I used to think PR was something you had to be “big enough” to deserve. That there was a line, and until you crossed it nobody was going to hand you a microphone, or a write up, or a room full of people who actually wanted to hear from you.
Then one of my Design Studio Perth clients, a business owner with one of the sharpest minds I know, forwarded me an email he’d been sent. He had been selected. Shortlisted out of thousands. A business magazine wanted to publish him as one of the leaders to watch this year.
You know the one. Everyone has had that email.
It opens with flattery, tells you an editorial team chose you, and somewhere near the bottom comes the price. A page. A cover option if you really want to go for it. You pay for the privilege of being called impressive by people who found your name in a database.
Then it prints, and nothing happens. No calls. No clients. Nobody reads it, because nobody has ever picked one up. You’ve bought an invoice with your photo on it.
We look after his company’s brand, so he asked me whether he should do it. It was a flat out no, and I gave him better places to put that money and energy.
What bothered me was that a person that great at what he does was sitting there wondering if buying a page was the only way to have his brilliant mind seen.
It sparked an idea on one of my runs after that email. What if you could get real exposure without being flattered (or scammed) into paying for it?
The TRBLC team and I have been working on something special, and this week it goes live.
The Real Biz Life Chronicles Guest Wall of Fame.
It’s a wall of stars, one for every guest brave enough to sit in the chair and tell the truth about their business and their life, getting seriously uncomfortable to help others grow through their story. The Hollywood Walk of Fame, Perth business owner edition.
Click a star and that guest’s tile opens. Their photo. Who they are and what they’ve built, in their own words. A link to their episode. A link straight to their website.
That’s what it’s really for. Someone searches your name or your business name, finds your episode, wants more of you, and the wall takes them straight to your website. No digging, no guessing, no losing them along the way. One click from listening to you to landing on your business.
Every guest has been invited onto the show by me, and they earned it by turning up and being honest for an hour or two.
Here’s what I’m sitting with.
The people on that wall aren’t the biggest names in Perth. They’re the ones who said yes when it would have been easier to say they were too busy, or not ready, or not far enough along yet.
I don’t sit around waiting for the right moment, I never have. I make it happen. But I know what it costs to back yourself before anyone else does, how quiet it gets while you’re doing it, and just how fucking hard business can be. Every person on that wall knows it too.
Nobody ever feels ready. The wall is full of people who felt the fear and did it anyway. The best moment for me is always the look on their face when we finish recording, the pure joy of realising it was never as scary as they thought it would be.
So the homework I’m giving myself, and you, is small.
Go and walk Perth’s very own Wall of Fame, full of our local (and international) legends. Click three stars. Read what these incredible people are building.
If you’ve been on the show, your star is live. Want it on your own website? Get in touch and we’ll get Sharon, our website unicorn, to upload it for you. It’s yours.
The show is invite only, so the chair isn’t something you can book or buy. The invitations come out of conversations, and more than a few of the people up on that wall started with one.
To the client who trusted me enough to forward that email and ask what I thought, thank you. One question over a magazine ad turned into something every guest on this show now gets to benefit from.
Whatever you’re building, take up the room. Be fearlessly bold. Nobody ever got anywhere by making themselves smaller.
P.S.
A star only works if what it links to looks like you at your best. If your own website makes you wince, start there.
I keep a handful of free Brand Discovery sessions aside each month, just for TRBLC listeners. One hour, with me. We look at where your brand is actually landing and what’s holding it back.
