Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Megan Bennett Full Interview

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Megan Bennett Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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Speaker 1: My next guest is the CEO slash president of Light
1:55
Speaker 1: Years Ahead. She has been part of the Light Years
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Speaker 1: Ahead team for over twelve years. She is an expert
2:00
Speaker 1: in implementing solid PR programs for clients and making long
2:04
Speaker 1: lasting impressions with the media. That's important. Like us a
2:08
Speaker 1: head as a boutique national PR agency specializing in lifestyle,
2:12
Speaker 1: personal health, tech, wellness, food, beauty, grooming, products, services, and personalities.
2:17
Speaker 1: They have an officer in Los Angeles, New York, Kansas City,
2:20
Speaker 1: where she is based in Dallas. She is on the
2:22
Speaker 1: show today to talk about what else the PR industry
2:26
Speaker 1: and how covid Nateen has affected their agency and PR campaigns.
2:30
Speaker 1: Please work with the money making conversations. I'm gonna calling
2:32
Speaker 1: my friend because I love her to death. Please welcome
2:34
Speaker 1: Megan Bennett. Thank you so much for having me on
2:38
Speaker 1: the show. Over Sean. I'm so excited to be here. Okay,
2:41
Speaker 1: yea Kansas City, Kansas. That's barbecue country, correct, That is right.
2:45
Speaker 1: We're barbecue central here. We've got gates, we've got jack stack,
2:49
Speaker 1: We've got we've got a lot of barbecue plates here
2:51
Speaker 1: and they're all good. They're all good. I've I've been
2:54
Speaker 1: up there many times. Steve Harvey was one of my clients.
2:57
Speaker 1: We should go up there and do comedy concerts. Plus,
2:59
Speaker 1: we are the radio station. We would have to come
3:01
Speaker 1: up there periodically do a live broadcasts and we had
3:04
Speaker 1: the bombom that was part of the break with it.
3:06
Speaker 1: You had to come in because at airports like fifty
3:09
Speaker 1: miles outside of town. Correct that airport is like in
3:11
Speaker 1: another state, it is. Yeah, How did you get in
3:17
Speaker 1: the PR industry? Public relations? Because people seem like it's easy?
3:21
Speaker 1: First of all, because I get a lot of people there.
3:24
Speaker 1: They put that on their car PR public relations, And
3:27
Speaker 1: and how did you get started in it? I got
3:31
Speaker 1: started um when I was in college. I thought I
3:34
Speaker 1: wanted to do something in the entertainment industry. So I
3:37
Speaker 1: went out and I interned in Los Angeles and I
3:41
Speaker 1: just happened upon a public relations firm which was a
3:44
Speaker 1: celebrity public relations firm UM, and I found it interesting
3:48
Speaker 1: and I got more internships in PR. But then I
3:50
Speaker 1: realized that what I was really interested in was not celebrities.
3:54
Speaker 1: It was more products, more personalities, experts UM. And after
4:00
Speaker 1: doing a couple of internships, when I realized what I
4:02
Speaker 1: didn't want to do. That's how I decided what I
4:04
Speaker 1: did want to do, if that makes any sense. So
4:07
Speaker 1: because lifestyle, because your your agency lifestyle, personal health, tech, wellness,
4:12
Speaker 1: food and beauty, grooming, products, services and their personalities. So
4:17
Speaker 1: you got the personalities part. You more only on the
4:20
Speaker 1: product side, as Mr. I mean we we so when
4:23
Speaker 1: when I first started, we really only did products at
4:25
Speaker 1: my agency, and then as we kept going through the years,
4:29
Speaker 1: we started to talk to experts that had a product
4:33
Speaker 1: where they wanted to be the personality behind the brand.
4:35
Speaker 1: So then we started to promote the founders behind the brand.
4:38
Speaker 1: And then we got into actually working with doctors, experts,
4:41
Speaker 1: meditation specialists, all sorts of different people. So it's it's
4:47
Speaker 1: not as far as the celebrity goes, but like experts
4:49
Speaker 1: that are qualified in their field, we we work with
4:51
Speaker 1: them all the time. And it's just so interesting. It's
4:54
Speaker 1: a very interesting category. Well it's as you put it
4:57
Speaker 1: in the word magical word doctor. And we the middle
5:00
Speaker 1: of the COVID nineteen pandemic. I'm pretty sure you're pretty busy.
5:05
Speaker 1: From a standpoint. When I say busy, are you an
5:08
Speaker 1: interviewing and prints are just recognizing the talents and then
5:12
Speaker 1: people know that you're have a roster people can help
5:16
Speaker 1: provide information during these these times of crisis. Well, basically
5:21
Speaker 1: what we do is is we offer right now during COVID,
5:24
Speaker 1: most of our clients are I mean We have an
5:26
Speaker 1: two experts that are meditation experts and they provide you know,
5:29
Speaker 1: tips to distress during quarantine. Um, you know, how to
5:33
Speaker 1: if you're going crazy with your kids, how to stay calm.
5:37
Speaker 1: And then some of the brands that we work with
5:38
Speaker 1: are actually products like a thermometer that's you know, a
5:41
Speaker 1: no touch for at thermometer can sanitizers things that can
5:45
Speaker 1: really help during COVID, which you know, in our case,
5:48
Speaker 1: in our brand's case, is actually advantageous. Where you know,
5:52
Speaker 1: I feel bad because a lot of other brands this
5:54
Speaker 1: is not a great time, which is totally understandable. Um.
5:58
Speaker 1: But our job is to spend any brand to make
6:00
Speaker 1: it so that people needed even during this time. Well,
6:03
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you this. I tell you this that
6:06
Speaker 1: that the mameter. Okay, I have a fan base, so
6:10
Speaker 1: I sent out a weekly newsletter to ninety three thousand people.
6:13
Speaker 1: I love to get an image of that ther mameter
6:17
Speaker 1: and the link in my new film this week, because
6:20
Speaker 1: that's that's that's because that's what I try to do
6:22
Speaker 1: on this show. Because a lot of the typical shows
6:25
Speaker 1: about celebrity ism, you know, big names. My I feel
6:29
Speaker 1: that people like you are the stars. You're the people
6:32
Speaker 1: behind the machine. You know, you can have a pretty
6:34
Speaker 1: car in the showroom, but if the engine is not right,
6:37
Speaker 1: it's not going to drop off that show on floor
6:39
Speaker 1: and in. People like you are the engines. And so
6:42
Speaker 1: when you when you come on my show, you provide
6:45
Speaker 1: information and also opportunities for me to give substantive or
6:50
Speaker 1: information or products to my fan base. I'm not trying
6:53
Speaker 1: to get a Discountlise, that's a product. I've never put
6:55
Speaker 1: that in my newsletter. So I love the baby. Put
6:57
Speaker 1: that in my newsletter and we'll get what the afflet
7:00
Speaker 1: on to maybe make that happen. But I would love
7:05
Speaker 1: it because when you were talking and I was talking
7:07
Speaker 1: to a friend of mine today, I was talking about
7:10
Speaker 1: when COVID first hit our. Like everybody, I believe it
7:15
Speaker 1: was kind of like thrown off because they came with
7:18
Speaker 1: all this information and don't wear a mask. Wear a mask,
7:21
Speaker 1: you know you go out in public, or make sure
7:24
Speaker 1: you wash your hands for twenty seconds or so. I
7:26
Speaker 1: can remember going to home depot one time and I
7:29
Speaker 1: was stumbling. I had my I had my gloves, I
7:33
Speaker 1: had my sanitizer. I kind of had a mask. I
7:36
Speaker 1: kind of had to have. I had a half sche mask.
7:38
Speaker 1: I hadn't even invested in the real mask yet. I
7:40
Speaker 1: had a sche masks on. And so because it was
7:43
Speaker 1: still cold at that time, it was in March, and
7:46
Speaker 1: so I was uncomfortable. And so when you talk about meditation,
7:50
Speaker 1: that's what you're talking about people like me who was
7:52
Speaker 1: stressing and not knowing what to do and bringing this burden.
7:57
Speaker 1: Did you bring the illness to the house or you know,
8:00
Speaker 1: when you you know, when you're feeling bad, do you
8:02
Speaker 1: have the illness? All these things can really send you
8:05
Speaker 1: to a state of depression. And that's what you have
8:07
Speaker 1: on your roster. These types of people are available to
8:11
Speaker 1: be able to assist people in at the time of
8:13
Speaker 1: emotional need exactly. And like one does it through music.
8:17
Speaker 1: He's a composer meditation expert, but he's pretty famous and
8:21
Speaker 1: he he does different you know, silent walks and these
8:24
Speaker 1: like mind travel meditations where you listen and you calm down,
8:28
Speaker 1: like we recently did one for media that was stressed
8:31
Speaker 1: out because nobody thinks about the media, but the media
8:34
Speaker 1: is just as stressed as everybody else that's working because
8:36
Speaker 1: they have all the pressure on them to perform and
8:40
Speaker 1: you know, to to show up and people are getting
8:43
Speaker 1: sick and they want to make sure that they have
8:44
Speaker 1: the right information. So they're like a very stressed out
8:48
Speaker 1: category as well. Um, which is interesting. Well, it's all
8:52
Speaker 1: interesting because we just talked about tech, which was thermometer.
8:56
Speaker 1: We talked about wellness, which is the which is these
8:59
Speaker 1: individ of Jews who can help you through depression, help
9:02
Speaker 1: you stay calm, will help you through these moments of crisis,
9:06
Speaker 1: emotional crisis. And then you have the food beauty and
9:09
Speaker 1: grooming products. Uh, you have something that we can discuss
9:12
Speaker 1: on the show today about. Well. Yeah, the thing with food,
9:15
Speaker 1: beauty and grooming is is that even though everybody's going
9:17
Speaker 1: through this, people still't want to buy stuff. You know,
9:20
Speaker 1: they still want to look good, They still want to
9:22
Speaker 1: do their nails, they still want to you know, get
9:24
Speaker 1: rid of but they're doing to their sales though, right. Yeah,
9:28
Speaker 1: So everything now that we're promoting is like d I
9:30
Speaker 1: Y SPOB beauty at home, which is great because all
9:33
Speaker 1: of our products are done at home. Anyways, Okay, your
9:36
Speaker 1: ball out, Okay, I got I need some I you know,
9:40
Speaker 1: I I need some help. You know what I'm saying?
9:42
Speaker 1: My face you know, I'm trying to it's trying to
9:45
Speaker 1: stop the process. I'm not gonna go in there and
9:47
Speaker 1: do any plastic surgery. Do you have anything can help
9:50
Speaker 1: out this old face of mine, this old male face
9:53
Speaker 1: of mine. You have it? Well, you look great, but
9:55
Speaker 1: yes percent. We work with like a couple of different
9:57
Speaker 1: skincare brand the ones called my Shell dermoty Uticals, and
10:00
Speaker 1: they've been around for years there at Whole Foods and
10:04
Speaker 1: it's natural. They have some great anti aging products. Um.
10:08
Speaker 1: We also work with kind of a crazy brand. It's
10:10
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10:14
Speaker 1: for men only, targeted for men um. And then we
10:20
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10:23
Speaker 1: Skincare's from Australia, I'm starting, not Australia, from New Zealand
10:27
Speaker 1: and it's anti aging. Um. So yeah, in the hall park,
10:31
Speaker 1: all right there, balding aging, anti raco. I'm your customer.
10:38
Speaker 1: I'm a customer man. Look at you up. You've got
10:43
Speaker 1: a lot of email links. You gotta send me. You
10:45
Speaker 1: gotta send me done with you. You're gonna look thirty
10:48
Speaker 1: years and I guess well I would be a post
10:50
Speaker 1: of town. I'm your post town. You know what I'm saying,
10:52
Speaker 1: We're gonna go. I think at it. I think at
10:54
Speaker 1: his brother right here. This is a this is this
10:57
Speaker 1: is before the interview, This is after the interview. Out
11:00
Speaker 1: there hell all our products because because we're all in
11:03
Speaker 1: a age of you know, because you know, because you know,
11:08
Speaker 1: we we don't live like our parents live, you know,
11:11
Speaker 1: because we're not designed to retire. I know, my mentality
11:15
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11:17
Speaker 1: things I want to do. And guess what, retirement money
11:20
Speaker 1: won't let me do it. Okay, not just so security
11:23
Speaker 1: plan and the Medicare plan won't let me do what
11:26
Speaker 1: My dreams are still left in my head. And so
11:29
Speaker 1: that means that we are if you're fifty, you thinking
11:32
Speaker 1: like a forty year old. You're sixty, you thinking like
11:34
Speaker 1: a fifty year and so on, so on, and so
11:37
Speaker 1: when you talk about these products, the popularity of them
11:39
Speaker 1: are tied to the fact that people still want to
11:41
Speaker 1: get out there. People will still look good people in
11:44
Speaker 1: any way they can can, they can trick the clock.
11:47
Speaker 1: We're gonna try to do it in a safe, comfortable way.
11:51
Speaker 1: And that's what you're talking about these products, correct yes,
11:54
Speaker 1: it's just an easy way to do it at home
11:56
Speaker 1: without leaving your house, especially at a time like this
11:59
Speaker 1: when nobody can leave their house. Well, here's it's it's
12:02
Speaker 1: here's a tricky question. I gotta ask you here maybe
12:04
Speaker 1: because it always throws me. Okay, what is the difference
12:07
Speaker 1: between PR and advertising? That is a great question, and
12:13
Speaker 1: I'm telling you like most people don't understand that. My
12:16
Speaker 1: dad didn't even understand it until finally we have a
12:19
Speaker 1: national nonprofit foundation my family does, and once I got
12:22
Speaker 1: them on the Today Show, then he understood because the
12:25
Speaker 1: donation started coming in. So basically, PR public relations is
12:30
Speaker 1: different from advertising because when you do an ad, you
12:33
Speaker 1: pay a specific amount for one ad or for a
12:35
Speaker 1: series of ads. So you might pay three thousand dollars
12:38
Speaker 1: to have one ad in a top magazine that you
12:41
Speaker 1: pay for that's guaranteed. Public relations is where you hire
12:44
Speaker 1: a publicist like me or whoever, and they're gonna go
12:47
Speaker 1: out and they're going to pitch your brand to the
12:49
Speaker 1: editors and the media side. Not the editor, not the
12:52
Speaker 1: advertising side, but the media the journalists that actually covered
12:55
Speaker 1: the brands and roundups. And then we get the products
12:58
Speaker 1: into their hands and write about it with their own
13:01
Speaker 1: opinions and an editorial, and so it's basically it's authentic.
13:05
Speaker 1: It's not paid. Whereas you might pay us a monthly retainer,
13:09
Speaker 1: you know, to do that for a month and get
13:11
Speaker 1: you ten to fift PR placements, you might pay the
13:14
Speaker 1: same amount for one paid ad that you know isn't
13:18
Speaker 1: done because the editor likes it. You know it's done
13:21
Speaker 1: because you've paid for Because that's the difference. Yeah, and
13:24
Speaker 1: the times you don't even know who's listening are watching
13:27
Speaker 1: it exactly exactly. So I mean, there's nothing better than
13:32
Speaker 1: than getting an amazing editorial placement, like if you're you know,
13:36
Speaker 1: getting something on the Today Show, like I said, with
13:38
Speaker 1: this foundation, then they got over a hundred and fifty
13:41
Speaker 1: thousand dollars of donations from one segment that we didn't
13:44
Speaker 1: pay for. All we had to do was slide the
13:46
Speaker 1: veterans out to New York and it aired. And that
13:50
Speaker 1: was that you might pay to be on the Doctors,
13:53
Speaker 1: you know, a quarter of a million dollars for one
13:56
Speaker 1: paid segment and get nothing from it. So it's just
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Speaker 1: free or dot ai. That's O T T E R
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Speaker 1: dot ai. First of we call because you hear a
16:04
Speaker 1: lot of terms called marketing. Your branding. Branding is the
16:08
Speaker 1: hot term nowadays. When you're branding products, you're branding companies,
16:12
Speaker 1: you're branding individuals. Is that is that word abuse too
16:17
Speaker 1: much over used? Too much branding? I mean in pr
16:22
Speaker 1: it's not because we have people asking us all the
16:24
Speaker 1: time if we hire you, what's the return on investment?
16:28
Speaker 1: Are we going to get sales? Are we going to
16:30
Speaker 1: make money for this? And we always say, at least
16:31
Speaker 1: with PR, it is really more about branding. It's building
16:35
Speaker 1: brand awareness and if it doesn't drive sales, that's our
16:38
Speaker 1: job is not Really it's great to drive sales, but
16:41
Speaker 1: our job really is should drive brand awareness. So in PR,
16:44
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's a it's a word
16:47
Speaker 1: that we use frequently so that we don't get pitcheonholed
16:50
Speaker 1: into becoming like a pay for play agency. What you say,
16:55
Speaker 1: because because you said PR, PR is not a brand
16:58
Speaker 1: awareness it's not marketing though, right, I mean, PR has
17:03
Speaker 1: public relations is a part of marketing. But but our
17:06
Speaker 1: job as publicist is to create brand awareness, which sometimes
17:10
Speaker 1: can drive sales. Well, it's not guaranteed, right. It's really
17:14
Speaker 1: interesting because you are in that world because you know,
17:17
Speaker 1: once the pandemic hit and everybody became you know, stay
17:20
Speaker 1: stay at home, that that dynamic kind of changed the
17:23
Speaker 1: whole approach because we saw advertisers shut down and the
17:27
Speaker 1: second quarter and first were the end of the first
17:29
Speaker 1: quarter in all of second quarter advertisers. You saw live
17:33
Speaker 1: events started to be canceled because they couldn't happen because
17:35
Speaker 1: of COVID. How do they affect the PR business? I
17:39
Speaker 1: mean with the PR business. What we did is is
17:41
Speaker 1: we went out and tried to target entrepreneurs who really
17:46
Speaker 1: didn't have the means to pay for advertising, but could
17:49
Speaker 1: have the budget for PR. So to us, we kind
17:51
Speaker 1: of used it and said, all right, we're going to
17:54
Speaker 1: try to get Drum up more business and help these
17:56
Speaker 1: people that normally, you know, wouldn't be able to spend
17:59
Speaker 1: for average hising. UM. So I think it was actually
18:02
Speaker 1: for us it did help because a lot of people
18:06
Speaker 1: really still wanted to continue. They just launched a brand
18:08
Speaker 1: and then COVID hit and they're thinking, what am I
18:10
Speaker 1: going to do now? I got to keep the momentum going,
18:13
Speaker 1: and so that's where we came in. Um. But it's
18:16
Speaker 1: more just us getting our name out there and you know,
18:18
Speaker 1: making making ourselves known and branding ourselves, which is hard
18:22
Speaker 1: to do when you're busy with a bunch of clients.
18:24
Speaker 1: You know, absolutely, I'm talking to making Bennett, my fantastic
18:28
Speaker 1: friend from Kansas City, that's Barbecue Country for those who
18:31
Speaker 1: don't travel that much. Um, she's a CEO president of
18:34
Speaker 1: light Years of head that the light Years, a light
18:38
Speaker 1: that's named after the owner of the the founder, Yes,
18:42
Speaker 1: the founder of the company, Betty Light, who is my
18:44
Speaker 1: mentor and who worked with her for over eighteen years
18:47
Speaker 1: and still working with her. So God, did you guys
18:49
Speaker 1: connected When you throw out the word mentor, so, I
18:53
Speaker 1: mean she is my mentor. So when I moved out
18:57
Speaker 1: to Los Angeles after college, I started working at this
18:59
Speaker 1: internet company doing quote unquote public relations, but it ended
19:02
Speaker 1: up more being like a customer service shipping job. And
19:06
Speaker 1: so after six months, I'm twenty two years old and
19:08
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, this is not what I want to do.
19:11
Speaker 1: So I started to apply for other jobs and I've
19:14
Speaker 1: reached out through u c L a job track, and
19:16
Speaker 1: this lady interviews me for a job and it's Betty,
19:19
Speaker 1: and uh, we just immediately clicked and she called and
19:23
Speaker 1: she hired me, and she said, believe me, when you're done,
19:28
Speaker 1: you should be paying me for all the stuff that
19:30
Speaker 1: you're going to learn when you work for me, because
19:32
Speaker 1: it's like going back to college and getting like a
19:34
Speaker 1: huge education in pr. I mean, I was thrown into
19:36
Speaker 1: the wolves right away, and within a month I felt
19:39
Speaker 1: terror and I had really learned so much that I
19:42
Speaker 1: just kept going and I've never stopped, and it's been
19:45
Speaker 1: I'm forty one now and it's been the same job
19:48
Speaker 1: I've had in the passion that I've had for you know,
19:50
Speaker 1: eighteen years, and I don't plan to ever stop doing
19:53
Speaker 1: it because I love it so much. They did to
19:56
Speaker 1: You're a great talker. You know, you're a very attractive person.
19:59
Speaker 1: That's in your your photos on the social media. Can't
20:02
Speaker 1: get away from seeing people you click a photo LinkedIn accounts,
20:04
Speaker 1: photo pops up. You gotta have the gotta have that photo,
20:08
Speaker 1: gotta have that look down pat nowadays, why do you
20:11
Speaker 1: love it so much? You know, because of the fact
20:12
Speaker 1: that I enjoy communication. I my degree is in mathematics.
20:16
Speaker 1: I've done stand up, I've managed talent, and as we've
20:19
Speaker 1: managed talent that you're dealing with brands, you deal with marketing,
20:22
Speaker 1: dealing with crisis management. So there's so many things that
20:26
Speaker 1: you wake up too that can change in an instant. Yeah,
20:32
Speaker 1: is that what you look about? It that that that
20:34
Speaker 1: that that making people happy. So like for me, it
20:38
Speaker 1: is a high every day when I get up and
20:40
Speaker 1: I get my client on the Today's Shore Show or
20:44
Speaker 1: Real Simple or the Doctors, or you know, just like
20:48
Speaker 1: when I get that placement and I and I generate
20:50
Speaker 1: interests and I pitched something and then the media says,
20:53
Speaker 1: you know, you're going to be on today, And then
20:54
Speaker 1: sending a placement to the clients into these entrepreneurs and
20:57
Speaker 1: small businesses and seeing them light up, getting so excited
21:00
Speaker 1: that they're in Forbes. That is what makes me pick,
21:03
Speaker 1: you know, just like helping people and helping them build
21:06
Speaker 1: their brands and going from nothing to like a household name.
21:09
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's like a high for me. I
21:11
Speaker 1: can't explain it, but it's every day I get up
21:14
Speaker 1: that I'm excited to work because I love what I do. Well,
21:16
Speaker 1: let's first of all, let's just explain everybody what she
21:19
Speaker 1: just said is not easy. First of all, so there's
21:21
Speaker 1: a grind, and so it is your touchdown, it is
21:24
Speaker 1: your three point shot. Sometimes it is your championship moment
21:28
Speaker 1: when you're able to get a print article or the
21:32
Speaker 1: high profile radio interview, on appearance on a high profile
21:36
Speaker 1: local show or national show. Both of them can have
21:38
Speaker 1: their benefits. If you're able to achieve it, and so
21:42
Speaker 1: because that's part of your brand. So the interesting is
21:44
Speaker 1: part about being a PR company. You also have to
21:47
Speaker 1: be able to market your brand so people can recognize
21:50
Speaker 1: your success story. So it's kind of like two things
21:53
Speaker 1: you're doing that your PR company. You do PR for me,
21:57
Speaker 1: but also you have to do PR for yourself. That exactly.
22:01
Speaker 1: It's really it's and you get rejected a lot. I
22:04
Speaker 1: mean that's one thing. I get rejected almost every day
22:06
Speaker 1: from somebody sending a nasty email. But I just think
22:08
Speaker 1: it's hilarious at this point. I used to when I
22:11
Speaker 1: first started, I had to do it on the phone
22:13
Speaker 1: and people would hang up, and so it just gave
22:15
Speaker 1: me a very thick skin. And now it's like, who's
22:17
Speaker 1: going to reject me today? Right? Right? Right? Because in
22:21
Speaker 1: in the end, you know that's the word is they
22:25
Speaker 1: can only say no exactly. But it also ties try again.
22:30
Speaker 1: But it's also tied to you building relationships, so you'll
22:34
Speaker 1: be able to have a confidence zone when you pick
22:36
Speaker 1: up that first Oh this is Megan, Okay, what you
22:38
Speaker 1: got okay? And they know you provide a certain type
22:41
Speaker 1: of uh content for their their showing the radio show.
22:46
Speaker 1: So how is it? How difficult though? Is it even
22:49
Speaker 1: difficult to build those type of relationships? It is, but
22:52
Speaker 1: I've been doing it for so long, and just because
22:55
Speaker 1: my personality is sort of like I just don't I
22:59
Speaker 1: have a thick skin. I don't care if somebody's gonna
23:01
Speaker 1: reject me, and I'm nice to everybody, and so it's
23:04
Speaker 1: just worked. And I've built these relationships since I'm in
23:07
Speaker 1: my twenties. And now people reach out to me the media,
23:10
Speaker 1: they have stories, you know, they contact me, which is awesome.
23:14
Speaker 1: So I love what you said I got. I think
23:16
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter to me say no no, But you
23:20
Speaker 1: didn't always have come on that come on that. You know,
23:24
Speaker 1: you didn't always have the thick skind you you're a
23:28
Speaker 1: certain type of people. Again, because people call me and
23:31
Speaker 1: I go, I try to explain to them that's not me,
23:35
Speaker 1: and I did fitch you. I just have to hang up, Okay, yeah,
23:38
Speaker 1: say click click click is the magic words sometimes and
23:41
Speaker 1: so but I know that's not comfortable to hear click
23:45
Speaker 1: or you got the wrong number or that's not me. Click.
23:49
Speaker 1: So what what what got you? Pad? We people were
23:53
Speaker 1: listening who want to get int the PR business who
23:55
Speaker 1: maybe the nose maybe winning right now in their lives,
23:58
Speaker 1: their lives, how can you how can they overcome the
24:01
Speaker 1: no disaster in their laughs. I mean for every no,
24:05
Speaker 1: you're gonna get it, yes, So like I say, for
24:08
Speaker 1: every rejection. And it was hard at the beginning when
24:11
Speaker 1: I first was like smiling and dialing on the phone,
24:13
Speaker 1: and then I mentor Betty it was like, Vegan, don't
24:16
Speaker 1: take it personal, like this is not even your company.
24:19
Speaker 1: You're just trying to do this. You do the best
24:21
Speaker 1: you can and if they don't like it, ask somebody else.
24:23
Speaker 1: And that's what I do, Like you're happy to getting
24:26
Speaker 1: on the phone, Well, God, yes, but you know what,
24:34
Speaker 1: for every click, I'd make another twenty calls and I'd
24:37
Speaker 1: get one that was interested in, say, sending me samples.
24:40
Speaker 1: So it's like, and I say this with the media too.
24:41
Speaker 1: If you're trying to pitch your brand and you reach
24:44
Speaker 1: out to one person at Forbes, it says no. Reach
24:47
Speaker 1: out to another person there. Or if they say no
24:49
Speaker 1: to one thing, pitch something else, because the no can
24:52
Speaker 1: turn into a yes for something else. And that happens
24:55
Speaker 1: to me all the time. I might get somebody that
24:57
Speaker 1: maybe first says why are you reaching out to me?
25:00
Speaker 1: I don't cover this topic. And instead of me's just
25:02
Speaker 1: being like, I'm sorry, Bubba, I'll say I'm so sorry.
25:05
Speaker 1: But you know, since I have your ear, do you
25:08
Speaker 1: cover this? And then sometimes they do. Now he's interesting.
25:11
Speaker 1: Now you know Light years Ahead. That's the agency of
25:15
Speaker 1: the company that you're the CEO and president of. Been
25:17
Speaker 1: there twelve years? That was incorrect. It's been eighteen. I
25:22
Speaker 1: don't know why I had twelve. But I'm sorry. I'm
25:24
Speaker 1: over you. See you're messing over your boy. We are
25:28
Speaker 1: supposed I'm supposed to have a relationship. Got bad information
25:31
Speaker 1: in front of me, Like here my next gift, let
25:34
Speaker 1: me reintroduced, sir. Right now, my next kift is the CEO,
25:38
Speaker 1: last president of light years Ahead. She's been part of
25:40
Speaker 1: Light Years Ahead team for over eighteen years, teen years.
25:45
Speaker 1: She's an expert and implementing solid PR program and clients
25:49
Speaker 1: from different parts of this country. Now, you have an
25:51
Speaker 1: office in Los Angeles, New York, Kansas City in Dallas.
25:56
Speaker 1: So that's East coast. I got Los Angeles, that's West coast.
25:58
Speaker 1: That's Hollywood, New York. That's the media capital of the world.
26:01
Speaker 1: Kansas City that's Midwest. I have to believe that's the
26:04
Speaker 1: Midwest zone. And then Dallas that's south. Is there a
26:09
Speaker 1: reason for these locations? Are you just wanted to move
26:12
Speaker 1: back to Kansas or just that's where you're from. When
26:16
Speaker 1: I started, I'm from Kansas City. And then when I
26:19
Speaker 1: lived in l A for ten years, and then I
26:21
Speaker 1: was like, I've got engaged and we decided, you know what,
26:23
Speaker 1: this is the cost of living here is crazy. Let's
26:25
Speaker 1: move back to Kansas. We can do this from anywhere.
26:28
Speaker 1: So I moved back to Kansas. Are creative director who
26:31
Speaker 1: was based in l A. She moved Forworth. My business
26:34
Speaker 1: partner has always been based in Manhattan. Chloe and Betty's
26:38
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles, So we kind of are across the
26:40
Speaker 1: country now, which is great because we have our fingers
26:43
Speaker 1: on the posse of all the different trends in the
26:45
Speaker 1: different regions in California. But you're happy, then that's just
26:50
Speaker 1: the beauty of this. Oh my gosh. Yes, you know
26:54
Speaker 1: you said someone who went back to Fort Worth area,
26:56
Speaker 1: which is great. They wanted to be there. You wanted
26:59
Speaker 1: to be in Kansas, Kansas City, Kansas, New York and
27:03
Speaker 1: New York, New York is my favorite city in the
27:05
Speaker 1: United States. I've lived in l A for fifteen years.
27:07
Speaker 1: I'm very familiar. I'm Houston, Texas born and brick and
27:10
Speaker 1: so I'm very familiar with Dallas. So each one of
27:13
Speaker 1: these I can understand how each one really is different,
27:16
Speaker 1: but also how you can connect the dots between the two. Now,
27:20
Speaker 1: now when this is my question, like when you do
27:23
Speaker 1: like I've been, I've been a manager of talent that
27:25
Speaker 1: worked with a lot of different PR firms. Now on
27:28
Speaker 1: major TV shows, do you guys accompany the talent to
27:32
Speaker 1: the TV shows or the radio shows or you just
27:36
Speaker 1: have How does that work? Yeah, I mean when we
27:39
Speaker 1: do segments with the doctors, UM or segments in New York. Um,
27:43
Speaker 1: you know, we try to go as much as possible
27:45
Speaker 1: because we have somebody in New York and l A
27:47
Speaker 1: that so we can accompany me a company, the you know,
27:50
Speaker 1: the expert. So yeah, but sometimes they want to go
27:52
Speaker 1: by themselves. They're used to it. They like to just
27:55
Speaker 1: go do their thing. It really depends on the client
27:57
Speaker 1: and how much handholding they need and all know. I mean,
28:00
Speaker 1: you know, if we if we can make it, it's great.
28:03
Speaker 1: Um And for regional Yeah, I mean, whenever I do
28:05
Speaker 1: segments in Kansas City, I always attend because it's fun. Well,
28:09
Speaker 1: my friend, I really want to thank you for calling
28:10
Speaker 1: on my show. Really, this is you know, can you
28:13
Speaker 1: come back? Can we be? Can you be? Like? Can you?
28:16
Speaker 1: Because now I know you're eighteen years in the business. Okay,
28:19
Speaker 1: you know, now you know, and you look fantastic, But
28:27
Speaker 1: this business is about you know, if you're you know,
28:29
Speaker 1: I know I get emails from different people in your
28:32
Speaker 1: office about various clients, and I'm sure visually I'm get
28:35
Speaker 1: some of them on my show and my platform because
28:37
Speaker 1: my platform is information based platform. And so when you're
28:40
Speaker 1: specializing in lifestyle, personal health, tech, wellness, food, beauty, let's
28:45
Speaker 1: grooming products, services, and personality, and you're gonna get that
28:48
Speaker 1: that scale to me, that that that the moment turk
28:51
Speaker 1: to me or as well, so I can put it
28:52
Speaker 1: on my newsletter right absolutely, I'm getting it to you. Okay,
28:56
Speaker 1: my friend, I want to appreciate. I appreciate you, and
28:58
Speaker 1: any closing remarks and we go any numbers we need
29:01
Speaker 1: to call and the websites you need to give out
29:03
Speaker 1: because you you know, you still gotta do pr I
29:05
Speaker 1: know I'm interviewing you, but you still got to tell
29:07
Speaker 1: your company anything you gotta say, all right before you leave.
29:10
Speaker 1: Absolutely I can help you. Um playing at light years
29:14
Speaker 1: ahead dot com and my my website is light years
29:18
Speaker 1: ahead dot com. Well, my friend, we're gonna talk soon
29:22
Speaker 1: and again, get that to me. I know Samantha is
29:24
Speaker 1: probably going to contact you and and we're gonna move
29:26
Speaker 1: forward and keep building this relationship. And you stay safe
29:28
Speaker 1: out there this pandemic world. All right, you too, Thanks
29:31
Speaker 1: for having me on. It's been a blast, alright about
29:34
Speaker 1: we talked so miss eighteen years in the game. Okay too.
29:41
Speaker 1: If you want to hear more money Making Conversation interviews,
29:43
Speaker 1: please go to Money Making Conversation dot com. I'm with
29:46
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