How can you have your voice heard by media when you work in healing and wellness?
Lysa Black’s superpower? She can read hearts.
When I first met Lysa Black – Heart Magic’s Heart Healer, she was moving through a crowd of Mums in Business at the 2016 Liked Media Christmas Event.
She doesn’t do small talk!
She was the guest speaker at the event and she spoke about connecting the dots in life, describing her own journey from a career in world politics, based in Japan, to becoming a heart healer in Pipiwai, Northland.
Lysa’s tale captured me and I just knew that her story would also capture the hearts of readers.
INFLUENCER
Lysa falls into the media category of influencer – one of five media types that I work with.
She’s an author and authority on her subject. She’s a gifted healer with a massive following. She’s unique and confident. And she’s a genuinely interesting and intelligent woman with a lot to say.
She also coaches businesspeople to be more intuitive in their business. Interesting stuff, eh?
But Lysa recognised that her career path/healing was often a difficult one to share with news media. She’s had some disastrous experiences with media.
Many industries and professions have this problem. The whole arena of wellbeing, healing, and health has become so saturated with shysters and frauds that the authentic voices are not being heard.
Thankfully, Lysa got in touch with me and asked if I could help her voice to be heard.
PITCHING
I was confident that Lysa had the presence and power of conviction in her own abilities and message to carry her own story to the media. So, we arranged a coaching session to work on her pitch and her key messages.
Her pitch had to focus on the right media outlet, and the right reporter, with the right type of piece, at the right time.
MEDIA OUTLET: We decided on the Northern Advocate – as she had an upcoming live show in Whangarei.
JOURNALIST: We decided on Lindy Laird, as she’s an incredibly talented, award-winning features editor there.
ARTICLE TYPE: We decided to go all out – to try for a feature.
A feature is completely different from a news story. Features often focus on the person behind the news story. The why and who of the story. They are notoriously difficult to bag.
That’s because there are fewer features written by outlets than there are news stories. In the Northern Advocate, the weekly ratio is about 3 features to 250 news stories. They take about 4 times as long to write and require a completely different approach by writers.
Thankfully, Lysa is clever and had invested in branding photos with Stacey Milich Smith. Without images, the process might have been delayed or put off as some outlets might not have time to take them for you. Some outlets don’t even have photographers!
TIMING: We decided to give a good lead up, a good few weeks, before the coverage, to give the reporter and Lysa time to catch up.
(Reporters, especially feature editors, are often snowed under with requests, pitches, and interviews. Best to allow yourself plenty of time.)
KEY MESSAGES: Next, we worked on Lysa’s key messages. As a heart healer, there were so many points she could make. Just where would she start?
I always advise clients to pick 3 key messages for a news story and no more than 5 key messages or talking points for a feature. Keep it simple and note down the points.
To create the messages, ask yourself…“What is my main objective with this story?”
For Lysa, she needed hearts to heal – people to come along to the show. She also wanted to use the media as a platform to explain what she does – it’s quite a rare skill.
Next, I asked her questions such as…
- What are the main blocks that would stop someone from coming along to show?
- What misunderstandings are there about healing and what you do?
- What do you want people to know about the show?
- Is there anything that is likely to confuse the reporter interviewing you?
- What elements of your personal story are pertinent to the storytelling in this feature?
- Are there any delicate talking points that you would like to focus on?
Once we had discussed and worked on her pitching skills and her key messages – she was good to go.
And sure enough – along came the full-page feature in the Northern Advocate, written by Lindy Laird. A wonderful piece!
See the results for yourself!
And yep – her show was a sell out, in fact, she had to open up the room and get more chairs!
Lindy Laird from the Northern Advocate did a wonderful job capturing Lysa’s message.
Here’s what Lysa says about her experience.
If you think you might be an influencer, get in touch and let me help you shine in media!
Email me or call 021 08675001.
