PR Isn’t Just for the Big Guys! Here's How Solopreneurs Can Steal the Spotlight.

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PR might sound like it's just for celebrities and big brands, but guess what? Solopreneurs, this one’s for you. In this episode, we’re breaking down simple, doable PR strategies that can get you media coverage, even if you don’t have a press team, a bestselling product, or a household name (yet).

We’re talking about how to pitch like a pro, what journalists actually want, and why the best way to get featured might just start with your inbox and a clear, authentic story. We even shout out our favorite PR expert, Simone Sauter, who gave us amazing insights a few months back.

Oh, and did we mention? We just turned in the final pages of our Solopreneur Business For Dummies book! It’s officially out of our hands and available for pre-order. So yes, we're celebrating… and yes, we’re shamelessly plugging.

If you want to get press without stress, this episode is your new best friend.

Like the show? We'd love it if you'd leave a 5-star review!

Being a solopreneur is awesome but it’s not easy. It's hard to get noticed. Most business advice is for bigger companies, and you're all alone...until now. LifeStarr Intro gives you free education, community, and tools to build a thriving one-person business. 

So, if you are lacking direction, having a hard time generating leads, or are having trouble keeping up with everything you have to do, or even just lonely running a company of one, click here to check out LifeStarr Intro!  

EpisodeTranscript

Carly Ries: Think getting media attention is only for big brands or internet famous entrepreneurs? Well, think again. In this episode, we break down PR strategies specifically for solopreneurs. Yes. Even if you've never pitched a story in your life.

From how to craft a compelling pitch to why your outdated website might be costing you press, we share actionable tips plus a few hard truths to help you land guest articles, media features, and podcast interviews. You're listening to the Aspiring Solopreneur, the podcast for those just taking the bold step or even just thinking about taking that step into the world of solo entrepreneurship. My name is Carly Ries, and my cohost, Joe Rando, and I are your guides to navigating this crazy but awesome journey as a company of one. We take pride in being part of LifeStarr, a digital hub dedicated to all aspects of solopreneurship that has empowered and educated countless solopreneurs looking to build a business that resonates with their life's ambitions. We help people work to live, not live to work.

And if you're looking for a get rich quick scheme, this is not the show for you. So if you're eager to gain valuable insights from industry experts on running a business the right way the first time around or want to learn from the missteps of solopreneurs who've paved the way before you, then stick around. We've got your back because flying solo in business doesn't mean you're alone.

Okay. So, Joe, before we dive into the topic for today, which is PR strategies for solopreneurs, which we haven't really talked about that much. Do you like my shirt?

Joe Rando: That's awesome. Yeah. That's a dummy. Right?

Carly Ries: It is a dummy. And I am wearing our dummy shirt because we just turned in the final pages of our book. The time of this recording, it is out of our control at this point.

Joe Rando: It's done. As far as we're concerned, it's done.

Carly Ries: It is done. So listeners, we're so excited about this. If you are listening to this before October 2025, go click on the presale. We'll include the link in our show notes, but our book is available for presale on Amazon and at Barnes and Noble. And then it's released to the wild October, which is crazy.

But I had to do that shameless plug because it's on the mind and we're done.

Joe Rando: Yeah. Well, that's nice. And you know, pre selling, pre buying it helps us. So if you wanna do something to help us and a five star review is too much of an ask, buying the book early, if you're gonna buy it anyway, would really help us. Thank you.

Carly Ries: So shameless plug over. I wrote some of the marketing sections in the book.

Joe Rando: Yeah. Kinda all of them.

Carly Ries: Yeah. I don't know why I said some, maybe I was trying to throw you a little bit of a bone, but yeah, I wrote the Marketing. You did all the harder stuff in my opinion.

Joe Rando: The mathy stuff.

Carly Ries: The mathy stuff. But I dabble in PR in it because PR is kind of an intimidating thing for solopreneurs. And I think people think if you wanna get media attention, you need to be a big deal. And you need to have a big story to tell. And that simply isn't the case.

And we actually interviewed Simone Sauter, a few months ago. I'll include her link in the show notes because she has great recommendations for solopreneurs. But my biggest takeaways from her were that any solopreneur can do it, as long as you're authentic. You have a story to tell, and you niche really, really far down on your audience. Was that kind of the same takeaways that you had from her?

Joe Rando: Yeah. you wanna definitely be focused on outlets. I mean, part of what else she said was kinda know who you're pitching your story to. Because, you go and pitch something to somebody that it makes no sense to, and you're just wasting your time and theirs. So really understanding the particular publication that you're pitching and what they do and what they don't do and crafting your pitch around that is really helpful as well.

And I think she made a very strong point of that. So there's definitely, you know, having a very niched message where you're basically speaking to a specific audience, having a compelling story. If you have a good personal story, if you have some interesting statistics that nobody else has, they love that.

Like, some you did some kind of a survey or something and have some information. People, you know, these journalists love that. But the fact is they're looking for stuff. They gotta crank out these whatever magazine, you know, newsletter, whatever it is that they're cranking out. They're desperate for material.

You just gotta give them something that's, worth putting out there.

Carly Ries: I wanna piggyback off of that. You wanna give them something that is easy for them to understand. So even in the podcasting world, we get outreach sometimes by people that are like, hey, I wanna be on your show. And then they write this really long paragraph. And then they're like, for more information, check out this website, check out my LinkedIn profile.

And I'm like, no. We get so many podcast outreach emails every week. The ones that I typically respond to have a one pager that's like, here's recommended topics, here's my quick bio, here are my social media handles and my email, and here are suggested questions. Can I be on your show? And I'm like, oh, that's so easy.

I know what you're about.

Joe Rando: Yeah. Short paragraphs and bullet points.

Carly Ries: Yes. And so don't make it hard for the reporter, whoever you're reaching out to, figure out what you do. Like, if you have a compelling story, make sure you can tell it concisely, which is sometimes a hard thing to do, but they're never gonna get that information unless you do it that way.

Joe Rando: Yeah. Giving them ten minutes worth of reading homework is about nine and a half minutes too long. Right?

Carly Ries: Right. And I will also say, get on their radar. I don't know why I'm treating myself like a media person, but I guess we kind of are. We have a podcast. And I have people that now I have relationships with who reach out to me and they're like, hey, I recommended Joe Rando for this show.

I think you'd also really like Carly Ries. Here's some stuff. And I'm like, well, you sent me really good people before. I'm gonna trust you. And so I'm also gonna check out this Carly Ries gal, see what she's all about. that's why it's so important to niche down, because then you can find media people in your space that you can really develop relationships with. Whether it's commenting back and forth on LinkedIn, or grabbing a cup of coffee if it's a local publication or whatever. Like don't bug them, don't annoy them. Be generally helpful. when I see those repetitive people in my inbox, I'm like, oh, I know this guy.

He's sent me so many great people. He's on my radar. That's probably gonna be an easy yes.

Joe Rando: And I think off of that, I mean, one that we have to make a distinction too. There are two different kinds of things you can do in the PR world, roughly speaking. And this is very generalized, but just simply break it down. There's guest articles, where you're writing something for a publication. your name is on it.

And then there's the articles about you or the interviews or the articles written about you by a journalist. And it's much easier to do the guest articles, especially in the early days, build up your cred, and then transition over to maybe the interviews later as you've got a bunch of stuff in your name and maybe the publication or publications get to know you. But it's a lot easier to land those I'm giving you material kinds of PR relationships in the early days, and especially for solopreneurs because, you are probably not famous. There's a few famous solopreneurs, but not very many. So most of us are just kinda out there slogging.

And if you can give them some good stuff, they'll pop they'll publish it your names on it. You can link back to it. You can put it in social media. You can do all kinds of stuff to help your business.

Carly Ries: And in terms of helping your business, really focusing on your personal brand and your company's brand can go a long way with actually securing those spots. Because let's say they're like, oh, yeah, I'm really interested in this story that you pitched me. I'm gonna look at your website. If your website has a four zero four error or is very outdated, doesn't follow best practices, could have been created in 2010, I mean, that speaks volumes to reporters, and they don't wanna send quaffect your way

Joe Rando: It's important to tell a story. Right? I mean, if you're telling them a story in a pitch and you're basically sending a pitch email here, and interestingly, in the subject line, it should say pitch colon. Right? You wanna say pitch colon and then something that's gonna grab their attention that makes them excited to want to learn more about this particular story.

But if you tell them a story about, solopreneurs and the growing number of solopreneurs in The United States, and then they go to your website and see that you're a website developer, for dentists, they're gonna be like, what? Who? You really need to be congruent between what you're pitching, what you're talking about, and what you do, and what you show to the world.

Carly Ries: Yeah. Absolutely. The other thing I would say is, and like I said, solopreneurs can absolutely get media attention. It is helpful if you have a little bit of experience under your belt as a solopreneur. Just for a little bit more street cred, like if you just launched your website yesterday and you're pitching a person and you just started your business a week ago, like don't be discouraged if you're not getting the attention that you want right away.

You do have to kinda put in the reps. And then once you have a little bit of street cred, once you have the client list, the customers built, then I think it's okay to start reaching out. Because the little guys really can get that media attention as long as they addressed everything else that Joe and I discussed so far. Anything else?

Joe Rando: I think that cuts the obvious stuff. Use your network. If you know somebody that knows the reporter that you're reaching out to, and you should kinda try to identify the right reporter, the right journalist, the right editor, whoever it is that you're reaching out to. If you know somebody that knows them and they can put in a good word for you, it's never a terrible thing.

Carly Ries: Yes. Absolutely. Well, that is all we have for today. As always, please subscribe to our podcast. Leave that five star review, and share this episode with a friend.

It would mean the world to us. And we will see you next time on the Aspiring Solopreneur. You may be going solo in business, but that doesn't mean you're alone. In fact, millions of people are in your shoes, running a one person business and figuring it out as they go. So why not connect with them and learn from each other's successes and failures?

At LifeStarr, we're creating a one person business community where you can go to meet and get advice from other solopreneurs. Be sure to join in on the conversations at community.lifestarr.com.