Why You’re Not Growing Online (And How to Fix Your Visibility) | Aldwyn Altuney

You’re posting content.
 You’ve got a message.
 So why are you still not breaking through?

In this episode, Daniel Wood sits down with media expert Aldwyn Altuney (The Media Queen), who shares what actually separates people who grow fast online… from those who stay invisible.

The truth is simple:
 It’s not your message. It’s how you package and position it.

With over 40 years of experience across TV, radio, print, and social media, Aldwyn breaks down how to get attention, build credibility, and use both social media and traditional media to grow your influence.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why most people fail to grow online (even with good content)
 • The real reason only ~2% of your audience sees your posts
 • How to position your message so people actually care
 • Why visibility is no longer optional for business growth
 • How to get featured in traditional media (even as a beginner)
 • What journalists actually look for before featuring you
 • How to craft a powerful press release that gets picked up
 • The difference between viral content vs valuable content
 • Why your personal story is your biggest asset
 • How to build trust and credibility online

🎁 Resources Mentioned:

👉 Free Press Release Template – https://linktr.ee/aldwyn
👉 Financial Freedom Summit (Free Ticket) – https://events.swedishwealthinstitute.com/financialfreedomsummit-na
👉 Connect with Aldwyn Altuney – https://www.linkedin.com/in/aldwyn/

Guest:

Aldwyn Altuney (The Media Queen)
 Media Expert | PR Strategist | Visibility Coach

Host:

Daniel Wood
 Founder, Swedish Wealth Institute

Timestamps:

00:00 – Why most people stay invisible online
 02:10 – The real reason your content isn’t growing
 06:40 – Social media vs traditional media
 12:20 – How viral growth actually works
 18:30 – Why your story is your biggest asset
 24:10 – How to approach journalists
 30:00 – Press release breakdown (step-by-step)
 42:00 – How media builds authority and trust
 50:30 – Handling criticism and public exposure
 58:00 – Final takeaways

✨ Enjoyed this episode? Don’t forget to subscribe to The Swedish Wealth Institute Podcast so you never miss new conversations with world-class entrepreneurs, investors, and changemakers.

👉 Join the SWI community: www.swedishwealthinstitute.com

👉 Follow Daniel Wood on social media: Instagram | Linkedin | Facebook

👉 Follow SWI on social media: Instagram | Linkedin | Facebook

⭐ If this episode inspired you, please rate and review the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts — it helps us reach more people on the journey to wealth, freedom, and impact.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I've had depression myself. I've had four friends take their own lives by the age of 45, and I truly believe the media that we put out there has a lot to do with that. And did you know that a third of people die by 65 and 90% of people die. So at the heart of what we do is we help to encourage people, inspire people to listen out for the things that upset you and anger you. Because I believe that particularly now when only 2% of your followers are seeing your content, and it is about building engagement. I had about 1,500 followers at one point, and I remember my whole account got shut down for no reason.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

And I got so frustrated with Welcome to the Swedish 12th Institute podcast. I am your host, Daniel Wood. Today's episode is all about why some people seem to explode online, build their influences, get followers, get people to join in their programs and their classes and buy their products just by showing up and sharing their messages. Whilst most people never break through, they they don't get through the noise. Well, today's episode is for you. The real reason you're not stuck isn't because you aren't exciting, because your message isn't good enough. It's that you haven't learned how to package it, how to position it, and how to get it in front of the right people. So what we're gonna be doing today is sitting down with Aldwyn Altooney, also known as the Media Queen. She's a media expert with over 40 years of experience across TV, radio, print, publicity, and social media. She's helped entrepreneurs, speakers, and authors grow their visibility, grow their credibility, and reach the masses. So today we're gonna talk about how social media can completely change your business and why visibility is non-negotiable. The difference between traditional media and social media, and so how to use both together to build influence, and how to find the gold in your story. Craft a strong press release and getting real media attention. This is really, really cool. We've started implementing this into the Swedish Wealth Institute, and we are already seeing results. So make sure you stay with us until the very end because the final insight is a powerful reminder about how you can change your future. All right, let's get into it. One of the fears for people with traditional media is when I've spoken to people, there are generally three different things that hold people back. One is like, I don't even know how to approach, you know, how do I approach them? How do I get interviewed by them? Is one. The second is, you know, a little bit of that imposter syndrome. Why would they want to talk to me? Like, why would I, you know, what do I have to give there? I mean, I can post on social media because it's my profile, but why would they want to do it? And the third, I think, is the is kind of the reputation of journalists that they're always looking for a scoop. So they wouldn't want to just write, oh my God, this person is great and amazing. Rather, they want to go, we found the scandal behind it, and you know, no one wants to be written about like that. So those are kind of the three primary fears I see from that keep people back from traditional media. What are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Yes, and they're all very valid points. Very valid points. Okay, so the first one was around how to approach journalists. Well, the thing is, journalists are people like you and I, and there is a lot of positive media out there. Believe it or not, yes, probably 99% of it is negative. And yes, there are a lot of journalists that just want to sensationalize things and just want to, you know, they just want clickbait uh for their stories. However, there are also a lot of amazing journalists and a lot of positive media out there as well that you can share your story with. So the big thing to remember with approaching traditional media is you have to be thinking about what is the market for that particular media. If you go to a journalist and have something that's way too commercial, they're just gonna say take out an ad. But if you go to the journalist with great content that's gonna help their audience, that's gonna help the wider community, they're gonna absolutely love you for it. So, for example, you were sharing about how you're helping the environment with your events, Dan, you're right. That is a great story for the media because you're impacting change on a massive level that is beyond your business, right? And that community angle is huge.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

When was the moment it went for you from being, you know, the social connection? Because this is an interesting development in social media. If you look at Instagram, Facebook, and and all these tools today, it's not actually about connecting with your friends. Your friends almost never come up in your feed anymore. It's about getting what kind of content will keep you on that platform. What is the most viral content that fits you? So, when was the moment that shifted for you? It stopped being connecting with friends and it actually became a business for you.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Yes. Well, I started my business in 2002, actually, but it was a photography business then when I was working as a journalist at the Sun newspapers. So in the early days of Facebook, it was absolutely about connecting with friends and family. And then as I started to grow my business and started to learn about online marketing, you know, I realized that, hey, this is the way the world's going. And if we don't get on there and keep up with the trends, uh, then we're going to get left behind. And I think this has really catapulted. It's kind of like gone exponential curve. Yeah. Particularly, I would say, in the in the last five years, 10 years, it's really been like, you know, internet marketers have just come out of the woodwork. And now with AI, now there's just so much content out there. And if you don't have a strong social media presence, then you're just going to get lost in amongst all the mass of it. So we've had to learn to adapt and change and to produce more content than ever before, I believe, to really stand out, to have that omnipresence. I don't do any paid ads. Now I'm not saying don't do paid ads, but you know, and I have done some paid ads in the past. However, we do all organic marketing and having that consistency and persistent persistence with your message, I think is ultra important. And particularly now when only 2% of your followers are seeing your content and it is about building engagement. And now Facebook has started to monetize. You know, you can actually make money now if you produce content that uh, you know, that people like and that people view.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

So today is a special, um, special episode of the Swedish Wealth Institute podcast. This is a part of our Creators of Impact series, where we try to figure out what is it that allows some people to really explode on social media and with this simple tool that we all have access to completely change their lives. So, Aldwin, walk us back to the beginning of your journey before you started getting into social media, and then we'll walk everyone through what a monumental change, something as simple as just getting in front of your camera and what an impact that can have on your life. But start pre-the social media craze.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

Thank you, Daniel. Yes, well, my background is actually traditional media. I've actually got 41 years of media experience. I know I don't look a day over 25, but I am actually That was what I was thinking. I am actually 51, and I first featured in the media when I was 10 years of age for table tennis. I was a top junior table tennis player in Australia, uh, represented Australia for six years, and I was interviewed by the Manley Daily, and that's where uh, you know, the local paper in Sydney, and that's where my fascination for the media first started. Uh, and then I was on Channel 7 on Cartoon Connection on TV in front of two million people when I was 11 years of age, did a radio show at 13, went on and did a media degree at Cambridge University, edited the university newspaper, uh, and then went on and worked as a journalist in TV, radio, and print media for 20 years. This is well before social media. I mean, Facebook started in 2004, and now we're at a time we have five billion active social media users now. So, you know, we cannot ignore the world of social media.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

What started you into social media? So you were you had the so-to speak normal journalism career. What was the shifting point?

SPEAKER_02 8:13

Well, I knew I had to adapt. I mean, I started when when I was editing the university newspaper, that was 1992 to 1994, so 10 years before Facebook came about, and we were doing things like editing the newspaper on using Quark Express and InDesign and Photoshop and you know programs like that way back in the day. And then this thing called social media started to come about, and I thought, well, this is obviously where people are connecting and sharing messages, and so I jumped straight on board in the early days.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Um we're talking like MySpace time now.

SPEAKER_02 8:44

Yeah, like around the MySpace time, yeah, exactly. I hopped onto the early days, and then interestingly, a few years into my Facebook journey, I had about 1,500 followers at one point, and I remember my whole account got shut down for no reason. And I got so frustrated with Facebook that I went onto Twitter back then. I was like, oh, stuff this, I'm not gonna do Facebook. There's no they don't didn't give me a reason why they shut my account down. And you know, the 1500 people were people that I knew personally, and you know, I I had all you know, family and friends on there, etc. And I got so frustrated with that that I just spent a lot of time on Twitter. And then eventually I kind of it was a matter of my friends were telling me, Oh, Aldwin, are you on Facebook? I've got things I've shared on Facebook. Can you check out Facebook? Check my phone. And so of course you felt if you weren't on Facebook, you were missing out on all the updates from friends and family.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

It's really kind of a two-edged sword now because as you say, only two percent of your followers will see your content because they're being showed viral content, which also means if you build viral content, you can get millions of views on a post, even though you might only have hundreds of followers today. I have one of one of our guests on the Swedish Wealth Institute podcast, Ron White, who's a memory champion, he told us about how he he went from having 20,000 followers to about six, seven months later, he hit the one million mark because he figured out what it took for him to go viral. And that journey's been absolutely amazing to see. And obviously it was a great, great interview. So tell us about your business today. What is it you're doing today?

SPEAKER_02 10:17

Well, I help people be seen, heard, and known through the noise, basically. I work with a lot of social entrepreneurs, speakers, authors. People are out to change the world in some way. I like to say, you know, put them in the social entrepreneur bracket. I love to help them gain clarity on their message and to leverage their message and get out to the masses through mass media exposure. Uh, so we have marketing packages that we do around that. We do publicity as well. We help get people into traditional media as well as online media. We help people get speaking gigs, awards, uh, in book projects.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Talk about that. How do you see the interplay now between the uh social media and traditional media? How does one use them both to complement each other?

SPEAKER_02 11:03

Well, actually, traditional media is highly underutilized now, even more so, I think, as more people have got on social media. Uh, there's actually millions of traditional media outlets out there. Like in Australia alone, we have 1,600 magazines alone, right? So, you know, and now with all the online TV, the pay TV, and there is so much media out there that is looking for content. Uh, so I see traditional media as absolutely crucial to build influence, to build profile, to leverage yourself. And the beautiful thing is they're kind of merging together now with uh all traditional media, they have social media pages, they put their content on websites. So now you're getting that mass media coverage, you're getting the influence of having the logo of that media organization on your website or saying as seen on TV or whatever it is, you you know, you've got that credibility of traditional media, but also you're reaching a much bigger audience now because all those traditional media outlets are sharing on their socials, on their websites, etc. And you know, interestingly, you know, last week I was in Sydney at a business retreat and we had the Bondi shooting you might have heard about uh in Sydney, where 16 people were shot dead and 42, uh 42 were injured from the last stats that I saw. Now, interestingly, when I watched the traditional news reports around that, all the content that they were showing, all the video footage they were showing were people's social media media videos, right? Because that was the most up-to-date.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Right.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

And it's interesting that they were all vertically shot, whereas actually traditional media, they want horizontal images. So if people were thinking I mean, not that people immediately think in that moment to do a horizontal video when something tragic is happening.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

However, if you do want to get Well, it is crazy that in society now, when something horrible is happening, our gut reaction is, oh, wait, let me film this and post on social media, rather than, hey, there's something I can hide behind. Let me go and hide there. So we have changed culturally. I think me and Aldwin were talking before the call about our new partnership with Eden Reforestation Projects, where anyone signing up for any of our free events, we actually make a donation to Eden Reforestation Project. So they reclaim one square meter of land for each person, like barren land, turn it back into forest or rainforest for anyone who signs up to a free event, which in itself, of course, I agree, is definitely something that that could be very cool to write about. And, you know, with our goal of reclaiming half a million square meters with with Eden next year, it it becomes a big, big part. And and finding that kind of a twist on a story is what will get them to notice. So that was just the context for you guys. Sorry, Aldwin. Please keep going.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

And I love that. I love what you're doing there because I'm a massive environmentalist myself. And we need to save the planet because we, you know, human beings are the only ones that actively destroy our environment. You know, I think there's a lot we can learn from animals there on that one.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

The matrix, the matrix quote from Agent Smith there, when he says, I've tried to categorize humans and I've realized you're not mammals. The closest thing to you is a virus. Yes. And it's just a very frightening comparison. But uh, anyway.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

Yes, I love the matrix, by the way. I'm definitely red pilled. Uh so yes, uh, hello to all my fellow red pillars out there. And uh, you know, at the same time, I think it's important to be kind and respectful no matter what your opinion is out there at the moment. Uh, we've had some very interesting times the last five years. And in saying that, you know, during the whole COVID period, there was a lot of media that was saying that were putting out uh that they wanted to talk to people about how they were dealing with COVID. And now there's the post-COVID time. It's now, okay, what are you doing now post-COVID? How has it impacted you? You know, and all that kind of thing. So, yes, the news was.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Right, so you could take the twist about how has my business developed? So, again, to use us as a business case here, pre-COVID, everything we did was live events. We barely had a website, we barely had social media. It was we would show up in a city and we would do an event on behalf of one of our speakers. And then COVID happened and we couldn't do live events anymore. And because we were doing events on behalf of speakers, those speakers were now doing webinars themselves. So why would they come to our webinars? Our niche completely disappeared, and it took us years to figure out this new way of gathering the top speakers in the world together, which is again a huge shift. And I'm sure everyone who's listened to this, their life is, you know, it's so hard to think back five years, right? It's like when you try to explain to your kids what we did before Google existed, and you know, in a few years trying to explain to people how did we do stuff without AI available. Going back pre-COVID is like a completely different lifetime. But I'm sure if everyone looks at it, your life is completely changed. And again, that's a story that people want to tell.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Absolutely. It's a big one. And there's a great website called sourcebottle.com, S-O-U-R-C-E bottle, one word.com. And it's out of Australia, actually started in Melbourne, and it's where actually journalists go on there and they actually put opportunities for you to feature in the media. So they'll say, we're looking for an expert in this field or an expert in that field. And you can just go on there and for free, you can browse free publicity opportunities on that website. It's a really powerful site and it's got media there from all over the world. And it's a great place to look at the types of stories that journalists are looking for now. Uh and, you know, you might be quite surprised. Like they might put a call out and say, uh, you know, we want someone to talk about their challenges in business, for example. And you might think, oh gosh, you know, oh yeah, I've got some challenges in business, but there's other people got bigger challenges than me. And this is onto your second point, right? About the imposter syndrome. And people are thinking, oh gosh, you know, I'm not a big enough expert to talk about this, or I'm not, you know, who am I to share my story? Well, the thing is, your X factor is your story. Everybody has a story. And if you know 10% more than somebody else, you can go out and you can talk about it, right? So you don't have to know everything about your topic. In fact, I've got 41 years media experience and I do not know everything about my topic. You know, I'm constantly learning and evolving, and this is why I invest so much in myself and my education, which is absolutely huge. You know, they talk about your network is your, your, your, your net, your um network is your net wealth, right? Your your you get your wealth from your network. Well, I say your self-work is your self-worth as well, right? So doing the work on yourself will lead to you being more confident to also show up in the media and to show up and speak your truth about whatever it is that you want to speak up about.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Because So when you help a speaker uh or an entrepreneur want to get more exposure, what is the first step you usually take them through?

SPEAKER_02 17:41

The first place we look at is what are the gems of their story. So we do a media consultation with our clients and we we deep dive into what are the gems of their story because often people are too close to the genius of what they do to realize the genius of what they do, or to realize what are the main parts of their story. And for some people, you know, they've got such big traumas from the past where they completely shut it out of their memory. So I help draw that out. So my background as a journalist, I'm very good at drawing out the gold and listening out for what are the things that really stand out for people. And then we come up with some very clear messaging, clear branding, which is like the foundation of your marketing house to be very clear about your messaging and your branding, to then be able to go out and share your message.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

And the other thing is And then how do we go out and share it? So what's the next step here?

SPEAKER_02 18:26

So then the next step is we need to then craft that into some either content for social media or if you want to go to traditional media, I highly recommend you do a press release. Now you don't have to do a press release to get to get in traditional media, but the easier you make it for journalists, the more likely you are to get good coverage in the media because journalists are very, very busy people. So if you give them good photos, good videos for TV, good content, because they're gonna say just send me information about what you're up to.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Well, let's let's break that down exactly because I think this is really interesting to people. So, first let's uh let's define what is uh what is a press release. Let's start there and then we'll walk our way through, you know, how do I put it together and then what do I do with it? Where do I send it or put it? So let's start with what is a press release?

SPEAKER_02 19:14

A press release is a 300 to 500-word one-page article. You're basically writing the article for the journalist. So you need a catchy headline, you need to have in the introduction the who, what, where, when, why, what is happening with your story. Journalists generally, if you don't get their attention with the headline and the first paragraph, they'll just go on to the next one.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Now, when I was working through the So it's essentially like the front page of a magazine that you're just writing for them.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

You write the story for them, basically. You write the story. And many press releases I've done, they just copy and paste the whole press release exactly as it is. So if you write it.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

So when if I'm doing a press release about myself, do I do it like in a first person? Me did this. Do we write it in the third person? Like how how's the tonality supposed to be?

SPEAKER_02 19:56

Third person, definitely third person.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

Third person. So so I would write about me as Daniel Wood did this and Daniel Wood is this, rather than saying I did this.

SPEAKER_02 20:07

Yes, yes. In fact, I've got a whole lot of examples of press releases, and I can uh offer your people a template if you like around this, which will give you a lot more information.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Oh, that would be great. If we can share that in the show notes, that would be amazing.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

Yes, we'll share that. So basically, you know, you've got to be thinking a catchy headline, one-line headline. You need to be thinking, get straight to the point of the story, and then you need to be in third person uh talking about someone. So you might say uh Swedish Wealth Institute CEO or founder Daniel says about whatever it is you're talking about, right? So you need it.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Or Swedish Wealth Institute announces new partnership with tax.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

Yeah, or or uh Swedish Wealth Institute is giving back and helping to change the world through this fundraising initiative for for the planet, helping to save trees, et cetera, with everyone that comes along and why this is so important. And then you mentioned some stats about what is going on with environmental degradation, about how much how much of uh the forest have we already cleared in the world.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

And if we don't just And how quickly is it being cut down? Is this the scary stat is we expect to reclaim half a million square meters next year, which is really cool when you say it that way. But then when you realize that compensates for 16 seconds of what will be cut down next year at the rate uh it it's truly terrifying.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

Yes, absolutely. So media love statistics like that as well. Okay, so for example, we did our 19th annual animal action event this year, and the headline was Animal Action Film Festival Aims to Save Wildlife. Okay, and then the intro was the 19th annual animal action event, the animal action film festival will be at Karambanarasil on October 5 to inspire conservation of our wildlife and the environment. Okay, and then it goes on from there. So just straight to the point. The next paragraph is the short film festival speaker panel will celebrate beautiful and iconic wildlife, marine life, and animal species. During World Animal Week from October 1 to 7. So that's also good if you can tie it in with something like World Animal Week or Environmental Protection Day or something like that. For those that do things around mental health, there's things like Are You OK Day or Mental Health Week or, you know, things like that is also really powerful. And then you come in.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Like when we do our empowered women event, we time it to International Women's Day, for example.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

Yes, exactly. So that's that sort of thing is great as well. So if you have something timely in the press release where you're pointing to a date, that is absolutely crucial, I believe, because otherwise your stories can get put on hold and put on hold and put on hold. Because anything that's timely will take precedence. And then if a big event, if a big event happens, like say, you know, well, like the the, for example, when the uh Bondi shooting happened uh last week, all the news headlines were Bondi shooting. So any other news that was scheduled for that time would have got put on the back burner, right? But but the next preference would have been after the Bondi shooting, would have been anything with a date on it that was going to expire after that event. So with yourself, uh Daniel running all these events, you have dates continually that you're promoting events for certain dates. So you could just tweak your press release each time, potentially for your.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

That is an interesting question, though, because that there there we get to the other point you made earlier about it can't be too commercial. So how do we keep it like this is our event, and we're obviously sending this press release because we want you to promote our event, but we're putting a twist on it so you don't feel like you are. Like, where is that balance?

SPEAKER_02 23:30

Well, your event is free, which is a big bonus for you, and you're helping to empower people to live empowered lives to be more financially secure.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

And we have the saving the earth, and so we're we're hitting these free and it's charity and so on. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

And charity. And you could also look at, okay, by improving the quality of people's lives, what is that going to do for families? How is that going to help save families if they don't have a lot of arguments over money, which is what a lot of people divorce over, is money issues, right? So if you could say, okay, now we've got you know 60% divorce rates across the world and we're out to help stop that by helping.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Right. And 70% of divorces or whatever it is is because of money issues.

SPEAKER_02 24:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

And if we could solve 50% of those, then divorce rates would go down by 20%.

SPEAKER_02 24:15

Exactly. So that kind of thing is goal because you're looking at the wider community. How are you helping the wider community with what you do? It's not all about you.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

And then by the way, at least and so sorry, this question here is obviously that we've already mapped multiple messages we could do around our events. Would we do that as like multiple different press releases, or would we try to put it all into one like ultimate press release?

SPEAKER_02 24:41

Well, there's two ways you can do your uh your media send-outs, right? You've got the uh scatter gun approach, which is basically you do one press release that's kind of generic, that's a bit of an overall view press release, and you get it out to a whole lot of outlets at once. And then the next way is a shotgun approach where you target specific media with uh your press release. Okay, so if you if you're targeting uh, say an entrepreneur magazine, for example, or a business magazine, you could say uh, you know, 60% of business people, you know, end in divorce, and that helped that actually affects their uh their businesses because you can just target it specifically for that particular media. But I always start with one general press release, get it out to a heap of places, and then I can just tweak it slightly with most of the same, because the press release is mostly the same. You're just tweaking the intro or tweaking, you're just tweaking the angle on its own.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

Tweaking the title and stuff like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

Tweak it slightly for the different media. Uh, so that's the way you could do that.

unknown 25:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

And what else should we include? You said photos, videos, like what what are what do we need to have in there?

SPEAKER_02 25:45

Well, press release is one no no more than one page. You want to keep it nice and succinct. You can see examples on my website, which we'll pop the link in there, which is the AA.

SPEAKER_00 25:54

Yeah, we'll put that in the show notes so you guys can click down there.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

Yeah, click down there and see all the press releases. You need some quotes about why this is important to you. So you want to show the passion of why you're passionate about this.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

So do we use quotes from ourselves or do we also go out and like quote scientists who say, you know, this is how much? Like how how quoty should it be?

SPEAKER_02 26:16

You could do a bit of both. You could do a bit of both. In our press release, for example, around the Animal Action Film Festival, we've got a quote from the filmmaker, which is these films show the beauty of life of our planet, but also we can't ignore the fact that they also raise the truth about what is affecting the survival of many of nature's wonderful inhabitants. Right. And then we talk about uh, you know, we're talking about ecosystems, the high levels of marine deaths, polluted rivers, deforestation, uh, uncontrolled corporate plans, and the demise of environmental laws and standards. Um, so so there's quite there's some hard-hitting quotes by the filmmaker, but also you could include something wider than that.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

Well, say if we wanted to include that that quote in our press release, because it could be relevant, would we need to go and ask permission? Or is that because it's in the public sphere now, can we just use that?

SPEAKER_02 27:07

If it's in the public sphere, it's usually okay just to you if you're using it exactly as it is and you're attributing it to someone, if you put their name on there, normally it's not a problem because it's already in the public space. Right. But if you're going to be, you know, if you see something on a video and you think, I want to quote that person from a video or something, then I would just check in with that person and see if it's okay in that case. But if it's already in written form online, then I'd say that would be fine. You know, that would be fine.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

As long as you take it in full and and don't do any edits, you're actually doing the correct quote.

SPEAKER_02 27:39

Quoted exactly.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

So we want a great title, we want a great article and with a lot of statistics and quotes and and details, but still only 300 to 400 words, so we don't go wild on a too long.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

And then we wanted photos. What what kind of photos are we talking?

SPEAKER_02 27:58

Yeah. Now at the end of the press release, too, very important is to put a link to a website, and then at the bottom of that, put media contact only. And the media contact only is very important to have a phone number there. Okay, if you don't have it, because media sometimes when they want to interview someone, if they want more information, they want to get onto them straight away. So you might not want your mobile number to be out to the mass public, but you might want, you might want someone to, one of the journals to contact you directly. So that's where you put media contact only.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Right. So you make that clear that this is for media contact only. That way they know they shouldn't put this in the article.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

That's right. And at the end of the actual uh story part of it, you put ends on it. So you put ENDS, which says end of the press release. Under that is media contact only. And then you put your name and your phone number.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

If you have times, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:47

Yeah. If you have times that are best for people to contact you, then that's great.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

And now when you Can you drop like a calendarly link in there? Is that is that a reasonable thing to do? No?

SPEAKER_02 28:56

No, I wouldn't put a calendarly link. No, not in a press release. So so what I would do, once say you're approaching your local journalist in your say your local newspaper. Now, this is the easy easiest media you're going to get, is your local media. So going out to your local newspapers and your local radio stations, ideally community radio stations, and you say which area you're from. So you say you're from the local suburb because they're always looking for local people doing great things. You say you're from the local suburb. You might call up your local media and say, we've got this great thing happening. Who is the best journalist to talk to about this? And so because you've got to go through the front person, right? Now they might say Sue Smith is the best person to talk to, but she's not here at the moment. So then you say, Can I have her direct phone number, please, and her direct email address? And then you email the press release directly to Sue Smith. And the way you do it is you don't put it as an attachment. You put the headline into the subject line there and you copy and paste the press release into the body of the email. Because the less clicks and things you put through, the better for journals, because you just give the quicker it is to get through them. Plus, sometimes when you put attachments originally in the first email, sometimes they'll bounce with with media.

SPEAKER_00 30:03

So you're getting caught in spam, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

Yeah. So so what I often do is I say, if you want high definition photos and video, send me an email or respond to the orange Okay.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

So you don't actually include the photos and video in the initial send?

SPEAKER_02 30:17

No, no, because it may bounce and go to spam because it's an attachment. So I don't put any attachment initially.

SPEAKER_00 30:22

And so what kind of photos would you send them? Like I'm thinking now, like our events. Would you send the banner of the event or is that way too commercial?

SPEAKER_02 30:30

No. What kind of Yeah, you wouldn't send the banner of the event. No, you'd send a photo of you, for example, maybe you know, with someone, a representative from the environmental group that you're supporting, or it could be you in nature with someone or with someone from the environmental group, or you on a block of land that's been cleared, you know, showing the devastation. So we want to connect with you as a person. We don't want to be seeing banners or anything like that. We want to photo. Right.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

So it's not technically the company we're sending pictures of. It's it's the leaders of the company in different relevant spaces to the press release.

SPEAKER_02 31:03

Yes, yes. So something relevant to the press release. Ideally, two or three people maximum is good, not too many people in the shot. Think bright colours because if it's going in magazine, they want something bright and colourful. So ideally, don't wear black or white when you're, you know, doing your media shots. Get a nice clear shot.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

Right. So my normal look here won't work, you're saying.

SPEAKER_02 31:23

Unless you're a really colourful background, right? Right. Um, I know you had Dr. Di Martini on your event. I interviewed him 20 years ago, and and D Martini always wears, uh I interviewed him for XL magazine way back then with Roger Hamilton. Um, and he he always wears these dark suits, right? But but the photos I got of him at the time was he was here on the Gold Coast uh in a high-rise building in Broadbeach, where where which was one of his locations where he lived at the time. And uh that's when he was back in the um Athena Star Woman days when he was with Athena before she died of cancer. But anyway, so he had a dark suit on, but I got a photo of him with the big blue background, you know, the the skyline of the gold coast. So in that case, it's okay to wear a dark colour, but you want to be thinking colourfully.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Right, because he then contrasts to the background, which creates extra power in it.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

Yes, which was a great shot. Right. So you don't want to go black, black, white, white. You you want some bright colours in there. And so if your branding is a dark colour, that's what you want to be thinking. What's a colourful background? What's an interesting background? You know, think interesting photos. The better that the better your photos are, the more likely you're gonna get a good run. And we call these pick stories. We used to call these pick stories or photo stories in uh traditional media, is when you have a good photo but an average story, you'll get a really good run because you have a great visual for the audience. So very important to be thinking, how is this going to be not just educational for the media, but also fun. They want to have fun as well, they want to entertain right with what you do. So, how can you actually, you know, be entertaining with what you do? So, for example, with Richard Branson, right, from Virgin. Now, when he launched the Virgin Brides Venture, he actually dressed in a wedding gown for launching.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

Yeah, he he's awesome. He's awesome at standing out.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

Yes, yes. When he when he launched Virgin Galactic, he dressed in a spacesuit. When he launched the trips to South Africa, he dressed as a Zulu warrior. You know, so so what are you prepared to do to really have fun and stand out? You'll definitely get more media coverage, and it's great for social media as well, right?

SPEAKER_00 33:27

When you really have to then, let's say we've now put together, you know, our whole media pack, like that is ready. We've done the local news, which is really good. Like we call the reception, but now we want to get it out, you know, nationally or internationally. Obviously, we can't sit and call every single news outlet. So what how do we how do we create this massive exposure?

SPEAKER_02 33:48

Yeah, so there's different media distribution websites out there that you can go on to. Now, some of them will charge you for media lists to get out to certain lists. And so what you could do is you could subscribe to different uh media lists if you wanted to do this yourself. And you could look up with some of these media lists that have got thousands of contacts, you might look up, you know, entrepreneurial media or Swedish media, for example, and then you get a list of all of the media outlets. But the thing is, with a lot of these sites online that do this kind of thing, a lot of them are sort of generic emails and you're not necessarily getting through to the right person.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking is like how many of these actually because when you start spending all this money, then now you have to have an ROI return on investment mindset of it. How do we know that it's actually even being looked at, these press releases?

SPEAKER_02 34:40

Well, these distribution outlets, there's one that I use called influencing, uh, influencing.com. They actually show you how many how many uh open rates you get, how many click-throughs you get from the different media. Um, and you know, sometimes people, you know, the journalists just run the story directly. They're not always going to call you. But the other thing is you're not always going to get a direct return on investment either. Uh now, interestingly, with Robert Kiyosaki, when he was on Oprah in the year 2000, it was actually the 27th of April 2000, three years after he put out Rich Dad, Poor Dad, he was on Oprah. And at the end of the one-hour show, back then, Oprah turned to him and said, Congratulations, Rich Dad, we've just sold you one million books. And at the time it was$5 US per book, right? Three years after we put out Rich Dad, Poor Dad. So, you know, back in the day, that kind of thing would happen. You'd get one media spot and potentially you'd sell out events and all that kind of thing. Now it's getting a lot more challenging to do that because of the social media landscape and because we have just so much information out there right now. So it's very important to be patient with this journey and also to be prepared. You are going to get some rejection and you're going to come across some journalists that will be rude, right? They're going to be blunt and they're going to be rude and they speak very fast, like I'm speaking, right? It's a go, go, go kind of industry. And the thing is, you've got to toughen yourself to criticism, right? You've got to toughen yourself together.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

So, how much do you see now? Because right now we're talking obviously about a bit of that scatter gun approach, right? I'm sending it out to lists of thousands of journalists. How do you how do you consider like the personal relationships? Do you want to be building that with journalists, or is it more about building the brand and consistently sending out content or a combination of the two?

SPEAKER_02 36:23

Yeah, combination, definitely a combination. You definitely want to be building relationships because what will happen as you build relationships, the journalists will then come to you next time they want to do a story. So many of my clients on TV, for example, in you know, e-commerce and all sorts of different industries. And once they get on sort of channel seven, channel nine, uh, two of the biggest TV stations here in Australia, the journalists just next time they want an e-commerce expert or a social media expert or someone else, they will come directly. They'll just call up the client because they know that they've come across well on camera before or they've come across well in the interview. And that's what they're looking for. They don't want to waste time with people that aren't going to be good talent, let's just say, talent for either radio or for TV. So you have to be building your confidence as well in being a public speaker or and presenting with passion. It doesn't matter if you stumble over words. I still stumble over words, right? And you know, I did three years of Toastmasters where they count your ums and R's, and I've done, you know, multiple public speaking courses. But the main thing is you've got to have passion with what you're doing. And if you have that kind of passion and you know the story, you know your story. So I also help clients get over the nerves of getting on camera or getting- of course.

SPEAKER_00 37:31

I mean, in the end, it's all about confidence, right? If they want to see a doctor on TV, it's okay that the doctor that she isn't a perfect public speaker. They just want to know that is like, can I trust what you're saying, Mr. or Mrs. Doctor, right? This is this factual. Yes. So, all right. So this is really the roadmap to get the traditional media. And and how do you see social media kind of benefiting? Like, do do the when the journalist gets the press release, will they often go to social media and try to like do some due diligence on the person? Or like how how do these interact with each other?

SPEAKER_02 38:12

Yes. What will happen is the journalists will Google you, okay? And the question is, are you Googlish? Right? Are you Googlicious? So what are they gonna find on your social media? Are they gonna find that you've got a LOX profile on Facebook? And if you have a LOX profile, it always looks dodgy, okay? So I reckon build your social media following is absolutely crucial because they're gonna be checking out your YouTube channel, they're gonna be checking out your social, they're gonna they're and they'll be instantly judging you on whether they think you're credible because we're at a time when there's more and more scammers, particularly since COVID. We've got, you know, in the US trilli 25 trillion US dollars or so of online scammers now per year just going through the roof with the amount of scammers out there. So trust is a massive issue.

SPEAKER_00 38:54

When they're looking at that, is it mostly are they looking at the quality of the content or are they looking more at like how many followers you have or how many interactions your posts are getting? What do you what what do most of them look for when they're doing that due diligence?

SPEAKER_02 39:09

Yeah, they're looking for several things. They're looking for definitely looking for credibility in your topic, in your field of expertise. They're also looking at the types of content you put out. Do you put out engaging content or is the content you're putting out all just sell, sell, sell? You know, and it yes, of course, it's important to promote your product, but you've got to be giving a lot of value nowadays. You know, so they're gonna be look at the looking at the types of content you put out. They're gonna look at are you a decent person? You know, are you someone that actually cares about others or are you putting a lot of aggro content on your on your social media? Because they're gonna be thinking, well, if I get you on my show, are you gonna also be sharing some of this aggro content with people? You know, they want to, you know, so you so they're gonna look at all that sort of thing. And the thing is, look, some journalists are gonna really gel with the content you put out there, and some are not gonna like it, right? Like I put out a lot of controversial content, for example. We have a show called Total Truth Show, and you know, one of my shows was called The Truth About Propaganda. Like some of this stuff is pretty in your face, and some people aren't gonna like it, some people aren't gonna agree with it, but it doesn't matter. The thing is, are you speaking your truth? Right.

SPEAKER_00 40:06

And uh I think the fear there is if you truly turn off a journalist, is there a risk that they will go, wait a sec, this might be a scoop? And instead of taking, you know, now you've put yourself on their radar and all of a sudden you have a really negative article come out about you.

SPEAKER_02 40:23

Well, that can happen, right? We never know how the journalist is actually going to report about something. But if there is something that they report on that is not true, you can always ask for a retraction of that. You can always let them know as soon as possible if you see anything that is not true content out there, and definitely pull them up on that ASAP. But you also see this is where you need to be committed, not attached to what you put out in the mass media in general, not just traditional media, but with everything you put out. Be committed, not attached. Be committed to what you want, not attached to how it's going to look. And if you worry about a media organization saying something bad about you, well, it's gonna happen. I mean, look at Donald Trump, right? Now, as even if I say the word Donald Trump, there's gonna be people that go, I hate Donald Trump. Other people go, I love Donald Trump, right? And and the thing is, now, how many of you have actually met Donald Trump? Like, probably very few people have met him, but everyone's got an opinion because, you know, there's been full-on hate campaigns out there about Donald Trump in the media. And there's also been a lot of people that love him. And so what I admire about Donald Trump, regardless of your opinion of him, he has toughened himself to criticism and he just stays on his path and keeps sharing what he believes to be true anyway, regardless of what people think. So the fact is, you know, in your life right now, there'll be people that love you and people that hate you. As you grow your profile through the mass media, you're gonna get more people that love you and more people that hate you, right? So you have to be okay with that. So what I do, because you know, I get my negative comments as well. So I report, I block, I screenshot, and I get rid of those people out of my life because you're always gonna get your negative people out there that are just gonna want to put you down. And you're also gonna have amazing positive people that will lift you up. So really notice, you know, the energy of the types of people. And sometimes, you know, of course, journalists are people like you and I. So some journalists are constantly negative, and some journalists are really uplifting, beautiful people. And they're the kind of people you want to be working with. So don't worry if you get one or two journalists that don't like you. You may not like them either, and that's okay. You know, you just go to the next one because there's millions of media outlets out there. So you just go, right, next, on to the next one, right?

SPEAKER_00 42:21

Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Aldwin. How can our listeners connect with you if they feel like they want to learn more or if they want to, yeah, get more help and expanding their social media, their print media? What's the next step?

SPEAKER_02 42:37

Thank you, Daniel. Well, all my links are at Linktree forward slash Aldwin, which you'll find all over my socials. I am known as the Media Queen. Aldwin Altenay is a little bit tricky for some people to say. We have different marketing packages we do around interviews. We do, we have a mass media mastery program where we work very closely with people to build their brand and their profile and their influence. And also we do do PR for some people as well. So if you're looking for support with your publicity, uh then just reach out, just go to Linktreeforward slash Alden, send me a message on my main Facebook profile is a good place to reach me or on Instagram. And also we have a free global good news challenge every month where you can share gratitude and good news on social media. That's all to help decrease depression and suicide rates. I've had depression myself. I've had four friends take their own lives by the age of 45. And I truly believe the media that we put out there has a lot to do with that. And did you know that a third of people die by 65 and 90% of people die with regrets? So at the heart of what we do is we help to encourage people, inspire people to listen out for the things that upset you and anger you, because I believe they're promptings from the universe, from God to actually speak up about these things and make a difference. And, you know, so you're not one of those people that dies with regrets. So everything on that is also in my Linktree forward slash Alden or go to the Global Good News channel. And you will feel amazing when you share gratitude and when you use it on your socials. And so will everyone who sees your videos. And it's a great card. I want to leave one of my favorite cards. I hate the fact that that's happening. I can't believe this is happening. What are you doing about it? That's what I asked you. Because just even taking a little step to share something or to speak up about something is amazing, the ripple effect that can have not just across your socials, but a lot more people, I guarantee, are watching your stuff online than maybe actually liking it or commenting. There's a lot more that are actually stalking you and checking you out. So regardless of that, speak your truth anyway and have fun on this amazing roller coaster ride journey of life that we're in.

SPEAKER_00 44:57

Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us.

SPEAKER_02 44:59

Thank you, Daniel. All the best.

SPEAKER_00 45:30

Number one, visibility is not optional anymore. One of the clearest messages from this conversation is that if you want to grow your business, expand your influence, and stay relevant in today's world, you need to be seen. Social media is no longer a side tool. It is one of the main ways people discover you, judge your credibility, and decide whether to trust you. So that's number two. Your story is one of your greatest assets. Aldwin made this very clear. The challenge is that most people are too close to their own experience to see what is powerful, unique, and newsworthy about it. The difference that makes the difference is learning how to identify the gems in your story and shape them into a message people can connect with. Number three, traditional media still matters. For me, this was a huge insight. Most people, you know, we're focused on social media. We want to build our followers, but traditional media has huge credibility. So when you combine traditional media with social media, you create a much stronger brand presence. You build authority, you build reach. So together, you get your word out there. Number four, does not need to be perfect. You need to speak up though. Aldwin's message was really cool. Well, you have to know, you don't have to know everything, and you don't have to wait until you feel ready. If something can help people, if you have a story to tell, share it. You have enough to begin. People who grow are the ones who show up, share their truth, and keep going consistently. Before you go, I want to give you a special gift. We're giving you tickets to the upcoming Financial Freedom Summits designed to help you grow your wealth, sharpen your strategy, learn about investing, learning about entrepreneurship. You'll learn from Robert Kiyosaki, Les Brown, Nick Vuyacich, Janet Atwood, Marcy Shimoff, Brian Tracy, Jack Camfield, and more. And I want to give you that ticket for free. You can claim it in the show notes. If you got value from this episode, please share it with someone who needs this, who's building a business, and please make sure you do like thousands of other people all across the world and follow and subscribe so that you don't miss what's coming next. And of course, if you want to show some appreciation to us, we always appreciate it if you give a five-star review. It definitely helps us get the word out and help more people. Next week, I am so honored to introduce you to Jennifer K. Hill. She has introduced me to some of the most amazing people in the world. A lot of the guests on this podcast, she has introduced me to. She's going to share with you how she connects people and works as a connector to change lives and has changed her own life. So make sure you show up because that's going to be amazing. I'm Dania Wood. This is the Swedish Wealth Institute Podcast. Thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 48:24

I just hated myself. I was bulimic, I was suicidal, tried to take my own life, sex, drugs, rock and roll, you name it. I did it. If I didn't learn people and learn myself, I wasn't going to make it. Jay Hill, you are only the most condescending, demeaning bitch we've ever met in our lives. We have no idea how you're successful. And that was my moment of like one thing she does well a day for a week. So the first day, I kid you not, I write down she's human. Day two, she breathes. By day three, she actually started to improve quite vastly. By day seven, she was