About a million years ago, I was a guest on TV’s Morning Show with Regis Philbin and Cathy Lee Griffin.
It was a big deal for me to be on TV in the first place, never mind on one of the highest rated TV shows! Getting the word out about Fantasia Home Parties was not so easy back then-the Internet was not invented yet!
Imagine: no email, no YouTube, no Facebook, no blogs, no instant news, no instant ANYTHING!
If you wanted to get someone’s attention, you either had to pay huge sums of advertising dollars on TV, magazines, or newspapers or pay just as much for a press agent to get the attention for you.
Amazing how things are changed in the past 15 years or so, and not so much the loss of printed media power or dilution of the giant network TV…no, no. Something even bigger has happened.
The amazing part is that you, along with the rest of us, are the actors, the reporters, the writers, the critics and the interactive audience of a huge, throbbing, boiling, bubbling, and ever-expanding sphere that is fed by us and is feeding on us.
Geez..you would think I was talking about The Borg in Star Trek, and guess what? “We are assimilated!”
Even for those of us who say “I don’t do Facebook” or “I refuse to check my email everyday” etc, that part of the sphere knows how to present itself to you. Inaction doesn‘t mean nothing will happen or that you are really not doing anything…it just means that something or someone else decides for you.
The good news for us business professionals: you are your own press agent.
If you look and behave professional, confident, excite and are exciting, fun and are fun to be around, then that’s your news story that the Borg sees and perceives.
Not so good news: if you don’t control how your present yourself, then I repeat: the world will decide for you.
Better news: you can control how you present yourself to the world as a business professional and owner.
And guess what? You have limitless and practically cost-free resources literally at your fingertips to do so:
–free press releases, reach any and all media
–free images, free video and movies (you can make your own and even advertise for free like on YouTube)
–free comments and feedback, get free advice, give free advice, find experts, become an expert, set yourself up as an expert
–access to free blogs, free news feeds, have free email
–free web pages (essentially your billboard to the world or any mini-worlds of your choosing)
–free social group networks and networking (and you don’t even have to buy cocktails or lunch!)
–free information…the resources we have now, at our fingertips, is endless.
Bottom line?
You control the press agent (that’s you.) What is the image and story you want to get out???
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Rina Valan, President and Founder of Fantasia Home Parties
