How to Land Celebrity-Level Press Without Being Famous (Yet) with Lydia Bagarozza

PodcastMarketing

Jun 17

Episode 961: Show Notes

You don’t have to be Oprah, the Beach Boys, or a big box brand to land major press, but you do have to know what you’re doing. During this episode, I talk to Lydia Bagarozza, the co-founder of Visibility on Purpose. With more than 4000 media placements in outlets like Forbes, Entrepreneur, and more, she’s making top-tier press accessible for small brands and founders without hiring a publicist. On this episode, she’s giving away all her best secrets, so let’s dive in.

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Visibility on Purpose: The Origin Story

Lydia’s career in PR began more than ten years ago in the music industry, where she worked with some of the biggest brands and musicians in the world. Next, she went to a PR agency that focused on boutique brands to some of the biggest retailers we shop at, including Sephora and Amazon. During COVID, she found Bridget online, who was helping small business owners publish their own books and get onto Amazon. She kept talking about how important it was to talk about your book on TV shows to get your brand noticed. They met, collaborated on a few projects, and Visibility on Purpose was born! It’s an online PR training school with a DIY flagship course that teaches entrepreneurs, small business owners, and their teams how to get featured.

Why You Don’t Have to be Famous to Be Featured

What’s one thing big brands do consistently that smaller brands could do too? PR! Lydia shares the frustration she felt watching small brands stay unaware of what bigger brands are doing. It’s been gate-kept for years! Products launch successfully because PR time is behind them. A lot of entrepreneurs have launched on social media and find themselves reaching a plateau. PR is something that every boutique brand and small business should do early on, but a lot of them don’t know that it’s possible, and you can do it yourself! There’s a huge misconception that you have to be famous to be featured. You don’t! You just have to understand the media landscape: brands, internally, or their publicists reach out to writers, and if the writer is interested, the feature happens!

How to Find Where You Want to be Featured

Lydia and Bridget pitched themselves to my podcast! So that’s proof that it works. Lydia’s advice starts here: think about your goals and where you want to go. Say you want to be featured in Forbes, Lydia will then consider which writer is right for you! Forbes for Women is for female entrepreneurs, for example. It’s not a difficult thing, she says, but rather it’s about understanding the steps and strategies to figure out the best plan of action. For a podcast, you need to look at the categories that make sense. Boss Project is aligned with Visibility on Purpose because both are helping online business owners and personal brands. Lydia also Googles services similar to her own — wherever they have been featured makes sense for her business too.

The One Thing Most People Get Wrong About Pitching

A pitch is essentially an email where you introduce your big idea and why you make sense for their platform. You want to keep it short and concise, and to showcase your value. The one thing a lot of business owners get wrong when they’re pitching is that they’ll shoot out of the gates with all their credentials. Don’t forget to talk about why you would be of value to the outlet! Lydia’s biggest tip is the subject line: make sure it’s something that will spark their interest. You have to go beyond what’s interesting and look at what’s valuable to them, and to you. Next, you’ve got to get into ‘why you’, and ‘why now’. Lydia, for example, offers value by showing you where yours is and how you can position it.

What You Need to Do Before You Even Start

Lydia recommends having a strong foundation before you start reaching out. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but there are a few important things you need to have before you begin. You want to have professional headshots and pictures of your product, as well as lifestyle images. You also want to have a credit line: your two to three official titles that are clear and easy to understand. Always think about the reader and reverse engineer from there. Your brand summary is also something you want to have on lock, that’s your elevator pitch. Make sure your brand website is good and feels authentic to you, along with any social platforms.

Fighting Overwhelm and Imposter Syndrome

Lydia is responsible for over 4000 pieces of press floating around on the internet, but even she gets nervous talking on podcasts. Doing it yourself feels even more vulnerable. But remember that as much as you need them, they might need you! What if you were the answer to someone’s prayers? You don’t need press before you get press. Often a no is really just a no for right now. Lydia also thinks press releases are outdated. While they may be relevant for bigger brands, they’re not going to do anything for boutique brands and small businesses. What you do is press-worthy, but your brand often isn’t. It all comes back to value.

How to Know When It’s Time to Hire PR Help

If you have the time to DIY and you want to start getting your feet wet, it’s a great time to do DIY. PR is a lot about understanding the value of your brand, your differentiators, where you live in the marketplace, why you’re different from others, so DIY is often great for your brand positioning. It does not matter if you’re famous or not, you can still get on the biggest platforms. It’s just a matter of finding your value and showing it to the right people. If you have the budget for a publicist and you feel really solid in your brand, it’s time to look for the right publicist, but if you don’t have that story nailed down, you probably aren’t ready to hire anyone anyway. You have to know your direction! And those mentions? Continue mentioning them everywhere, no matter how much time passes.

The First and Simplest Step You Can Take Today

What would happen if you dreamed up where you wanted to be featured and what you wanted your long-term goals to look like? PR is a long-term strategy and sometimes it takes time to build up those features. You can use some of your past features as leverage for bigger features. Knowing your North Star can help you to continue to build that credibility in your category to get there. Lydia has had clients come to her with the hope of being in Oprah’s magazine, and then they’ve worked on mid-tier podcasts and more and more magazines, before eventually getting that feature! Knowing your north star is really important and can really help you to get there.

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Quote This

It does not matter if you’re famous or not. You can still get on the biggest podcasts, you can still get on the biggest publications. It’s just a matter of sharing your value.

— Lydia Bagarozza

Highlights

Visibility on Purpose: The Origin Story [0:00:53]

Why You Don’t Have to be Famous to Be Featured. [0:04:29]

How to Find Where You Want to be Featured. [0:07:38]

The One Thing Most People Get Wrong About Pitching. [0:11:16]

What You Need to Do Before You Even Start. [0:22:18]

Fighting Overwhelm and Imposter Syndrome. [0:28:17]

How to Know When It’s Time to Hire PR Help. [0:38:05]

The First and Simplest Step You Can Take Today. [0:44:24]

OUR GUEST:

Lydia Bagarozza

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Lydia Bagarozza is a publicist and the co-founder of Visibility on Purpose. With over a decade of experience, she has secured 4,000+ press placements and led PR campaigns for top global brands. Specializing in beauty, health, lifestyle, and fashion, her work appears in outlets like Forbes, ELLE, Business Insider, and Men’s Health, boosting clients’ credibility and success.