Posted By susanharrow on January 6, 2006

Recently, a woman returned the Oprah 3CD pack I’d done with the Publicity Hound Joan Stewart. For the teleclass we’d asked people to send in their pitches to get on Oprah, chose the few most promising and put them in the hot seat with me coaching them to hone their stories to be Oprah ready.

The returner said that I hadn’t found the right pitches for those people as another media coach she’d heard could do. I know the media coach she’s talking about and those people never learn to create their own soundbites or pitches when they leave his seminars.

How do I know? Because they come to my soundbite classes and hire me after they’ve attended his seminars and after they find out what it’s like in the real world.

Sorry, I don’t believe in spoon feeding you so you’ll never grow up. I see it as my job to draw out the pitch from you. Not to give you the answer to a problem, but to show you how to solve the problem. You’ll never learn to create a pitch if I do it for you every time. Very people can afford to hire a publicist to create ideas to keep constantly keep you in the media’s eye.

When the material is right, the answer (right pitch) usually floats right to the surface, and I point it out. But most of the time a pitch needs more work to angle it for the show or publication you’re pitching–generic ones are typically tossed out as they aren’t angled correctly for particular shows.

Of course i come up with pitch ideas when I’m working with clients, as they arise organically from the conversation. But they are not little clever ones that may get you media attention for the moment–but ultimately don’t produce the results you want. It’s not enough to be entertaining when you appear on TV, you have to say the right things to get clients and customers to call so you can move your products and services out the door.

My motto: Do the work, reap the rewards.

Category: Media Coaching, Oprah, Pitching the Media
Tags: Joan Stewart, pitch ideas, Publicity Hound, Sound Bites