April 1, 2024
Media, Mayhem and What Happens in a Small Town
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Show Notes for That Solo Life: Episode 242
In this episode: That Solo Life co-hosts, Karen Swim, APR and Michelle Kane talk about some of the insights from the "Muckrack 2024 State of Journalism" and discuss the emerging trends shaping media relations today.
Episode Highlights:- Discussing the Muckrack 2024 State of Journalism Report. We dig into the latest findings and what they mean for the future of journalism. What are the new challenges and opportunities for those in media relations? Check out the full report here: Muckrack 2024 State of Journalism
- The Art of Storytelling .Why storytelling remains the heart of compelling communication and how it's evolving with the times.
- Beyond Earned Media. How can PR professionals leverage their creativity and expertise beyond traditional media? We explore strategies to amplify your message and engage your audience.
Resources Mentioned:
- Muckrack 2024 State of Journalism: Read the report
Call to Action:
Looking for more insights into the PR world? Head over to Solo PR Pro and become part of our community. Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter for the latest tips and trends.
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That Solo Life Podcast: Media, Mayhem and What Happens in a Small Town
Michelle Kane (00:02):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with Voice Matters and my wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hi Karen. How's it going today?
Karen Swim, APR (00:19):
Hello, Michelle. It is the first day of spring as we're recording this, but you would not be able to tell it by the Michigan weather. How are you
Michelle Kane (00:28):
Nor with the Pennsylvania weather? We were lulled into the false spring the week prior, and now it's like I am so over socks and my winter coat. Come on. And then realistically, I look at my calendar and say, well, as the Great Purple one says, sometimes it snows in April. So anything is possible until it really gets warm and stays that way. So yeah, you know
Karen Swim, APR (00:54):
The snow here today in Michigan, like happy first day of Spring.
Michelle Kane (00:59):
Hey, ha ha. Go get your free water ice. Woohoo.
Karen Swim, APR (01:06):
Yeah.
Michelle Kane (01:07):
Oh my goodness. Yeah, but that's okay. So it's just as well we're covering, we're rolling with it. And it seems that, so are we as PR pros, we're rolling with all the stuff. So today we're going to cover a little bit of a PR roundup, see what's going on out there. And there certainly is a lot happening by the time this airs. Who knows where Princess Kate will be, but it looks like she's doing alright. I don't know. I don't want to get ahead of ourselves because by the time this airs, who knows? But in reality, MuckRack has given us a lot to chew on with the state of PR and lots happening with news that Gannett has canceled its subscription to AP and what does that mean? And we further just want to crawl under our media pitching blankets. But
(01:59):
But don't despair.
(02:00):
The media story as we have said many, many times on this past podcast in the past year or so, is that it is under a lot of financial pressure. So money is the underlying problem to it all. So you've got outlets that are understaffed, you have some outlets figuring out how do we make money? So you see a lot of publishers, even big publishers like Forbes, we've seen them turn more to paid content and paid events for their subscribers and other revenue generating opportunities that are outside of just producing, I almost don't want to say news because I don't but content, let's say that. And we see some publications turning it just straight up AI writing. We see syndication services. We see a lot more in the paid slice of the PESO pie and the Gannett decision. And I didn't realize, but they have, as I was reading the news this morning that that's more than 230 publishers.
(03:12):
So a lot of local outlets and AP news to all of us PR pros has always been a trusted source of good old fashioned journalism. You got good stories that were actual news. You got real and true journalism, and it saddens me. But AP is also making a pivot and doing more with their own e-news and pivoting into different places. And so in some ways, rather than AP feeding news to other outlets, we may see a shift where AP is now in competition with those outlets. But Gannett's decision was driven according to what I've been reading by financial pressures. They just can't afford it. And again, we talk about this a lot as communicators because journalism is so important to the world that we live in, and I feel like we're the only ones that are sounding the alarm about the loss of it.
(04:22):
Yes, yes. And it's been such a swift decline. And then people say, well, why didn't I know about that? And I like to say, well, it's as simple as subscribing to your local newspaper and you can crack jokes about it and how well they spelled this wrong or that sounded dumb. And I'm thinking, yeah, so who does it from time to time? Even the pros. But that is, they are your eyes and ears to your communities and your world, and they are the sentinels. They are keeping an eye on things for us, reporting mostly truthfully. And that's important. You want to know what's going on at your school board meetings.
Karen Swim, APR (05:12):
Yes,
Michelle Kane (05:13):
You need to make sure there's a local reporter sitting there and covering it for you because it matters. It all matters so much. And yeah, I feel like I say it ad nauseum and am I speaking into the void? I don't know. And are we going to get to a point where it's truly dangerous before people take notice? I don't know. And then again, what do you do about it? What comes to mind is that that saying that came to the forefront when social media just started social business. Every company is a media company and what you say with how AP is pivoting, that's especially true for them. Yes, we've always been a media company, but we are going to do it on our own, not if we don't have the subscribers, then we are the source, which fine. Okay.
Karen Swim, APR (06:08):
I think, and remember we talked a lot about this. I can't believe it's been so many years since the dawn of the social era, but when social media democratized access to information and made it a lot easier to spread it, we clearly, many of us saw the benefits and we focused on the benefits for many years about how that was helpful to be able to share information in real time and to be able to respond and to have access to those that were reporting. And as consumers of information. That was a beautiful thing. But I think that maybe we saw some of the negative points, but those have become more of the highlight. We have more Mis-, Mal- and disinformation and those sources spread like wildfire and you can spend all day fact checking, and it's impossible to get ahead of that curve. It just spreads.
(07:07):
And we also have consumers who are now desensitized for the need to pay for information because it's so freely available. And even with paywalls, there's still so much free information out there. There are some people that get all of their news from YouTube or from TikTok, and so they don't know what it's like and they don't see the difference. And that's the key. They don't see the difference and the nuances between content and true journalism, and so they can't appreciate that. But you said something that I think is so important on a national level. We need journalists. Journalists, and I mean journalists that belong to associations that were trained as journalists that really have adhere to journalistic ethics. Those are the ones that are holding us accountable in our day-to-Day lives. They're the ones that are holding the government accountable. They're reporting on the stories, but on a local basis, I love reading little local newspapers, and I love reading about the little paper that has, it's the only paper in town, and there's two people that work there who took on their sheriff and do a deep dive into corruption. Same thing. These are the reporters that are working, and they're the news hounds of old that really are digging deeper and they're telling the full story. It's through those journalistic efforts that we learn about marginalized populations. We learn about corruption, we learn about inequities. We learn about what's really happening across our world. And if we're not willing to pony up and pay for that in some way, and we think everything is supposed to be free, how are those journalists and their media outlets supposed to be funded?
Michelle Kane (09:10):
Yeah, exactly. It, it's a truth that we need to remember. It's funny, I was reading this morning, the Philadelphia Enquirer had a story on, and it was a long timeline of the Sheriff's department and how it's been long in need of some correction as far as there's no sheriff's sales, where's the corruption? How did we get here? And I just said a little sentence of gratitude. I am so glad that they are currently funded, thankfully, due to the Lenfest and their foundation, where it's almost really set up as a foundation to ensure that the Enquirer remains funded and robust so that they can do these deep dives every day. I'm grateful because our little weekly locals, we had one guy who was the stalwart, and you saw him everywhere. And if you didn't see him everywhere, he'd said, send me your story and we'll make sure we cover it. And he passed away unexpected. I mean, we all expect to pass away, but he wasn't ill or anything. It was a sudden death. And we thought, oh my goodness, are they even going to replace him? And I'm grateful that they did. But again, this poor guy, he's everywhere. I see him everywhere, and I think, oh, and every time I see him, I say, thank you. Thank you for doing all this hard work because there's a reason why our First Amendment addresses the freedom a free press,
Karen Swim, APR (10:41):
Because
Michelle Kane (10:42):
It's important to the health of our government, to the health of our society. And yes, sometimes they get it wrong. Sure, of course, none of us are perfect, but it's really essential, and I'll never get tired of saying that. And again, it does present challenges for our work as PR professionals, and we have to get creative. We have to continue to get creative as this MuckRack report shares that we'll share in the show notes. We also have to be patient because it takes longer if you're even going to be picked up or land that placement. It's a slower burn than ever.
Karen Swim, APR (11:29):
Yeah, it is. And that MuckRack report, just the new, I'm sorry, I cannot find my words today. It's okay.
(11:39):
The new 2024 MuckRack Report, the state of journalism in 2024, I think is the official name of it, just backs it up and talks about how it's getting harder and that it requires you to be patient and what you need to do in order to get your experts in front of people. And I think that we all know from personal experience that with so few outlets, then especially for on air opportunities, you've really got to have a good story, and you've really got to have the right person because there's more of the well-known influencers and experts, and when there's well-known people, they're going to choose that person over your unknown expert, especially in hot topic areas like AI, which some of us work in that space because it goes along with technology. So it's tougher out there. And I think I love the advice of, and we've talked about this, about thinking broader and thinking about what are some of the other things that you can do? Are there other content streams that you have neglected because you've relied so heavily on earned media? Just we, honestly, all of us communication pros really need to make sure that we are upleveling our skill sets and that we're not afraid to try new things or to learn areas that maybe we previously have not been involved in. Right?
Michelle Kane (13:09):
I mean, really it all gets back to storytelling, and I don't mean fantasy or making things up, but really what are the different ways that you can tell the story of your clients? And depending what industry they're in, whether they're B2B or B2C, of course that's going to influence it. And how to establish your thought leadership, your expertise. How can you present your client as being the answer to the pain points of the people that they're looking to do business with? So in one way, it's exciting to be creative in these ways, and a lot of it too is bringing your clients along for this journey. And really, again, we talk about this all the time, educating your clients and educating the public of, okay, this is how we can do this now. And they might be reluctant at first, who knows, especially if it's involving video or something. They may think, oh, I can't do that. But it's our job to really guide them and walk alongside them and help them see this through.
Karen Swim, APR (14:18):
I love that you called out the storytelling, because I think sometimes as PR pros, we are so focused on our day-to-Day and the strategy and all of the things that we do that we forget to stop for a moment and remember the beauty of storytelling that has not gone out of fashion. I remember sharing with someone this week about this podcast that I used to listen to, and I've got to find it in my library because blanking on the name of it, but they told these beautiful stories still react to good storytelling that draws them in. And it does not matter if your subject matter is exciting or not. I mean, I think that we sometimes forget that your client could do what seemingly is the most boring thing. But I know that as communicators, that's part of our gift, is that we're able to look at the mundane and we're able to draw from it and really weave together a story.
(15:20):
So I think that you're right, Michelle, that we have to ensure that we have the seat at the table, that we are clearly communicating strategic objectives in that we are bringing our clients with us and allowing us to use that creativity that we all have to tell these richer stories that really draw people in to the product and to the service. It's not all about product news and features. It's about being able to tell a story that people relate to. And there's so many beautiful ways to do that. I was reading about a PR pro on LinkedIn who has a background in film, and so he's brought that in to his PR work and created these little vignettes for clients that tell the story of their brand in such beautiful ways. Some of you are former journalists, and so you have that art form underneath your belt. And so don't be afraid to branch out and bring the things that you're expert at into that to tell those stories. It doesn't have to be the traditional corporate blah, blah, blah that your clients are comfortable with, push them out of their comfort zone and out of their comfort zone and do something a little bit differently.
Michelle Kane (16:41):
Yeah, it's funny, even as you were saying that I'm picturing, yes, get the CEO of the company or the spokesperson of your company, maybe do they have an interesting hobby that there's a great story of something they did and get them coverage in a sideways manner? Because then they'll say, oh, okay, Bob Smith, who is the CEO of blah, blah, blah. Okay, someone might be watching it for the value of the story, and it might trigger, oh, this person works where I need that. That's what I mean when I say, when we say slow burn, you never know. Not that you're throwing things at the wall, but use each opportunity to its fullest in a way that can benefit your client and help us, really help us broadcast and amplify all the great things that our clients are doing. I mean, that's really it in a nutshell. So yes, are these challenging times? Absolutely. But we've gotten through them before and we'll get through them again. It's funny this week with some of the things happening in tech and whatnot, and I think, oh, is this how people felt when we went from scribing to the print shop to setting type?
Karen Swim, APR (18:03):
Is
Michelle Kane (18:03):
This how they felt? Yeah. But well, tell us what's going on. What's new in the solo PR pro world? Karen, I know you've had some really exciting things coming up lately.
Karen Swim, APR (18:13):
Have, we've had a lot of technical challenges on the solo PR pro side. It's just been that kind of year. But we also, we did a webinar on S Corps, and we'll share the link to where it's on our YouTube channel, so you can watch it whenever you want, as many times as you want. But I'm so excited that by the time this airs, you will also have access to our special podcast episode about the Department of Labor and their role changes, and we've got more special guests coming up this year. So we encourage you to please subscribe so that you stay on top of all of the latest and the greatest. And I just want to take a moment, because we're nearly 250 episodes into this podcast thing, Michelle and I, and we're not done in many ways. I feel like we're just getting started on a whole new chapter.
(19:10):
But to my wonderful cohost who puts up with all of my shenanigans and who has stretched me in my comfort zone, there's nobody that I'd rather be doing this with than you, Michelle. Oh goodness. I'm so appreciative for every single listener, every single person who shares our stuff on social media, every single person who comments and says that they got something from the episode, maybe you never say a word, but the fact that you downloaded the episode means the world to us because there are 92 million podcasts out there. So to have you listen to us is just such a huge honor. Please help us to keep this going. This is a labor of love for us. We're not trying to become major influencers. We're not getting rich off of this. We're not getting paid from this. This truly is something that we're doing because we want to share and we want to connect with other communication pros, and we look for ways to give you a break in your day or share some information that can help you to have a better business or have a better career. So we hope that we're doing that, and we just want to say thank you today, the start of spring seems like a good day to say thank you so much.
Michelle Kane (20:33):
A hundred percent. I couldn't agree more. Karen, you are the same. You have stretched me. You motivate me. I am so honored to be on this ride with you. It's such fun. And to nerd out about the work that we love to and to hopefully make our listeners giggle, nod your head, inspire you in any way. Oh my gosh, if we did that, a day made. So we so appreciate you. But yes, please do. Visit solo pr pro.com. Make sure you sign up for the newsletter. Join us. And until next time, thank you for listening to That Solo Life.
Michelle Kane (00:02):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with Voice Matters and my wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hi Karen. How's it going today?
Karen Swim, APR (00:19):
Hello, Michelle. It is the first day of spring as we're recording this, but you would not be able to tell it by the Michigan weather. How are you
Michelle Kane (00:28):
Nor with the Pennsylvania weather? We were lulled into the false spring the week prior, and now it's like I am so over socks and my winter coat. Come on. And then realistically, I look at my calendar and say, well, as the Great Purple one says, sometimes it snows in April. So anything is possible until it really gets warm and stays that way. So yeah, you know
Karen Swim, APR (00:54):
The snow here today in Michigan, like happy first day of Spring.
Michelle Kane (00:59):
Hey, ha ha. Go get your free water ice. Woohoo.
Karen Swim, APR (01:06):
Yeah.
Michelle Kane (01:07):
Oh my goodness. Yeah, but that's okay. So it's just as well we're covering, we're rolling with it. And it seems that, so are we as PR pros, we're rolling with all the stuff. So today we're going to cover a little bit of a PR roundup, see what's going on out there. And there certainly is a lot happening by the time this airs. Who knows where Princess Kate will be, but it looks like she's doing alright. I don't know. I don't want to get ahead of ourselves because by the time this airs, who knows? But in reality, MuckRack has given us a lot to chew on with the state of PR and lots happening with news that Gannett has canceled its subscription to AP and what does that mean? And we further just want to crawl under our media pitching blankets. But
(01:59):
But don't despair.
(02:00):
The media story as we have said many, many times on this past podcast in the past year or so, is that it is under a lot of financial pressure. So money is the underlying problem to it all. So you've got outlets that are understaffed, you have some outlets figuring out how do we make money? So you see a lot of publishers, even big publishers like Forbes, we've seen them turn more to paid content and paid events for their subscribers and other revenue generating opportunities that are outside of just producing, I almost don't want to say news because I don't but content, let's say that. And we see some publications turning it just straight up AI writing. We see syndication services. We see a lot more in the paid slice of the PESO pie and the Gannett decision. And I didn't realize, but they have, as I was reading the news this morning that that's more than 230 publishers.
(03:12):
So a lot of local outlets and AP news to all of us PR pros has always been a trusted source of good old fashioned journalism. You got good stories that were actual news. You got real and true journalism, and it saddens me. But AP is also making a pivot and doing more with their own e-news and pivoting into different places. And so in some ways, rather than AP feeding news to other outlets, we may see a shift where AP is now in competition with those outlets. But Gannett's decision was driven according to what I've been reading by financial pressures. They just can't afford it. And again, we talk about this a lot as communicators because journalism is so important to the world that we live in, and I feel like we're the only ones that are sounding the alarm about the loss of it.
(04:22):
Yes, yes. And it's been such a swift decline. And then people say, well, why didn't I know about that? And I like to say, well, it's as simple as subscribing to your local newspaper and you can crack jokes about it and how well they spelled this wrong or that sounded dumb. And I'm thinking, yeah, so who does it from time to time? Even the pros. But that is, they are your eyes and ears to your communities and your world, and they are the sentinels. They are keeping an eye on things for us, reporting mostly truthfully. And that's important. You want to know what's going on at your school board meetings.
Karen Swim, APR (05:12):
Yes,
Michelle Kane (05:13):
You need to make sure there's a local reporter sitting there and covering it for you because it matters. It all matters so much. And yeah, I feel like I say it ad nauseum and am I speaking into the void? I don't know. And are we going to get to a point where it's truly dangerous before people take notice? I don't know. And then again, what do you do about it? What comes to mind is that that saying that came to the forefront when social media just started social business. Every company is a media company and what you say with how AP is pivoting, that's especially true for them. Yes, we've always been a media company, but we are going to do it on our own, not if we don't have the subscribers, then we are the source, which fine. Okay.
Karen Swim, APR (06:08):
I think, and remember we talked a lot about this. I can't believe it's been so many years since the dawn of the social era, but when social media democratized access to information and made it a lot easier to spread it, we clearly, many of us saw the benefits and we focused on the benefits for many years about how that was helpful to be able to share information in real time and to be able to respond and to have access to those that were reporting. And as consumers of information. That was a beautiful thing. But I think that maybe we saw some of the negative points, but those have become more of the highlight. We have more Mis-, Mal- and disinformation and those sources spread like wildfire and you can spend all day fact checking, and it's impossible to get ahead of that curve. It just spreads.
(07:07):
And we also have consumers who are now desensitized for the need to pay for information because it's so freely available. And even with paywalls, there's still so much free information out there. There are some people that get all of their news from YouTube or from TikTok, and so they don't know what it's like and they don't see the difference. And that's the key. They don't see the difference and the nuances between content and true journalism, and so they can't appreciate that. But you said something that I think is so important on a national level. We need journalists. Journalists, and I mean journalists that belong to associations that were trained as journalists that really have adhere to journalistic ethics. Those are the ones that are holding us accountable in our day-to-Day lives. They're the ones that are holding the government accountable. They're reporting on the stories, but on a local basis, I love reading little local newspapers, and I love reading about the little paper that has, it's the only paper in town, and there's two people that work there who took on their sheriff and do a deep dive into corruption. Same thing. These are the reporters that are working, and they're the news hounds of old that really are digging deeper and they're telling the full story. It's through those journalistic efforts that we learn about marginalized populations. We learn about corruption, we learn about inequities. We learn about what's really happening across our world. And if we're not willing to pony up and pay for that in some way, and we think everything is supposed to be free, how are those journalists and their media outlets supposed to be funded?
Michelle Kane (09:10):
Yeah, exactly. It, it's a truth that we need to remember. It's funny, I was reading this morning, the Philadelphia Enquirer had a story on, and it was a long timeline of the Sheriff's department and how it's been long in need of some correction as far as there's no sheriff's sales, where's the corruption? How did we get here? And I just said a little sentence of gratitude. I am so glad that they are currently funded, thankfully, due to the Lenfest and their foundation, where it's almost really set up as a foundation to ensure that the Enquirer remains funded and robust so that they can do these deep dives every day. I'm grateful because our little weekly locals, we had one guy who was the stalwart, and you saw him everywhere. And if you didn't see him everywhere, he'd said, send me your story and we'll make sure we cover it. And he passed away unexpected. I mean, we all expect to pass away, but he wasn't ill or anything. It was a sudden death. And we thought, oh my goodness, are they even going to replace him? And I'm grateful that they did. But again, this poor guy, he's everywhere. I see him everywhere, and I think, oh, and every time I see him, I say, thank you. Thank you for doing all this hard work because there's a reason why our First Amendment addresses the freedom a free press,
Karen Swim, APR (10:41):
Because
Michelle Kane (10:42):
It's important to the health of our government, to the health of our society. And yes, sometimes they get it wrong. Sure, of course, none of us are perfect, but it's really essential, and I'll never get tired of saying that. And again, it does present challenges for our work as PR professionals, and we have to get creative. We have to continue to get creative as this MuckRack report shares that we'll share in the show notes. We also have to be patient because it takes longer if you're even going to be picked up or land that placement. It's a slower burn than ever.
Karen Swim, APR (11:29):
Yeah, it is. And that MuckRack report, just the new, I'm sorry, I cannot find my words today. It's okay.
(11:39):
The new 2024 MuckRack Report, the state of journalism in 2024, I think is the official name of it, just backs it up and talks about how it's getting harder and that it requires you to be patient and what you need to do in order to get your experts in front of people. And I think that we all know from personal experience that with so few outlets, then especially for on air opportunities, you've really got to have a good story, and you've really got to have the right person because there's more of the well-known influencers and experts, and when there's well-known people, they're going to choose that person over your unknown expert, especially in hot topic areas like AI, which some of us work in that space because it goes along with technology. So it's tougher out there. And I think I love the advice of, and we've talked about this, about thinking broader and thinking about what are some of the other things that you can do? Are there other content streams that you have neglected because you've relied so heavily on earned media? Just we, honestly, all of us communication pros really need to make sure that we are upleveling our skill sets and that we're not afraid to try new things or to learn areas that maybe we previously have not been involved in. Right?
Michelle Kane (13:09):
I mean, really it all gets back to storytelling, and I don't mean fantasy or making things up, but really what are the different ways that you can tell the story of your clients? And depending what industry they're in, whether they're B2B or B2C, of course that's going to influence it. And how to establish your thought leadership, your expertise. How can you present your client as being the answer to the pain points of the people that they're looking to do business with? So in one way, it's exciting to be creative in these ways, and a lot of it too is bringing your clients along for this journey. And really, again, we talk about this all the time, educating your clients and educating the public of, okay, this is how we can do this now. And they might be reluctant at first, who knows, especially if it's involving video or something. They may think, oh, I can't do that. But it's our job to really guide them and walk alongside them and help them see this through.
Karen Swim, APR (14:18):
I love that you called out the storytelling, because I think sometimes as PR pros, we are so focused on our day-to-Day and the strategy and all of the things that we do that we forget to stop for a moment and remember the beauty of storytelling that has not gone out of fashion. I remember sharing with someone this week about this podcast that I used to listen to, and I've got to find it in my library because blanking on the name of it, but they told these beautiful stories still react to good storytelling that draws them in. And it does not matter if your subject matter is exciting or not. I mean, I think that we sometimes forget that your client could do what seemingly is the most boring thing. But I know that as communicators, that's part of our gift, is that we're able to look at the mundane and we're able to draw from it and really weave together a story.
(15:20):
So I think that you're right, Michelle, that we have to ensure that we have the seat at the table, that we are clearly communicating strategic objectives in that we are bringing our clients with us and allowing us to use that creativity that we all have to tell these richer stories that really draw people in to the product and to the service. It's not all about product news and features. It's about being able to tell a story that people relate to. And there's so many beautiful ways to do that. I was reading about a PR pro on LinkedIn who has a background in film, and so he's brought that in to his PR work and created these little vignettes for clients that tell the story of their brand in such beautiful ways. Some of you are former journalists, and so you have that art form underneath your belt. And so don't be afraid to branch out and bring the things that you're expert at into that to tell those stories. It doesn't have to be the traditional corporate blah, blah, blah that your clients are comfortable with, push them out of their comfort zone and out of their comfort zone and do something a little bit differently.
Michelle Kane (16:41):
Yeah, it's funny, even as you were saying that I'm picturing, yes, get the CEO of the company or the spokesperson of your company, maybe do they have an interesting hobby that there's a great story of something they did and get them coverage in a sideways manner? Because then they'll say, oh, okay, Bob Smith, who is the CEO of blah, blah, blah. Okay, someone might be watching it for the value of the story, and it might trigger, oh, this person works where I need that. That's what I mean when I say, when we say slow burn, you never know. Not that you're throwing things at the wall, but use each opportunity to its fullest in a way that can benefit your client and help us, really help us broadcast and amplify all the great things that our clients are doing. I mean, that's really it in a nutshell. So yes, are these challenging times? Absolutely. But we've gotten through them before and we'll get through them again. It's funny this week with some of the things happening in tech and whatnot, and I think, oh, is this how people felt when we went from scribing to the print shop to setting type?
Karen Swim, APR (18:03):
Is
Michelle Kane (18:03):
This how they felt? Yeah. But well, tell us what's going on. What's new in the solo PR pro world? Karen, I know you've had some really exciting things coming up lately.
Karen Swim, APR (18:13):
Have, we've had a lot of technical challenges on the solo PR pro side. It's just been that kind of year. But we also, we did a webinar on S Corps, and we'll share the link to where it's on our YouTube channel, so you can watch it whenever you want, as many times as you want. But I'm so excited that by the time this airs, you will also have access to our special podcast episode about the Department of Labor and their role changes, and we've got more special guests coming up this year. So we encourage you to please subscribe so that you stay on top of all of the latest and the greatest. And I just want to take a moment, because we're nearly 250 episodes into this podcast thing, Michelle and I, and we're not done in many ways. I feel like we're just getting started on a whole new chapter.
(19:10):
But to my wonderful cohost who puts up with all of my shenanigans and who has stretched me in my comfort zone, there's nobody that I'd rather be doing this with than you, Michelle. Oh goodness. I'm so appreciative for every single listener, every single person who shares our stuff on social media, every single person who comments and says that they got something from the episode, maybe you never say a word, but the fact that you downloaded the episode means the world to us because there are 92 million podcasts out there. So to have you listen to us is just such a huge honor. Please help us to keep this going. This is a labor of love for us. We're not trying to become major influencers. We're not getting rich off of this. We're not getting paid from this. This truly is something that we're doing because we want to share and we want to connect with other communication pros, and we look for ways to give you a break in your day or share some information that can help you to have a better business or have a better career. So we hope that we're doing that, and we just want to say thank you today, the start of spring seems like a good day to say thank you so much.
Michelle Kane (20:33):
A hundred percent. I couldn't agree more. Karen, you are the same. You have stretched me. You motivate me. I am so honored to be on this ride with you. It's such fun. And to nerd out about the work that we love to and to hopefully make our listeners giggle, nod your head, inspire you in any way. Oh my gosh, if we did that, a day made. So we so appreciate you. But yes, please do. Visit solo pr pro.com. Make sure you sign up for the newsletter. Join us. And until next time, thank you for listening to That Solo Life.