Surviving the Side Hustle

E117 - From Small Town to Build a Public Relations Empire: Melinda Jackson's Journey

• Coach Rob • Season 1 • Episode 117

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From walking away from the family business with just $500 in her pocket to building a thriving PR firm, Melinda Jackson's journey is a masterclass in charting your own path through the entrepreneurial wilderness.

Melinda takes us through her remarkable story of leaving small-town North Carolina for Los Angeles against her parents' wishes, working three unpaid internships simultaneously while juggling multiple part-time jobs, and sleeping just 3-4 hours a night to make her dreams happen. After experiencing severe burnout in the entertainment PR world – complete with panic attacks, depression, and even kidney stones at age 30 – she eventually found freedom in launching her own business.

What makes this conversation particularly valuable is Melinda's candid breakdown of what public relations actually means in today's media landscape. She explains why journalists now care more about founder stories than brand stories, and offers practical advice for anyone looking to get media attention without hiring a publicist. Her scrappy, non-traditional approach to PR focuses on creating meaningful moments rather than just sending press releases.

The episode is packed with actionable insights, from how to approach local media outlets as a beginning entrepreneur to knowing when it's time to bring in professional PR help. Melinda's top recommendations? Start posting weekly on LinkedIn (which puts you in the top 1% of users) and get yourself on podcasts – "the fastest growing piece of media right now."

Whether you're running a side hustle, building a business, or simply curious about the behind-the-scenes world of public relations, Melinda's story proves that sometimes the most successful path is the one you carve for yourself.

Speaker 1:

What's going on, guys, and welcome back to another episode of Surviving the Side Hustle. I'm really excited because today we've got Melinda Jackson on, and she's interesting because she's got over a decade of international PR experience. Melinda's taken the untraditional approach to public relations, branding and influence marketing. Having worked on Grammy, emmy and PRSA award-winning campaigns, melinda has a proven track record of helping clients grow their businesses and careers. She not only serves traditional PR clients, but also music and entertainment as well. Melinda, thank you so much for coming on today. I'm glad we got this squared up and I'm excited to dive into our conversation, so welcome.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, I'm so happy to be here.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. Well, I'd love to kind of dive in, because I was looking at your bio and I wanted to get connected with you a little bit and I see that you're from North Carolina.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So, born and raised in a town on the edge of eastern North Carolina, 4,000 people and I currently live in Raleigh, north Carolina, so about 45 minutes away from where I grew up.

Speaker 1:

Oh nice. Yeah, I love Raleigh. I was down there a couple years ago actually for Ed Milet's book launch and that was really cool. If you know who Ed Milet is, it was exciting.

Speaker 2:

I don't, but I'll Google, okay.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, I don't, but I'll Google, Okay so yeah. So talk to us a little bit about how'd you get to where you're at currently.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so, like I said, I grew up in a small town in eastern North Carolina. My parents are entrepreneurs and, from a long line of farm families, everyone on every side of my family has been in the farming industry for literally hundreds of years. Family has been in the farming industry for literally hundreds of years and when I graduated college, I moved to Los Angeles. I knew I wanted to work in entertainment and my parents didn't want me to do that, so I felt like PR was a good major because to them it felt safe. But I knew I was going to move to LA when I graduated. So I did and they cut me off. They were like, nope, we don't want you to move, you should work for us. And I said, nope, that's not my path.

Speaker 2:

So I left everything I knew and moved to LA in 2009 with $500, no job, I knew no one and I made it work. I was there for seven years and moved back to North Carolina because I got really burned out just working in entertainment and working 24-7 and making like $2 a day. So moved back to North Carolina, worked at an agency and just realized there was so much more that I could do for my clients on my own. I started my company and it was really just out of a place of not being able to find another job and I literally started freelancing on the side and accidentally started my company six years ago.

Speaker 1:

Love that Accidentally starting the business. That's incredible. Before we dive in too deep, would you mind just defining public relations for me?

Speaker 2:

deep. Would you mind just defining public relations for me, absolutely no one ever knows what it is. So for me, I really just see public relations as how does a client relate to the public, like, how are you showing up to the public? Is it media interviews, podcast interviews, is it brand collaborations with other brands or influencer relations? What are we doing in the public and what is that reaction? So for me, that's what PR is. I'm sure there's some very official, wonderful explanation to it, but that's kind of how I dumb it down.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I like that. It's kind of like how you're interacting with the world, I guess. Exactly, exactly how you're interacting with the world. I guess, exactly, exactly, yeah. So talk to me about when you decided to launch your own business. What was it kind of like in the early stage days? Because you said you were working with an agency, you had a couple clients, I'm guessing. They kind of came with you and and how did you? How did you just kind of get it rolling? You just kind of like boom jumpstart.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So it's funny. I was just having a conversation with somebody who was in the similar position that I was like 10 years ago and they were at an agency and they're like, how do I get out of this rat race? And at that point I had been in PR for 10 years and I was just really burned out from the agency life because you're working 24-7. You're not making a lot of money. The higher ups, the owners of the agency, they're the ones making the money. You're the one that's actually doing the work.

Speaker 2:

And I just saw so many inconsistencies and I was just really frustrated and burned out from that hustle. So I had a couple of people that would come to me and ask if our agency would work with them and I knew that they didn't have a big enough budget to work with the agency or I just really liked them too much to want to subject them to that toxic culture. So I went to my bosses and I was like, hey, you know, I have like one or two people they really need PR. They're not going to have the budget that you want and I don't think you would want to work with them anyway. Do you mind if I freelance for them and their budget's only $500? And they're like, oh yeah, God, we would never touch that, it's fine. And so that really gave me the confidence to leave a very toxic environment and an environment that was not good for me.

Speaker 2:

So when I left, I had two freelance clients and I think it ended up being like $2,000. And at the time my rent was probably like a thousand or $1,200. So I'm like, okay, as long as I can pay my rent and have a little bit of extra money, we're good. And you know, within a week or two of just like posting like I put in my two weeks notice and posting on LinkedIn and Facebook saying, hey, I'm quitting my job.

Speaker 2:

If anybody knows anybody that needs some freelance PR right now, just let me know. I had enough clients to cover my salary and I was freelancing for that agency until they found somebody else and I had really great terms for myself. They let me work from home, I didn't have to go to meetings, I didn't have to do anything. Great terms for myself. They let me work from home, I didn't have to go to meetings, I didn't have to do anything. But I only had to freelance for them for two months until I felt really comfortable and I think I ended up like two times in my income that year.

Speaker 1:

Wow, nice. Yeah, usually it's pretty terrifying for individuals to kind of like drop off or dump their normal nine to five to dive into what they want to be doing. And because I work with a lot of individuals who've got different side hustles and they're just turning their hobbies into the side hustle where they're starting to make a little bit of money, and now they get to the point where like oh, can I turn this into like full blown business? And it can be terrifying because they're not really sure. But it sounds like you kind of dove right in like headfirst and like just kind of like started tackling it from there. So that's awesome.

Speaker 1:

I love the, the confidence and the grit you have and the resilience too, especially from the trip that going out to california too that was pretty wild. So what was that actually like? Because I feel like you hear stories about that and it's like, yeah, actually I had a fallback plan, blah, blah, and actually I had. I had way more than just 20 bucks in my pocket, but how did you actually make it work with just 500 bucks?

Speaker 2:

So I, literally I moved the day after Christmas. So I graduated in December 2009. You had your winter break or whatever. We had Christmas. And I kept telling my parents I'm moving to LA the day after Christmas, I'm moving to LA. And they're like no, you're not. No, you're not. They did not believe me and we're from a very tight knit Southern conservative Christian family. And they're like you're not doing that, you're going to work for us. We've built this life for you. And they had opened a restaurant that me and my brother were going to run together. We're two years apart, we're going to run it together. And we were franchisees until we had signed a contract for three restaurants in three years. And I was like I don't want to do it, I just opened the one. I'm like I don't want to fry chicken. I'm not going to say the restaurant, but I'm like I'm not going to fry chicken, like I'm good. So, um, I left, I packed up everything I could in my bit in my car. Um, I had, uh, some gift cards from Christmas. I had $500 because the person I was going to be staying with for a little bit that was my part of the rent. And then I had one paycheck that was coming our way.

Speaker 2:

So I had done two planning trips and did a lot of internship interviews. No one would hire me because I was from some random college in North Carolina they had never heard of. So I did three unpaid internships at once. I got a ton of part-time jobs. I was coaching cheerleading at a random school in the Valley. I was working at Forever 21, the largest one in the country, which was a nightmare. I was trade passing at events. I was doing everything I could, literally working 24-7, just to try to get enough experience to get hired on full time somewhere. And it took me a year and a half to get a full time job and it was.

Speaker 2:

It was hard. I do not know how I did it. I would sleep like three, four hours a night and just have to like get up and I one of my part time jobs jobs was at a stock trading company, so I had to be at work at 6 o'clock in the morning because we're in LA and that's when the stock market opened on the East Coast, so I had to get there. I would work until I don't know 1 o'clock and then I would go to an internship and work unpaid and then that night I would go and trade pass in an event or whatever. So I really did hustle and it was really hard and I truly do not know how I survived, with the exception of free food at events. I went to every event I could and just got free food and free like shampoo and stuff that I would get going to like an OK magazine party. Yeah, it was. It was wild and looking back at that I'm just like who were you girl? Because now if I don't get 10 hours of sleep, I'm not functioning.

Speaker 1:

Well, it's good though, because you grow more so through the challenges than you do in the celebration. So you putting all that work in and really tackling all those different obstacles really set the tone for your firm and everything you've got now your firm and everything you've got now. So I imagine that carries over into the work ethic that you showing up and delivering for a lot of your clients and delivering product, which is, I guess, like attention right. Helping your clients get attention.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I really I'm really scrappy with my work. I always say I don't do traditional PR. I'm not sending a press release and hoping that it works. I am going to do whatever I can to try to get you press. Like one client, we had her walk in some New York Fashion Week shows. Okay, well, that's a moment, that's something that we can talk about, that's something that we can use from then on. That's not traditional PR, but that's the kind of stuff that I look for and try to do for clients, especially if we're not getting them the kind of PR that they normally would want. We have to make it work in some way and I never promise clients I'm going to get you this, I'm going to get you in Forbes. I'm going to do whatever. I just promise I'm going to do the best I fucking can to get you where you need to be. That's all. That's all I promise. That's all that's all I promise.

Speaker 1:

I imagine your world is a lot of relationship building and being able to connect and stay in touch and communicate with a lot of different people. Can you explain how did you do that, when you kind of came back especially from, like a small town? Like how did you get yourself into connections with other people?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So it was honestly easier for me to do that in LA than it was when I came back. So in LA it's such a transient city and it's changing over all the time, so I would just go to as much stuff as I could and meet people. And I always say I collect people everywhere I go. So I just start talking to them and I'm this girl with this accent and they're like where are you from, who are you? And you know, I would just would connect and I think when you are authentic, that helps a lot. And I've never met a stranger in my life, so I'm, I'm very much that extroverted personality, so that helps a ton. Um, so I had those people and I had people I could call on if I needed anything and and I never really had a mentor, but I had a lot of people in my pocket that I could say hey look, I cannot get arrested for this client, can you? Can you like either cover them or point me to somebody that can, and so that would help a lot.

Speaker 2:

Um, when I moved back to North Carolina, I didn't have the same kind of clients and that was really hard for me and it was a for me, it was a big identity crisis almost, because I was this girl that worked in entertainment. I had a Grammy, I had all this stuff. I was at every award show all the time. Now I'm in Raleigh, north Carolina. Nobody gives a shit, no one cares, because I didn't go to that school and I didn't, I wasn't in that sorority, they didn't care about me, and so you have to create those relationships all over again, and even now I feel like I have contacts that I can't use because I just don't have entertainment clients anymore. So you have to reinvent the wheel a lot, wow.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but there you go with that resilience again, figuring out ways to make it work and how to make it happen still. But I'm interested to hear a little bit on what it is that you really are, because we just talked on how you're helping people get more attention, kind of get out there connecting with the public. Do you see that people are using your services less or, like as an industry, less because of social media? Do you see a lot of people like, oh, I don't need help with that because I'm just going to dive in with social media instead, or is social media part of what you do?

Speaker 2:

I don't offer social media, but if anything, I think they will gain traction on social media and think, oh shit, I got to maximize this. I have to do something to get exposure even more, and so that's where PR comes in. Right now, we're seeing a lot of people wanting to be positioned as a thought leader in whatever their industry is. That's the new thing. I just sent out a sub stack on this. I just sent out a LinkedIn post about it. But journalists care less about the brand right now. They want the brand story, they want the founder story, and so that has been really great for me because I can tap back in to the entertainment experience, because I'm selling a person at the end of the day. So I think to take it all back, it kind of goes hand in hand with social media. Or if they're not seeing traction on social media, they're like okay, I got to switch it up, let's figure something else out.

Speaker 1:

Okay, okay. And so you're saying that they're not looking for the brand, they're looking for like the founder story. Is that something that you kind of help with your clients, kind of creating and building?

Speaker 2:

here it is. It's like, okay, well, why'd you create it? Because I wanted to help people. Okay, you wanted to help people, but why? And then you just dig and dig and dig and then you find out, oh, they had an issue with their skin and they were. They never wanted anybody to feel the way they felt, so then they created this thing. So digging into that story can really change the game for people and help you stand out. And so the more details you have, the more unique you are, the more it's easier to get you press instead of just saying, hey, here's this product, okay, well, everyone has that. What's the actual story?

Speaker 1:

Nice. So I guess it's different brands and different people probably looking for different things too, right? So how do you know which client kind of needs which or what, or what, if someone's coming to you and they're like, oh, I need to do this, and you're kind of like, oh, actually, you know, I think you'd benefit more from doing X, y and Z instead.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that happens all the time. People definitely don't know what they actually need and I turn down clients a lot. People will say, okay, I need PR. Okay, well, your brand is not together. You don't even have a website. None of your social media is consistent. Get all that stuff fixed, get everything cohesive, then we'll talk about PR. So that happens a lot. I'm not afraid to turn people away when it comes to that.

Speaker 1:

Which is good, because then that shows how you're dialed in for what you can actually do and deliver. So you said, people typically don't have a lot of that stuff kind of together. So when is it time for somebody to need PR?

Speaker 2:

I guess I should say I always say one of the biggest factors is maybe you've gotten a little bit of press yourself locally and you need somebody to come in and help you when it feels like too much for you, when you're maybe getting requests and you're like I don't know how to fulfill this, or you're like okay, I got a little bit of press, let's keep it going. But also, just if you have something to promote and you actually have a story there, you can benefit from press. You don't necessarily need a publicist, but you can benefit from press. So say, you have a store opening, ok, you can get local press and it's very easy.

Speaker 2:

If you don't get local press, nobody's going to know about it and you only are going to have to rely on social media. And that can be a vacuum, because no one, unless they follow you, they're probably not going to see it. Unless your followers share it, they're not going to see it. So why not add that extra layer of press? I also think that people again, I just said it, but like people think they might need press but they don't, because they might not have anything to promote. They might just really love their product, but there's nothing about it that stands out and maybe they don't have their stuff together yet, they don't have that cohesive brand, they don't have the messaging, those talking points, which I definitely can help with. But if you don't have a budget, if you don't have things in place so you can sustain press, then you probably don't need somebody coming in and helping you.

Speaker 1:

I want to bring it back a little more to you and the things that you're kind of like you in the business yourself. So you started your business. What was it five years ago?

Speaker 2:

Six years ago.

Speaker 1:

Six years ago, okay, business. What was it five years ago? Six years ago, six years ago, okay, and now kind of growing from there. You had a couple of clients and then a couple more clients came on, and now where are you bringing your entire company to? What are you trying to grow or build up to? Is it to an agency that's big enough where you're just going to kind of exit out and then move on to some new project, or are you looking to kind of grow it into something different?

Speaker 2:

I definitely don't think I could ever exit because I'm too much of a control freak kind of, and I have a small team, I have freelancers that I pull, I have interns. I don't have any full-time clients because, again, I'm a control freak. But my kind of goal is to get to a place where I'm doing the high level consulting and not pitching to the press all day. So I'm going into corporate offices and maybe consulting their marketing teams on their PR strategy, because PR and marketing are different and most marketers don't understand PR. They don't necessarily know how to find those talking points and reach out to the press or do that kind of research. They're more worried about other things and analytics and all that fun stuff that I cannot do. So ultimately I would love to do that more high level and honestly charge higher retainers and do less work. But I probably could do that now with 15 years, 16 years into PR. But you know I had to get over my own kind of fear around charging more, trying to expect more.

Speaker 1:

So I want to continue on with a little bit about your story here, because you said that you went through a pretty serious burnout phase and I was in one of those situations too. So I can kind of relate to that no-transcript of honor where they're like yeah, no, I just got to keep grinding, keep grinding, keep grinding. Can you share a little bit about what your experience was with the burnout and how did you, I guess, even know that it started creeping on? Because I got stuck in a burnout phase for like three years because I was like a person who was just more like a badge.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I mean that hustle culture is hard. So I think I first experienced burnout when I was in Los Angeles, and it's kind of the reason why I left. So I had been in an agency for five years and it was kind of a sinking ship and so I held on too long and then finally realized I need to switch things up and find another agency to work at. So I was finally in my dream agency and it was just a really toxic department. It was a great agency but toxic department, really bad leadership. She's no longer with the company and the company no longer exists. So I can say all that stuff. But I realized I was burned out.

Speaker 2:

When I was, I truly felt like I could not turn off. So I was in a drive-through car wash and I had slid my seat all the way back and I had my work computer on my lap and I was doing work. And it was a Saturday and I was like what am I doing? Like this, nothing. We're not curing cancer here. This is entertainment. Pr. Like this is stupid. Like literally, what am I doing? And then another time I'm in a like nine o'clock movie with one of my friends and I have a limo driver for one of my clients calling me, and I'm like, no, no, I don't need to be doing this, this is stupid.

Speaker 2:

So I was also in a place where my mental health was really, really bad and I'm someone that already struggles with anxiety and depression and I mean, I was having suicidal ideations. I could not keep food down. I would go into my office and just have a panic attack and when those things are happening, you're going to screw up your job. And then, when you screw up, you get in trouble, and then it's a whole cycle, and so that kept happening and I went to HR and I was reporting everything to HR that was happening and I was, being honest, like look, I know I screwed up, but this is toxic. And they were like she doesn't want you here anymore. And I was like good, I don't want to be there anymore. So it was like mutual, we agreed to part ways and I was like fuck it, I'm moving to North Carolina. And so I took a month. I packed up like I sold everything. I packed up and I drove back across the country and then I worked at the other agency and then burned out, happened again, like I was.

Speaker 2:

I think I still never healed from the first one. And it really hit me because I got kidney stones as a 30 year old woman and that's kind of unheard of. Normally it's old men that get kidney stones. And even my doctor was like I've never had a patient that was a female, that was this young. What are you doing? I'm like I don't know.

Speaker 2:

And my body was shutting down again and I had to get on depression medication. I had to get kidney surgery. They tried to tell me to delay my kidney surgery so we could finish a client project. So I delayed it. It was so stupid. So that's why I was just like none of this is working. I have to work for myself and I still struggle with it sometimes. But I think the biggest thing for me is realizing that working for myself I don't have to be at my desk nine to five. I have email on my phone. I can be at the pool for an hour at lunch. I can still check my email. It's okay. My therapist says it's okay if you send two emails in a day, that's still work.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I just interviewed somebody recently who's well-renowned in the burnout world and he said that those who dive deep into burnout and they get really far into it, they're exponentially more likely to experience it again in the future. And a lot of that becomes because of the failure to set those boundaries and stick to those. So I'm glad that you're kind of now giving yourself that freedom to kind of take the breather and move away and still send a few emails, but stay in, because it's tough when you work for yourself.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and one thing I'm kind of going through in this season is realizing like if a client has not paid their invoice, me, working harder is not gonna make them pay that invoice. Me working harder and putting in the hours does not mean I'm gonna make more money. They still haven't paid, so I don't need to do the work and that's been the biggest thing for me right now. And one thing I will say on burnout is, like you know, they always say have your self-care routine, have your routine to get you out of it or whatever. But sometimes you reach a point of burnout where that's just the self-soothing does not work anymore. No amount of journaling, meditating, anything is going to regulate your nervous system. You have to remove yourself from the situation.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it's tough to kind of get the ball rolling again too when you, after you, do, remove yourself from there. So how did you, how did you build that momentum after that second burnout from the other agency?

Speaker 2:

I think I just got so much confidence from going out on my own and realizing, like, holy shit, like people trust me and people like me and they want to work with me. It's funny because, again, my conservative Christian parents, when I quit my job, were like, okay, you got to move in with us, you got to break your lease, move in with us. And I was like you guys own your own businesses. Why don't you trust me? You should trust me, you should know that I know how to do this. They're like no, no, no. I was like just watch, just watch.

Speaker 2:

And so tax time came around and my dad saw how much money I made my first year owning my own business and he was like I'm never going to say anything to you again, like you did it, like I'm not, I'm never questioning you again. And that gave me so much confidence and I was like I got this. And then COVID hit, two years after I started my company and I made more money than I ever made in COVID because I was helping people transition their businesses and their messaging and stuff. And I was like, okay, I got it, I can do this.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome, glad to hear that that's really good, good bounce back kind of story there. Awesome, glad to hear that that's really good, good bounce back kind of story there. But I'm interested though because your entertainment you're back to North Carolina who are the individuals that you work with? Are you working with a lot of corporate, because you mentioned that before Is it small businesses or is it individual entrepreneurs? Who do you work with most?

Speaker 2:

It's all over the place. So right now, kind of my bread and butter is positioning people as thought leaders. That's what people want. So that can be like. I have biotech companies that I work with where I'm doing their thought leadership and just like any press releases about, you know, clinical trials or anything that they're doing, so the more boring PR, but then also the fun stuff. And then I have like a lot of female entrepreneurs where I'm helping them tell their story and helping them get connected with influencers. And I have clients all over the world Bosnia, South Africa, Portugal. I don't even have any clients in North Carolina, which is kind of crazy.

Speaker 1:

So if someone's starting out and they're like, okay, now it's time for me to kind of get into PR and start working on that, what is the typical or traditional, I guess route? Is there kind of like a process or like a stepping stones or something where you just immediately like, boom, you're like on TV doing this and doing that, or what's it kind of look like?

Speaker 2:

It definitely depends on who you are and what you're doing and like, honestly, whatever the timing is, you could be, you know, the most famous person in the world, but if it's not the right timing, somebody's not going to pick you up. I had a client that was on Good Morning America and she got bumps because Joe Biden came on, and so it's like shit, you know. I mean I'm glad, like it was when they were releasing the hostages in Hamas. It's like, okay, I'm glad the hostages got released, but like I needed this, like so you never know.

Speaker 2:

But what I always tell people is try PR yourself first. Like I, it does not hurt me to tell people how to do PR, I don't care, it's fine. Like, if you think you need PR, try it yourself first. Reach out to your local media and snowball it and then, if it feels overwhelming, if it feels like too much, then call somebody else in, call in a publicist and they can help you kind of take it to the next level. But it doesn't hurt to just try to do it yourself at first.

Speaker 1:

So you said, calling like your local places, is it pretty much just that simple, literally Just Googling local.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so figure out what's your local news station. What do you watch? Go to their website. There's a contact form. There's normally editor at abcwhatevercom, producer at Contact information. Nine times out of 10 is on the website. Reach out to them on social media. Don't be annoying, but just say hey, I have this product that I'm launching. I'm a local female founder. I would love to chat with you. If you're interested, they'll talk to you. They always want those hyperlocal stories and they need more stories all the time. So reach out like just try.

Speaker 1:

And then what's it look like when it is becoming overwhelming? Do you? Is it? Do you, do you need to be reaching out, like to meet like five different places or like so? How do I know if I'm doing it myself and I'm connecting with a bunch of these people? How do I know it's time for me to call you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, um, I just always say, when it gets too overwhelming, so like if they're reaching out, if they're reaching back out to you and saying, okay, I need a press release, a media kit, x, y and Z, and can you do blah, blah, blah Then if you don't know how to do any of that, you probably need somebody to help you. Sometimes you can just do it yourself or just say, look, I don't know, but can you walk me through this? Um, but yeah.

Speaker 1:

Or if you're getting a ton of media requests and you're just like I don't know how to do any of this, that's when you probably need somebody else side point like how, like I guess you you're doing all that work where you're kind of diving in and trying to figure out, like who's in the local areas and how do you get connected and who to set who up with what interviews, kind of thing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, um, a lot of my international clients want press in the U? S. So, um, one thing that I've done, especially, I have a client in Portugal. It's a skincare line. We were doing events all over the country in the US. So I was like helping connect her with people to do pop-up events, with helping figure out wholesale lists for her so she could try to get in stores. That's not traditional PR, but it was kind of a means to an end so I could actually create some traction. But yeah, I mean I had a client in the UK. We did the same thing. It's easier for me if it's English speaking countries, obviously, but yeah, I will make it work, I will figure it out.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, awesome. Well, so if someone's listening here today, where do they go to get in touch with you, if they feel like it's about time for me to kind of get involved, or if they're just interested in maybe some more tips for themselves, to kind of get started on their own journey?

Speaker 2:

bought a lot of other domain names that all point to that. But that's just the easiest one. And I do consulting calls. So if somebody is like, look, I want to dip my toe in, I want to try to figure out myself, I am so happy to help and on the consulting calls, I'll give them a media list, I'll give them talking points, I'll write a pitch for them and tell them literally how to do it, because it doesn't hurt me to do that. I just, at the end of the day, I just want to help people.

Speaker 1:

Wow, Uh. So then how do they schedule one of those consulting calls?

Speaker 2:

Just reach out on my website. Um, we can do a consulting call. I also have VIP days and that's more in depth, so that would be like an all day zoom, or we could do it in person, depending on where they're at at, and in those I really just help them really dive into their strategy and by the end of it they'll have multiple media lists, multiple talking point documents. I do LinkedIn strategy as well. Just a lot of stuff. So everything's at MelindaJacksonPRcom.

Speaker 1:

Nice, nice. And there's a description for more into what the VIP days are like on there.

Speaker 2:

Everything.

Speaker 1:

And so what would be the quickest route to kind of getting things done? Is it just like dive into the VIP day, or is it like one on one calls with you? Or like if someone's like I need this now, I want to get going Like what's the best strategy? What's the best strategy?

Speaker 2:

Just have them breach out and then normally I'll get on like a 15 minute call just to see, okay, what do they actually need? Because a lot of times, like I said, they'll think they need a full PR strategy and I'm like you can do this yourself, like let's just get on a 30 minute call. I got you. Or and sometimes I'm either even just like here, just here's a media list Like Just do it. So yeah, it just pits, but we'll get on a 15-minute call.

Speaker 1:

Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha, cool. Well, melinda, I know you're super busy. You've got a lot of things going on, so I want to be courteous of your time, but I appreciate you coming on and sharing your experience and insights, and this has been super fun and insightful for me because this is a whole world that I didn't know about and need to learn more about. So I appreciate it. But before I let you go, I got to ask you what would be your number one piece of advice for somebody who's kind of launching and moving, going forward and they want to get into that next level, especially in terms of PR. What would be your advice to them?

Speaker 2:

Number one advice I have is two things. One, start posting on LinkedIn. If you post once a week on LinkedIn, you'll automatically be in the top 1% of users, because people just lurk. So just post. I don't care if it's a picture of your dog. Post, you will get in front of people. Second piece of advice is get on a podcast, because it's the fastest growing piece of media right now and instead of getting a three-minute clip on your local TV station, you can be in somebody's ears for 30 minutes. So get on some podcasts.

Speaker 1:

Boom Love it Very helpful. Thank you so much. Come on this podcast. Yeah, Melinda. Again, thank you so much. This has been a pleasure. I really enjoy it and looking forward to following a little bit more and hopefully talk with you soon.

Speaker 2:

Okay, thank you.