Episode 212: How to Build Visibility and Confidence to Get PR for Your Small Business
In this episode of the Small Business PR, Gloria shares the three essential mindsets every founder needs to get featured in top media outlets—without spending thousands on a PR agency or ads.
After helping thousands of small business owners successfully pitch themselves to outlets like Forbes, The New York Times, and Marie Claire, Gloria reveals that PR isn’t just about press—it’s about mindset, communication, and consistency.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
1️⃣ Why PR Is Cumulative (And Why Every Pitch Counts)
Getting featured isn’t a one-time event—it’s a skill that compounds over time. Gloria explains how every pitch, follow-up, and journalist connection builds momentum, even if you don’t get a “yes” right away.
2️⃣ The $10,000-an-Hour Skill Every Founder Must Master
Outsourcing design or admin is easy—but you can’t outsource your voice. Learn why mastering your message is the most valuable asset in your business and how to use Gloria’s CPR Method (Credibility, Point of View, Relevance) to stand out to editors and producers.
3️⃣ How to Build Relationships That Create Endless Press Opportunities
PR isn’t just about features—it’s about relationships. Gloria reveals how to cultivate authentic connections with journalists, become a trusted expert source, and turn one feature into an ongoing media snowball effect.
Real Founder Stories
Hear how members of the PR Starter Pack community—like Dr. Ross Radusky and Dr. Greta—used Gloria’s system to consistently land press coverage year-round by pitching with clarity and confidence.
Key Takeaways
✅ PR success is built through mindset and momentum
✅ Your story is your most powerful marketing asset
✅ Consistency > perfection when it comes to pitching
✅ Everything you want is on the other side of the send button
If you’re ready to stop relying on social media algorithms and start getting free, organic press that builds your credibility and SEO, this episode is your roadmap.
Resources Mentioned:
Join the PR Secrets Masterclass
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: After helping thousands of small businesses hack their own PR and do the sacred work, which is pitching ourselves when we've been told for decades that we can't do our own PR, we need to rely on someone's relationships. We've proven them wrong. But the one thing I realized that is a common thread is it's really not about PR at the end of the day. It's about mindset. It's about what these founders who are at every stage of their journey, but mostly in the very beginning stages, what they believe is possible.
00:00:25 Gloria: From all the lessons learned and all of the wins that people have shared, the one thing that they always say is that this work has allowed them to grow as a person, to recognize your full potential. And through that journey is really about a shift in perspective. So I wanted to cover the three mindsets that you have to have in order to succeed, not only in PR, but also in your business. But I'm gonna focus it on knowing how to get featured. The first mindset you must have if you are going to win this PR game by either doing it yourself or having an assistant do it for you and not doing it the way where you're paying an agency $10,000 a month and not really having ROI, the first one is you need to know that it's all cumulative.
00:01:04 Gloria: A lot of times people think there's like a beginning and an end date to when they should do their PR. They're thinking, okay, well I'm launching or I don't have enough supplies or it's better for this season. Well, I really think it's a skill that you're cultivating. So this process, this journey, it's really cumulative. Just because you didn't get a yes right now doesn't mean that's not gonna compound. If you do get a yes, that's gonna keep compounding too because most of these journalists now, especially with layoffs, they are freelance writers, which means that they will likely write for multiple outlets. So don't ignore them just because they might seemingly write for a smaller outlet. You never know when they might be assigned to write for a bigger outlet. That is actually one of the things in a recent episode that I talked about the three ways PR is changing this year is because of the budget cuts and the layoffs, there will just be more freelancers and everyone will be contract writing for many different outlets.
00:01:53 Gloria: So that one relationship, you don't know where it's going to take you. Just see it as cumulative, as compounding. The things that you do today will pay off. are planting the seeds. You are getting that ROI, whether it's energetically or through skills or through that relationship, or maybe this person recommends you to another person. You never know. I just know that this journey for the people who really went at this and get their business featured over and over and over again, they take this long-term view that it is cumulative, that everything compounds. There's no time that's wasted. the time that you spend looking through your pitch draft. That is literally such a valuable skill because you are honing in on such an important thing, which is knowing how to write.
00:02:32 Gloria: So know that it's cumulative, know that nothing is wasted. Even if you spend time and you feel frustrated and you feel like it is a waste of time, it's not a waste of time because you're testing and you're learning how to do it better next time. You're learning how to be a good steward of the news. You are learning how to monitor news trends. You are looking at tools. You're seeing what other founders are doing. That's why we have these monthly calls now where they're members is because it's a combination of me coaching them, but also them seeing what other people are pitching. They might not be in the same industry vertical, but seeing how other people pitch and the ideas that they will have.
00:03:02 Gloria: There are so many light bulbs that always go off and the chat is always going off in these calls. So I promise you, you need to know that this is cumulative and that nothing is wasted. Even though you might feel like a failure, you are not. Okay. That's it. I'll give you an example, multiple examples of our PR CERB PAC members. Dr. Ross Radusky, he is a dermatologist and he is pitching all year round for news stories. He actually is a dermatologist specializing in sun protection, skin cancers and things like that. So you might think that summer is a really big time for him to pitch. He actually pitches even during Halloween, which is so random. You can listen to him on the podcast, that's episode 38. He talks about how he is pitching all year round even for Halloween stories.
00:03:44 Gloria: And you might think, why would Halloween stories be interesting or relevant to a dermatologist? That's because he finds an angle. He always finds an angle and gets featured. He got featured in an article in the healthcare magazine about how the candy that we're consuming during that time is wreaking havoc on our skin. So don't limit yourself to anything. Dr. Greta, who is a golfer, golf educator, she started PR in her fifties. It's never too late to start. have so many people who are starting later in life and they realize that this all compounds. So it's never too early. This is the time to do it and you will see all the oceans of opportunity to open up for you in ways that you haven't even thought of, I promise you.
00:04:22 Gloria: The second mindset you must have to succeed in PR is this is not a $10 an hour task that you can hire off of Fiverr, $15 an hour task, like making reels or designing a camera template or writing a customer service email. That is something that you can delegate very easily and I delegate that. What you're doing here with PR. I call it PR, but it really is setting a higher standard for how you communicate. Knowing how to message is probably the most important thing that a founder can do. It will allow you to quantum leap through many years of your journey by just knowing how to message and capture people's attention. I don't mean viral TikTok videos because not everyone's on TikTok and I'm not sure that that platform will continue to be in existence.
00:05:04 Gloria: We can see what's happening with social media and Twitter. What I mean is setting a high bar for the way you communicate, the way you message with clarity with relevance, knowing what to put in the message, knowing what to take out. That will capture anyone. I don't care if it's written, if it's audio, if it's verbal, if it's through captions. It serves as the foundation for the rest of your business activities, not just marketing. Think about it this way. By doing this work and using the CPR method and knowing how to message and knowing how to cold pitch, you are working on mindset, you're doing the briefing, you're unlocking the highest level of your ability to communicate.
00:05:36 Gloria: This is a $10,000 an hour skill that will help you in email writing. Blogs, newsletters, knowing how to pitch for panels. I've had so many founders use the CPR method to even get their products into wholesalers or pitching to get into an accelerator. The applications are endless. If you haven't listened to the CPR method, please do. This is the foundation for everything that I teach. It's my proprietary pitching framework. C stands for credibility, P stands for point of view, R stands for relevance. That is on episode number two, gloriachaupr.com/twotolisten.
00:06:05 Gloria: The CPR method is a basis for you to be able to communicate and unlock opportunities in all areas of your life. I have used it for getting onto podcasts. People have used it to get onto panels, to get into that higher ups DM inbox where usually you would be staring at a blank screen and not knowing what to write. The CPR method allows you to unlock endless opportunities. So that's why do not think of it as PR. Do not think of it as, this is another thing to add onto my plate. I know we are all so busy, but think about it.
00:06:33 Gloria: Are you doing a low ROI task that you can delegate? Or are you creating assets in your business that is a $10,000 an hour skill? That is what we're doing. Knowing how to message, knowing how to speak on a panel, knowing how to build a strategic partnership with someone with a good cold pitch, knowing how to get on a podcast that's going to unlock your ability to get onto hundreds of podcasts, that is a $10,000 an hour skill. I don't care what anyone says. This is building a long-term ROI for your business, for yourself. It's going to give you organic leads, traffic is going to allow you to stop playing the algorithm game. It's going to allow you to not feel afraid if Facebook decides to ban you tomorrow.
00:07:09 Gloria: We had someone actually in the starter pack who spent $500,000 on Facebook ads throughout her career. She's a real estate agent. One day she went to log in. Poof, her account was banned. There was no human help. She tried to message people, even chasing out people who worked at Facebook meta on LinkedIn. They wouldn't answer her. Facebook kept writing her credit card on file for $7,000 because she couldn't get into her account to stop it. Even when she took it up with her bank.
00:07:32 Gloria: Facebook still won. She's out of $7,000 and she still can't get back into her account. I don't want this to be you. I'm not saying that it's wrong to do Instagram and Facebook and all those things, but you don't own that. The moment that they decide to change your algorithm or something happens, the plug gets unplugged. The carpet is pulled out from underneath you and you have to start from zero. No, thank you. We worked way too hard for this. PR gives you SEO. I always say getting onto one podcast is six pieces of SEO friendly content.
00:08:01 Gloria: That is video that you can make into clips for YouTube, for Twitter, for TikTok, for Instagram, for Pinterest. You can repurpose quotes. It can be show notes that you can turn into blogs, captions, newsletters. That's really what I do with my podcast. From this one episode, I want to create 13 pieces of content. And when I go into other people's shows and I pitch using the CPR method, they produce amazing assets. They give me backlinks to my website. I'm searchable and it's all compounding. As a business owner, always ask yourself, are you doing a low ROI task where it could either be taken away from you, like social media, or if it's something that can be delegated, like making graphics or video editing, or are you spending time doing the high ROI tasks that only you as a CEO can do?
00:08:43 Gloria: Public speaking, cultivating relationships, speaking on a podcast. That is all in the realm of what we're doing here at GCPR. The third mindset you must have in order to succeed in PR and getting your brand visible and unlocking the next level of your potential, not having to keep paying for a click is this. You need to know that the whole point of what we're doing is not about just getting featured. It's not about that. Okay, I a feature check. It is really about broadening your network.
00:09:08 Gloria: Point number two, I talked about, it's about growing skills for life. PR also broadens your network because your net worth is your network and the ability to plant seeds and cultivate relationships with people in the media who are able to spread your message to millions of people, that is an absolute priceless skill. I'd rather do that all day and maybe get a couple of rejections, but I just need that one editor at the outlet to say yes. I know that once I get on the phone with them, they will know that I'm a credible person, that I can speak on things, and I'm gonna be that source for that editor when they need another voice for another story.
00:09:42 Gloria: It's not a one and done. Once you're vetted and you've been featured in the media, it just keeps going like a snowball effect. It means that you're vetted, you're credible, you're not weird, you have a great speaking voice and you get back to them on time. So why wouldn't they want to go back to you? The content machine is 24/7. The news cycle is 24/7. So there are so many opportunities for you to be featured. But traditionally we've been told that you need to be in a certain tier of business and that is so not true. What we need is to get new voices out there, not just the big fancy fortune 500 companies. We need people like you who are bootstrapping the people in our community who are founders of color, who are immigrants, people whose stories are fresh and authentic.
00:10:17 Gloria: That's what we need in journalism to keep it credible. There's no time like today to get started on PR. And if you are already doing PR, I hope that this episode has given you even more inspiration and motivation when you are going through your emails and looking at pitching and maybe not having people respond. This is your cheer to keep going. This is your reminder that you're on the right track. Right now, what you are doing is planting seeds for a garden that will grow.
00:10:40 Gloria: We don't know if it's gonna grow today, tomorrow, next year, but it will grow. It 100% will grow because that one relationship will lead to the next, lead to the next. But you, my friend, have to see it like that. You have to be an opportunity seeker and ask that journalist, well, if this is not the right story for you, do you know what you're working on? How can we co-create? Just asking a simple question like that. That is you opening the avenues for opportunity instead of being like, oh, well, this person hates me. Okay, bye. Constantly ask yourself, are you planting? Are you cultivating? Are you seeing things in an abundant mindset or are you just waiting to be rejected? Because if you look for ways where you don't belong, like Brene Brown says, you will always find it. But it's your shift in perspective and knowing that you have a notion of opportunities available to you as a small business that is the foundation for everything.
00:11:15 Gloria: It's all about energy. Thank you so much for being on another episode. I really hope that it gave you some inspiration today to think about how we can leverage our time because we're all so busy. I know that the success of your business and the success of your life is not based on how many things you do, but how you strategically decide what to do and what not to do and in what order. And if you can roll up your sleeves and really do the work of learning how to pitch, learning how to write your hundred shitty drafts, because we all need a hundred shitty drafts at least to get to that one. I have pitched thousands of times, cold calling, phone slammed in my face to get to where I am now.
00:11:7 Gloria: If you don't start now, you are depriving yourself of the runway, of the time, of the momentum that you could have created. Remember, there's no one judging you except for yourself. Time is passing no matter what. Are you going to start planting the seeds to start to cultivate that relationship, to start to build that $10,000 an hour skill? If it was easy, everyone would do it. But I'm trying to get you to see things in a way that's going to give you long-term ROI. You can buy a Facebook ad today, tomorrow. If it gets banned, then you're done. If you have unlimited runway, it's just only going to burn cash. It's really not sustainable.
00:12:28 Gloria: How can we as businesses really show up in a way where we are making brave, strategic, maybe uncomfortable decisions, but we are doing something for the longevity of our life and our business. Every single person in the PR Starter Pack, I can see this transformation that it's not just like, hey, you know, that they would drop in the Facebook group. I got featured here. know, Kim, who started her cute little subscription box for a book, like a cookie or a cracker. She now has 14 organic features since joining us less than six months ago, and she's on her third podcast.
00:12:57 Gloria: It's really about seeing things as an opportunity. Now she's pitching for publishers. She's getting people to partner with her. She's giving back to local food banks. She is devising her business in a way where there are always opportunities and bridges. And it's not just her looking at ways where she doesn't fit the bill. That's where I want you to be. Hopefully the CPR method, this community has allowed you to feel like you are seen and that you're not alone in the scary struggle. It's hard to rewrite the narrative of decades of conditioning that we can't do this ourselves. That's how people have profited off of a billion dollar industry.
00:13:27 Gloria: We don't have to choose to always accept that narrative. We don't have to choose that someone else always knows how to do it better. That someone else has something better to say because no one knows your story like you. Nobody does. No one cares to tell your story the way like you do. Everything that I do is to enable you to have the tools, the support, the validation, just to take that first step so that you can keep pressing send because everything you want is on the other side of the send button. This really, really is sacred work to me. Thank you so much and I look forward to joining in the Facebook group and also check out our proven PR Starter Pack where you can meet me every month and other members and get the community and support you need to have an incredible year ahead.
00:14:07 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.
00:14:35 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, chou C-H-O-U, pr.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.