Speaker 1: 0:30

Christina Daves PR for Anyone and I am a PR strategist, so I help mainly small businesses small to medium size get in the media, because most small businesses can't afford or can't sustain a PR firm.

Speaker 2: 0:46

Absolutely. And what got you into the industry and what led you up to this point in your life? Tell me a little bit about that. I am literally the accidental entrepreneur life.

Speaker 1: 0:52

Tell me a little bit about that. I am literally the accidental entrepreneur. So I had owned a retail store. I've always been an entrepreneur, decided to quote unquote retire to be with my kids, and I had a freak accident. I broke my foot. I was in one of those big ugly medical boots and I designed a fashion line for them.

Speaker 2: 1:12

Wow.

Speaker 1: 1:13

Yeah, it was pretty cool until I got. I was like well, how do I let people know? Because it didn't exist before. So I thought, okay, media, well, I'd hired a coach. That's a whole nother story. But actually the reason I'm successful is because I hired someone who stole $24,000 from me. Yeah, so I didn't have any money left to hire a PR firm, to hire advertising, and I did it myself and I figured out publicity and then I would go to these events with entrepreneurs and they're like forget the boot, how are you doing that? How did you get on TV? How did you get on the Steve Harvey show? And that actually changed my life was being on the Steve Harvey show Because I won his top inventor competition for the product and the rest was history.

Speaker 2: 1:56

Oh my gosh. Tell me how you're getting on to all these shows Because, for a little bit of a background for those who don't know, you've been on the Today Show. You interviewed the….

Speaker 1: 2:05

Hoda Kotb yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:07

So how are you doing all of?

Speaker 1: 2:08

this I'm asking. I've always told my kids that I tell my clients that You're never going to know if you don't try. And if you have a strategy in place which is what I teach my clients you can have success. So the Steve Harvey Show was a media query site and it said do you have a product you want to take to the next level? And then just said parentheses, national TV and I had applied for Shark Tank, this is season two and gotten all the way to the end. So I got, I got through the producers.

Speaker 1: 2:39

Then I always say, well, mark Burnett loved me, I don't know. His team said okay and then Sony said no, because in season one they had a cowboy boot product and they didn't know that Shark Tank was going to be what it is today. So they're like we can't have two back to back boot products. It's okay, because then I got on the Steve Harvey show. I didn't have to split anything with anybody and won $20,000, put my company on the map and that's really started the whole PR TV things. I'm like this is pretty cool, like I like this. I want to do this more. And then I started pitching myself as a lifestyle expert and featuring inventors and products, pitching myself as a lifestyle expert and featuring inventors and products and really becoming a product expert.

Speaker 2: 3:21

Absolutely. What a journey. Yeah, talk to me about the inventor part too, like how did that come to be? Because I saw that you like to invent things.

Speaker 1: 3:28

Yeah, well, so the, the fashion boot accessories. And you know I thought, oh, this is easy. I owned a retail store for 11 years. I can do this. Well, it was not as easy as I thought I went to. You know, I designed it with and this is really funny I designed it with our 85-year-old seamstress in the neighborhood.

Speaker 2: 3:47

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 3:47

I'm like Katie, we got to figure this out, how do we make this work? And it was really, really fun to work with her. We had a prototype and I called literally every textile factory in the United States to have it made in the United States. Nobody wanted to work with me. So then I went to New York to a textile show and literally had my sample which nobody knows what it is because the product doesn't exist and I went booth to booth like, can you make this, can you make this, can you make this? And I finally found a sock manufacturer out of Philadelphia who manufactured the product for me Nice.

Speaker 2: 4:19

I love how you are very persistent and you don't give up. And you said like you got to ask you just got to ask, you got to try. I love that. I feel like that's so important because a lot of people maybe ask and as soon as they hear maybe no, like the first three times, they're like you know what? Maybe this is not for me, but it just shows that persistence is key.

Speaker 1: 4:41

Absolutely. I say I tell my clients is like look in the mirror and say no to yourself a hundred times, cause you might hear no a hundred times. But when you get that yes, when you get Steve Harvey, when you get to interview Hoda Kotb, when you get these amazing things that happen. And now on my podcast I've just asked some PR people for celebrities and I'm getting yeses Like they're coming on my show. So I practice what I preach you. Just you have to try.

Speaker 2: 5:01

That's amazing. Talk to me a little bit about your podcast, the name of it and what's it about?

Speaker 1: 5:06

I'm so proud of it. It's called Living Ageless and Bold and I launched it to as I'm getting older I'm 57. You look great, thank you. You're getting older, I'm 57. You look great, oh, thank you.

Speaker 1: 5:21

But these women have incredible journeys and stories and and the next chapters like after you turn 50, after you know maybe you stayed home with your kids, maybe you worked the whole time. Now you're empty nesters. Hopefully you have a little bit of money socked away, that you have this whole new life ahead of you. You know we are, our generation is the most fit in history, the healthiest, wealthiest and most fit in history, and nobody's talking to us or about us. So I said, okay, I'm going to start a podcast, so it's called living ageless and bold.

Speaker 1: 5:47

And I reached out to people that I knew to kind of get things going, starting the podcast and, like I said, now I'm reaching out to celebrities I just interviewed. It hasn't dropped yet Gabrielle Anwar, the actress who danced with Al Pacino and sent of a woman like the iconic dance. But she struggles from bipolar disease and we went through her whole journey of being sexually abused as a child and then how that got her where she is, and now she's a grandmother and this is really helping, you know, in her transformation. So it's just everybody has a journey and a story and I just feel honored to be able to share it with my audience. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 6:29

That is amazing. Good for you and also providing some visibility for those. Some advice on maybe, if you're not able to overcome something, hearing somebody else's story can inspire you. That that's not too late.

Speaker 1: 6:42

I say that to every one of my guests. If we can change one person, if one person is listening and is inspired by what they have to say, we've done our job.

Speaker 2: 6:51

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 6:51

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:52

Now you are a PR queen, marketing queen. Tell me what you are doing to get your podcast out there, all that good stuff, and maybe could you provide some insight for our listeners. Yeah, some tips.

Speaker 1: 7:04

Yeah, so I practice what I preach. So we launched the podcast on Good Day DC, which was fun. I'm on there every month. That's been a process to get to that. But again, you give them a good media pitch, show up really, really well. You've got to give them good TV and now I just can email my producer and he knows I'm going to do a great job for him. And, hey, here's my idea for this month and okay, so I'm on next week. Uh, but that's so. I have a three-step process.

Speaker 1: 7:35

You want to be newsworthy, you want to create great hooks and you want to find the right journalist. So, being newsworthy, you need to be timely and relevant. Don't pitch something that they can say we could do that later. You really want it to be relevant to the seasons or what's happening in the world. You know, click on Google what are people talking about, and then a hook is your subject line. Don't just tell a journalist here's a story idea for you. They get 500 of those a day. You've got to hook them in, give them a short and sweet pitch and then make sure you're finding the right journalist. Don't send your business story because you get so excited that you found the fashion editor, unless you're in a fashion part of business. But it's really important to find that right person and don't send out a press release because they don't work and I've interviewed so many journalists they don't read them. Don't waste your money or your time. Learn how to do this instead.

Speaker 2: 8:25

Wow, this is some good tips Thank, you so when you were transitioning from inventor and then you said you were working at a retail business, correct?

Speaker 1: 8:35

I owned a retail store before I invented the product.

Speaker 2: 8:37

Okay, yes, how did you transition from that? Because you're so easy to talk to, you're so knowledgeable. What resources do you have for other people who maybe are looking to start a podcast?

Speaker 1: 8:46

Oh yeah, you know there's this great thing called Google. It's like amazing, amazing resources. I decided to do mine video and audio. I mean, you have a beautiful setup here. I do mine in my basement. I use a platform called Riverside for the video part of it that we put on YouTube. But just start and but know your strengths and your weaknesses. So I love this, like I love to interview people, but that's all I want to do. So I have someone on my team who does the editing and he posts everything. Today was I drop every Wednesday? So I don't have to do anything. I just got a notification this morning. He's like oh, spotify had a little hiccup. You know, I'll get it up as soon as they're. You know it's fixed. I'm like okay, perfect.

Speaker 2: 9:32

I love that. I love that you have like a little system going to help you. Yeah, that's great. And where do you see yourself in the next five years Like any room for expansion?

Speaker 1: 9:42

Awesome, anything new coming in the works. I ask all my guests that when do you see yourself in 10 years? I do. I see a much bigger platform for living ageless and bold. I think it's really important that these women get to share their stories. I mentor students at Virginia Tech and when they hear my story they'll come up to me afterwards or send me emails and like, oh, I'm not washed up because I didn't get the first job At 21 or 22,. There's so much pressure on these young women and when they can realize you can start all over again in your 50s, they're like wait. So since I've been 50, I launched the podcast. I became a regular lifestyle expert on TV. I became a QVC guest host in my 50s. I'm like, oh so 60s, who knows what's possible? But I really see the podcast as just being a much bigger platform to just inspire women all over the world about what's possible.

Speaker 2: 10:37

No, yeah, you're inspiring me right now because I feel that pressure sometimes where I'm like man, I'm 30 and I feel like I haven't accomplished this or that. So I think that's so great that you're doing that and giving people like that inspiration, because sometimes it does feel a little bit heavy out there.

Speaker 1: 10:51

Yeah, I have a 24 year old daughter. I know, and I feel especially for women, there's just so much pressure to do it all. You're supposed to get married, have kids, have a perfect career, have a perfect house. You know, do all these things it's hard and no, it's hard and nobody's perfect at it. So, and just know that you know I didn't. If you had told me in my 40s that I would be speaking on stages with 1000s of people and on TV, I would have been like you are absolutely crazy, like there is no way this is going to happen. So you just don't know what's possible. I love that.

Speaker 2: 11:25

I love that you're using the platform for this.

Speaker 1: 11:26

Go you.

Speaker 2: 11:27

Yeah, all right, and now talk to me about your book.

Speaker 1: 11:31

Yeah. So I wrote a book to help people get in the media. Again, super simple process. It explains the three-step process, it's the DIY guide to free publicity and there's 125 plus tips so you can flip through the book and say, oh, I can do this, or oh, I don't want to be on TV, I would rather be on podcasts or on radio. Well, find that tip and it tells you exactly what to do, step by step, just to get started.

Speaker 2: 11:59

Absolutely. Can you show us the book? I think we have it right there.

Speaker 1: 12:01

Yeah, if you want to show us.

Speaker 2: 12:03

Oh, did you put it? Yeah, I did. Well, it's in a secret place.

Speaker 1: 12:06

Here you go, there it is. So yeah, and there's the formula right here. It works. We have over a billion views and over $100 million in sales from free publicity using this system.

Speaker 2: 12:23

Oh, my goodness Okay.

Speaker 1: 12:23

You hear that folks. Yeah, use it, do it. Where can people get this book? Everywhere Amazon, barnes and Noble.

Speaker 2: 12:27

Go to my website, it's available everywhere Perfect, and what was the process like? Getting a book out? I know a lot of people have a lot of aspirations of making books. Tell us a little bit about how that journey has been.

Speaker 1: 12:37

Yeah, and it's so different now I wish we had AI. When I wrote this book, you know, I had kids, I had teenagers, so we had hockey and volleyball and lacrosse, and I would come home at night and I would write, and write, and write and write and then edit and write. And I knew I wanted it to be simple, the tips. And it's funny because when my first book, when I got it, I was so excited. The box came from the publisher and my son's like, oh, is that what you were doing? When I came home, like at curfew, when you were still there writing, I'm like, yes, I was writing my book, exactly exactly.

Speaker 1: 13:11

But again, women, we do what we have to do to get it done. And yeah, but now with AI, oh my gosh, you can or which I learned after I wrote the book you can record into your phone. So if you have a book in you and maybe you're not a writer, but you can speak it, speak it into your phone. And now you can speak it into your phone and put it into AI and say here's my book, make it perfect, and AI can do that for you.

Speaker 2: 13:36

That's incredible.

Speaker 1: 13:37

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:38

I love that you're using your sources. Yeah, Work harder, not smarter y'all.

Speaker 1: 13:41

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2: 13:42

All right, and so who are you when you're not out there doing public speaking, when you're not interviewing people? What do you like to do to unwind? What are some of your hobbies?

Speaker 1: 13:54

It's really funny that you said that I have a dear friend who just lost her husband and she doesn't have a hobby either. We're like we don't have any hobbies. Like what can we do? Like, let's figure something out. I just played pickleball for the first time. Hey, that's a hobby.

Speaker 1: 14:10

That's right, I like that. We're huge tailgaters at Virginia Tech, like big Virginia Tech people, so that occupies my entire fall. We're big hockey fans. I like sports. Can sports be a hobby? Yes, ma'am, yeah, I like wine. I like to wind down at night with that, but I love what I do. So it's hard for me to wind down because I have all these big ideas that I'll sit at night on my computer and just, oh, what about this and what about?

Speaker 2: 14:32

this Step away, scheme away. Yeah, no, I love that. That means that you're doing your hobby is your 24-7, right, yeah. That's your hobby, your passion.

Speaker 1: 14:39

That's your hobby, your passion, that's it, and I guess now the hobby is the podcast, like it really is. It's really become something I never dreamed of and it's really good and I see a lot of future for it.

Speaker 2: 14:50

Oh, yay, I'm excited for you and I'm happy for you.

Speaker 1: 14:52

Congratulations to that, thanks.

Speaker 2: 14:53

Absolutely. And now, since I have you here and we've got some listeners listening, can you maybe let me know if I've asked you, anything that you want to share, or yeah, from the PR part, just do it, Just do it.

Speaker 1: 15:08

The media is 24-7, 365. They need our stories. They need it's not like the old days, you know, when you had four channels and one newspaper. They are constantly looking for content. So if you can give good content, they will love you and invite you back over and over and over again.

Speaker 2: 15:25

Absolutely. Do you have any plans on, like I know you said that you have like a little studio downstairs? Do you have any plans on maybe getting your own studio and making that like?

Speaker 1: 15:36

I don't know. I'm looking at this studio, thinking this is really nice, you should go for it.

Speaker 2: 15:41

I think you could absolutely do it. Look at our little setup. I'm sure you have your own little setup that works too. I do.

Speaker 1: 15:46

I do. A lot of my people are remote, though, so it's a little different, but, yeah, this is gorgeous. Thank you, yeah, it's awesome.

Speaker 2: 15:52

I really appreciate that. Could you provide some insights, maybe on social media and how business owners who are struggling to what they're doing for their clients out there yeah, you've got to not post just to post period.

Speaker 1: 16:09

You have to have a strategy. We're in scroll nation. You know we're going through our phones. You need a hook. You've got to grab people. You've got to get them to stop in their tracks to then read about. You know, read your post, watch your video, whatever that is.

Speaker 1: 16:25

I love using the imagine statement. Imagine if, because people put themselves in that position, so that's great. I work with a lot of realtors and I always tell them that I'm like do your posts. Imagine you wake up every morning in this kitchen. Imagine pulling your turkey out of this oven and your whole family's all around the island. Get people to feel. That's the key to everything People buy when they feel and you need to relate, and this is so hard and I work with so many clients on this. You think you know what they need, but you need to talk to them in what they think they need. You'll get your chance to fix them and do what you do best, but you've got to talk to them in what they think their pain point is, and that's what your social media needs to do. You need to be addressing their pain points. You need to hook them in with your solution and then get them to start following you, and the rest will be history.

Speaker 2: 17:19

All right, and talk to me a little bit about QVC.

Speaker 1: 17:23

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 17:23

Tell me how that happened. Yeah, what's going on.

Speaker 1: 17:26

Same thing I asked. I went before COVID. I went to Westchester. I had this amazing audition. It was so good. I was like I'm in, I'm in, I'm in. I wasn't in. I did not get accepted. I was so sad, yeah, because I'm like this is so cool and so fun and you just don't know, Like I had pink nail polish on, Maybe they didn't like pink nail polish. You just have no idea. Well then COVID hit and I was doing so much more with, like, online TV, you know from my home, and so I just applied online and I said I applied before. You know, it was right before COVID. I don't know that I officially said I wasn't accepted. I just said it was right before COVID, which is true. But I got accepted. I got the yes and then I recently got an agent, because every audition I had I was losing to his people, I was always in second and then so this week I just had a really good audition.

Speaker 2: 18:23

So I'm really excited. I'm hoping that comes through. Yeah, yes, thank you.

Speaker 1: 18:24

Thank you, but again, you can't give up. You got to keep. If it's what you want, keep trying, all right.

Speaker 2: 18:29

And so my final question is going to be if you could leave our audience with a message, or maybe a mantra that you like to live your life by, what would that be?

Speaker 1: 18:37

Yeah, and I've said it throughout and I raised my kids with this it's just ask, just ask. Going to get anywhere if you don't ask? But I say you're not asking someone to rob a bank or do something illegal, but if you need help, find a mentor. Most people are not going to say no. There's a study out of Stanford that said people are actually more afraid to say no at the reaction of no than they are to say yes. So just ask. The worst you're going to get is no, and I've done this. I have a lot of students reach out and like I've been super busy lately and I'm like just reach back out in two weeks I'll totally help you. I just can't do it right now and I think most people will do that for you.

Speaker 2: 19:17

I love that. Be fearless, be bold and believe in yourself. You can do this. Yeah, you can do it. Well, thank you so.