. And so I think press releases are really underutilized for so many business segments, whether it's motorsports or any business segment, press releases are an opportunity that's missed a lot. Well, and even like nonprofits, I know I have a lot of nonprofits that follow me too, like they should be utilizing their those more to, like, bring awareness to the thing that they're trying to do, I think we just don't think about press releases as much, but they're really pretty easy to create, right? When it releases are really just a template, like their, their words in a certain format. It's really just all the information, the who, what, where, when, why how that people would need, that we're all taught in school, it's just formatted in a specific way. And essentially, we take that press release, and we pitch it, we, you know, send our idea, or our information to a news source or media outlet for them to hopefully pick up and either word for word republish it or write it up in their own words. I think sometimes people overcomplicate it. And so even if you don't feel like you have the skills to write a press release, that you can always pitch news outlets, you can always send an email with the ideas and you know, include as much information as you can, and they will obviously reach out to you and request more. That's their job to do the research too. I love that. And I'm assuming, depending on where you send these or where you put these, like, they're also searchable. So like other people can pick them up, right? Yeah, absolutely. So when you're sending it to news outlets, sometimes they're posting it on their website, or if you're sharing it on your website, it's gonna get picked up and Google searches. So definitely, and it's more visibility. Yeah. Which is always a good thing. So let's chat about like, how do you help support motorsports? Like a racer of whatever type of vehicle that they want to drive? I feel so like non knowledgeable, feel free to educate my audience. Um, yeah, so essentially, a lot of what I focus on is the strategy and getting visibility, although I call it like getting noticed, it's a little more masculine, I guess, for that segment, and anything that has to do with write teen, so not writing, but writing the words. So I always say like, we're all born with our certain talents or gifts, right? Like they're the racer, that's their job. And I'm the writer. So like, kind of let me handle that work for you. Because I'm seeing a lot of race reports or things that I've definitely not been written well and like while I give them props for attempting it, sometimes you really need to have somebody else read it or have somebody that's a little more qualified to write it that way. You're coming off in the best light possible. Like stay in your lane. Stay in your lane and the expert that knows how to do this do it pretty well. You're so such a like, I like that pun was so racing for latest. So I'm proud of. Okay, so let's talk about visibility for you. So what has visibility done for you? Obviously, we know this press release, but it started way before that. Yeah, I think relationship building is key and like, not being afraid to kind of talk about yourself and what you're doing and what you're, you've done. So a lot of people are very modest. And while I can appreciate that on one hand, that's not usually the best way to get noticed in any industry, you kind of have to be a self promoter in a way and not in like a boastful kind of way, but just, you know, letting people know that you're out there, and you're doing this work and, and building those connections and being a resource and trying to help as many people as you can. But yeah, really getting in front of people and being active. Whether it's in your job, whether it's in networking groups, whether it's volunteering, like all those things kind of play into being noticed in the industry. I love that. I love that. And without doing it before, do you think with if you weren't as noticeable, visible, whatever you want to call it, before the press release went out? Do you think it would have had the result that it did? No, because I would have just been like another face another person doing this type of work in the industry, but because people knew me and knew my track record and knew the work, like it really kind of amplified it. I love that. I love that. So as far as people connecting with you, if they want to connect with you, how can they do that? Like maybe they know a race racer, or they want to tag you or connect you to? Yeah, so my business is high gear success. I don't even think I said that at the beginning. It's like your success. So you can find that brand on a Facebook page or an Instagram page, you can connect with me on Facebook personally, Heather Wilson, and you can also connect with me on LinkedIn. It's LinkedIn got.com/in/high gear, Heather, you can find me on there a lot. I love LinkedIn. Yes, yes, you do. Okay. Um, any last words that you want to leave for my audience or last tips or suggestions, there's always ways that you can get noticed, and Crissy teaches so many of those techniques. And I feel like press releases is just like another tool in the toolbox of getting noticed. So if you have any questions about press releases, by all means, reach out to me and we can talk about it even if your business or you know, hobby isn't in motorsports, I'm happy to help you with a press release and kind of point you in the right direction. But yeah, just continually getting noticed. And a press release isn't a one time deal. You keep writing them, you keep doing them about something you did or something that's upcoming. So there's so many opportunities and media outlets are always looking for news and information to publish. So you're doing them a favor just as much as they're doing you a favor. I love that. That's such a good way to end. So you're doing them a favor as much as they're doing. Yes, I love it. That's so awesome. All right. Well, thank you so much, Heather, for coming on and pouring into my audience. Make sure you check her out. If you're interested if you if you've, if you're seeing this on another platform, just reach out to me, I'll make sure you guys get connected so that you can be in Heather's world and Let her write your race recaps and your press releases for you so you can stay in your driving lane. So thank you, Heather. I appreciate you. I hope you enjoyed this episode, feel free to share it on your favorite platform and tag me I love re sharing these and giving you a shout out as well. My goal is to always support you and help you see a transformation. Not only your business, but in your life. We will never outgrow our business. Remember that so we get to work on ourselves and see that transformation come through on both personal and business side. I would love to work with you and 2023 I have loads of opportunities that will fit the pricing and the budget that you have. Let's chat. I'm truly interested in creating an unforgettable experience for you to grow, transform and see how big your business can grow and 2023