Episode 27: How a Real Estate Broker Turned Skincare Founder Got Into Refinery29, BuzzFeed, and Bustle With No Connections or Budget with Keba Lloyd
Is it possible to land big press opportunities without a huge budget or industry connections? You know what I think, but let’s hear from someone else who has experience with this.
Makeba Lloyd is sharing how she was able to organically land press opportunities with Refinery29, Buzzfeed, Bustle, ZoeReport, and more.
If you have questions about pitching, following up, and getting results without being pushy then look no further. Makeba has answers to so many of your burning questions and she’s sharing them right here on the Small Business PR podcast.
Makeba Guilan Lloyd, a Harlem-born, native New Yorker, began her 20-year professional career as a real estate associate. After an educational tour through Egypt, she became inspired to learn about the art and process of perfumery and aromatherapy. This led to a side-hustle but has recently transitioned into the beginning of her legacy.
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
Landing press opportunities without any connections
Why you shouldn't be afraid to tell your story
The power of sharing your process
The value of small blogs
Establishing a digital presence
What it looks like to pitch, follow up, and land a press opportunity
How to follow up effectively
Doing what feels authentic
Working with an intern or assistant
A lot of people think PR is pay-to-play, but in this episode, Makeba explains why that’s just not true. Her advice is to start somewhere. Even if you feel like you still have so much to do, once you get started it will turn into something grand.
If you want to get free organic press features, get on to top podcasts, and build relationships with editors at your dream outlets, join me and hundreds of small business owners in the PR starter pack at www.prstarterpack.com.
Resources Mentioned:
Take the Scent Quiz and Use Code BB20 for 20% OFF
Connect with Makeba on LinkedIn
Follow Butter by Keba on Facebook
Follow @butterbykeba on Instagram
Follow @chakrathecollection on Instagram
Follow @unitycodecollection on Instagram
Additional Resources:
Join the Small Biz PR Pros FB group
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Transcript
SBPR Episode 27 Final.mp3
[00:00:04] Hey, my friend. I'm Gloria Chou, and this is the Small Business PR podcast. Your go-to place for inspiration and proven strategies to help you go from unknown to being seen, heard and valued. Every week, I will reveal the latest insights and actionable steps you can take to become the most confident, visible and impactful entrepreneur. You can be one pitch at a time. Let's get started. What's up, small business heroes? Welcome back to another episode of the Small Business PR podcast. Today I have the one and only real estate entrepreneur turned beauty wellness awesome badass female founder, the one and only Makeba Lloyd, welcome to the show.
[00:00:48] Hey, how are you, Gloria?
[00:00:50] Now, I love that intro because I don't think many people can say that their real estate real estate agent turned beauty entrepreneur. Right.
[00:00:58] Right. No, we don't hear a lot of that. There are two separate worlds.
[00:01:02] What I love about your story for anyone that's listening is, you know, we have a lot of beauty entrepreneurs in the PR starter pack. But what I love about your story is that you were able to land refinery essence zo report the Amsterdam news bustle beauty all organically. And I think a lot of times people think that it's just like a pay-to-play kind of thing. We were able to be like, No, no, no. I was able to land this without any contacts, without any people vouching for me or fancy connections. So can you talk a little bit about kind of how you started your beauty business just at home without any kind of blueprint on what you thought it could be? And then kind of what other press opportunities that you've gotten that I maybe haven't mentioned yet?
[00:01:46] Sure. Absolutely. Well, I started out just making something for myself to soothe my own skin, which I think that's a similar story that we hear. And I just started bringing my products and my creations into work. And one day a fellow agent of mine colleague who sat next to me said, you know, this is a really nice product and I will buy my refills because I want refills. And you should really think about selling this. And at the time I was just like, What? Oh, no. Like, you know, what a where do I start? I saw real estate and I really didn't kind of grass. I didn't grasp the idea, but I did listen to her advice. I at least did some street fairs and I did create an online website, and I kept it as kind of like my side hustle creative outlet for quite a long time. I had two pieces of PR during that time that kind of like eight year span. One was in kind of like a black female inspired magazine, kind of like an essence. And then the other piece of PR was in 2016, I got some radio and that I had a little connection to because one of my customers was a host on a major radio show. When I switched up my packaging and she got her order, she says, Oh yeah, she's ready. Let me, let's get her on. And so she invited me on to talk about my journey starting an online business.
[00:03:08] I love that. Now I'm looking at your Instagram. You don't have like 10,000 something followers, but you have some amazing organic press features. I mean, very coveted places like refineries or airport. So maybe just give us like, what is something that you've learned throughout pitching yourself and obviously you're in the starter pack, but just bootstrapping it like what do you what do you want to tell people that that you've that you've gotten to know from doing this yourself?
[00:03:34] I would say everyone's story is their own and is unique and don't be afraid to tell it. I think writers and journalists and editors are looking for meaningful, interesting stories. And as long as you're willing to tell your story and you can articulate it in an email or if it's a press release, for me we did mostly just organic emails and pitching. You'll be surprised at who will pick your story up or who you pick, your brand or your product up and enter it into a placement. So I was quite surprised. I didn't expect any of the placements that we received. We just reached out to people and we we succeeded in that. And it makes me feel good that someone actually took the time and it saw the value in my story and my brand.
[00:04:20] Yeah, and let's be honest, there's a lot of body butters out there. There's you're in a very saturated competitive market, right? So a lot of times we see like I know someone who's making like a mushroom elixir. So that's very unique. So how are you able to differentiate what you're doing in the sea of other body butters for a place like like refinery? What was that? What was that entry point?
[00:04:41] I think talking about my process, which puts me a lot, puts me in a unique space than your average body butter. So I do a body butter, but I also apply the process and the practice of perfumery. And for me, it's a real practice. It's an artistry that I've been honing for over ten years. And so I make sure that I do my best to communicate that when I'm reaching out to people, I also incorporate aroma therapy. So the two worlds I'm really trying to bring together in one product, and I think that's what makes the body butter unique, unique to the user and unique to anyone listening to me talk about the product and the brand. We'll see. Okay, that's it's not your average body butter. This is something that she actually applies and techniques and application and education to. Three.
[00:05:31] Yeah, 100%. And for anyone that's listening, I don't think anyone out there is making an average product. And we all have an interesting and unique story. And before we got on the podcast, you actually said that in your subject line and this is something you gathered from the starter pack is don't you put something in the subject line that's like real estate entrepreneur turned wellness founder? Or tell me about the subject line hack that you use to get responses.
[00:05:54] Yeah, I mean, I thought, well, how do I set myself apart from so many brands out there who have a lot more going? They have PR people, they have established brands. And I said, again, I need to tell my story and figure out how to communicate that in the subject line. So I put something like Harlem Broker Term Beauty Founder or Harlem handmade fragrance brand. You know, something that identify me as a Harlem entrepreneur, which I am. I'm Harlem born, I'm a Harlem resident. And I thought that would stand out in the sea of brands out there who are also vying for the same attention and also have great products.
[00:06:31] So can you tell me a little bit about the various mentions because there's so much opportunity for PR, it's not just a one and done right. So there's gift guides, there's entrepreneurs, there's top 40, under 40. So what are some of the different types of press that you've received?
[00:06:45] You know, it's interesting because I've gotten a lot of blog placements as well. Some of the larger placements have been the ZO Report refinery, 29 brides. What else? Essence we put on their roundup list twice, two years in a row, which was awesome there. That's a major publication to be a part of me. I grew up with Essence of WW Food, Beauty, Independent and most recently the Amsterdam News, Reader's Digest. Oh, Ola, which is great. Hello, beautiful. And we've also got received a lot of write ups from independent blogs which are just as vital and important and meaningful because a lot of times I think an editor working with a big publication may look to the smaller blogs for the trends and the stories that they're not seeing, because those are those smaller blogs are usually picking up the small stories of the next hot thing. And so I remind myself that sometimes we'll send out a lot of pictures and not and maybe get a few back and they'll be small blogs. But those are just as valuable and important as the larger publications because that's someone telling your story, that's someone trying your product, and that SEO is just as valuable as the CEO with the larger publication. So all of that that combination, I think makes for continuous, consistent success getting placements down the line.
[00:08:14] I love that. So are you saying that a lot of times, you know, like a bigger magazine, let's say women's health or allure would look for those beauty blogs when they are deciding their top ten products.
[00:08:25] They may or they may be searching to see, you know, if they if you're reaching out to someone on a consistent basis and you have at least a few pieces of PR, even if it's with a small brand, at least you have some visibility. You know, you have digital presence. Be willing to speak to everyone, go for all of the placements, even if they're not the ones that you expected. Because while you're trying to get the big placement, you'll have all these smaller these other placements. And I don't want to say they're small. These are all writers and bloggers and bloggers who are taking their time to create content. You'll have that digital presence there from all the blogs that gives you presence online so that when the larger editor right goes to Google you, you have some digital presence, right? So they're like OC and they can read they can read second, third, fourth hand from someone else, not just from your point of view, but from the point of view of another writer. I remember way back when I didn't have any clue what I was doing. I hired an intern to reach out to about 50 bloggers, and these are bloggers that may have had 100 people on their email list, but it didn't matter. Those write ups showed up in my search. And so I think that when you Google me, you can see right up through 2010, you know, with my own branding and my, you know, my printed labels, I think it's very important to to remember that anyone that's willing to tell your story, no matter what, how large their platform is, is just as valuable as the next.
[00:10:07] Yeah. I mean, for SEO, you never know when that website visitor is coming from. They might be very well coming from that 2010 blog. And I love what you said about you never know if an editor or someone who is on the panel to judge the best beauty award winners, they're going to be doing their research. So you want to have that arsenal, right? And so I love how you validated that point. But I want to get back to the actual nitty-gritty of pitching, because I think a lot of people. Who are listening. They're just getting started. So do you want to walk us through a real case study of how you pitched and follow up and landed like one piece, whether it's for Refinery or BuzzFeed and what that journey looks like?
[00:10:43] I'll tell you two pieces. I'll share the Amsterdam news story, because that's a very interesting story. We put together a pitch, right? We see some great advice from your VIP call to put a little more information in there about the founder, about my story. And so what we did is we opened the pitch up with, hello, thank you so much for reading your email. If I may introduce myself. And I told a little bit about my story and I was honest, I said, started this as a hobby and 2020 made me reflect on what gave me joy. And I realized it was making products that and fragrances that people connect with. And I think that's what captured a writer's attention because she responded with no content. Her email just had her signature, which said it was a quote that said something like, Isn't it love at first sight when you realize what you're meant to do? And at first glance, I almost didn't respond to it because I'm like, What? I didn't know her, you know, like she was. She responded from a different email. I didn't remember. I couldn't connect the emails like it didn't connect. So I'm like, Oh, this is interesting. And so I said, Oh, I said, Yeah, it is.
[00:11:51] It's really great. And in the subject line, she had Valentine's Day gift guide. I said, Do you have a gift guide? And she goes, Oh, by the way, yes. You know, I write for this one. She wrote the list of newspapers and magazines that she wrote for. I'm like, Oh, my God. Oh, so nice to meet you. You know, thank you so much for responding to my emails. And so when we got the conversation going, kind of went back and forth and she sent me a list of questions and I dropped off. She happened to be right in my neighborhood. So sometimes it's something like that, something that you say. So I would always say when you're doing these speak from the heart. I think that that makes a huge difference. Another piece defining 29 we reached out to and we use that tagline, the Harlem Handmade Fragrance Line. And I think with that one, we followed up a couple of times. We reached out on specific days and we followed up on specific days, our travel columns, which were very nuanced and different, that made it. And again, it was the story. Having your story somewhere very visible on your website is very important to the specifics.
[00:12:54] Yeah, I love that you said follow up because I think a lot of people are like, Oh, I sent an email, they don't like it, right? But every single person who has gone featured has had to follow up. Have you ever had someone just get annoyed with the follow up or is that just kind of a fear that everybody has? It's not actually there.
[00:13:12] No, I've had I've received. Thank you for following up. Think about yourself, how many emails you'll get, you get. And you may even if you open one and peruse it and don't respond because you get distracted unless you're like sending someone an email every day. We're not doing that. But I think one or two follow ups or a follow up is always necessary. In coming from my background, real estate that was mandatory. Every single inquiry that came in is a potential buyer, so you always have to follow up and be honest. I still have that fear too. I go, I don't want to bother them, but follow up is so imperative because everyone is busy and you want to make sure that you at least try your best to connect with the person on the other end.
[00:13:55] Yeah. And follow up, you could have an assistant do that once a week. And what about social media? Because I do talk about that in the PR starter pack. Were you able to leverage both the email and the social media to connect with them?
[00:14:06] Yeah. For instance, there are writers, independent freelance writers that write for many magazines that I deem that I've become familiar with. We follow each other because they covered something from my brand and I'll say, Hey, how you doing? And I'll follow up and just say, Hey, what's up? What's going, you know, just to like check, just to say hello, who are all like and comment on their pictures. I'll say, Hey, so how was Miami or something like that? Just on a real level, because sometimes that's the nerve wracking part is that, you know, you're asking or you're looking for something. But I think if maybe you remove that and just say, Hey, I really love your pictures from your trip, was it they may respond to that. So maybe trying a little bit of both?
[00:14:49] Yeah, a little bit of both is good. And let's be honest, they know they're not stupid. They know that you want to get featured. Right? But we don't. We want to be able to have the information to give them a compliment. And that's why I include their bio in the PR starter pack. So can you give us kind of without revealing like every single word you wrote, but using the CPR method that I teach, maybe some bullet points on, like what the pitch looks like. Because as you kind of walk us through it, I'm sure our listeners will get a lot of brainstorm in terms of what they can also write for their pitch.
[00:15:17] Yeah, no, absolutely. Well, I think, again, I'm going to go back to this. We were pitching our shock oils at one point, just talking about the process, trying to differentiate the body oil in comparison to. One great body, others that are out there. Your process is always unique. What you go through to get the product and what you do to get the product typically is going to be unique to you. So giving some details about that I think is very helpful in differentiating your product in the market and just the timing kind of saying, hey, it'd be great if we can think about this shock or healing and the process as we were coming out of trying to relate it to the current news, not ignoring the fact, like right now it's a very awkward time because we're in a war and so you want to be mindful of that. So I think being mindful of the current times and just kind of crafting an email in a sensitive way.
[00:16:11] Yeah. And the CPR method, the relevance part, as you know, is so important. And I think especially when it comes to wellness and beauty, there are so many seasonal angles. I mean, there is summer beauty, there's winter skin, right? So for anyone that's listening, like there are so many ideas right there. But let's talk about the actual email. Is it long? Is it short? What does it look like? Did you have attachments?
[00:16:32] It was just one, barely one page, not a full just kind of like a couple of nothing too long, just a couple of short paragraphs. And we inserted a collage of pictures and that's it. Just we don't do anything long. And we wanted to insert pictures so that it was colorful. And that's it. Sometimes, like our first round, we did insert PDFs, we did attachments, a couple of attachments. It really depends. I like the idea of inserting a pretty photo. It could brighten someone's day, certainly pretty pictures, but definitely just to small intro and then about the product and the weakness and then an offer to send samples and that's it.
[00:17:13] And out of the times that you got featured, would you say that sending samples was a prerequisite or. It really just depends.
[00:17:21] I've only sent samples once. I have not had may have sent gift cards later after I got placed, you know, just as a thank you. But the Amsterdam news piece, I dropped samples off in person to a location. And the thing is that I sometimes when I look at my list, I'm like, our customers are like, isn't that the writer? So they may purchase using the gift certificate or something. But yeah, we haven't had to send out a lot of samples actually for the Refinery29. We didn't have to send out samples, but for like, Hello, beautiful Ola. I think we got a number of others. We had a series of placements and we, that was when we sent out a we're sending out a lot of samples. So actually, yeah, we did have a period where we sent out a bunch of samples to a list. Yeah. I mean it's not overwhelming, it's know it's like you want to send out, you want to get your product out there. So yeah, it's a come, I'd say 50, 50, you know, 50% of our PR we didn't send out samples. It wasn't I think the story and the reviews reviews help a lot. You know, if someone go on your website and see, okay, she's got like 50 to 100 reviews on this product. It must be good. I think in one write up someone, a writer actually copy and paste it some of the reviews in the piece like yeah, this is from the horse's mouth right here, here. Some of her reviews check this product out.
[00:18:46] And it's not a prerequisite. I always say that. It's not a requirement. It's definitely not. And that brings me to my next thing is I know a lot of these publications now. They want to charge you thousands of dollars for like whether it's an affiliate where like every sale that you make, you have to give them a percentage or you just flat out buy a placement. So what do you have to say for that? Like the cost of that versus doing it on your own? Because a lot of people listening, they they talk themselves out of it because they're like, I don't have the time or this is not whatever. And what do you have to say to that?
[00:19:19] I've received the pictures and I still do receive the pictures from the pay to play opportunities, which I still read. And they're very tempting until I do the numbers and I'm like, this isn't this is not I don't have the money for this, but for me, I would much rather at least get coverage organically to show that I have a real viable product, that this is my story is real and it's authentic. My product is great. I've got customers, real customers who love the product. That's just one type of PR. Don't let that stop you and assume that every piece of PR is pay-to-play. Reach out. It doesn't. It only helps you to reach out to as many editors and writers as possible to share your story and your and your product attributes. I think we had one placement that was affiliate. You know, I don't mind the affiliate so much. You get to give a percentage. I mean, we have an affiliate program already just cuts for customers. So I don't mind that so much. But once we get into like thousands of dollars for a placement, then it starts to feel just not authentic. It's like, I don't want to I don't want to feel like I'm cheating the reader, you know what I mean? Like, I want to feel like at least that I put myself out there organically and at. Think as a small brand, that's what you want to do and not be stressed out about the pay to play. You may do pay. I may do pay to play one day, but that's when I'm already sitting on like a big mass retail shelf or something. I want to prove myself as a brand first.
[00:20:45] I love that. And people want to buy from leaders who are not afraid to put themselves out there, even though their website and packaging might not be like what they want it to be. I love that you have just rolled up your sleeves and bootstrapped this without any kind of prior knowledge or industry experience. So congrats to you. I'm going to give you like a round of applause and everyone is listening. I'm giving her like an applause. It's so inspiring. What is something else that has really surprised you about this PR process or kind of like doing it in this way, using the CPR method and kind of hacking it on your own.
[00:21:16] That it's possible to get placements, journalists, writers, editors. They're really they're listening, they pay attention. And that's why it's so important to follow up. And I get the sense that they also respect a small business that is starting from scratch, that's bootstrapping that may not have the VC funding and all the big you know, that's the sense I got that they really, truly respect your your hustle and they understand it. And if they can write about you, they will, you know, if they, you know, some may have requirements they require to write about the big brands or the place the big brands because there's money involved. But some really are looking for the next hot thing or they're really looking to share story that they connect with. I would just say, remember that that they're humans, too, and they want to see the little I get the sense they want to see the little guys win. You know what I mean? Like there's a community of writers out there in journalists who want to see the little people win. So I would just remember that.
[00:22:13] And that's my community.
[00:22:14] Yes, absolutely. They want to see us win. So keep reaching out. Don't be afraid that there will be a moment where your product can be covered and will be covered.
[00:22:24] A lot of the founders are really busy. Right. And so one of the things I always say is it sounds so daunting to do it on your own, but as you know and you've learned, the upside is so worth it. So how can someone start to work with an intern or an assistant so that they can delegate this process but still take ownership of it and not have to pay an agency like ten grand a month? So what what are some kind of tips and tricks for working with an intern?
[00:22:49] I've used fiber a lot, and I would say, do your research, peruse the website, ask your friends if they're working with any digital assistants. I hired a digital assistant last year. She was a referral from a friend. She's overseas and she's wonderful. She has a full time job and she does this for supplemental income, but it's really good income for her. So and she's great. I, I gave her the PR starter pack and she put together a whole strategy, 30 day strategy based off of your starter pack. We do the drafts. If you don't have the means to pay someone every week or per hour, maybe take a few hours and create drafts in your email. And then as you go through the list, you can tweak each draft based on who you're sending it to. And even if you just send five, you spend a couple of hours and you spend five on one day or five a week, at least you're reaching out. I would just start kind of like start where you can and create at least 20 drafts. You can create 20 drafts, that's 20 potential placements. And then you tweak each draft according to who you're seeing.
[00:24:04] Yeah, 20 potential placements. That's tens of thousands of dollars. So the upside is certainly worth it.
[00:24:09] Yeah.
[00:24:10] Thank you so much for being so generous with us. And honestly, before today I haven't met you and I'm so glad that we were able to meet you joined us in the starter pack. We didn't really talk much, but you really took it and ran with it. So I really hope that whether who's listening, they're either in the starter pack or not in the starter pack, that they can imagine that it is possible for them to have a really small bootstrapping product and be in all of the top outlets without having to give a percentage of their revenue. So thank you so much for that. How can people connect with you? How can people find out about your extraordinary products and get into your world?
[00:24:45] Sure. Well, on Instagram at Butter by Keba and that's butter spelled like butter b, y, k, e, b a and our website is butter by cvs.com so they can reach out to follow us. You can subscribe on our website. And I just, if I can add, start somewhere we haven't even done the most with your package we have done just gotten started. We still have so much more to do. If you just get started, if you just do just a bit, it will turn into something grand. So I just want to put it out there just to get started. Your package is so well padded. It's like so valuable. So thank you so much.
[00:25:24] Thank you. Thank you for showing us what's possible. Just finished another episode of the Small Business PR podcast. I hope you loved it as much as I did. Now, if you want to get free organic press features, get onto top podcasts and build relationships with editors at your dream outlets. Join me and hundreds of small business owners in the PR starter pack. It's the world's only PR tool that combines my proprietary CPR pitching framework with updated and super detailed media lists. So you'll never need to search for an editor’s contact again or wonder exactly what to write in the pitch email from proven pitch templates to gift guides to podcast lists, and so much more. It's the PR secret weapon of small but mighty businesses who know that they're meant to go bigger with their message, even if they're just starting out. Go to prstarterpack.com and see how founders from every industry leveraged it to get on to the New York Times, Popsugar, Vogue shape, Wall Street Journal and so many more Dream Islands. No PR agency retainers, no expensive contracts required, and best of all, no ads or relying on relationships or other people to vouch for you because the PR starter pack has everything you need to feel ready and confident to pitch like the industry expert you know you are. I know you're going to love it. So go to prstarterpack.com and I'll talk to you next week.