44. What To Do Now: How To Get Known In 2026

Ready to make 2026 YOUR year? In this episode, Pippa Goulden gets real about why waiting until January to work on your PR strategy is costing you opportunities right now.

If you've spent 2025 feeling frustrated—knowing you should be pitching yourself, landing podcast features, and securing speaking gigs, but defaulting to endless Instagram content instead—this episode is your wake-up call.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why the "I'll start in January" mindset is keeping you stuck
• The compound effect of PR (and why starting NOW gets you results in Q1/Q2)
• How to stop overthinking and start owning your expertise
• The difference between staying busy on social media vs. actually moving the needle
• Practical ways to make PR part of your everyday business routine (without it taking over)
• Why someone less qualified than you is landing the opportunities you want

You're ready. The only thing standing between you and those PR opportunities is you.

Pippa shares how she made this shift herself in October last year and the transformation it created in her 2025 business—plus details on her exciting new in-person PR strategy day happening January 14th in London.

2026 is just around the corner. Let's make it the year you finally step into the spotlight.

Find out more about Get Known In A Day here:

https://www.theprset.com/get-known-in-a-day

And once you've had a listen you can:

- Follow me on instagram @pippa_the.pr.set or LinkedIn (@Pippa Goulden) for more tips and insight into the world of PR

- Join my DIY PR membership using the code POD50 to get 50% off your first month - this will give you all the knowledge and confidence you need to get results for yourself. Have a look here

- Work with me 1-2-1 in Kickstart: The PR Accelerator which is a hyper-focused, action-taking, results focused programme that's all about getting you great PR results for your business, with me supporting you all the way.

- Join the waitlist for my next Get Known Sprint Spring '26 here

-Find out more about my in person group intensive on 14th Jan - Get Known In A Day here

Find out more at www.theprset.com and book a discovery call with me to chat more here or email me pippa@theprset.com

Transcript

This transcript is generated by AI - apologies for any mistakes!

Pippa Goulden (00:43)
Hello and welcome back to another episode of PR Made Simple. Now it's November. We're not gonna hide away from the fact that 2026 is just around the corner. And I know if you are listening to this, that PR is on your radar at least as something that you want to do. And I have my suspicions that you are probably wanting to get known for what you do into 2026. And we are thinking ahead now. We are planning what we want to...

be in our business, how we want to show up in our business, what we want to do with our business into next year. And if you are wanting to step up and get known for what you do, to step into those CEO shoes, to be that founder that you know you can be, then we need to start thinking about this now. Not in January, not when things in inverted commas calm down, not after the holidays, not during the holidays.

because none of that actually ever happens. We need to be thinking about it now because this is what I know from the founders that I work with and from myself, you have got big goals for 2026. know, there are businesses out there thriving and there is absolutely no reason why you can't be one of them. So there's an opportunity there.

that want to be putting yourself forward for. There's a version of yourself as the business owner that you actually want to be who isn't waiting anymore, who isn't overthinking, who isn't second guessing herself, who isn't wondering whether she should be putting herself forward for those opportunities. That 2026 version of you has stepped into those shoes. I know this. Ironically, I've been teaching people to do their PR for five years. I really did this myself.

about October last year I was fed up with waiting for the opportunities to come and find me and I cannot tell you the difference that it has made to my business in 2025 and I want the same for you so I'm going to talk today about what you need to be doing right now if you want 2026 to be that year that you step into that spotlight for you to claim that space that is rightfully yours.

So let's have a little think about the frustration because you may well have spent some of this year feeling frustrated, not necessarily with your business even because you are really good at what you do. You know that, your clients know that, but you might be feeling frustrated because you're not doing the things that you know will move your business forward in terms of getting on the right podcast or stages or aligning with the right brands, the collaborations.

You know that you should be pitching yourself. You know you should be putting yourself out there. You know how important that visibility is to getting what you want in your business, to putting those building blocks in place and building that momentum. But what do we do? We default to Instagram and create more content that gets a few likes and then it disappears. And then you have to go around all over again, perfecting a reel, tweaking your bio, doing things that feel like work.

but aren't actually moving the needle. And I know that can feel a little bit uncomfortable when you think about it because you realize how much time that you spend on battling an algorithm that isn't on your side, whatever social platform you're on, whatever platform you're using that you don't own, that you aren't in charge of. And that is why we are seeing so many businesses struggling because they haven't evolved the routes to their audiences. They're using...

the same channels that they've relied on over and over again for years and they are just not working in the same way. And all the meanwhile, you're doing that, the opportunities that are out there for you, the speaking gigs, the features, the partnerships, the dream client, the opportunities to be featured alongside household brands and names in national publications to get in front of dream clients and customers, someone else are getting those.

someone else probably less qualified than you, someone who's just showed up and put themselves forward. And that is why for 2026, I really want you to be thinking strategically about what is going to work for you and your business, because there are opportunities out there for you. I promise, I see it time and time again, when that penny drops and people start getting things that they didn't think were in their grasp.

happens all the time in my membership, in my Get Known program, working with my accelerator client. I had an accelerator client who I've literally just started working with and she's already been commented in the IE paper because she's put herself forward, she's got in touch with the journalist who's writing things relevant to her areas of expertise and she's making it happen, okay? And I want you to start thinking about that.

And the key to this, the key to being able to do that in 2026 is getting out of your own way. Because it's not that you don't know what to do, it's just that you're overthinking it. You're spending too much time or you're not prioritizing it. Maybe you're spending no time at all. Maybe you're saying you're not ready yet. You're gonna wait until you're bigger or better. Maybe you think you need more credentials or more expertise or more proof.

Maybe you're worried about what people will think. Maybe you're afraid of being visible and then failing in plain sight because what you really need to know is that you are ready. You've been ready for a really long time. The only thing standing between you and those PR opportunities that you want is you. And I really want you to know.

It is okay to want more. It is okay to have big goals. It is okay to look at 2026 and think, I want to be the go-to expert in my field. I want to get my product featured in that magazine. I want to be featured, invited, approached. I want the opportunities to come to me. And that is what happens to you when you start doing this work. I've got a really exciting podcast interview for you next week.

with a female founder who has done exactly that and built her business over five years and gone from having to pitch herself all the time to being able to strategically choose the right opportunities that now come her way. And you are an established business owner. You've proven yourself. You're building something that's real. And now I want you to use that and know with that knowledge that it's time for you to get known for it.

It's not about waiting for these things to happen to you. And that is why I want you to have your eyes firmly on this for 2026. I want you to be thinking about this now.

because you start doing this work in January, February, March, you're not gonna be feeling that impact as quickly as you would like to and you will go into the new year feeling as equally frustrated as you are feeling now. And I wanna talk to you about why I really want you to start thinking about this now. I know you've got things going on. I know we're heading, hurtling towards Christmas and there's all sorts going on to wrap up the year, but I want you to start spending some time thinking about

what opportunities you would like to have into the new year because there is a lag between the work you do now and the results you see. The impact isn't felt immediately. Unfortunately PR is a long game but I think pretty much everything in our businesses is a long game. There's no silver bullet that we can just like snap our fingers and you know there's a huge transformation but if you start doing this work now you will start seeing those results into Q1 and Q2 of next year.

If you wait until January, it's just delaying that impact that you want to be having. And impact is such an important word because I know that you started your business to be bigger than the sum of your parts. You started your business to have an impact. And that is what I really want you to be having into 2026. And that visibility, that presence, that momentum compounds. So one feature leads to more opportunities.

doors start opening, it is quite amazing to watch that transformation you go and you'll have heard me say this before, you'll go from pushing that snowball up the hill and it being a real struggle and it's hard to it then coming down the hill and it building up speed and it building up momentum and I see that all the time with the founders that I work with, that tipping point where they go from having to work hard

to get the first things off and get out there and put themselves forward for things to things coming to them much more easily. And I want that to happen for you too because you are brilliant at what you do know, people often say to me, I really wish I'd started this earlier and I just hope.

that isn't gonna be you this time next year. So let's think about the mindset, let's think about what you want to be doing from an ownership perspective. Stop making excuses, stop telling yourself that you'll do it when you're ready because you want to own that expertise, And I think something that I would love you to think about as well now

how you make this part of your your year, how do you make this part of your work, how do you make it something that doesn't just drop off when things are busy, when things are hectic and there are urgent things that need to be dealt with because I really want you to incorporate this into your everyday and I don't mean every single day

but into your working life. This should become part of the bread and butter of you running your business because if you want to be doing this, if you want this work to have an impact on your business, to see that growth, it's like I said, it's a compound effect. It's not something that you can just switch on for a week or two and then switch off. I want you to be thinking strategically about key times of the year, about when there are opportunities for you within the business, within the wider things within your world that are going on.

I want you to be thinking of what kind of opportunities that you can be getting for your business. And when I'm doing my work and planning strategically for my PR, I'll think about the things that I know really shift the dial for me. So for example, they are doing workshops in other people's memberships and in groups and that kind of thing. They are podcast interviews, speaking opportunities. Those are the things that I really know work for me when it comes to my PR. So my PR strategy is focused on those.

and then I underpin that with the credibility pieces, the press coverage and the collaborations and that kind of thing. But I want you to make that commitment that you are going to add PR into the mix for 2026, that you're not just going to default to picking up your social media, that you are putting the systems in place to make sure that it actually happens. So that is blocking out time for pitching. I try and do 15 minutes a day.

Other people I know do an hour a week or two hours every fortnight for example but making it part of your routine is really important and it also means doing a little bit of work up front so getting your bio ready, doing a bit of thinking around the things that you want to get known for, the topics of conversation that you can have, your areas of expertise or the key things around your products or your collections that you've got coming out, that is going to be very bespoke to your business.

But by doing that prep work upfront, it really means that you are ready to hit the ground running when it comes to putting yourself out there. And it also means that you can get strategic about what you want to get known for. So I want you to know that you can do it. I also want you to know that there is support out there for you to do this. You do not have to do it alone. Okay. I know from working with people and all the different ways that I work with people,

that you get results by surrounding yourself with the right people, the right experts. And that might be somebody internally within your business, but equally it might be joining my membership. It might be working with me within my group settings. It might be working with me in a more one-to-one way.

That accountability piece is key. And I know myself from having joined a mastermind a year ago, the impact that surrounding yourself with the right people in your business is so important. And that's why I do what I do, because I just love helping businesses like yours to use PR to strategically grow, to help you meet your business objectives, to work out the right routes for you to

communicate and get in front of your target audience to get that third-person endorsement, to get that trust, to get that credibility and I have lots of different ways of working with me. I have my DIY PR membership, look out if you're listening to this or the week that the podcast is out, look out next week for some very exciting offers that are coming up. I have Get Known which won't be launching until the spring but you can sign up for the waitlist for that and I, exclusive,

I have an in-person day that I am just about to announce, a small group setting in London on the 14th of January where we will be doing this work in real life. cannot wait because I have realised from being away last week with my mastermind group how important it is getting in the room with the right people and that's why I am doing this because I want to bring together a very

brilliant small group of founders who are ready to step up and do this work. So we are going to be doing that in January. We're going to be hitting the ground running into 2026 and I would love for you to be there. So I will put the link in the show notes and if you want to find out more DM me on Instagram. I am Pippa the PR set or Pippa Golden. I forgot my name then Pippa.golden on LinkedIn or you can find me at the PR set.com. So

Come on into my world, have a chat with me about what's right for you, but just make that commitment that 2026 is going to be the year for you to step up and get known for what you do. And I cannot wait to see how you do it. So come on 2026, let's bring it on. I will see you again soon for another episode of PR Made Simple.