Episode 207: The PR + AI Shortcut to Getting Featured in Media + Gift Guides
In this episode of the Small Business PR Podcast, Gloria makes her biggest announcement yet: after five years, the PR Starter Pack has officially transformed into the Get Featured Accelerator—a bold, unapologetic, AI-powered program designed for product makers who want free press without agencies, ads, or burnout.
This isn’t just a name change. It’s a complete upgrade in messaging, strategy, and support—rooted in Gloria’s journey of shedding “marketing shoulds” and embracing authenticity, community, and values-based PR.
Why Gloria Retired the PR Starter Pack
After helping hundreds of small business owners land millions of views, Gloria realized the old model no longer aligned. The new Get Featured Accelerator gives founders the access, clarity, and psychological safety they need to confidently pitch—and get featured—on outlets like Forbes, Marie Claire, and The New York Times.
The Role of AI in PR (and Why Time-Strapped Founders Need It)
PR doesn’t have to take hours. With AI integrations, founders can now generate data-backed angles and send relevant pitches in under 15 minutes a day. That’s less time than doomscrolling Instagram—and it works. One founder landed 6 features in just 30 days.
Why Authentic Messaging Matters More Than Ever
Gloria shares how she stopped assimilating into old-school marketing tactics—like fake urgency, “spray-and-pray” pitches, and neutral messaging—and began boldly stating her values (and what she rejects). The result? A community built on belonging, trust, and real human connection.
What Founders Will Get Inside the Get Featured Accelerator
Daily curated PR opportunities delivered straight to your inbox
AI-powered tools to help you pitch with confidence
Direct coaching and unlimited support from Gloria herself (no faceless team of coaches)
A safe, diverse, values-first community of product-based founders
Proven systems to land year-round press in gift guides, podcasts, and national outlets
Final Takeaway
You don’t need to overspend on ads, agencies, or samples to get featured. What you need is:
✅ A bold, clear message
✅ Tools that save you time
✅ A repeatable, human-first system
The PR Starter Pack era is over. Welcome to the Get Featured Accelerator—where unapologetic founders get press on their own terms.
Resources Mentioned:
Join the PR Secrets Masterclass
Get the PR Featured Accelerator
Join the Small Biz PR Pros Facebook Group
DM the word “PITCH” to us on Instagram to get a pitching freebie https://www.instagram.com/gloriachoupr
Connect with Gloria Chou on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gloriaychou
Join Gloria Chou's PR Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/42863325495194
Additional Resources:
Listen On Your Favorite Podcast Platform
Join the PR Secret Masterclass
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TRANsCRIPT
00:00:00 Gloria: What's up, small business heroes. Welcome back to Small Business PR, where we make PR and marketing super accessible for the everyday small business founder. So, I have an episode for you today? This is an announcement that I have been waiting to make for over a year now. It first started when I was on a long flight back from Vietnam. Yes, that very trip where I healed my relationship with my mom after being estranged from her for many years with the help of psychedelic medicine. I took her to Vietnam. We finally found common ground. I created spaciousness and compassion.
00:00:27 Gloria: On that long flight back, I read a book. And it sparked an idea in me, which is that instead of trying to cater to everyone, I just need to speak my truth. And so much of what that theme is, is central to what we're experiencing collectively as individuals in this AI race, in post-COVID world, in the fact that we are under so much political turmoil. And throughout all of this, we are all in a phase of transition. We're all wondering what's going to happen to me? Where do I belong? What is my identity? What do I want in all of this? Who are my people?
00:00:59 Gloria: In five years of building this business, I have built a community that has enriched my life so much. It has given me purpose is one of the most diverse communities online of small business owners who are rewriting the narrative. As you know, PR for me is not just about glitz and glam and getting featured logos. It's so much deeper than that. It's about making the space a safe space for people who maybe didn't feel like they were part of the mainstream narrative to finally feel seen, to advocate for themselves, to go against what they have been culturally told and to promote themselves, which can be a radical act for a lot of people.
00:01:32 Gloria: I am finally willing to admit that after five years of serving not millions, but hundreds of small business owners and getting the millions of views, I realized that my marketing wasn't really aligned anymore. So my group program, the PR Starter Pack, is going to undergo the biggest upgrade and facelift and messaging change ever. I'm really excited about it. It's bold, it's irreverent, it's unapologetic.
00:01:56 Gloria: And it mirrors the very journey that I've been on that many of you have seen on social media, how I've let go of all the marketing "shoulds" and stop playing by other people's rules to really embrace the wholeness of who I am, not just as a PR coach, but as a community builder, as someone who grew up with a Black family, as someone who grew up navigating between cultures and worlds and languages to arrive at the place that I am now and still very much in the process of healing a lot of the generational stuff.
00:02:24 Gloria: My money issues, my scarcity issues, my feelings of safety and belonging and all of that. I realized that there's no separation between who I am as a person and my business. It's all very much embedded in the essence of who I am and how I show up. And that's a beautiful thing because it allows that permeation, that space to breathe, that space for me to be unapologetic and authentic and not having to perform. After five years of the PR Starter Pack, I'm so excited to announce our brand new upgraded sales page and program name. Now, don't worry, it's going to deliver just the same amount of value, if not even more. And I would say a lot more because now we have our AI integrations.
00:03:03 Gloria: But the PR Starter Pack now is going to be called the Get Featured Accelerator. You're going to notice that the sales page has bold contrasting colors. It has language that's very different than what was there before. The emails are going to be different. The way that I sell this program is going to be very different. I've already been on many, many sales calls with a lot of you who have listened for me to show you what I have done, which is to create access and bring you the top 1% of journalists and to bring all the daily PR opportunities, curated for you directly to your inbox so that if you are short on time, no problem. You just press respond and then you reply and get featured.
00:03:39 Gloria: Another thing we've upgraded is the AI capabilities. Now we're all busy. We have a lot of people who are single moms caring for elderly and kids. Time was a big objection. And in the world where we are so strapped for time, and doing so many things for other people, AI has changed the game. Now this new workflow we have has now allowed us to find the best angles, the most relevant points that are data backed and spit out a pitch. But then you can press send within 15 minutes. And if you just do this, you can do this for 10, five, 15 minutes every single day and keep getting featured. It's like the same amount of time as you scrolling on Instagram and not getting anything done.
00:04:16 Gloria: You could be connecting, writing and getting featured over and over and over. We had someone who just joined 30 days ago and within 30 days she got featured six times. Those are all the nuts and bolts of why it's so upgraded and why it's so valuable because people don't have time. People want exactly those results and to create access and to empower you, to give you those journalists contacts, to give you those connections to the journalists who want to cover you, to give you those PR opportunities has been game changing and no one's really doing PR this way. But more importantly, I want to talk about the messaging shift because I've been really on this journey of finding out what it means to be unapologetically myself in a sea of marketing shoulds.
00:04:54 Gloria: A lot of times when we first start our businesses, we do what we're told. We are copying the templates of the five Funnel Bros who are the old guard, who were the loudest and biggest names in online marketing. And I as well subscribe to that. It was a lot of fake urgency and countdown timers. If I can do it, you can too, that kind of language that really doesn't take into consideration people's messy whole selves. And a lot of it is about growing, growing, growing and how nothing is enough. And my new approach to PR after going through a lot of healing work is that we're all enough. We have everything we need to connect today. And I don't think that people at this juncture want this guru from the stage to be like, I can help you because we're not helpless people.
00:05:36 Gloria: We have the information with AI at our fingertips. We have the tools and resources to get anything that we want. What we need is to have the access, the convenience and the clarity to be able to do this in community with other people who also can see us, a place of belonging. And that's really what is the biggest upgrade, is to give people that access, that clarity, that community, that belonging. And I have to talk about my upbringing because all of this is reminding me of my own journey growing up as an Asian American, a first generation immigrant, a five foot tall daughter of a widowed immigrant.
00:06:11 Gloria: And growing up, the Asian-American experience is very much one that's characterized by assimilation. We look very different than white Americans. The language is vastly different, thousands of thousands of miles away, very different from the Western world. So a lot of the Asian American way of surviving was to be white adjacent, was to create safety from that place of assimilation, to be perceived in a way that's palatable. And I feel like so much of marketing has been this assimilation. Don't rock the boat, don't say anything too bold, don't talk about politics, don't talk about race, don't talk about anything that might make people uncomfortable.
00:06:49 Gloria: Well, I just think that we are in a stage where the world is on fire and we can no longer be neutral. And it's not about taking a stance in politics. And it's not about being a political activist. It's about understanding where that journey of assimilation ends and begins and how it's no longer serving me and how I am no longer needing those tools to survive. I can fully step into my power and invite others to do the same.
00:07:13 Gloria: In my journey of sharing more about myself, about what it's like to grow up at the intersection of all these different places of not finding belonging, but then belonging everywhere because of that, of being a PR outsider and that being my greatest advantage because I had no PR experience or contacts, that has led me to where we are today, which is being so unapologetic about who I am, what I stand for, and the people that I invite in that there is absolutely zero confusion about what I'm trying to create and what I am rejecting.
00:07:44 Gloria: I think a lot of people when they do value- based messaging, say, Oh, well, you got to talk about your values. And it's almost like a bumper sticker or something that's a nice slogan on a coffee mug. So of course, a lot of people are like, well, yeah, I of course I stand for justice, equality and love, right? I find that to be very surfacing and very easy to be done. It doesn't take a lot of courage. For me, what I'm doing is I want to measure my values and my commitment to my values by boldly displaying what I am rejecting.
00:08:12 Gloria: And I know in the online marketing world, that's like a no-no, or it's like, don't be negative, or don't call people out, or don't cast aside this. Well, I think the only way to show what you stand for is to be active and unapologetic in what you're rejecting. Otherwise, I don't know what your values are. Everything becomes this very diluted echo chamber of everyone saying the same thing. So on the sales page, getfeaturedaccelerator.com, it's the same program that's upgraded, but the messaging is very different.
00:08:39 Gloria: You are going to see not the usual marketing tactics of the old guard of, here are your pain points and how do we drive home your pain points so that you can find the solution and then add so much scarcity that you're just going to feel FOMO. No, that's not the type of person I'm trying to attract. The type of person I'm trying to attract is so clear on their values and what resonates with them that once they read that sales page, they're going to know exactly whether it's a hell yes or hell no. I want to magnetize the right people so that I can repel the wrong people.
00:09:09 Gloria: I think about the time recently where I was referred to by a friend on a podcast and she said, hey, you know, here's Gloria. She was on the podcast. She's great. I think she would be amazing for you. Would you like to have her on a guest? And that person responded to me privately and said, you know, after looking at your social media, I realized that we are not a values alignment. So I will not be inviting you onto my podcast and I will not be pursuing further collaboration. And I wrote an email about this actually, but I remember exactly where I was. I was brushing my teeth opening that email and I had foam coming out of my mouth from the toothpaste over the sink.
00:09:42 Gloria: And instead of being like, oh my God, this is such a rejection. I feel disappointment or shame. I actually smiled because I realized that I've done it. That is the pinnacle of messaging, isn't it? When you are so clear about who you are and your values that the right people come in and the wrong people automatically know that it's not for them. So yes, even though it was a rejection, it was actually a proud moment for me because it made me realize that I have done the work and I have really come full circle in my journey. And that's why I cannot have the same messaging and the same sales page and the same ways of marketing.
00:10:14 Gloria: So the PR Starter Pack is now going to be called the Get Featured Accelerator. It is going to be the number one solution that's most accessible for product makers, for them to get seen and get featured in gift guides, in podcasts, in all the different stages and magazines without pay to play, without having a PR agency and empowering them with the daily PR opportunities, the AI tools, and the solutions that gets them the results really quickly in a way that honors their dignity, in a way that gives them their power, in a way that doesn't strip them of who they are.
00:10:43 Gloria: That's still going to be my core program. I'm still going to work one-on-one with founders who are service-based and who are not for their podcasts and one-on-one pitch writing, but the group program is going to be really pivotal and centered around product makers because I realized that there's not really anyone serving this group. We have so many amazing product makers on Shopify, on Amazon, and they just feel like PR is out of reach for them. That there's no one serving them, so they just keep pouring money into ads or social media or doing the flea markets that doesn't really get them anywhere. It doesn't give them that SEO. And at the time of recording, we are all turning into an AI search era. We are going to very shortly in the future, sooner than we think, going to be relying on these AI engines like Perplexity or ChatGPT to recommend us products to recommend us the unbiased most objective answer.
00:11:33 Gloria: And so how do we get featured? How do we get found on that? A big part of that is being featured on reputable websites for product recommendations. And that is exactly what the Get Featured Accelerator will help you do. Now on the sales page, I've also added a couple of things. For example, my unapologetic non-negotiables, like my actual non-negotiables that are my values, what I am creating, what I am not creating, what I am rejecting. And that is a very clear invitation to the people who subscribe to the values to come in, to feel safe, and the people who don't resonate to just show them where the door is so that they can leave.
00:12:04 Gloria: One of the things I have realized about tapping into this more authentic messaging, around the time of the inauguration, I wrote an email about my thoughts about History Month and MLK Day and reflecting on my own upbringing, I got around 100 unsubscribed. People started unfollowing me by the troves. But then we had so many people come out of the woodworks and saying, I have been reading your emails for so long and I am so happy that you have come full circle in your journey, that now you are writing about things that really matter, that you are building bridges, that you make me feel seen. And there is really no higher honor for me to do that because I think there's so much content in the world.
00:12:38 Gloria: We don't need more bland, neutral messaging. So the sales page is going to have my unapologetic values on there. And it's still going to have a lot of references to what it's like to not feel seen, to not feel safe being seen and why this work is so much more than just marketing and PR. Because really at the core of what we're doing is creating a safe space for people who probably felt like they were living on the margins, who didn't feel like they could be seen or had to wait their turn or not feel ready to make them feel like the time is now. To make them feel like they have everything they need. They don't need to be fixed. You're not broken in any way.
00:13:13 Gloria: You just need a clear path so that you can get featured with ease, with clarity, and with your head held high as the confident, empowered, small business owner that you are. Maybe you have a tiny following, that's okay. That's really kind of evolution of where the program is going, where my messaging is going. And I think what my audience wants from talking to all of you. So many of you has told me when I held my New York entrepreneur retreat is that people just don't want to be taught to, they don't want to be helped. They don't want another course. And this is definitely not a course by the way. They just want to know, are they going to get the answers?
00:13:47 Gloria: Is this person going to create psychological safety? Does this person understand me and my journey? All of those things are very prominent now, woven into the sales page, which before it wasn't because again, I was assimilating into the mainstream marketing templates that everyone else was doing. So you're going to see a very bold headline and the headline might offend you. It might get people unsubscribes and that's okay because again, I am in my era where I am unapologetically speaking my truth and that means that I'm not going to be for everyone and that's okay. And I'm willing to do that.
00:14:14 Gloria: So you're going to see a lot of things on there that's going to talk about the type of community that we are forming, how it's important to me to advocate for small businesses at a time, especially now with tariffs and their margins and just being really challenging for all small businesses. What I'm doing to help elevate you, to bring in guest experts at no extra cost, to make things easier for you. And with all these upgrades, I am not raising my price. That's the most important thing is that I have not raised my price, even though we've added so many of these new things, whether it's the daily PR opportunities or the AI workflow or the experts that usually would charge a lot of money for to speak and masterminds that I am bringing in for free.
00:14:51 Gloria: Because I think small business owners, even though they're small businesses, still should have access to journalists, to experts, just like the big businesses. So getfeaturedaccelerator.com is a reflection of this journey that I've been on. It's a reflection of where we are, where my audience is, and my own journey of unraveling what I thought I needed to do or what I should do to be more palatable to assimilate. Well, I say, f*ck that, I'm no longer assimilating, I have arrived, the assimilation is over, it is time for me to integrate the wholeness, the messiness, the unpalatable parts, the bold parts of myself, so that the right people who understand me, who feel safe with me will come along and say, hell, yes.
00:15:30 Gloria: And the people who are hell nos can just leave because that's what I want. I don't want to be neutral anymore. This is the biggest announcement that I've made about my business. It's a total upgrade, it's total new sales page, new fonts, new colors, new messaging, everything, even the name of the program is different. So when you go to prstarterpack.com, it's going to go to getfeaturedaccelerator.com. And the reason why I named it that way is that that's what people do. They get featured. It's not for people starting and it's not a pack. It's not a course. You get a fast track to getting featured. And so getfeaturedaccelerator, that name clearly communicates the result.
00:16:02 Gloria: Obviously it can't encapsulate the amazing community and the psychological safety, but the name just makes way more sense than what it was before, which sounded more like a DIY kind of watching modules. And this is definitely not that. This is unlimited support by me. This is you're not getting other coaches. You're getting direct feedback from me. It's really important that I say that because a lot of people are playing the volume game and they just want as many people as possible so they can build, build, build. Well, I do not want my business to be like that. I find so much richness to be able to know all of your names and to connect you to each other and to remember what it is that you're building.
00:16:36 Gloria: And I cannot do that if I have a huge mega business with tons of coaches. My promise is I am not trying to scale at all costs. I did try to do that. I suffered a burnout. You can listen to my episode about that, about how I was wearing bandages after a 13 centimeter fibroid was removed from my uterus through an open abdominal surgery. And I pushed myself to have a six figure launch. And then I went to a complete mental collapse. I have done that. I don't want to do that anymore. I find that there is so much richness in being present, in creating spaciousness for people, in slowing down and making people feel seen and answering their questions in the fullness of the capacity that I have because I have now created spaciousness to do that without a huge crazy business model that's always trying to 10X this and 3X this.
00:17:17 Gloria: If I think about what is naturally occurring in the world that grows year after year after year, there is absolutely nothing natural about that. The only thing that grows year after year like that is cancer and viruses. So embracing that seasonality, embracing that flow, I want to keep creating from a place of spaciousness, from a place of expansion. And I cannot do that if I am always so focused on more and more and more. I want to acknowledge that this is a lifelong journey of me building the enoughness in the here and now. Somatic therapy has helped with that. Psychedelic assisted therapy has helped with that. And I just realized that the more you can empower people and help as many people for free as possible. And that's what the masterclass does. That's what this podcast does.
00:17:58 Gloria: That goodwill will always come back to you. With that, I am excited for you to see the brand new GetFeaturedAccelerator.com to see my bold unapologetic messaging and hopefully that will also invite you to be your most unapologetic whole integrated self. If you know a product maker who would love this episode or would love my way of making PR accessible for them, refer them to go to getfeaturedaccelerator.com and I cannot wait to meet you inside of the program.
00:18:26 Gloria: Hey, small business hero, did you know that you can get featured for free on outlets like Forbes, the New York Times, Marie Claire, PopSugar, and so many more, even if you are not yet launched or if you don't have any connections? That's right. That's why I invite you to watch my PR secrets masterclass, where I reveal the exact methods thousands of bootstrapping small businesses use to hack their own PR and go from unknown to being a credible and sought after industry expert.
00:18:54 Gloria: Now, if you want to land your first press feature, get on a podcast, secure a VIP speaking gig, or just reach out to that very intimidating editor, this class will show you exactly how to do it. Register now at gloriachoupr.com/masterclass. That's gloriachou, choupr.com/masterclass. So you can get featured in 30 days without spending a penny on ads or agencies. Best of all, this is completely free. So get in there and let's get you featured.