Lauren Salaun [sounds like hair "salon"] is a PR and marketing consultant, media personality, speaker, and entrepreneur. She is a former health coach, personal trainer, fitness model and competitor.
A lifelong athlete, Lauren spent the bulk of her career in public relations, crisis communications, and marketing before launching a health and fitness coaching business in 2015. While helping people live their healthiest lives and dipping her toes into the world of fitness competitions, Lauren continued her PR and social media consulting and coaching, supporting entrepreneurs in the health, wellness, lifestyle, and personal development industries in building their influence online and monetizing their social media. Lauren has extensive experience in public relations, marketing, and media, from crisis communications to running her own social media management company, being an on-air podcast personality, red-carpet host, and influencer, and of course today, running her own PR agency and being a sought-after speaker on public relations, influencer marketing, and visibility.
In 2019, Lauren launched influence+IMPACT ["Influence And Impact"], a PR and influencer marketing agency, where she helps entrepreneurs elevate their visibility, strengthen their authority in their industry, and share their message on a global level so they can increase their income and make even more of an impact.
Contact Lauren:
[Podcast Transcript Using Artificial Intelligence]
Umar Hameed 0:06
Are you ready to become awesomer? Hello everyone, this is Umar Hameed, your host and welcome to the No Limits Selling Podcast, where industry leaders share their tips, strategies and advice on how to make you better, stronger, faster, get ready for another episode.
Umar Hameed 0:35
Hello everyone. Today I had the pleasure of having Lauren Salaun here today. And she is a PR expert and PR is such a powerful way to get your message across with credibility, but something hard to do yourself. So I'm really looking forward to this conversation. Lauren, welcome to the program.
Lauren Salaun 0:52
Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here. Yeah! and to share some some knowledge because as you said, PR is very important and a lot of people just really don't know where to start, or really what it means, you know.
Umar Hameed 1:05
You got to know the lay of the land, because oftentimes, you know,everyone thinks they have the most beautiful baby but nobody cares about your baby. And you have to make your baby relevant to not only the institution, but their audience.
Lauren Salaun 1:17
Oh my gosh, exactly! I love that you said it that way. But but yeah, one of one of my roles, so I run a PR agency, and I have a program where I teach entrepreneurs how to do their own PR, and they get some agency experience with that as well. And I always tell people that one of my jobs as an agency owner, and when I'm working with clients, is to be able to package up their vision and their message in a way that is going to land and connect with the people that they want to work with and the people that they want to connect with, you know, so it's about packaging up that that message or like, making that baby cute for everybody is.
Umar Hameed 1:59
Absolutely!
Lauren Salaun 1:59
half good.
Umar Hameed 2:00
Give me an example of one of your clients, and you can name them or not what they had, what they thought they had and how you got them to clarify their messaging and present it. And when you give us a couple of examples of a couple of placements you guys did. So we get a chance that out for Person A we did this in person B we tweaked it a little bit. And that would be really instructional for my listeners.
Lauren Salaun 2:21
Yeah! Absolutely. So I think one of the things in general that one of the big insights or lessons or takeaways, I hope that everyone gets from this is, when it comes to PR, it's not about like, yes, it's about you and getting more visibility and and looking more impressive and increasing your credibility and everything like that. And at the same time, it's not about you, it's not about coming out and saying like, "Oh, this is how amazing I am, these, these are all the accolades and like, the awards and accomplishments that I've won and all this kind of stuff."
Umar Hameed 2:58
So Lauren, I think you're mistaken when I go and date I talk about myself for the entire day, and no one ever called me backward for second date, so it's just like that, right? If you went on a date with someone, and they said, "Look at me, look fantastic I am", will not work.
Lauren Salaun 3:10
Yes. So So yes, it's for you, because you want this exposure, and it's gonna elevate your reputation and visibility and all that, but what you have to always keep in mind with PR is that you're trying to create a win or add massive value to whoever is listening to what you're saying, whoever's...
Umar Hameed 3:28
Absolutely!
Lauren Salaun 3:28
...reading the article.
Umar Hameed 3:29
You need to be relevant!
Lauren Salaun 3:30
Mm hmm... And so that's one of the biggest shifts that we work on with people is like, okay, this is all super amazing. But the way that it's listed out right now, it just makes you sound really cool, which is great. But we want to make sure like what's in it for the people who are reading this? Why should somebody care about this for them, not just be like, excited for you? So...
Umar Hameed 3:51
So give us a real world example...
Lauren Salaun 3:53
Yeah!
Umar Hameed 3:53
of that the before and after?
Lauren Salaun 3:55
Yeah! So, you know, like, we have a client right now who helped to build a few eight figure businesses on Wall Street, like very successful Wall Street career. Left his career on Wall Street with substantial salary, all this kind of stuff, like very, you know, all the very impressive things to become a life coach during 2020. So left a high paying substantial job this year to help people live more fully and more fulfilled, and just to help people really live out their passions and their purpose in life. And, and his business is booming and growing very, very fast and while his story in itself is impressive and exciting, you have to then take it a step further and go okay, so now why would somebody look at your story and say, "Oh, this is what I can take from that." And so instead of just saying, Oh, you know, helped to build several eight figure businesses on Wall Street and now as a thriving life coach for entrepreneurs or whatever the case, instead of just saying that, when we're pitching or sharing that story, it's like, okay, so but now what? So that means that you don't have to stay stuck in a job that you've been at for a while that, you know, is, is all that you know, because it pays really well, right? because you've been there for several years, if you're feeling pulled to do something else, you can absolutely achieve just as much success doing something that really lights you up, rather than staying stuck in something just because it's safe, just because it pays the bills. And yes, you can even do that during a global pandemic, you know, during massive lockdown and all this stuff. And so instead of just saying, "Oh, hi, look what I did!", you know, it's like, "Oh, yeah, look what I did!" But but this is possible for you, also. So it's taking it that step further and making sure you really outline what's what's in it for people reading this, like, why does this matter to them? And so for this client, I mean, we just had a feature come out for him and thrive global, he's been in a really Business Insider, Hollywood, or yes, like so many, so many different things I can't even keep track there's like...
Umar Hameed 6:12
Credibility, which adds to his story...
Lauren Salaun 6:14
Yes!
Umar Hameed 6:15
...but the focus is, have lifted a walked it, and you could do it on your own, but you might screw up, let me be your guide to help you make that dream come true.
Lauren Salaun 6:23
Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of the times too, we help clients simplify things. So we've got somebody in our PR accelerator programs have a group mastermind for entrepreneurs who want to get more visibility and, and we've got somebody who, you know, substantial background in fitness, and she is really, really incredible at helping people heal pain. So chronic pain, pain in the body and so much of the time, when we feel pain in our body, it's the result of some sort of non-physical thing. Yes, we have pain for physical reasons as well but a lot of the time when you get like...
Umar Hameed 7:03
emotional or mental?
Lauren Salaun 7:04
...Yeah, it's it's the root cause of physical pain is often emotional, and mental. And this is coming from like, I've been an app, lifelong athlete trainer, like, you know, I agree. And, and there's so many layers to that and it can get really complicated and confusing when you're talking about like, the planets and energy, and like chakras and stuff like that. So for one of our clients, you know, she's an expert in all this and she can go down all the rabbit holes about healing the body and energy and things like that. And it was really important for us working with her to be like, Okay, this is fascinating, you're going to overwhelm so many people when you share it like this so how do we boil this down so that it's simple, and it makes sense for anybody and that when they say, "Oh, my gosh, tell me more", then you can give them more of those nuggets and going to go a little bit...
Umar Hameed 7:56
So what was that simplification?
Lauren Salaun 7:57
She has such a cool analogy and it wasn't I'm not taking credit for this at all. But she because she did it and I said no, you have to keep repeating that. Repeat that always bring it back to this because this makes so much sense. It's the idea that if you have a styrofoam cup, for example, and that cup is like you or what not,
Umar Hameed 8:15
Yes!
Lauren Salaun 8:15
is if you poke a hole in that cup, it's going to continuously leak out Yeah, leak, I've got my, my latte right here, it's going to continuously leak out, whatever is in that cup. So if you have trauma in your body, and you don't deal with the trauma, like that past pain, or whatever it was, if you don't heal that trauma, it's like you're living with a hole, you know, it's like your that...
Umar Hameed 8:29
in your soul!
Lauren Salaun 8:39
..usually leaking out and not able to heal fully. So that example boils it down so simply right, we are not going to just like keep pouring into this cup with a hole in it. We got to fix the reason why that hole got there in the first place.
Umar Hameed 8:56
Could be hilarious if she's doing like a show and tell she's got the styrofoam cup, it's got water, she gets a pencil and she pokes a hole in it, and as she's telling the story about this, she gets some gum and sticks...
Lauren Salaun 9:08
Yeah! she's...
Umar Hameed 9:09
...gonna give you fresh breath!
Lauren Salaun 9:11
Exactly!
Lauren Salaun 9:12
You know, we'll do some physical stuff, some emotional stuff, some like, you know, mental stuff and there we go. (Puff!)There's that, that we patch whole...
Umar Hameed 9:20
Brilliant! so let me asked you, Is Print Media still relevant?
Lauren Salaun 9:24
Yes. And with Print Media, so different forms of PR, so there's so many different ways that you can get visibility right? You know, whether that's a podcast interview, having an influencer share about your product, getting in an online publication, print publication, being a speaker at an event, so many different channels that you can go down and Print Media, it's you know, we've seen a decline in print over the years absolutely and it's not dead by any means and when it comes to print, Print is much more about authority and a, and, and reputation building, it's much more of a vanity PR goal, which doesn't mean that it's bad you know? so many people are like, "you know what, I just want to be on the cover of a magazine or in a magazine, because like them just be so cool." And that's fine, but you need to know like what your goal is and if that PR opportunity is going to help support that. And so Print, is going to be much more of that like reputation kind of impressive wow factor, which does help, right, it does help to grow your authority and credibility and everything like that, you know, if someone goes to your website and says, like, as seen in, you know, Forbes, and Forbes obviously has an online version as well. But like that, that carries some weight with it and with Print, though, people need to know like, Print opportunities are going to be few and far between, they take a lot more time to get so yeah, but definitely not not like to...
Umar Hameed 10:59
Forbes for a moment.
Umar Hameed 11:00
So we go to...
Lauren Salaun 11:01
Yes!
Umar Hameed 11:01
...Forbes, and we want to go on their digital online...
Lauren Salaun 11:04
Mmm mmm..
Umar Hameed 11:05
How do we make the pitch? Who do we make the pitch to?
Lauren Salaun 11:07
Yeah, so our pitch process typically looks pretty consistent. You know, I've got a team of, of rock stars that support our clients and have relationships with journalists and editors all over the place, but typically, we craft an email pitch and we usually use what we call a pitch page or one sheeter will often attach that it's a one page PDF that kind of, you know, shows, conversation topics about you, like where you've been featured before contact information, that kind of stuff. And we'll send that email pitch and if we don't know the person, we may send a follow up via DM or something like that. But it's usually always an email pitch and then maybe follow up two or three times in the course of like two or three weeks. And, and so that's kind of the the pitching process. A lot of the times we have relationships with publications, and they'll reach out and ask like, "Hey, do you have somebody for this, or here's what I need", or they'll post, you know, a call for for experts and stuff like that but when it comes to figuring out who to pitch, what, you know, if we're looking at Forbes for example, and you, you know, you I would go to Forbes website, find articles that are similar to the niche that you're in, you know, similar to your industry, if you're like, "Oh my gosh, like this, this article is like, I want to be have an article like this written about me something like that", and then see who wrote it. And there you go, right? And so that's how you...
Umar Hameed 12:41
Very organic! Very common sense.
Lauren Salaun 12:42
very organic and common sense. Yeah! So you go and like, find, find the articles and that are relevant to what you do and make a list of the journalists who are writing those, you can also reach out to editors, you know, if you're a travel expert, then you might want to look at the travel editor, if you're a business coach, probably going to look at the business editor. That's that sort of thing, but yeah, just going to the source and looking at who's writing and then going connecting with them.
Umar Hameed 13:14
The traditional press release is written, is the new version of that just a one sheeter is that the new press release?
Lauren Salaun 13:21
Yeah, you know, we rarely do press releases in on our team and with with our clients. And, and that's not to say like, they don't still happen, like I still get press releases sent to me all that all the time. But we don't really do it that way we're gonna pitch specific angles to specific reporters and that sort of thing, rather than sending like a massive blast, press release out.And so I wouldn't say like press releases are, are dead, we just aren't using them as much so then the new press release, if you will, no, it's it's different but that pitch page, it really is your snapshot of like, who you are, what you've accomplished, what can you speak about what kind of, you know, topics are you an expert in? And so that's, that's really what we, we tend to use because it covers a bit more than a press release, what a press release is typically going to go deep on one one thing.
Umar Hameed 14:19
How important is video in this process?
Lauren Salaun 14:22
Yeah, video is super, super important, so I mean, some of the things in video that we do with our clients is you know, helping them do Instagram Live collaborations for example, like you know, teaming up with another influencer or leader or somebody who has a following and credibility so they can have a conversation and get exposed to each other's audiences that sort of thing.
Umar Hameed 14:47
Just using exposing each other.
Umar Hameed 14:49
Oh my God!
Lauren Salaun 14:50
Not Exactly. I said,
Umar Hameed 14:52
Yes I've heard, just being silly.
Lauren Salaun 14:54
I love it!
Lauren Salaun 14:56
And keeping it fun, Yeah! We we joke a lot over here, gotta be fun. Um, but yeah, so video is such an important tool and especially these days, I mean, when we're so many of us are just home on our computers on our phones and so being able to, quote un unquote connect with somebody through video is really, really powerful and...
Umar Hameed 15:18
It can warms it up!
Lauren Salaun 15:19
Oh, absolutely, it warms it up and you feel like you're actually having a conversation and connecting with them and in the same room, so I think just for period for like, 2020 video is important, but as a sales tool and a marketing tool and for PR, you know, people want to buy from people that they know, like, and trust. And video is a great way to increase that know, like and trust factor because somebody can see you and hear you and so it brings that connection that much closer, whereas with a podcast, podcasts are really really powerful, as well, because people can hear you speaking so they can hear, you know, your tone, how you how you talk, like how you laugh, all that kind of stuff, and it bonds you closer, you know, even if you've never met the person. And so having video that takes that just to the next level and so more video, honestly, the better.
Umar Hameed 16:15
Brilliant, so let's talk about influencers, influencers on Instagram and for example. So let's say you had someone that was a woman that does healing and pain, how would you get her to approach a influencer? Does that like, Can I be on your show? What does that look like?
Lauren Salaun 16:32
Yeah, so if she were to approach an influencer and like she has been because that's part of our prob..pro...excuse me..
Umar Hameed 16:39
Process?
Lauren Salaun 16:40
our our...
Umar Hameed 16:40
I'm here to help her out by the way folks.
Lauren Salaun 16:42
No, thank you, Hey, you know what, leave leave it in. Um, that's part of our process and in our program is teaching everyone in the group program how to, you know, pitch themselves to influencers, how to do collaborations and stuff and so for her, you know, she touches on health and wellness stuff, spirituality, even think astrology and everything like that. So she could go in so many different directions, you know, fitness, healing, spirituality, astrology, like, you know, all...
Umar Hameed 17:13
So how do you point those people in how do you do the pitch to get them to play with you?
Lauren Salaun 17:17
Right? So it would be, you know, you want to look at the kind of content that they share, you want to get an understanding of what their audiences like because when you're looking for PR opportunities for yourself, you want to put yourself in, in front of audiences that have more of your ideal clients, right, more of your ideal customers. And so you go and find outlets where those people are hanging out and so she would look at okay, does this influencer does their art, like the message that they're sharing, is that aligned with
Umar Hameed 17:46
So let's take a step back? So let's say she decided she was looking for people that are focused on healthier living. So what would she do a search on healthier living to find people with large followings like what's that step look like?
Lauren Salaun 17:57
Yeah, so you can look at hashtags on Instagram? You can I mean, Google like and implement influencers who talk about healthy living lifestyle, that kind of thing.
Umar Hameed 18:08
Google Google, I can catch on, you know?
Lauren Salaun 18:10
Yeah, right. Um, and another thing too, that's really effective is pulling your own audience. So like on Instagram, you can add polls in Instagram stories, or you can ask a question in a post or on a live or something, but asking them like, Hey, I'm looking to connect with people in health and wellness, I'm looking to connect with people in spirituality, whatever that is, like, who do you guys love to follow? or who do you guys love to? like...
Umar Hameed 18:35
Oh, brilliant!
Lauren Salaun 18:36
...what are the influencers? are leaders do you guys love because one, I mean, that's helpful and like, does some of the work for her but it's her audience.
Umar Hameed 18:44
Relevance?
Lauren Salaun 18:45
Yeah, she knows that they love her stuff. So if her audience and her potential clients like that are already in her community, or like, Ooh, look at this person, there's a chance that there's more people like that following that person. Right?
Umar Hameed 18:59
Brilliant. So what is the pitch like? So you reach out to that person and say, "Hi, I do healing da da da da da" let's play like, what does that pitch look like once you find the right person?
Lauren Salaun 19:09
Yeah, once you find the right person, I mean, the best way to really like, get media coverage and stuff like that is to build an organic relationship, you know, and so starting and something we do in my program, when we're teaching entrepreneurs how to do this is encouraging them to identify outlets that they outlet publications, influencers that they want to collaborate with, and start building that relationship early on, even before you pitch so engaging with their content dm-ing them and saying that you really love this article that they did, or this podcast episode they did. But but we also do a lot of cold pitching. So you know, you may have never reached out to them before and you want to just go for the pitch. And so typically, if you have their email address, it's going to be an email pitch and we'll start with that. I have a you know, hold formula and everything like that, but you start with just a general greeting, you know, you want to personalize it and stuff....
Umar Hameed 20:06
Hey you!
Lauren Salaun 20:06
And yeah, no gosh, seriously! If you send an a pitch and you don't have their their name, like it gets deleted pretty much automatically.
Lauren Salaun 20:16
Yeah, so it's not hard to find somebody's name. So find their name, spell it correctly, you know, authentic, genuine greeting. You know, if it's the holidays, you can say, hope you had a nice holiday weekend, like, even just something like that, that kind of warms it up. And then you would introduce yourself briefly, um, and share a little bit about what you do, and then you get right into pitching yourself and the pitch is kind of a two parter, so you want to make it very clear that you've done your research about who they are, right? And so you could say something like, like, for this person that we're talking about, for example, she could say, I'm sure you you know, based on what you wrote in XYZ article, I know that you see, many people are dealing with chronic pain these days, because we're sitting on our computers a lot, and we're not going outside as much Whatever the case, right? So, you know, based on your previous article, she's showing, like, I've done my research about what you cover, and, and so that's always good, you always want to connect to what they've done before, right? And then you go in, and you tell a little bit about what you do your expertise and then you want to make it very, very clear how a conversation together or an interview or whatever it is, is going to add massive value for them and their audience. So based on what you said in your last article about dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, I think you would agree that XYZ,I would love to support you in continuing to share this message, I you know, by having a conversation around da da da da da, I think your audience would find XYZ really valuable because blabbity blabbity blah, let me know if that would be supportive, I would love to connect further, Thank you very much. So you want to keep it short and sweet as well, like no more than 10 sentences for a pitch.
Umar Hameed 22:11
Lauren, before I tell you what you did awesome today...
Lauren Salaun 22:14
Thank you!
Umar Hameed 22:15
...tell everyone how they can connect with you on the PC accelerator program, what is it and how do they sign up?
Lauren Salaun 22:21
Yeah, absolutely! So I have the PR accelerator program, which is a four-month hybrid program, it's part mastermind, part coaching and training and part PR agency and I created it for entrepreneurs who are scaling their business like you, you know, what you do you know who you're here to help, and you want more visibility and more authority so that you can scale your business and make an even bigger impact. The next round starts on January 4, we run it about three or four times a year. And yeah, and if people want to learn more about that, you can go to my website, https://www.laurensalaun.com/ or, Yeah! go ahead...
Umar Hameed 23:03
And we're gonna put the links at the bottom of the show notes. So tell them anyway, but they're gonna be there. All you need to do is click dear listener.
Lauren Salaun 23:09
Yeah, exactly. Or you can also connect with me on Instagram, it's just Lauren Salaun. Yeah, super active on Instagram and tons of info on the program there as well.
Umar Hameed 23:18
Lauren, before we partway, what I really enjoyed and I was taking a lot of notes during this conversation is that the Voodoo that you do is all common sense. It's all being relevant to the people you're reaching out to. And just a simple, elegant way no magic tricks, and it's just being authentic and being of service which is totally brilliant. Thank you so much for being on the show.
Lauren Salaun 23:37
Thank you so much. I appreciate that.
Umar Hameed 23:43
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to iTunes and leave a five-star rating. And if you're looking for more tools, go to my website at nolimitsselling.com. I've got a free mind training course there, that's going to teach you some insights from the world of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and that is the fastest way to get better results.