Episode 103: PR Essentials for Small Business Success with Diana Lammerts
In this episode, we dive into how small business owners can make PR work, even with a limited budget. Our guest, Diana Lammerts, shares how to start small and build up your PR efforts over time, without needing a huge upfront investment. We discuss affordable ways to create buzz for your business, including DIY PR tips and strategies for maximizing media exposure without breaking the bank.
Key Takeaways:
- How to start building a PR strategy on a budget
- Simple, cost-effective ways to get media attention
- Why consistency is key in PR, and how small steps lead to big wins
- How to work PR into your overall marketing and branding plan
- Practical advice for small business owners who wear many hats
Connect with Diana:
- Visit Diana’s website: dlmedia.info
Join Us for Our Virtual Summit:
We’re excited to announce that Diana will be one of the featured speakers at our Finish Strong, Start Fresh virtual summit on November 5th and 6th. She’ll be diving even deeper into PR strategies for entrepreneurs, so make sure to register! Links can be found in the show notes.
Guest Bio:
Diana Lammerts is a seasoned media and PR professional with a diverse career that spans journalism, media consultancy, and business strategy. Starting as a journalist and news anchor, she made a seamless transition into public relations, where her ability to create meaningful media connections has led to collaborations with celebrities, Nobel Prize winners, and even the Pope. Diana now works as the Director of Communications for the Global AI Council, hosts multiple TV shows, and contributes to The Business Influencer, making her a trusted source for business PR strategies that work.
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Read the full transcript of this episode below:
Lynn Howard
Hey I’m Lynn
Amanda Furgiuele
And I’m Amanda welcome to The Pursuit of Badasserie: The Podcast yes today we have a guest calling in all the way from Germany Diana Lammerts is a dynamic professional from Germany with a rich
background of journalism, public relations, media, and business consultancy. Initially, a journalist and radio news anchor, she later transitioned into PR, relations, where she excelled as an editor, copywriter, and PR consultant.
Her expertise spans both sides of media business, enhancing media business, enhancing her ability to manage media relations and content creation effectively.
Diane’s career is very distinguished with a rich diversity. She’s also an author. She’s co-authoring a book and making television appearances showcasing her adaptability across different media formats.
The journey underscores her unique capacity to connect with movers and shakers in various spheres, enhancing her professional stature. She now links entrepreneurs, businesses, and PR agencies with influential context.
boosting their business opportunities. In addition to our expertise in PR, which extends beyond more mere advertising, Diana is now focused on helping her business become more efficient in their processes and communications.
Diana Lammerts
I can’t communicate this morning. It has been a long day, but let’s welcome Diana. Hi, happy today’s day.
Lynn Howard
Thank you. Yeah. Man, that’s For my mouth, the 10th meeting today. But Diana, super stoked about having you here.
We were just discussing, last time we spoke, a few weeks ago, you were in Mexico.
Diana Lammerts
know you’re back in Germany. That is right. So, yeah, a few weeks ago, I was wearing a shirt.
Lynn Howard
Now I’m wearing a turtleneck.
Diana Lammerts
But I’m coming from my background as a news anchor. I had those situations as well. I even had a situation where I
I couldn’t breathe on air anymore and then I and then you you don’t and all you need to do is exhale and people are forgiving so it’s it’s not it’s not a problem at all and before that we always did those funny things like wow wow wow if anyone would have come into the studio they would have I love that I love that no words have been hard lately and after a long day like today because it’s my end of the night your middle of the evening I should say and Amanda’s fresh we’re called we’re global here fresh fresh awake so it’s just been one of those days so anyway we’re excited to have you and just tell us a little bit more about you well thank you first for the amazing intro and but would that all consider most importantly my goal is to make people happy and to help them reach their dreams
because and it’s a little bit selfish because this is the best feeling ever when you see your client’s face and all of a sudden they realize oh my gosh you made it and it happened and there’s this one and sometimes I wish and soon there will be because we have AI we have those AI glasses and then you just have to blink to take a picture I could capture that moment but you never know when when it appears so you’re never ready to capture that moment in a picture but it’s just that kind of joy that kind of it’s almost like little kids opening their Christmas presents and it’s exactly what they wanted and that is just the best feeling ever I love that I would agree I would agree it’s definitely one of the perks of what we do I think it’s one of the things that for Lynn and I the reason that we do what we do is to help other people realize their own dreams and
Amanda Furgiuele
It’s the huge bonus of what we do in our jobs, like the world a better place.
Diana Lammerts
Absolutely. that though, there’s often like always a little bit of a hard way. So what I do when I come in and me being German, we love efficiency.
So I’m not only having you to achieve your growth and your dreams, but also to do so in a very, very efficient and money and time saving way.
Because money is time and time is money. So, and that’s something, especially the time is nothing that we have in abundance, abundance.
is the one that is truly limited at one point. We never know when and how much. So having strategy and fun fact, when I was younger, I was like, oh my gosh, those strategy people talk about strategy.
Do we really need it? Yes. Now I’m one of those people who say we do need a strategy because if we don’t,
and we’re going to run like a chicken without a head and that’s not going to get us anywhere. Having a strategy in place might take little bit longer but you don’t go somewhere.
Let’s say you go into a trip. Some people are very spontaneous and say I just hop on a plane, I don’t care where I go, I don’t care what I have to take with me, I just go and then we go from there.
But if you have a strategy you can see more, you can let’s say you have a daytime, you can see so much more than someone just like, you know, I’m just going to land and then I’m going to see what happens.
But if you have a strategy you can enjoy your day, don’t feel rushed, you can see more and get more out of your trip.
Lynn Howard
I love that. Well, unless you’re on my schedule, my ex used to hate it because we’re like, okay, next, okay, next because I’m that person who wants to see everything.
But I love these analogies. However, one of the conversations that we had when we first met is what is even PR because there’s so many different kind of ideas out there so I’d like to start there because you are PR guru and specialist and I love that and so I’d love for you to break it down for our audience really what is PR and then the second question would be you know how does this help especially small businesses and entrepreneurs because I know a lot of people think it’s for big people like big business.
Diana Lammerts
I’d rather say specialist than guru because there’s always someone who’s better and that I can learn for and hopefully you never want to be the smartest person in the room and it also has a little bad connotation however there are different ways to approach PR there’s to me media relations that’s a lot of getting you publicity getting in front of the journalists in placements and so forth and then there is a strategic approach and then there are people who are experts in their field.
let’s say, medicine, estate, and so forth. then there, people like me who are generalists who come in, but they ask different questions.
They don’t ask the same questions everyone else does. And I’m a strong believer in merging ecosystems, which means when I come in, I assess a small business and say, okay, we have this and we have this and we have this.
But I ask questions, their clients would ask who may not have the knowledge that they have, who may not have the knowledge that this PR person has.
However, once I’ve asked those questions and then we come together, have a strategy, then of course you need to have specialist PR people on board as well.
But then you also have the outside the box thinkers as well. And by all of that, you can create something way bigger.
You also need to prepare, not everyone’s prepared and doesn’t have to be for crisis PR, right? So, but the thing is, if you have someone who is specialized on media placements, they get you a,
an amazing placement in some TV station and please bear with the ones that if you have organic media, that means just like anything that is organic, it can go away.
So if your PR specialist places you or get to a news media outlet, it’s organic, it’s earned, then please forgive them at one point it will go away.
It just happens because it’s organic. If you have a placement that means you pay for it, it’s called pay for play and of course that one is going to last.
And I think there’s good, if you have a good mix of both, that is perfect. If you just have pay for place that might not help you with your Wikipedia article if you wish to have one at one day because they’re going to say no we need different kind of media in that case.
a lot of people think oh we are PR specialists so we’re in competition, no we are not. If you are
specialized in events, red carpet, so forth. I’m happy to work with you because the thing is I come in all the way before that.
I come in as the cleaner, I come in and say, okay, we have systems, yes or no, and what do we do if we don’t have them?
Do the systems still work that you used to have? And then once everything is cleaned up, then almost it’s like the decorator interior designer can come in.
The interior designer cannot come in if you have whole lot of rubbish sitting everywhere, and there’s no order, there’s no strategy.
And then they come with their strategy, and your PR person always should have strategy and not say just, oh, it’s like this and like this and like this.
So, and again, I love to work together with other PR specialists because we can together provide way better outcome for the client.
Amanda Furgiuele
Love that, love that. So, we’re What do you think is your favorite type of PR in general, when you, when you have, particularly when you’re working with a small business, what are you, what are you hoping is the first thing that they reach out for?
Diana Lammerts
My favorite part is achieving the, close to the BHAC. And for example, one of my clients, he found his father’s artwork after he died, and no one knew about it.
It was unique, and it’s the only painted bible. There are no words, no nothing, but you can actually really read the stories in there, and it’s about my long.
And what happened eventually, we built up his credibility through media, through networking, and through exhibitions, and so forth. So he ended up meeting the Pope.
And that was an amazing goal. And we got him a work record as well, for example. Then others, they ended up to be a contributor for folks from their perspective and so much more so everything is different and I think maybe that is coming from my background as a news anchor we were not so specialized on one news but on many which also gives you the ability to learn from other projects and implement them into the new project which also gives you the ability to come with a fresh eye and not always do the same if I’m very niche and only work with one particular type of client then I have like a tunnel view but working with different kind of clients like oh wait a minute we did this there so but if we did this there that could work as well and by that it’s it just basically gives you way more opportunities to do something new to try something new you
Amanda Furgiuele
I always like to try something new. think that’s one of the things that we like the most about working with the different modalities, different industries that you do get a wider view, wider lens, and you can cross, I don’t wanna say cross the streams, but you have much more open idea bank to pull from.
So you have lots of things to pull from and you’d be surprised what things kind of trickle down into different industries and work so well, so I love that.
Lynn Howard
Also, it helps you see the forest through the trees, right? So when we can keep a very rounded and healthy perspective and perception on things, we’re able to see things through different eyes and we’re not pigeonholed into what should be, right?
So we’re able to see what could be versus and what the potential is and the direction. I love that.
Diana Lammerts
Yeah, and with the right strategy, I have one company within almost three years, two, something years to get from zero to seven figures.
So, you know, it’s anything as possible, anything as possible with the right strategy and consistency, of course, it’s like working out.
You can have the right meal plan, you can have the right workout plan, if you are not consistent and then you go overboard and you think instead of reinvesting into your company, you need to, I don’t know, buy a Corvette or something, then of course, then it’s not going to work.
So, we are not magicians, we can only put in so much and the rest of course needs to also come from the client as well.
Lynn Howard
Absolutely. So, you are your strategist too and so you’re really helping them put all their cards out and look at the potential of what could be and the direction in which they want to go, creating a plan and then taking them there.
So a lot of listeners that listen to us are in the entrepreneurial and more small business space, where maybe they’re thinking, I don’t know if I can afford a PR agency or I’m not quite sure like where to go with the strategy, et cetera.
So what would you say are a couple of places to start for those that are new to the idea of PR?
mean, hopefully they’ve been listening to us for a while that they understand strategy, so we talk a little bit about that.
But our new to the idea of PR, maybe some simple directions that you can point them to either gain the confidence, the contact someone like you, or start to maybe do a little bit of outside thinking of their own to put in the right action.
– Diana Lammerts
Well, first of every PR specialist should have a strategy for their client. If you go to the press department of some corporate company or
or whatnot, they will always have strategy. They do not go into a situation without having a strategy and so should your PR person.
So to not let anything bad happen, for example, there was a great example. Organic press, millions of balloons going up into the air and then at the same time, the news media was there, but they didn’t consider the weather.
And then it turned and then the situation turned. And then what happened was that all the balloons came back and down and animals were hurt, meant humans were hurt.
So and that caused very, very negative PR. So if you do not consider all kinds of situations that can go wrong, then you were at risk.
I’m one of the few persons who says, oh my gosh, I’m so happy that I’m wrong because that means everything went right, right?
And I always urge people to reach out and ask questions. First of there are no stupid questions and secondly this is only how you can learn and public relations is not just media relations.
Public relations is so much more finding the strategy. What is your voice? It works hand-in-hand with your marketing team, with your branding team.
So it’s not anything that can replace those but adds to it. And that is what a lot of people maybe don’t know yet or has been taught differently but we actually are just adding to it and not replacing because they are all different parts of the overall thing, of the overall goal.
And in general what people can do is start with your local news media. please and that comes from the journalists in me who used to go through hundreds of emails and press releases.
Don’t send them a headline with 35 I’ve words and a sentence that I’m proud to present and yada, yada, yada, and they need to read all those sentences that don’t have an end and don’t know what they just read and they need to reread it again because there’s so many news going through your hat during the day that if you keep it short, if you keep it nice, we should join us as humans too.
So and we get stressed out as well and that’s what I always consider when I do a pitch is to keep it short, to keep it on point and reach out to your local news media.
I mean even if they say no maybe next time they say yes or if there’s a topic and it doesn’t necessarily pertain to you but you can speak on it.
Let’s say for example, what can we say? There’s a blackout, right? And you how I haven’t ensured. business and then you can appear or you can call you a normal news media and tell them hey so this is what businesses can do right now I can speak on that I can give them advice I can help them get their insurance back or if they couldn’t if their insurance doesn’t pay then what look out for next time right so there’s different angles yet that you can take just don’t go there and say hey I have a new book well that’s good for you congratulations you can be very proud of you because it’s a lot of work but what the people here is me me me me me and no what what do I get and the journalist is basically what is my return of investment what does my audience because they don’t think about themselves it’s like what does my audience get out of the whole thing and if you already have a PR person and they do organic media or earth media organic media is never promised if anyone tells you oh 100% guarantee you
are going to appear there, it’s not earned media. It is place media, which is also fine, as I said, but even I when I did, when I was a news anchor and there was a show, if someone came in the middle of the show and I had a news that was the last news and they would say, drop it, we have a completely alert here, you need to just improvise now and read these news, it wouldn’t be aired.
You know, so I even couldn’t promise anyone that it will air on my way to the studio, so until it was done.
So no one can truly, truly promise that anything, even though it’s ready, will air or be published.
Lynn Howard
You made a couple of points in there that I just want to bring back around in concise way, is that there is the be solution oriented and relevancy, like if you can be relevant in that time, and then also obviously understanding that in the
a things can get bumped and pushed and things aren’t promise which is I mean life isn’t promise or so many few things that are but but I do love that besides having that strategy ahead if you know where you’re going it lands it’s kind of like to understand your target market too like you’re then you’re going in the right direction in the right voice with the right people same with a PR like you need to understand your bigger strategy and the micro strategy based on like how you want to show up how you want your branding to look or be looked at I should say or like you know take it in with all of that so I love that to be yeah to be relevant as well and I know you had a question I saw you no I just I I think when it comes to small businesses I think it is so important and I say this because I was thinking of a couple of clients who we were talking and discussing about press releases and how you would send a press release
Amanda Furgiuele
based in the way and they set me their first draft revision of it or look at it and the whole thing was just a look how awesome I am and I’m amazing and they were.
They’re awesome. They’re for my client who probably is listening to you like that woman. They were amazing. However, it wasn’t focused towards the audience.
It was focused towards look what I’ve done, not how can I help my community, how can I, because when it comes to a press release, they only want to print things that are going to be appealing to a lot of people or that are going to help a lot of people, not just the by show.
get all the things. it’s been a recurring theme when I’m teaching people how to understand press releases is that it isn’t just a guaranteed, you’re going to get your name in the paper and everyone’s going to be excited about you.
It does take strategy and it takes thinking ahead and being more cognizant of what your audience is going to want, what that specific paper or magazine is looking for in their audience.
So there’s a lot more to What’s the strategy then just you have something cool to show off the world And they are awesome.
Diana Lammerts
I mean, that’s why they created what they created but a lot of times when you explain it people is not What you hear is not what I say what I say is not what you hear.
That’s why I say often times and To them it appears that it’s only me me but all all they want to do is like listen I have something amazing.
I have something like this this young gentleman who created a soap that can Can can and who was just recently all over the news and I met he had to go to several People and say listen look at what I did.
It’s amazing, but who’s gonna believe you back then My client was with that amazing artwork. No one wanted to listen to us.
They didn’t like what are you talking about? Like it’s it’s so hard to understand. What do you mean? He envisioned the whole thing and he had no idea before and then he wasn’t expert.
What do you mean? You just found it, right? So but once they saw it, they were like, so how do you explain that in a short moment, right?
So you have to, instead of saying, I did this and I did this, like imagine this. I mean, that it’s, it’s, it’s, there’s a reason why CHTPT often starts with imagine this, because actually this is how, how you want to tell the story, right?
So yeah, it’s, it’s absolutely. And but please, please, please never, ever get discouraged when they say no, because there are certain boxes that need to be checked to make something newsworthy, and maybe it is not at the time.
But do it again, do it again. We, we never get up. And then the people, the media came to us and said, Hey, oh, can we do an interview?
Can we, can we look at this? And sometimes it is also, so I had a client and he was raffling off a mansion in Italy.
the first thing that I, I would ask myself as journalist, like, OK, what’s the catch? How do you make the money?
Is there a scam? And yes, well, that’s how I wrote the press release. Because I knew the journalist would do exactly the same, have the exact same question.
And I did the math. And what happened was he didn’t make any money at all. He actually sometimes put him money because money went to charity.
He helped other people and so forth. And he invested so many hours. So he ended up, because I was responsible for Germany, he ended up to be published in one of the largest newspapers, not only Germany, but also in Europe.
And because for that reason, they asked the very same question, where is the catch?
Lynn Howard
And they couldn’t find any. Like the cleverness of that. But it is. It’s getting to the psyche of what will transcend.
also, I do want to bring one other point that I don’t think we’ve. much as PR is not an instant gratification thing.
is more of a longer term game. you know, we have a lot of, a lot of clients or a lot of audience that are sometimes will be bought into, because it’s hard, like you get swept up and you want things now, it’s like instant gratification.
And PR is something that can absolutely help you, but it’s a long term thing. And it does, it builds upon one another.
we used to often say in a workshop that I would teach for a long time that, you know, trust is the hardest to gain, but the easiest to lose.
And PR will build that trust, build that trust, but also it can help you minimize or essentially clean up messes after the fact, because I feel like there’s like the beginning, the get the ball rolling, the continuing to build, but staying like prevalent and in people’s minds.
But then there’s also the crisis management after something.
Diana Lammerts
major happens in the PR world and you can turn it around and you’re absolutely right it’s like how quickly can you build trust how quickly can you build a reputation and if the client says it’s going to take a while that is what PR does it’s going to take a while to build exactly this however even if there is um if something doesn’t play out a certain way you can turn it around with good crisis PR as well not always depending on the damage it did but there was recently a podcast host who had a very um embarrassing situation um his PR team turned it around um some may say it was planned some may say it was not planned anyway the result was um he came online he was he went into the offense which i think is most of the time the best thing because every entry would come on anyways and um he sold out his swag
So, you know, by turning things around saying, this is what happened, this is what I did, and so forth, and I apologize, and then he sold out.
So you can turn around, again, if it was planned, was amazing, and a great strategy, and I pay a lot of respect for that.
But, yeah, it’s that you, with strategy, you can do so much, but you should be authentic, and you should be honest.
That is something that I go by.
Amanda Furgiuele
I do always have to get props to those PR moments, though, that your question was this plan, and if it was, well done, really, I mean, we always want to be authentic.
We always want to actually fall on the true things. However, there are occasions that I’ve seen PR sense that have been magnificently accepted.
educated and the whole time I’m thinking that team knows exactly what they’re doing, positive and negative because there’s ways to skew your PR in all sorts of ways and it’s magnificent to see when it’s done well, when it’s done well.
Diana Lammerts
But for that you need a strategy, you need to work together with the marketing team, with the branding team and with the media relations team.
So as I said it’s a whole group, it’s not just one, it’s a whole group of talent that is creating something like that.
Lynn Howard
Yeah, there’s so many questions. So I know we’re coming to an end. What is, I guess, probably should wrap it up instead of opening up another Pandora’s box, but well I do want to ask a question before I ask you, last little nuggets, is a lot of times when people are making budget, forecasting budget, they’re not quite sure where to put PR.
And, uh, if there’s a formula or percentage of their, and I don’t know, but especially for small businesses and entrepreneurs that they should set aside to be able to invest into PR, because PR, I feel like, and I think, I don’t know if it’s just because I’m learning more and more and I’m being more and more to over the last few years, or if it is like the movement, I think it might be a little bit more, a little bit of both being from an outsider who hasn’t necessarily seen lot of PR, but I feel like we need it more and more.
So, if you’re telling a new entrepreneur or a small business or even a season one, is there a percentage that they should be putting in a side and kind of where should they bracket that under?
Diana Lammerts
It would be definitely in the marketing brand building area, because they all go together and they, yeah, and they also should be in communications with each other to be consistent.
I understand agencies have packages and I’m a friend of customizing my pricing because the thing is if someone doesn’t have the budget as of yet, then that would be a hard no for them with others, but what if you just say okay, what are you willing to invest?
It’s like if you have McDonald’s money, you also have PR money. So if you, instead of going to Starbucks, if you say okay, you know what, I’m going to put this aside and this is what can I do with this?
Maybe it can help you just like, you know, teach you how to pitch or, you know, give you a nugget every month and then by that you build a house but with every little brick you can build the house.
You don’t have to have a million in order to build a house. You can start below and whatever you comfortable with.
But again, it takes time so that… just like building a house. It’s not well, somehow this nowadays can be done in a day, but that’s more like like place media.
So if you want to have like a house done in a day and you want to have place media, then of course, you know, it varies between hundreds to 10,000s of dollars depending on what you want.
So that is nothing, you know, that can, that is debatable. It just is what it is. However, if you say, okay, I’m going to put in the work myself, I want to learn and so forth, then the question is what are you comfortable with and what is your budget, how does it look like and so forth.
You also can say, okay, you’re right now, I need to focus on this more and I have a little bit less for PR, but I want to be consistent and consistently fill that bucket and then you get to the goal as well.
Lynn Howard
Of course, if you invest more than you get faster, it just depends on how patient you can be. Well, of course, but I love that.
Like you can start small brick by brick. a little bit of sweat equity as well, but putting it away and actually conceptualizing and understanding that you, that PR for me now is an essential part of, and obviously everybody on this call, but it’s an essential part of the business and looking at it from a holistic standpoint and how they intertwine with your marketing team, your brand new team, et cetera.
Even if you are the one wearing all of the hats, which we know some entrepreneurs are, it’s okay, but I love that you said, listen, like you can rub your sleeves and do it yourself, but like start sacking away that so that way you can get bigger movement with somebody who will take your, take your ideas, help you strategy, even refine your strategy more to push you in that direction.
I love that. I love that. What is one last piece of advice that you would like to leave the audience with?
Diana Lammerts
Oh, there’s so much, so many different angles. Just do it. But when you go out there, make sure you look at everything from different angles because sometimes doing something can create a crisis.
So when you go out and say something and whatnot, just with everything else, be mindful with your words.
Amanda Furgiuele
Always excellent advice to be mindful with your words. think that’s something we all need to take into consideration every single day, particularly with how things can be misconstrued so easily and without any kind of background there.
So thank you so much for all of this. And if anyone is interested in connecting with you, how can they reach out to you?
Diana Lammerts
Well, they can just visit my website, which is dnmediaai.co Or they can find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Diana Lumerts, which is D-I-A-N-A-L-A-M-M-E-R-T-S.
Lynn Howard
Of course, we’ll put everything in the show notes.
Amanda Furgiuele
Absolutely. It will be just scroll down a little bit. You’ll have all that information. And if you feel like this resonated with you, and if you wanted to share this with your other entrepreneurial or small business friends, make sure you are sending them this link, asking to subscribe and follow us, because we have more in store for you.
And as a special extra, if you are interested in hearing more from Diana, you can catch her on our summit coming up, or virtual summit in just a few days, it feels like seconds.
And that’s coming up November 5th and 6th, so make sure you catch us at the virtual summit.
Lynn Howard
Be finished strong, start fresh summit. Depending on where you’re at in the world, because in Southeast Asia, it’s all on the six.
So, just time check, time check. Yeah, sorry. And that’s also So in the show notes we hope to see you there, but also connect with her on social media, ask her questions, reach out to her, you actually do a console, correct, like a mini console.
–Diana Lammerts
I do, I do, I am happy to offer a 50 minute console to see where you add to see what your needs are, to maybe help you understand what kind of would be useful for you and what kind of strategy you need.
Lynn Howard
It’s an incredible offer. Thank you, Diane. It was so wonderful to have you on. And I’m so glad you said yes, Diana.
So I think that’s it. Yeah. All right. we’re joined until next time. Get after it. Bye.