How to Look and Sound Your Best in the Media

Summary:

Susan emphasizes the significance of storytelling for entrepreneurs and individuals, advising them to start locally before aiming for national exposure. She shares her expertise in media training and highlights the importance of experience and stage presence encouraging authenticity and recommending practicing stories with different audiences. Find valuable insights into media and PR, offering guidance for enhancing one’s media presence and engaging the audience effectively.

How to Look and Sound Your Best in the Media – Interview by Stevie G. – Voice of Impact Awards

Steve Gallegos: Hello ladies and gentlemen. If you are tuning in to From Story to Impact, I’m Steve Gallegos, your host and the co-founder of Voices of Impact Awards. We’re so excited that you’re here today because I’ve got just an excellent, phenomenal guest from the Media and Public Relations industry, Miss Susan Harrow.

We’re going to bring Susan on here in a moment, she’s going to say hello to you and we’re going to invite Susan just to deep dive with us a little bit during the short time that we have with her, to get to know her a little bit, and also for her to share some of the secrets about why storytelling is important and why it’s relevant today.

Whether you’re a business owner, entrepreneur, or even just a private individual. Sometimes, as you can see in today’s news, you may find yourself inadvertently the subject of a media’s story, and so you will want to know how to handle that, and the best person I know on the planet to help you do that is our guest, Susan Harrow. She’s coming to our studio from San Rafael, California, which is a beautiful city up in Northern California near San Francisco Susan Welcome to our studio today thank you for joining us here

Susan : I’m so happy to be here and I love that you already know the surroundings of where I live. I have actually been to where you live, too, and hiked up some huge mountains in that very thin air.

Steve: Yes, there are huge mountains, and the thin air will get you! That was something that we had to acclimate ourselves to, so we go to the gym, my wife and I, three, four times a week. And we consider ourselves healthy and fit, but yet when you get out there… I don’t know if, when you were down here, there’s these steps that you climb in Manitou incline, which is in South in Colorado Springs, and it’s like 2500 steps from Ground Zero all the way up into the sky.

Susan: I’m happy to say I didn’t do it.

Start Local – You Can’t Run a Marathon Before You Walk

Steven: People train their lives for that, and we do have one guy here that is a local that runs those steps every single day.

Susan: I love that you brought that up, because obviously he didn’t start with running 2500. Now, you know you can’t run a marathon before you walk a mile. I’m sure he started slow and built up. And I think it’s the same thing with media. Lots of people, when they first come to me, they want to jump right into National TV. They want to be on CNN and ABC and Good Morning America, but I highly recommend that they practice first locally on their local TV stations so they can get the feel of what it’s like, and also the sense and the rhythm and timing, and then build up to national.

Everybody can start where they are and start in their very own hometown, and I also recommend obviously that you don’t start with TV first. It’s just like, if you were on stage as a speaker, you’re not going to start speaking to a thousand or ten thousand people right away, because the energy is so different. You would start with 10 people and build up to 50 people, because managing your energy and managing the stage with more and more people in different stages takes a lot of practice.

So, it’s the same with media. I love your energy with managing the studio, or the situation that you’re in. Lots of times now it’s at home, but sometimes you’re going to be in studio.

Steve: Wonderful, and that is great advice, that’s just beautiful wisdom to start off this particular segment, because the audience that’s coming through the Voices of Impact Awards, these are of quite a variety of people. We have celebrities, and we have people that are in the media already, that are public figures, and then we have folks — and this is the majority of our audience — folks that have probably hinted at the idea or toyed with the idea that maybe they want to share their story.

Maybe they want to get out there, but they haven’t taken those next steps because really there isn’t a platform for them to do that. So, we’ve created that platform, and now they’re coming to terms with, “Uh oh, what do I do now?” And so, when we talk about getting exposure, we talk about media, so many entrepreneurs say, “I want to get on Good Morning America, and CNN, and Fox, and National,” right? And your wisdom is, start local first, start speaking on one-on-one calls like this, like you and I are having now. Just getting used to your voice, getting used to your platform.

Susan: And getting used to people responding to you. When I was teaching at the Learning Annex, Test It Out — you don’t know what’s going to play, you think that you’re wise, and you think that you’ve got great stories, but you need to test it out in an audience and it needs to get verified to get that energetic exchange. Is this really landing? And that’s when you can see.

I remember like wondering, why are people laughing now, or, what did I say? And then shifting and iterating that speech. I was just media training a CEO of a company that just got 50 million dollars to expand, and they’re all already worldwide. He’s actually going to be speaking on a stage of a thousand people, and he hasn’t done that before.

Workshop It To Bring Out the Best Version of Your Story

He has eight minutes, so while we have to tightly script it, what I recommend, and what he wasn’t used to doing, is we started workshopping it. Meaning, we were just playing, we were just talking, we were just like, tell the story. Sometimes people write it out and it becomes very stiff, because writing is different than speaking, and he wasn’t used to that, either.

He’s like, “You know like to work from a script.” And I said, “I understand that, but since we’re here and we just have an hour, let’s start telling the stories. Let’s see what happens.” Because different things come out when you’re relaxed, and you tell the story fresh, in the moment. When you’re relaxed, you can get back to that relaxed feeling and see how the stories come out.

And by the way, I had media trained their other CEO, and they had their core story that they had always told in the same way. And when he told it to me, he told it differently. He told it better. So, the next time they used it, they had a media interview right after that, they used the new story. So, practice out loud, practice with an audience, even if it’s just your friends, or one person, to see how that lands, to see what you can ask them. What stood out, what do you remember, and can you repeat back to me what you heard. Just listen for what they say pops.

The More People You Can Practice in Front Of, The Better

Steve: Susan that’s beautiful advice. Do you recommend that you practice in front of someone that really knows you, because they know you, or someone that doesn’t really know you, because then they’re more apt to listen?

Susan: I would do both and see what the response is. The more people you can practice in front of, and the different types of audiences, the better for you. So, if you can set up those kind of practice scenarios, I would do it.

Steve: Wonderful, good advice. Before we get into even more great details and wisdom from you, I know we could spend all day with you, and we still wouldn’t get to everything we need to know. Tell us, Susan, a little bit about you, how did you get into this? Because nobody’s born into PR and Media, and having the savvy, wisdom, and experience that you do. What was your journey, how did you get to this space?

How I Built My Media Training Business on the Go

Susan: Well, it’s kind of a long journey, starting with I majored in Shakespeare, and I also worked quite a lot of jobs. I worked in advertising; I also worked for several startups, and in high-tech sales. Also, I was a consultant in HR in Pacific Bell Directory, and the way that I built my business is I built it as I was growing. There was a gal who did PR for The North Face, Bill Graham Presents, and the Telluride Festival, and I just thought, let me trail her and see, what if I like it?

So, I just listened to her on the phone, and this was actually before email, but we were blast faxing. And then, one of my first clients was Larry Maggot, who’s a technology columnist, and he taught me how to do blast emails, so I was learning from him to do the PR for him. One of my very first clients was Missy Park of Title IX sports, she was just a two-person outfit, now she’s one of the largest retailers in women’s sportswear today. I started small.

Sometimes PR Isn’t Enough, You Need Media Training

So, I started working with those clients because they’re like, “Susan, it didn’t sell my product or book!” And I’m thinking well, that’s not my fault! I did the booking. So, I started working with them, and I loved it so much I moved full time into the media training aspect, where I work with people, everything they do, say, are, and think.

From their words to their websites, it must be in alignment so when they reach out to the media, it has the effect that they want and that they’re saying the kinds of things that really connect with their audience. It’s the same in speaking: if you’re speaking to lawyers, it’s going to be different than if you’re speaking to housewives or entrepreneurs. You’re going to have to angle your message to them.

I was a media training a woman who was an expert in the metaverse, a different kind of metaverse. She had spoken to VCS she didn’t get the money. I looked at her talk that she had spoken about to architects and she goes, “I gave the same talk,” and I said, “Well, that was fantastic for architects but VCS have a totally different need and a totally different perspective.” but she didn’t know yet how to modify.

She has a fantastic background and lots of super success, but she didn’t know how to modify that for each different audience, and that’s going to be essential for people who are working with you to do the talk, to make sure it resonates with the audience that you’re in front of.

Steve: Beautiful. How does one go about identifying the audience? In other words, what do you recommend that they do in that regard, especially when you’re being asked to speak to members of the general public? It could vary, from college students, to retired folks could be in the audience. When you’re being invited not to speak to lawyers, or doctors, or
entrepreneurs, members of the general public. Voices of Impact, the general public is going to be listening, in some respects. They’re going to be voting on some of these stories and some of the presentations. What is your recommendation there?

Identify Your Audience Through Universal Stories

Susan: What are the universal stories? What stories are going to resonate, to touch the heartstrings of people? Because stories are important. Why? Number one is, when we tell a story, our brains sync up together. Neuroscience says we sync up, our breathing syncs, our story syncs, so we’re already in a deeper relationship with each other. And then, what you want to think about is what are the stories that are going to be important to the audience?

You might even create different stories for people who are in the audience; a person who’s retired is going to care about their grandchildren and about doing leisure things; somebody who’s in college, they’re going to be thinking about the Brave New World that they’re entering and new exciting adventures.

So, you want to think about telling stories that resonate with each group for a different reason, but the great thing about stories is that you can wrap them up and make them relevant to any audience. That same story can be told, and it can have three different lessons that resonate with your different markets. It can even be the same story, but you angle the last couple of lines specifically to whoever you’re speaking with.

Steve: Absolutely, it makes sense. And one of the ways that we like to explain it is that a story is simply a series of events that you have experienced, that you’ve gone through in your life, or maybe you’ve observed somebody else going through, that have
impacted you or you’ve learned from.

So, as Susan is explaining, you take these series of events and put it together into a framework that will resonate with the entire audience, and then you take from that story perhaps two or three teaching points. If you know that you have college students and you have a stay-at-home moms, or you have entrepreneurs, try to develop a point that would apply to the college students, one to the moms, and one to the entrepreneurs.

Susan: I was media training an executive, I was hired so he could enhance his executive presence and his leadership qualities. There was no higher where he could go, and he was speaking to audiences of like 800 people, but there were like three different audiences, so he had to keep everybody’s interests.

We incorporated some boyhood stories that he could connect to the points that he wanted to make on his pitch deck, and make sure that each of those three groups were still engaged by it. Those are the kinds of stories that we work with, and his presentations were like three hours, so imagine trying to keep somebody’s attention for three hours. That’s none of us anymore. So, that was something that we that we worked on with those stories that could resonate. And I think sometimes, when we talk about childhood incidences or things that we know are universal to people, we really want to be thinking about that.

5 Stories Everyone Should Have Before Appearing in Front of the Media

Steve: I’m going to invite you in a second to share a story, but you said something very critical that I think it requires a little bit more distinction here. You indicated that this executive was sharing a personal story or was maybe wanting to get more attention for himself, and what I think you’re suggesting is that there’s different types of stories.

Your story can be based on you becoming the hero and becoming more famous or whatever it is that you want to achieve yet there are stories that are designed to perhaps sell books or move products or Services. There’re stories that are designed to highlight something about your company that’s got nothing to do with sales or nothing to do with you personally, and a myriad other types of stories. Can you walk us through just a little bit of the types of stories that we might want to focus on?

Susan: The first story is your signature story, it’s why you do what you do or why you’re standing on stage, what’s your point? That’s one, but we’re going to offer five different templates to do that. Of course, there’s more than five, but from me listening to thousands and thousands of interviews, I’ve found five that are standard. They can be told very quickly.

And for a speaking engagement, sometimes it’s a much longer story, for media it’s going to be very short. TV is the shortest, but podcasts are a little bit more forgiving. One of my clients would tell a story in 45 minutes, he was a motivational speaker and his very first media appearance was on Larry King Live. The second one was Oprah. We had to take those 45 minutes and put turn them into 45 seconds. You want those stories to be expandable and collapsible like that.

To your point, you want to have your core story, your signature story, why you do what you do, why did you write your book, why did you start your business, why are you talking to me today. And then you want to have success stories of your clients or your experiences. Now, if people are new in business, or whatever, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t have to be a formal business; it can be just some way that you’ve connected with someone that’s made a difference in their life.

And if you are promoting a book, for example, or something specific, you want to have stories that relate to how you interacting with people has had some kind of impact or result for them because that’s what we’re looking for, the experience of whatever it is you’re offering. We’re looking to feel it, we’re looking to experience it.

Start With Small Steps to Achieve Big Results

Even something like Nike, it’s not really about shoes. It’s about “Just Do It” but be the best person that you are. We were talking about starting small with those steps, that person didn’t run those 2500 steps in one day.

I remember when I was in college at UCSB, I was running 12 miles a day. This woman came up to me and said, “I really want to start to exercise, and I don’t know how”. And I said “Start by walking for one minute, you can walk around the block or around one part of the campus. Start there.” Because she had never exercised before.

And it was just one of these crazy things: when I went back to visit, that woman, who I didn’t even remember, a year later I went back to visit some friends on campus and she came up to me and said, “What you told me totally changed my life. I’m now running 10 miles a day.” I’m like, what?!

So, it was that, starting small. I really believe in starting small, and anything that you do, taking those micro movements and just starting anywhere. Start where you are, but just start small and start to gain some proficiency competency. Some people believe that confidence just comes to you, but really, when you start to become competent, your confidence raises. It’s that competency that gives us the actual experience when we start, and it doesn’t mean we’re not going to get nervous.

I still get nervous. I was nervous to talk to you, I’ve never met you. So, I still get nervous before any of these, it’s just the way it is. But just acknowledge that and turn that into more. I was excited, but I was also a little nervous. And then I do exercises to calm myself down so I can relax.

Steve: Wonderful, I’m glad you shared that and thank you for all the beautiful illustrations that you’re providing. It’s just so wonderful to be able to interview someone with your experience, but before I go to my next question, did you say that you graduated from UCSB?

Susan: I went to UCSB, Santa Barbara, and I graduated from UC Berkeley.

Steve: I was a Sheriff’s Deputy with the Santa Barbara County Insurance Department and I worked in Isla Vista.

Susan: I used to run on the beach and run around that Lagoon. I ran on the beach in the morning and around the Lagoon in the afternoon.

Steve: I’m pretty sure I never gave you a ticket because you were too fast.

Susan: I think you’re way younger than I am, so I don’t think you were there at the same time.

Media and PR Are About Stories

Steve: What a beautiful time, Susan. Media, Public Relations is all centered around stories. We’re people, it’s all about stories, that’s news. It’s all about what happened, what is it important about what happened that we can share, those kinds of things. You are a master, not only at helping people develop and share their stories, but you have probably heard thousands — and as a lawyer, I’ve heard thousands of stories — you probably have hundreds of thousands of stories because you’re in and out of it every day, multiple times a day.

So, do you have a favorite story that you like to share that can kind of serve as an illustration of the kind of things that we’ve been talking about with our audience?

Susan: You mean about me?

Steve: About you, about your experience, a story that you like to share from stage or not, or maybe something over coffee or…

Susan: I’ve maybe told parts of it in a video, but I think this will be the first time that I’m going to tell it in this way. And play with your stories, I do recommend that you play with your stories and try them in different ways for different audiences and find different parts. That way you can find the most effective way to tell it. When you have different time frames in different audiences, you want to tell it and be more expanded, or give more details and just play with that aspect of it.

So, I was thinking about this this morning. I’m a black belt in Aikido, and before that, I was a teaching tennis pro. I consider myself an athlete, but when I got onto the mat — I’m so awkward, and Aikido, it’s like dancing. I would be like the kid that was chosen last in soccer. In fact, that’s what would happen. We would have to pair up and in Aikido, you bow to the person next to you, and you then train with them for a certain amount of time when a technique is shown. People would literally get up and run to NOT train with me.

So now I know what the kids who get chosen last feel like. And so, it was horrifying to go every single night because I was so stressed out, like is nobody going to want to train with me? I was so awkward, and every single night I would actually go and cry afterwards in my car. Never on the Aikido mat because that is not the Warrior Spirit, but every night, literally, I would be in my car and going like I love this so much I hate this so much. It’s really love/hate, and I want to be good at it. it’s so beautiful and I’m not.

Media Training and Iteration – Do One Thing 10, 000 Times

But I kept training. I trained two hours a day, five days a week, every single day. With very little improvement. One night, I went to a training with a senior student — it was not our Sensei. I’m being awkward and he says, in front of the whole class, “Susan, your footwork is always wrong and it’s totally cattywampus!”

Usually on the Aikido mat you do not single out people and embarrass them in that way. If someone’s having trouble, you share it with everyone because most people may be having that same trouble, but not this. He’s pointing me out, and people were mortified. There were new students in there, and experienced black belts, and everything sort of stopped. I wanted to maintain my equanimity and not give it any energy, because when you give something negative energy, you’re still giving it energy. So I’m just gonna try to do the best I can with my with my footwork and improve it.

When I got home, I told my sweetie about that and he’s like, why do you keep going to this guy’s class? And I said, “Because the spirit of Aikido is to turn lead into gold and to polish my spirit, and I will go to this guy’s class until that doesn’t bother me anymore. Until I can master myself and be a beautiful aikidoka on the mat”

So, we’re talking about creating a teaching moment. If I wanted to create a teaching moment, I would say probably three things. Number one is iteration. It’s not doing ten thousand things the same way, it’s doing one thing ten thousand times, iterating and changing and improving each time, and that’s what we do in media. Say you have a media appearance. We look at what do you do right, what do you want to shift for next time, and then you keep getting better and better. Did that story land, what part didn’t work, what is working, what isn’t working.

Media Training Teaches You How to Come Back to Center

And then the second part of that is mastering yourself. When you’re on stage or when you’re in a media appearance, you may get thrown off center. It happens. You get a question that you didn’t expect, or a person heckles you, or something happens. It’s about when you get thrown off center being able to come back to center. Breathe, and respond from a place of kindness, compassion, humor, whatever that is.

And I think the third thing is polishing your spirit, which is really it’s about growing. PR and media is as much about growing your personal self is it about your professional self. the more you can command your own self. It’s not about commanding others, it’s about connecting with others and commanding yourself. So, those would be three lessons that I would take from that

Steve: Wonderful. Beautiful lessons. And so, before I ask you a little bit more about the lessons, you got your footwork right because you became a black belt.

Susan: But not a pretty one. I’m still not graceful, beautiful, but I am a black belt. And by the way, in the dojo when you become a black belt, you are now teachable. So, it’s really just teachable.

Steve: Wow

Susan: Yeah, so it’s not considered mastery, it’s that you are somewhat competent.

Steve: Wow, you’re just beginning at that.

Susan: Now you’re teachable, once you’ve gotten your black belt.

Steve: Wow, look at that. Does that same philosophy hold true in storytelling? Is there ever a point, perhaps, is there anybody on the planet that you know that is just a masterful storyteller that they don’t need any further development?

The Media Loves Expert, Authority and Thought Leader

Susan: No, I think everyone can develop further. A master storyteller, someone on stage who we can learn a lot from is Jerry Seinfeld. Timing, body, he’s a master at getting us to laugh and that’s part of it. But no, I think that we can always get better. And in in the media realm, it’s expert, authority, thought leader.

There’re always things to improve, always, even with my clients who are regular commentators or top thought leaders or New York Times best-selling authors, they always come to me with their you-know-what moments like, “This is what happened, oh my God, I was caught off-guard.” So, I think it’s a hundred percent of the time you’re growing and learning new things, and I think it’s infinite.

Steve: Wonderful, I happen to agree with you on that point, on all your points. And I like to make the distinction when I’m coaching or speaking from stage, when we talk about this idea of personal development and the idea of striving for your potential or reaching for your potential. When I hear people say I want to reach my potential, I go no, you don’t because, once you reach your potential that’s it. You’re maxed out, there’s nowhere else to go.

Reach For More Than Just Your Potential with Media Training

Susan: You don’t really want to reach your potential; where do you go beyond your potential, right? So, you don’t ever want to reach your potential, you don’t know what you’re capable of.

Steve: Exactly. So, I reach out every day, every moment. And this is what you’re talking about in the iterations, in the self-mastery, is
perform, deliver, work, show up to your best capacity. To the capacity that you have at that moment. And then the more you do that, through the iterations that Susan is talking about, you’re going to develop more, and you’re going to develop more, and so your capacity is always growing.

Your capacity is ever growing, so long as you keep — Susan called them iterations, we like to call them practice, you might know them as rehearsals. I love the fact that she pointed out not to keep doing this same thing over and over again expecting a different reaction from the audience. You need to change up what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, your body language, how you say things, perhaps your tonality, there’s just so many things that go into this. Until you get the connection with the audience. That’s the iterations.

Susan: It’s rhythm, pacing, pauses, waist variation, movement on the stage, how do you use your body, all the dimensions. Most people just like walk back and forth, but we have top, bottom, side, spinning, arms, different kinds of ways we can use our body expressively. That’s why I brought up Jerry Seinfeld, too, because it’s sometimes the slightest movement, that’s what makes you laugh, it’s the pause or the pop, it’s all of those kinds of things.

And the CEO that I was just media training, he’s like, “I’m kind of monotone, what should I do? I’m like we’ll work on the pacing and the pausing and try it another way. What do you want to emphasize, where do you want the audience to wait, all of that is in practicing a story different ways. Pausing in different ways, emphasizing it, speeding it up, slowing it down, legato, staccato–

Steve: Musical terms.

Susan: — the musicality of it, all of those things, we’re looking at all of those things when we’re looking at how you command yourself on the stage.

How To Use Silence To Your Benefit

Steve: Wonderful. And when you’re talking about pausing, a lot of people find that very awkward and discomforting. How do you recommend that people include silence as well as deal with silence. If you’re a speaker and you’ve posed a question and there’s immediate silence, you might want to try and fill in the gaps. Or, if you are intentionally using silence, what do you recommend there? In other words, how do we employ silence?

Susan: Judiciously. And for you to get comfortable with it. Sometimes, particularly like in a negotiation, you don’t want to seek, you want to wait. And it can be uncomfortable but start to get comfortable with the discomfort of it. Now, there can be lots of things that are not having to do with that when you’re asking a question. Here’s one of the issues I know that comes out a lot in book talks. You’re the one who’s delivering, and the audience isn’t asked to respond, and then suddenly you’re asking them to switch from listening mode to speaking mode. A lot of times what happens is nothing, because an audience is in the receptive mode.

What I would recommend — because people learn best in movement — is you get your audience participating right away, so when you ask them to participate, you’re schooling them on how to participate. Try small things, maybe just “Say yay”, or, “Raise your hand”, or “How are you”, or whatever it is that you’re doing. Like, “How many of you think this, raise your hand.” You start to get them moving so when you are asking for something, then the expectation is that that they will respond. You need to give them that instruction and make it safe for them to respond by asking for little things first and then going up to bigger, perhaps more uncomfortable things.

That’s one of the intrinsic things about the energetic, is sometimes people go, “Well, it didn’t work.” But wait, it’s not working because the question might be too hard, or any number of reasons. other ways to employ silence is to use it where you really want people to think, or you want to let something sink in. It’s actually a gracious gift to the audience to give them some time to absorb it, so you’re having like a call and response, it’s not just you, you, you, out, out, out. There is a kind of call and response anyway, even if your audience isn’t speaking.

Steve: Before I respond, let me just think about this and let it sink in. Yeah, it can be uncomfortable, and I know that a lot of people need to get over that. The information the wisdom that you just shared on that, the guidance is going to be very, very helpful to them. And you mentioned something, you said “gracious gift”, and I want to recognize you for being the gracious gift that you are to our organization, the Voices of Impact Awards.

Why The World Needs Your Stories

One of the reasons that we created this annual, year-long event, is to give people a platform where they can share their stories and open up to the world a little bit about what they’ve experienced what they’ve gone through. To share what they can teach the world, because we all need that regardless of our stage in life or stage in society, whether you’re a CEO or a five-year-old child, we all need stories. We all live for these stories; they help us get through the day, through tough moments, and even happy moments.

And so, you, Susan, having you as one of our mentors and official Resource Partners is a beautiful, beautiful gift that you’re giving of your time to our audience. The time that you’ve given us here, today, on this interview, and there will be other interviews with you, Susan, just so the audience knows. We want more, we want more, yes, you’re going to get more of Susan! But just not today, we’re gonna space it out so that she doesn’t get tired of us.

You also have a gift for our audience: anybody that goes to the website just to even look to see what we’re doing at the Voices of Impact Awards can receive a free gift from Susan. Please share with us a little bit about what that is, you talked about it earlier, some signature story templates?

Not Every Story Fits into a Template and That’s Okay

Susan: So, through analyzing thousands and thousands of people on TV and from the stage, I came up with five templates that are simple to sort of wrangle your signature story. Now, does everybody’s story fit exactly into that? One of my clients, she’s a cyber security expert and diversity inclusion expert, and I had given her that sheet and we were working on it. Oftentimes, we have more than one signature story, by the way, so we were doing the signature story, and it wasn’t working.

And she goes, “I used your format.” I go, Which format is it?” And she told me which one, I’m like, “Well, it didn’t sound like that format, and you added in all of these other things so that didn’t actually work.” I said it’s not about trying to squish your story into a format, it’s if these formats lend themselves to the story that you want to tell, choose the one that fits. If it doesn’t, choose the format for you that maybe is a variation of that.

So, I want people to know that this is flexible, too, and if there need to be other added details into it, you are free to play with it. We have the five templates: it’s called Your Signature Story and they’re the five templates that are fill in the blank, so it makes it super, super easy to get started. You might use all five of them and you might use a different format, but it’s just to give you the flexibility and freedom to play with that.

Steve: Wonderful, that’s going to be so valuable. Essentially, what Susan is giving you, folks, is recipes. Like she said,
not every story fits into this particular template or a specific template, so you’re free to modify it, just like if you had a recipe for one of my favorites, chocolate chip cookies. If you want to add more chocolate chips than the recipe calls for, do it! Or sugar, more butter, whatever you want to do, modify it until it suits you and helps you not only develop and write your story, but to deliver it as well.

Media Training and Personal Development

Now, Susan, we’re giving them a little bit of the preparation to sharing their story on a big scale. What happens when one of our audience members wants to work with you — and we’re going to encourage as many of them as we can to work with you, because we want to develop people, right? The reason we’re offering you is not just so they can go and share their story and say goodbye, but through the process of sharing your story, you’re also growing, you’re evolving, you’re becoming better.

Whatever it is that you do, whether you’re a CEO, you’re a parent, you’re a community leader, you’re a church leader, whatever it is that you do, we want to make you better. Making Susan available to you will help you do that, understanding that her time is very limited. Susan, I want to ask you what types of projects or individuals do you work with, do they have to have a certain status, do they have to have a book, do they have to have media calling them, what’s the best way to work with you?

Susan: I love that you’re talking about all those different types, I work with people. Whether you’re a church leader, or a parent, or a soccer mom, or already a leader in your community, or a founder of a company. I love that you’ve included everyone, I think that’s really beautiful. And thank you for offering this, I think it’s so valuable for people, and not just to win the prize, but to really develop yourself and develop your stories and connect with people and work with people.

The Zen of Fame – How Media Training Develops Your Message

I work with beginners and I work with people who are already famous and celebrities, it really doesn’t matter to me what stage you are in. Some people already have a PR firm booking them, that’s ideal because we have a container and we know that you are already media worthy, but sometimes people come to me and they don’t have that. I was just talking to a doctor who wants to write a book, and she’s got a very unique angle. I said let’s find you a PR firm and then I’m going to media train you and we work hand in hand. That’s how I work, one-on-one with people, if they want to work with me very intensively.

The next level is with my Zen of Fame course, which is a publicity course that shows you how to develop your message and create your systems behind the scenes, because publicity ushers people through your door and then you need to open it. So it’s hot leads that come to you, but you have to have a system to process those leads and put people through whatever that is, whether it’s a phone call, your website, to move people into your container. Whether it’s to engage with you for free, or to hire you, or take your courses, or whatever that may be a creative partnership.

So, the first part is creating your messaging because you want to create that before you reach out to the media. You want to be able to explain your business and brand and what you stand for, your philosophy and what’s connecting with the audience first. Then the system set up, and the last thing is to create a PR campaign that suits your style and suits your energy. It’s those three aspects.

Media Training at Your Own Pace

I’m starting a mastermind where you work with me in a group while going through that course at your own pace and then the last level is if you just want to take the course on your own you still get one private call with me to jump start it, but you take the course and just self-pace on your own.

I’ve had people in the past, when I first started this and I had it all separate, some people Zoom through the course on an airplane, and other people took a year to go through it, so it’s really your own pace. And then some people took it and then they come back and take it again because it’s a lifetime, so you can access it whenever you want. So, those are the three levels.

And I invite anyone to engage with me at whatever level is best for them, and if none of that’s right, I have lots of free things on my website. Go to my blog at prsecrets.com/blog and things will pop up and on that page I also have lots of other free offerings so you can tap into wherever you’re interested in.

Steve: Wonderful, that sounds beautiful. So, if any of you are at the point where you believe that you may need media training,
or if you think you’re going to need it in the near future, I highly recommend that you connect with our official Resource Partner Ms. Susan Harrow to guide you through that.

I don’t know that there’s any other person that is better suited and better equipped and with the experience that she has to assist you through that. You’ve heard it on this interview, in fact, I’ve been in the media a little bit and I’m always learning, I’m going to go back and listen to this interview a couple more times because she just said some really, really powerful and helpful full nuggets.

Be Yourself, But Be Inspired By Others

In closing, Susan, I wanted to make a point here. As the audience is listening to you, they’re watching you, they’re looking at your beautiful office set up, your demeanor, your posture and everything and they’re going to get the sense I do, that you are the ultimate professional. You are polished, you put in the time, you put in the work, you have the work ethic you’re the kind of person that shows up in your personal life as you do in your professional life, which is at your absolute best.

People watching this, people entering the Impact Speaker Awards or the Voices of Impact Awards, some of them are just beginning. They’re going to look at you and they’re going to look at Susan’s ability to tell stories and her ability to speak and articulate her thoughts and think, I could never do that, I could never be like Susan, man, she’s really good. What would you say to that person so that they feel comfortable enough to step into the ring, if you will, without having to compare themselves to you or me or anybody else that they might look up to.

Susan: I don’t want you to be like me, okay! Be yourself. One of my favorite things is Oscar Wilde said be yourself everyone else is already taken.

Susan: Because that’s what we’re looking for, we’re looking for your originality, we’re looking for your quirks. I’ve had training in all of these different areas and worked with transformational speakers and all of that. So, what we want to do is look in your background and there’s not one right way to do it. There are all these different types of speakers.

I would recommend people start listening to The Radio Hour, it’s a podcast and you can hear all these different types of speakers, which is so fascinating. There’s not one right way to tell a story or be a person, but you can learn so much from somebody’s style and the way they tell the story and where they pause and all of that.

Mind Training, Insecurity and Impostor Syndrome

Lots of times we start with, “Oh, I want to be like that,” and that’s fine too, to look at people and go that’s one part something that I want to master. Instead of having it be insecure or imposter syndrome, say, how can I practice that, how can I rehearse that,
whatever your word is, how can I role play that so I can start to embody that quality. What do I need to do and how do I need to think and how do I need to be, how do I need to breathe to begin to shift in myself something that I don’t like. And that’s an iterative process.

I also love the saying by the Dalai Lama, be kind whenever possible, it is always possible, but my caveat is it’s not easy. And part of that practice is like when you have a bad thought about somebody or I’m crabby in the grocery line. It’s mind training, how can I shift that in the moment and find something lovely about that person even though I’m so irritated that they’re going so slow or whatever, and that’s a practice, right?

Do I always get there? Absolutely not, sometimes I’m just so crabbed out, but that’s part of the practice, that’s part of the role play, that’s part of the rehearsal, that’s part of training your mind, training your brain, training your mind, training your body for anything. And I’m always looking to other people to see what qualities that they have that I want to shift or improve in myself.

Steve: Wonderful, so what Susan has just shared with us I think is absolutely brilliant. A lot of us say I want to be like so and so. I remember when I was pursuing a career as a music recording artist, I wanted to be like Julio Iglesias, that was my aim at the time. Over the years, to support what Susan just shared, what I came to realize is that I didn’t want to be like him but I was willing and wanting to put in the work that it took that he did in order to get similar results, or results that would fascinate and fit in with me.

You Are Called to Be the Best Version of Yourself

So, don’t look at Susan and go, “Oh, I could never be like that.” You’re not being called to be like that, or like anybody else, but you can certainly emulate the excellent qualities that she has, the excellent advice that she’s giving you, the excellent training and counsel that she’s given us and do some of the things that she’s gone through in terms of educating yourself.

She’s obviously a great reader, so you can become a great reader. She’s obviously a great listener, so you can become a great listener. You can certainly get results out of your life like Susan or like anybody else that you admire, but don’t ever try and be anybody else other than who you are.

That’s who we’re looking for, as Susan pointed out. Susan, we are at the top of the hour here, thank you so much for being here with us. I truly, truly appreciate your gift, your wisdom, your time, your talents, and so grateful to our team. You raised your hand, and you said yes, I want to support the Voices of Impact Awards and be of service. You’re one of the first and so we are just truly, truly grateful.

Susan: Thank you for inviting me. I love that you’re creating this, I love your very relaxed presence and it made it so comfortable for me and I think when you’re comfortable with yourself — was it President Johnson who said be like an old shoe? And I don’t want to say that you’re like an old shoe, you’re like a Gucci loafer maybe.

Steve: Nice.

Susan: You’re polished but very relaxed and it made it so comfortable for me, and I think that’s really important. I think it’s important to make people comfortable and also, it’s important to sometimes make people uncomfortable.

Media Training Prepares You for the World Stage

Steve: It is.

Susan: It’s both, but you’ve made it really super comfortable for me, so people can really look to you to like this is what a relaxed presence looks like with a go-with-the-flow kind of person. You were a lawyer first; you’ve had so much experience on the other stage as a lawyer and as a trainer, and that sort of thing is what you’re seeing in your presence today. It’s the sum of all of that experience.

Steve: Thank you for that, the whole world is a stage, each one of us are on stage at one point or another.

Susan: Oh really, yes.

Steve: You have all these beautiful quotes.

Susan: I love quotes.

Steve: Wonderful. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I thoroughly enjoyed hosting this interview and having the privilege because it is a privilege for me to speak to Susan Harrow and ask her these questions and have her share about herself, her story, her career, and to bring all that wisdom to you. You can work with Susan, she’s one of the official Resource Partners for the Voices of Impact Awards.

Go to voiawards.com the official Resource Partners, or the resources menu tab on the website and pull down, you’ll see Susan Harrow’s name listed on there and you can connect with her to get her free gift. She’s also going to be delivering a complimentary training to the applicants of the awards.

If you want to deep dive and take your relationship with Susan Harrow even further, all her links are on the page, her social media links, her website, all of that where you can connect with her directly and work with her to elevate your life. By doing that, you’re going to be able to elevate the lives of others around you, whether at your work, at your home or in your community, and that’s what we’re here for, to help you elevate. So, thank you all for your time, thank you, Susan, once again.

The Voices of Impact Awards™ exist to celebrate and equip the voices that inspire humanity. Starting life as a good-for-nothing suicidal teen to becoming a celebrated U.S. Marine, Law Enforcement Officer, Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer, Singer-Songwriter/Recording Artist, Award-winning Author, International Speaker, and Trainer on personal development and communications, Steve “Stevie G.” Gallegos is on a mission to elevate others so that we can all contribute to society at a higher level. Visit Voices of Impact Awards (voiawards.com) for more information.

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