How to Get Your Brand Mentioned in Entrepreneur, Fast Company, and Other Well-Known Media Outlets

Nick Wolny is a Business and Technology Writer and a Content Marketing Strategist for entrepreneurs. He is the Founder of Hefty Media Group, an LGBTBE-certified diversity provider that offers marketing strategy and ghostwriting services.

Because of his expansive marketing expertise, Nick regularly contributes to Entrepreneur, Business Insider, Fast Company, and Social Media Examiner. In addition to this, Nick is a frequent guest expert on TV segments, podcasts, and more.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Nick Wolny talks about his PR and marketing education company, Hefty Media Group
• How to use earned media placements to boost your credibility and drive traffic to your brand
• Nick’s top strategies for getting your brand or product featured in large media outlets
• The differences between earned media, owned media, and paid media
• How quickly do earned media placements help you increase ROI?
• Nick’s “Get Unstuck” Template: an effective resource for eliminating writer’s block and achieving high-quality placements
• Why your story is the one of your most powerful marketing tools

In this episode…

Do you want to know how to maximize your growth potential using a tried and true marketing strategy? Are you looking for a proven way to build your credibility, expand your client base, and improve your transferability? According to this episode’s featured guest, Nick Wolny, the solution is simple: paid media placements.

Being featured in popular publications—such as Entrepreneur, Fast Company, GQ, and more—is a fantastic way to increase your growth opportunities and attract potential buyers. By establishing your brand, business, or product in the media, you are opening up countless possibilities for expansion and transferability down the road! However, getting featured in a popular publication is no easy task. Thankfully, Nick Wolny has a few tried and true strategies and resources for boosting your media coverage in no time!

In this episode of the Quiet Light Podcast, Joe Valley sits down with Nick Wolny, the Founder of Hefty Media Group, to discuss how to boost your growth potential using PR and content marketing. Listen in as Nick talks about the power of earned media placements, how to overcome writer’s block, and the secret to forming meaningful connections with top publications. Stay tuned!

Resources Mentioned in this episode

• Nick Wolny
• Nick Wolny on LinkedIn
• Hefty Media Group
• Nick’s “Get Unstuck” Template
• Joe Valley
• Joe Valley on LinkedIn
• Quiet Light Brokerage
• The Quiet Light Podcast email: [email protected]

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Quiet Light Brokerage, a brokerage firm that wants to help you successfully sell your online business.

There is no wrong reason for selling your business. However, there is a right time and a right way. The team of leading entrepreneurs at Quiet Light Brokerage wants to help you discover the right time and strategy for selling your business. By providing trustworthy advice, effective strategies, and honest valuations, your Quiet Light advisor isn’t your every-day broker—they’re your partner and friend through every phase of the exit planning process.

If you’re new to the prospect of buying and selling, Quiet Light Brokerage is here to support you. Their plethora of top-notch resources will provide everything you need to know about when and how to buy or sell an online business. Quiet Light offers high-quality videos, articles, podcasts, and guides to help you make the best decision for your online business.

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Episode Transcript

Intro 0:07

Hi, folks, it’s the Quiet Light Podcast where we share relentlessly honest insights, actionable tips, and entrepreneurial stories that will help founders identify and reach their goals.

Joe Valley 0:29

Hey folks, Joe Valley here, one of the hosts of the Quiet Light Podcast. I am a partner at Quiet Light Brokerage and yes, a serial entrepreneur. I’ve been self employed. I’m old since 1997. Back then I ran a radio direct respond to me media buying agency produced a couple of television infomercials for my own products and I even co hosted one of the shows. I moved my last brand 100% online in 2005 and then sold it in 2010. I joined the Quiet Light team in 2012. And since I have sold nearly 100 million in total transactions for quiet light clients, and I’m just one of the 11 advisors on the team. Today’s episode is brought to you by Quiet Light Brokerage a small to middle market entrepreneur led m&a firm focused on online businesses only. everyone on the team has built, bought or sold their own online business and now acts as advisors to other entrepreneurs seeking and eventual exit. And today we’re joined by Nick Wolny. Nick is a writer and content marketing strategist for entrepreneurs just like you. Leadpages refers to Nick as a creative thinker whose marketing strategy converts big and Success Magazine describes him as a Facebook ads expert. This part of his bio makes me feel like I’ve not succeeded at all in life here, Mitch. In addition to regular live TV appearances on consumer tech with NBC and Fox, Nick contributes to Entrepreneur Magazine, Business Insider, Fast Company and Social Media Examiner. He’s been featured in LGBTQ plus content for USA Today, and has garnered mentions with Men’s Health, GrowthLab, Reader’s Digest, VICE, and the Houston Chronicle. His company, Hefty Media Group was named a top 10 LGBTQ company, own company by the Houston Business Journal for both 2018 and 2019. Basically, Nick’s a PR badass Nick, welcome to the Quiet Life Podcast.

Nick Wolny 2:32

Thanks for having me. I couldn’t have asked for a better intro I appreciate it.

Joe Valley 2:35

I’m so impressed with with all of the names, I feel like your name dropping all of the best magazines that are with your experience, which is so honestly, incredibly impressive because I look at the world in which we live in and sometimes see my business partner, my Mark Daoust, you know, is writing an article for Entrepreneur Magazine or Success Magazine. I’ve actually never had a conversation with him on how that happened or not. But you do it on a regular basis. But why don’t you tell us a little bit more about Hefty Media and who you are and what you do beyond what I’ve just described there a little bit.

Nick Wolny 3:11

Sure. Yeah. So I think it actually brings up a good point in terms of that bio, that it creates a frame, it creates kind of an instant credibility experience. Before even getting into details about who I am or what I do. You know, for all we know, I could be writing in Fast Company about being a circus clown, you know, just something like that. So that frame is something that’s really powerful and valuable in in the marketing strategy for entrepreneurs. Yeah, Hefty Media Group. It’s a PR and marketing education company. It’s a consultancy. And we help entrepreneurs who have a predominantly online business or operation of some kind, secure what’s called earned media publicity, PR, coverage, visibility, and then incorporate those mentions those features those interviews, into their existing marketing strategy and into their evergreen marketing assets, things like your website so that when people discover you in the future, they can have that similar wow experience, when they first hear about who you are and what you do. So that’s what we do.

Joe Valley 4:15

Yeah. So that the term earned media, I want to break that down owned media and paid media, the differences between the three but what’s dumb it down for me again, even further, as I said, I’m just a kid from Maine that grew up and wound up in this world that we’re in. I ran an e-commerce business I hired I did the writing at first, but we wrote good quality content over the course of five years, Google rewarded us. That is called earned media, as we’ve discussed prior to hitting record button, but what good does a mention in Vogue or Success Magazine or Men’s Health do for you know, any commerce business owner that is selling, you know, grilling aprons help help me out with dumbing that down.

Nick Wolny 5:06

Totally. So there’s really two, two points of strength that come with an earned media placement, particularly a PR placement. Number one is that you’ve got that credibility marker, you’ve got that credibility piece. Subconsciously, we grew up hearing about these different name brands over and over and over again, some of these name brands are media companies and outlets that have been around for decades. You looked at their magazines while you were waiting in line at the grocery store. You You know, you saw the nightly news every single night when you were growing up as a kid, whether you wanted to hear about it or not. You know, for me, it came on after the episode of The Simpsons was done. So it was like I caught a little bit of it. You know, no matter what happened, right, we

Joe Valley 5:49

were watching in my house wasn’t much more highbrow. I think it was Dukes of Hazzard.

Nick Wolny 5:55

Perfect. So yeah, so there is this subconscious programming around these different media outlets that have been around for a long time. And so you know, if you have the coolest swim trunks on the market, it’s one thing to say, hey, I’ve got great swim trunks, you should check them out. But when you have GQ saying, hey, these are the hottest swim trunks of the summer, then it creates this instant frame for people. They they say, Well, you know, GQ is a is a brand as an outlet that’s been familiar with style for decades on decades. So it’s good enough for them. It’s good enough for me, right. So that’s number one is that credibility piece. And then number two is that often these outlets have a really large audience. And so you know, you can’t always depend on all of a sudden, you know, having your website go down from all the traffic that’s going to come through from one of these placements kind of depends on the quality of the audience at the outlet. But for many of these media outlets, their audience size can be in the 10s of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of viewers followers,

Joe Valley 7:03

that that’s the small launch thing, right? The small odds of landing in a magazine that’s going to have a huge audience that’s going to convert, you know, two or 3% when they visit your website. But the bigger use of this earned media I’m going to keep looking at my notes earned, because I’m learning these new terms is that you then take that mentioned, and you put it in that Facebook ad or Instagram ad or you know, paid media that that you then run, and it’s going to help bring that credibility, increase conversions and give somebody else’s outside opinion that your products are as good as you say they are. Yeah,

Nick Wolny 7:41

yeah, I mean, we wish that we had the conversion numbers that we had with Facebook ads in 2011. Right, when people were just getting started with them, and you would get these, you know, nickel and dime, email subscribers, they were great back then. And now it’s just it’s more saturated, the bids are a lot higher. And people are so used to seeing this barrage of ads in their feeds these days, that they’re a little more skeptical than they were several years ago when it really just was college kids on a platform, right? So so going in and creating some sort of collateral, or creative that can offset some of that skepticism is going to be really powerful for your ads. And one of the best ways to do that is by slapping that logo. And that quote that, you know, GQ said, you have the best swim trunks of the summer, that becomes your ad because it can just help people become more trustworthy, right from the get go. And when they’re trustworthy, they’re going to pay more attention to everything that you’re putting out,

Joe Valley 8:39

you know, the obvious question, how do we get GQ or the theoretical magazine to say, my swim trunks are the best of the summer? How do you and that’s what you do, but how does it happen? How do you go about making something like that happen? And is it just a high volume, low chances of it happening or is there a direct approach that you take?

Nick Wolny 8:58

Well, I think there are two approaches. You know, one is that you you think like a publicist or a PR agency, you’re developing those relationships over time. You know, you’re schmoozing. You’re wining and dining. And so that’s, that’s one approach. When you hire out your PR strategy, that’s often what you’re paying for. You’re paying for someone else’s deep rooted Rolodex, you know, but in in, in recent times, the you know, cold pitches and people pitching themselves has become much more of a thing than it was even 10 years ago. The reality is that a media outlet has to produce tons of new stories each and every month week, you know, for some of these outlets, they’ve got to pump out a bunch of new stories every day. And so they constantly need new experts. They need new stories. In way media outlets are kind of the ultimate content producing machines because content is literally what’s paying for everything. That’s what’s paying the bills. So to spin a good yarn and to tell a good story and to have new stories and fresh stories to tell fresh products to feature is going to be very Really important part of how that media outlet stays alive. So they’re looking for you just as much as you’re looking for that. And in terms of reaching out to that particular person, you know, it can just be, it can be a little bit of, there’s a, there’s a phrase in the industry that’s called a stalker with a smile, which is horrible. But, but you know, it gives us a sense of, Okay, this person is writing about, you know, wow, this person’s written about grilling aprons three other times weird, I should see what they’re doing on Twitter, I shouldn’t, you know, let’s start to get on their radar, and then down the line, perhaps I can contact them, I can just make them aware that I also happen to have a grilling apron company, and it happens to be the best one, because they’re made out of bamboo. I don’t know something different, something fresh like that, right. But just to kind of bring it to someone’s attention, you know, these media professionals, journalists, editors, producers, they are tasked with producing a massive amount of content. So anything that you can do in terms of informing them, that you’ve got something that’s interesting to tell about it,

Joe Valley 11:03

that that mindset right there, I want everybody just listen to it, because we had, you know, somebody on the episode last week, or a couple of weeks ago that had a similar approach to licensing and reaching out to companies that did you know, 500 million a year in revenue, if you go to the bottom of those websites, all the way to the bottom, it talks about inventing ideas, reach out to us got a product got an idea or a modification, and you didn’t have to have the IP behind it, because they need new products, right? These these game companies need new games to develop every year. And same with media outlets, they need new content. So it’s kind of a mind shift. As to someone got lucky. And there’s a mention there. No, you’re if you stop them politely with a smile long enough, then they actually respond. So that’s a mind shift change, I think is great. That’s obviously something you do and do. Well, let’s just break down those three terms that we’ve used so far, though, the difference between earned media owned media and paid media, would you just dumb that down for me, please?

Nick Wolny 12:08

Yeah, absolutely. So when you think about your media, your marketing strategy, you’ve got these three buckets, and pretty much everything you’re doing is going to land in one of these three buckets. So one, we’ve got owned media, which is great. It’s the content that you were pumping out for several years before the acquisition took place, right, you’re getting ranked in Google, it’s your social media posts, it’s your email newsletters, you’re in complete control of the distribution of that content, and what you’re saying, in that particular content. The drawback is that it’s a challenge to get it in front of people in front of new people, right,

Joe Valley 12:44

since on your own website, or your own email list,

Nick Wolny 12:47

exactly, you’ll be able to get in front of your own audience, but then you got to kind of get creative on how you’re going to get in front of new people with owned media, then you have paid media, which obviously solves that problem, because you just slap some dollars down and your content or your call to action goes out in front of people commercials, ads in the feed ads in our you know, Instagram and Facebook stories, pay per click, you know, sponsored podcast, B roll, mid roll, all of that stuff. It’s this paid media strategy. And you know, it works. What you usually have to overcome in a paid media strategy is skepticism, as we’ve just talked about, people immediately know that you have paid to, to get in their ears to get in front of their eyes, all that and what we also know from data is that each successive generation is becoming less and less tolerant of advertisements in general. So you know, millennials, we that, you know, we hated ads, but it turns out Gen Z hates him even more, right, then it’s just that that experience of not having to be around ads, so much growing up, you know, now we’re in this sort of streaming world where you can, you can consume media and content all day long without ever encountering an ad. So to have one who’s slapped in front of you is like, you know, what’s happening. And then finally, you have earned media. So earned media is is really nice, because it’s someone else talking about you. And it is the most trustworthy. There’s statistics that people trust the recommendation of a friend, just as much as you know, as they would trust, you know, something they would find online, right, you’re in a new city, you’re looking for a particular restaurant, you go and see the Yelp reviews, and one restaurant has 250 reviews, and the other has 25 reviews, right? So you actually make a decision based on that. That’s earned media so testimonials, those aren’t.

Joe Valley 14:41

Those aren’t honest reviews that customers put up there.

Nick Wolny 14:45

Well, that’s um, where PR we’re media, excuse me, earned media can be a little bit of a double edged sword, right? Because since it is this endorsement experience, like if it isn’t, you know, a negative endorsement of some guy, you know, like I had the ad the mussels and they were terrible. People that’s gonna, you know, land with people just as much as a glowing review of some kind, you know, where if a media outlet, you know, hopefully that’s not happening and your PR strategy, but if a media outlet completely pans your product, you know, that’s going to carry some gravity to it as well. So you

Joe Valley 15:17

wouldn’t turn that into paid media. That’s the difference.

Nick Wolny 15:21

Can you imagine? I really want to see a 1.5 stars out of five, I hated this pair of blue jeans in my next, buddy, it’s perfect for you. Yeah,

Joe Valley 15:30

probably not gonna not not work out that well. How long does it take, like when you take on a client at Hefty Media Group, and you’re going to help them? get there? You know, do swim trunks or grilling aprons I often use as an example. What’s the like? Like? How long does somebody have to engage with you? Right? So look, everybody knows what help everybody knows what SEO is and how long term of a game it is. You know that you can spend money on paid media and get, hopefully an immediate result, you may not get a positive return on investment. But the the SEO they know is going to take a long time to eventually, you know, pay off with, with what you do in PR and trying to get that earned media. Is it a long term period similar to SEO? Or does it have a quicker return on investment?

Nick Wolny 16:24

I would say it is in between, I think that you can start expecting to see results in one to three months of making a PR investment or in terms of just starting to go after it yourself and getting the sense of Okay, who would I actually want to be in front of where are they hanging out on the internet? What does it look like to you know, the to pitch them or something like that. And then also just continuing to pitch different angles, hopping on different things that are happening in the news, stuff like that. So I would say it’s not as long of a game as as SEO. But you also may not necessarily get that immediate feedback loop that you’re going to get with most paid media strategies, in terms of cost per click and trying to get that number down. So yeah, I would say it’s like one to three months is kind of a good rule of thumb to get that flywheel up and running.

Joe Valley 17:15

So part of what you said there was you know, if you’re gonna go and do it on your own, you shared with me a template, that’s called the get unstuck template, where you’re giving away tips to help people, you know, to map out your own articles and vanquish by writer’s block and things of that nature. Can you talk about that? Well, we’ll make sure to in the show links, folks, so you can download it and whatnot. We can talk about that a little bit and how it helps folks?

Nick Wolny 17:41

Yeah, definitely. So when you pitch yourself, you want to be thinking about the end placement and what type of placement it’s going to be right. I kind of like to split it up into three different categories. You’ve got mentions, maybe your product is one of you know, in a roundup of the 13 best grilling aprons, you said grilling aprons? Not really so we’re gonna run with

Joe Valley 18:01

that let’s go with bamboo. 13 best bamboo 13 best

Nick Wolny 18:04

bamboo grilling aprons very environmentally friendly, right. So that’s you have like a mention something like that, you might have a feature, the entire article is about your bamboo grilling apron and why on earth, you picked bamboo. And then there’s a third category called the contributed article. Right. So that’s a scenario like you mentioned, you know, your business partner writing for entrepreneur.com. I’m writing for entrepreneur.com. Right? Where that’s a that’s another kind of placement that has emerged in the last five to 10 years a lot for similar SEO reasons. These media outlets have realized, Oh, my gosh, if we can get experts, or we can get interesting entrepreneurs to be creating the content, then we’re increasing our SEO footprint. We’re increasing our display ads footprint, and that person gets to kind of hijack the, you know, the brand credibility that we as an outlet have spent years or decades building up. What is that there could also be you want to write an article? Yeah.

Joe Valley 19:01

What’s that called? Again? When in marks case, when he does that for Success Magazine, or whatever, I’d

Nick Wolny 19:06

like a contributed article. And you are the You are the author, you are the author of the article. It is your it’s an opinion piece. In most cases, you’re not being a journalist, you’re being an expert. And basically, the media outlet is handing over the microphone to you. And the fact that they are doing that, like there’s a you know, there’s kind of a good amount of gravity that comes with that endorsement, right? hiring over Yeah.

Joe Valley 19:32

Do they hire you like Mark’s a great writer. I’m not I hired somebody to interview me to then write the book that I’m working on. I hired Scribe Media, folks aren’t familiar with. Yeah. So do people hire you to write those contributing articles or do you interview them and help craft them so that it can be a contributor to Men’s Health or GQ or, you know, whatever magazine Am I

Nick Wolny 20:00

Yeah, we we mainly do programs and incubators. So yeah, so not in not in terms of being like a full out PR agency or a ghost writing agency. My experience with PR is that it is most powerful when you own the relationships, or when you own the connections of some kind. When you have an agency in the picture, it’s nice you, you know, you may get placements here and there. But you’re ultimately leasing these connections, these relationships, things like that, we want you as the entrepreneur to own the connection to learn how to create that connection. And that connection, especially if that connection, perhaps will hop from one media outlet to the next which which happens sometimes, who knows. Yeah, you owning that is going to be one of the one of the best ways forward. And so whatever type of media that people want to pursue, we help them craft the strategy that is going to help them achieve that, if they want to be mainly writing articles, they know that they want that contributed article content, then we help them put that together and we make those we make those contributed article drafts really shine and really strong through kind of a coaching container. Sometimes you have, you know, you have someone that is looking for almost entirely a podcast interview strategy, right, like they know that podcasts convert for their business, maybe they have like a high monthly membership based ecommerce product of some kind. And they know that when they have a lot of runway to be able to tell their story and explain their methodology that that converts well. And so maybe that’s more of their strategy. So I think it kind of depends on you know, what someone’s particular strategy is, as it relates to starting to achieve that ROI. And then adjusting the messaging accordingly. And then you know, starting to pitch it out yourself ensuring that those pitches are really good that those articles are really good, pitching out yourself, becoming besties, with the editor, the journalist or the producer yourself. Because what we also know is that when you can start to rack up multiple placements, you know, when a journalist can lean on you when they can count on you. And they cover something that you are always available for commentary for or that you’ll be in high demand for then it creates very fertile soil for you getting asked to be featured again and again and again and again from that same person. So that’s

Joe Valley 22:22

exactly that’s exactly what has happened with with Mark. He’s they come back and say we’re looking for something with a little bit of a different angle. Can you do this now or and so we get emails, actually, I think the latest one was they were looking to interview one that had recently sold their online business. So we surveyed our clients that had sold and a couple came forward and were willing to be interviewed. So I think that’s a perfect example of you know, if you can help the the entrepreneur crack open that door with the right crafted content, I couldn’t write it myself, so I’d need to hire somebody like you to help me craft it properly. And it’s those folks that have ever seen my emails. I generally misspell things actually. I won’t even make fun of myself. I had somebody call me out the other day with a laugh emoji, but you know, it was he opened it. That was the key thing I I say. Yes, I’m pretending that I misspell things intentionally. So you’ll open the emails. Yes, that’s my genius. But I think it’s important to be able to, you know, if you’re going to help crack open those doors that once those doors do open, and you have that relationship folks that you talk about, well who else do you know that might be able to you know, I can share an article with them as well? Or is there anybody else that would like to be interviewed and things of that nature? It seems like in this industry that I’m in and the industry that you’re in everybody seems to know each other and is connected in some way. And those relationships once you get them open after talking with a smile, they can stay open and expand quite a bit I would think Yeah, yeah. What is your favorite true what is your favorite type of you know ecommerce business to take on? Is there any particular niche or category that you like? Whether it’s Econ, e commerce or SAS or content? Do you have any favorite spaces?

Nick Wolny 24:11

Um, I have a soft spot for health products, wellness products. I think it’s a personal note of mine is I’ve lost 105 pounds and kept it off for about 17 years. Wow. Yeah. And so I just I just love to nerd out on it, you know, different health products, different wellness products, things like that. And then just from a from a selfish side from a publicist side, anything that photographs well, is easier to get in the magazine. So if you’ve got great stock photos, then you move to the top of the pile.

Joe Valley 24:46

Okay, wow. Okay, I’m still stuck on the hundred and five pounds that you lost, dude. Yeah. Must have been in high school. Yes. Cuz or like shortly after you’re not that old. How many it was?

Nick Wolny 24:57

Yeah, it was right after it was right after high school right. At the end of high school, yeah, enough is enough. Okay. Yeah. So I just think it’s I don’t know, it’s always I’ve always had a penchant for health. But and it’s, it’s cool to see, you know, in the health space in the wellness space in the supplement space, there’s just there’s so much entrepreneurship happening. I think there’s kind of this, you know, revolutionary energy around, people starting to take charge of their own health, they’re beginning to track their own health, right? We’ve had a huge rise in fitness trackers and things like that. And just thinking about that a lot more than we used to. Yeah, exactly right, I

Joe Valley 25:35

just held my hand my arm up folks that are listening, instead of watching how important it can your experience with Hefty Media Group, what you do, is making a personal connection. With regards to something like in your case, hey, I lost 105 pounds after high school and and now you’re, you know, in men’s health and things of this nature. I feel like sometimes people try to separate their business with themselves, necessarily, but sometimes too much. So that if I really am passionate about grilling aprons that can also be used in barber shops, is it important to try to make a connection? I know it’s kind of weird, a bamboo barbershop apron. Yeah, we’re going on,

Nick Wolny 26:19

we’re gonna create the perfect products. By the end of the session, we’re just gonna keep adding on and on

Joe Valley 26:24

we are and you can just pull out some of that now. Okay. But that personal connection, you use your own personal story, I would assume to open some of these doors with some of these magazines, do you advise people to do the same as they’re working on their own content and branding and things of that nature? Yeah, I

Nick Wolny 26:41

think people are ultimately in the media, they’re looking for stories, they’re looking to cover stories. And so you know, your product has features and benefits and, and that it has kind of its own set of has its own set of qualities to it. But then the story behind, you know why you decided to do that, or why you decided to found or create this company in the first place, right? Like, that’s what pulls people in that human connection. I also like just having story near the front of pitches, because for a media professional, you know, if you if you take a moment to visualize the inside of their inbox, it’s not unusual for them to have dozens or even hundreds of pitches a day. And to have the majority of those pitches be because they have been sucked into some sort of distribution list with some PR agency. And so they’re getting they’re getting mailmerge pitches, right pitches that don’t even say their first name, they don’t even say any specific particular details. And so something I teach in pitching is, you know, use the first or second sentence of the pitch to to, you know, give some little personal detail, I had a pitch land with a CNBC editor once, and the subject line of the pitch was, hey, Vanessa, I left her tweet last week, right? This is like nothing to do with the the actual pitch and you’re just talking about dude, hey, I really appreciated that article, you brought up this point, I guarantee that that editor doesn’t hear feedback like that very often, right? as entrepreneurs, we put out a ton of content. And we don’t get to hear that kind of quality feedback very often. So you can rise to the front of the pile really quickly. And it’s also nice, because you’re signaling to that person who’s inundated with requests, that this is not a stock pitch. And that, hey, I’ve actually taken five or 10 minutes out of my day to, you know, to see what you’re doing online, and I really enjoy the work that you’re doing. And that’s why I wanted to reach out to you. And maybe,

Joe Valley 28:36

maybe, maybe, maybe quote that tweet by Vanessa. So it feels real, because I gotta tell you, I A, Hey, Joe, I’ve love your podcast. Here’s something that you should invest in and buy from me, when I would love it if they told me exactly what they loved about it, which episode they listened to, and really proved to me because it feels just so impersonal. That they can actually do it. So on your template that we’re going to share, it’s probably available. I’m assuming this gun get unstuck templates, probably. Is it available on your website as well? Hefty Media Group?

Nick Wolny 29:11

Yep. Yeah. So it’s actually I just use my personal URL. So it’s nickwolny.com. And it’s right smack on the on the top of the homepage. So if you’re let’s go ahead and spell

Joe Valley 29:23

that out. Because I had to, I had to make sure we pronounced Nick Wolny properly. When he is Wolny.

Nick Wolny 29:31

Correct. N as in Nancy, yep. So W O L N Y

Joe Valley 29:34

So nickwolny.com. But I’m looking at the tips of the pet the template right now guys, there’s there’s 12 tips to map out an article. There’s a one page layout template, and an example of recently published articles with footnotes along the way that he’s put together. So he’s, he’s, here’s what in my view, what you’re doing here is is helping first and giving it away teaching, using your experience to allow people to choose do it on their own. And then if they’re like me, they go, I can’t do that. Let me just hire you. So maybe they’ll hire you as well. Any any last thoughts? We’re just running out of time here in terms of in terms of online business owners and some of the things that they should do big picture wise when it comes to, you know, building their own brand beyond the earned media and paid media.

Nick Wolny 30:28

Yeah, I think you should go after PR now. And here’s why. It’s, it’s something that starts to take time to really get that flywheel going. But media, having media placements, begets more future media opportunities. One of the easiest ways to land a bigger opportunity is to say, like you, I mean, you read my bio at the at the very beginning, and it’s like, oh, wow, okay, he’s been in these other places, if he’s good enough for these other places, then he’d be good enough for us. And so the best time to get started on that is now, and the great thing about PR and these placements is that once you get them, once you have secured them, you own them, you have them forever. If your business pivots, if you start a new e commerce business, then it can be you know, this founder has been featured in x, y, c, right. And so that’s the added advantage of having your founder story be in the picture as well is that as you continue to pivot, if you want to pursue being a serial entrepreneur, then you can carry those endorsements with you along the way.

Joe Valley 31:28

Yeah, I love it. By now, folks, you know what he actually means he means now, right? You’ve all you probably know the name Mike Jackness has had Mike on the podcast, I sold his business, he runs the eComCrew Podcast. And when we sold color it for him His goal was to, you know, he knew what to do. He knew what to do in terms of simplifying the business to make it more attractive for a buyer. And he said to himself, I got this, I’ll get to it someday. And then he woke up, and Sunday was here. So he didn’t do it. Now, like Nick was talking about, he said, I’ll get to that Sunday, because I know what to do. And then life passing by and Sunday was here. So take some action, do it now. And get it done. Because building that, you know, earned media own content, those relationships, when you eventually exit your business are probably going to bring a lot more value because it’s going to bring up your, your your net income in the bottom line, because you’re gonna have to spend as much money on paid media or your paid media will convert better, because you’re saying, hey, look, GQ says that, you know, my eyeglasses are the best style in the world, and you should buy them too. And, and they buy them at a higher rate. And you can charge more anyway. Nick, how do people learn more about everything that you do? Is it you know, to spell out the URL for me again?

Nick Wolny 32:48

Yeah, sure. I mean, my site is nickwolny.com. Nickwolny.com. And you can also find me on LinkedIn. Also just my my name. So yeah, can I quickly please,

Joe Valley 33:02

a little bit more, folks, Chris came. I mean, Nick came to us from Chris Mora, our cmo in a connection with the war room, so he’s very well connected with the right people. definitely get to the website. Check it out. Nick. Thanks for your time on the podcast today. Appreciate it.

Nick Wolny 33:18

Thanks for having me.

Outro 33:21

today’s podcast was produced by Rise25 and the Quiet Light content team. If you have a suggestion for a future podcast subject or guest, email us at [email protected]. Be sure to follow us on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next week.