How to Look and Sound Your Best in the Media

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

hello ladies and gentlemen if you are tuning in to from story to impact I’m Steve Gallegos your host and the founder
co-founder of voices of impact Awards and we’re so excited that you’re here today because I’ve got just an excellent
phenomenal guess from the media and public relations industry Miss Susan
Harrow and 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 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 because 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 and the best person I know on the planet to help you
do that is our guest Susan Harrow who’s coming to us our studio from San Rafael
uh 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 I’m so happy to be here and I love that you already know the surroundings of where I
live and I have actually been to where you live too and hiked up some huge mountains in that very thin air yes
there are huge Mountains and the thin air we’ll get you so yeah that was something that we had to acclimate ourselves so we still do right 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
still um I don’t know if you when you were down here did you experience there’s these steps
um in uh that you climb honey do you remember the name of the steps I’m asking my wife
something 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 I’m happy to say I
didn’t do it and so people train their lives for that
and we do have one guy here that is a local that runs those steps every single
day it runs them right there well I love that you brought that up because
obviously he didn’t start with running 2500. no you you know you can’t run a
Start slow and build up
marathon before you walk a mile so I’m sure he started slow and built up and I
think it’s the same thing with media lots of people you know 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 sense of the Rhythm and timing and then build up
to National so everybody can start where they are and start in their very own Hometown and and I also recommend
obviously that you don’t start with TV first it’s just like you know if you were on stage as a speaker you’re not
going to start speaking to hopefully a thousand or ten thousand people right away you start with because the energy
is so different you would start with 10 people and build up to 50 people and 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 the studio or the situation that you’re in
like lots of times now it’s it’s at home but sometimes you’re going to be in studio wonderful and that is great
advice that’s just beautiful wisdom to start off with uh this particular segment because the audience that’s
coming through the voices of impact Awards these are these uh of quite a variety of people we have celebrities
and we have people that are um in the media already right that are public figures and then we have folks
and this is the majority of our audiences folks that have probably hinted at the idea or toyed with the
idea that maybe they want to share their story and maybe they want to get out there but they haven’t taken those Next
Step because really there isn’t a platform for them to do that and so we’ve created that platform and now
they’re coming to to terms with uh oh what do I do now and so when we talk
about getting exposure we talk about media you’re right so many entrepreneurs oh I want to get on Good Morning America
and CNN and fox and National right and 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 and getting used to people responding to you when I was teaching at the Learning Annex
Test it out
um you know you think that something 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 and I I remember like wondering like why are people laughing now or what did I say
and 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 already in like they’re all already worldwide and
when we were working he’s actually going to be speaking on a stage of a thousand people and he hasn’t done that before
and he has eight minutes so we have to we 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 so sometimes people like write it out and it becomes very stiff because
writing is different than speaking so and he wasn’t used to that either he’s like I’m I you know like to work from a
script and I said I understand that and since we’re here and we just have an hour let’s start telling the stories and
let’s see what happens because different things come out when you’re relaxed and
you tell the story just fresh like in the moment when you’re relaxed so then
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 and 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 they you can ask them hmm
stood out what do you remember and can you repeat back to me what you heard and
just listen for what they say you know what pops right Susan that’s beautiful
advice do you do you recommend that you practice in front of someone that really knows you because they know you or or
someone that doesn’t really know you because then they’re more apt to to listen for example both 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
I would do it yeah wonderful good advice before we get into even more great
details and wisdom from you I know you’ve we could spend all day with you and we still wouldn’t get to the you
know everything we need to know tell us Susan a little bit about you how did you get into this because you nobody’s born
into PR and media and having the Savvy and wisdom and experience that you do so what was your journey how did you get to
this space well it’s it’s kind of a long journey starting with I majored in Shakespeare
Susans journey
oh my goodness you know and I also worked and I had a quite a lot of jobs
but I worked in advertising and then I thought I wanted to work in advertising but I also worked for several startups
and in high-tech sales and I was also a consultant in HR in Pacific Bell
directory and the way that I built my business is I built it the same I built it as I was growing like I started doing
um you know I started working with a gal who did PR for the North Face and Bill
Graham presents and the Telluride festival and I just thought let me trail
her and see what if I like it and so my
I just listened to her on the phone and you know then it was phone it was phone before it was this was actually before
email
but we were we blast faxing first was like revolutionary and then I had a uh
one of my first clients was a a high-tech um computer 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 so I
worked with her my one of my very first clients was Missy Park of Title IX sports she was just a two-person now
she’s one of the largest retailers in women’s sportswear today but I started small and then what I found was my I
could get my clients booked I booked them on Larry King live and Oprah and the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and sometimes what would happen
is a big nothing and so I started looking at what was happening and what was happening is they weren’t saying
things that were compelling they weren’t telling those stories that were driving and engaging the audience 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 right you know I did the booking and 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 so everything
they do say are and think from their words to their websites 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 and it’s the same in speaking it’s like if
you’re speaking to lawyers like you it’s going to be different than you’re speaking to housewives are entrepreneurs
you’re going to have to angle your message to them and I was talking to a
woman I was a media training a woman who was uh expert in the metaverse a different kind of metaverse and she had
just lost she had spoken to VCS and she had just she didn’t get the money and I
said well were you what were you she had already given me her like her talk and 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 that she had I
mean she has a fantastic background and lots of of super success you know 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 yeah beautiful
beautiful um how does one go about um uh identifying the audience in 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 right it could vary from you know college students to retired
folks could be in the audience right in other words when you’re being invited not to speak to lawyers or doctors or
entrepreneurs members of the general public which is what the voices of impact is 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 what are the universal stories that are
Why stories are important
going to resonate that are going to touch the heartstrings of people because stories why stories are important is
number one when we tell a story our brains sync up together Neuroscience
says we sync up our breathing sinks our story syncs so we’re already in real
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 so you might actually
they even create different stories for for people who are in the audience like a person who’s retired is going to have
a different they’re going to care about their grandchildren and about doing Leisure things and somebody who’s in
college they’re going to be thinking about the Brave New World that they’re entering and you know new exciting
Adventures so you want to think about um telling stories maybe 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 you know it sometimes that same story can be told
and then it can have you can have like three different like lessons that
resonate with your different markets right so it it can even be the same
it can even be the same story but you angle the last couple of lines
specifically to whoever whoever you’re speaking with does that make sense no absolutely it makes sense and one of the
ways that we like to explain it is that a story is is simply um a series of events that you have
experienced that you’ve gone through in your life or maybe you’ve observed somebody else gone through that have
impacted you or or you’ve learned from and so the idea as Susan is explaining if I get it right Susan if I get it
wrong let me know um but if I get it right is it 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 so if you know that you have college students and you have a stay-at-home single moms
perhaps and that you have entrepreneurs maybe from your story develop a point
that would apply to the college students one to the stay-at-home moms and went to
the entrepreneurs is that essentially what you’re that is I like that yeah the teach that’s what thank you for clarifying it is the teaching points at
the end and I was media training um an executive who I was trying I was hired
so he could enhance his executive presence and his leadership qualities there was no hire where he could go and
he was speaking to audiences of like 800 people but there were different within
the company there were like three different audiences so he had to keep everybody’s interests
so we even if he was telling like we had we incorporated some Boyhood stories
that he could connect to the points that he wanted to make on his um Pitch deck on his slideshow right on his PowerPoint
and make sure that every single each of those three groups were still engaged by
it you know so those are the kinds of stories that we work with because otherwise and his presentations were
like three hours so imagine trying to keep somebody’s attention I know for three hours like that’s none of us right
so anymore so um yeah so so that was something that we
that we worked on um with those those stories that could resonate with Emmett and I think
sometimes when we talk about like childhood incidences or things that we know are
Universal to people we really want to be thinking about that and I know I don’t know if you wanted me to tell one of
those stories I’m going to invite you in a second to share a story but you said something
very critical that I think it requires some a little bit more uh distinction here you you indicated that the CEO this
executive was sharing a personal story or was um maybe wanting to
get more attention for himself and it just dawned on me that there’s different you I think you’re suggesting there’s
different types of stories because your story can be based on or the the aim of
your story I think what you’re saying is 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’s stories that are designed to highlight uh you know 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 right can
you walk us through just a little bit of the types of stories that we might want to focus on yeah so the first story is
Signature story
your signature story it’s it’s why you do what you do or why you’re standing on stage what’s your point there and we are
that’s the one the but we’re going to offer five different templates to do that they’re not all there of course
there’s more than five but from me listening to thousands and thousands of interviews I’ve I’ve found five that are
standard that standardized they can be told very quickly and for a speaking engagement sometimes it’s a much longer
story like for media it’s going to be very short um TV is the shortest but podcasts are a
little bit more forgiving but in in a in a speaking like one of my clients um he
would tell a story in 45 minutes like he was a motivational speaker and his very first media appearance was on uh Larry
King live the second one was Oprah right so we had to take those 45 minutes and put turn them into 45 seconds so you
want those stories to be expandable and collapsible like that so to your point different stories you want to have your
your course 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 I mean 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
you interacting with people has had a had some kind of impact or result for
them because that’s what we we’re looking for the experience of whatever it is you’re offering right so we’re
we’re looking to feel it we’re looking to experience it like even something like Nike it’s not really about shoes
it’s about what you know just do it but be the best person that you are you know
like we were talking about we had to start small with those steps that person that person didn’t
um you know run those to to 2500 2500 steps and I remember when I was in
college at UCSB and I was running 12 miles a day and I remember this woman coming up to me and saying like
um I really want to start to exercise and I don’t know how and I said start by walking for one minute like if
you can walk around the block or around you know 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 was like a year later I went back to visit some friends on campus and she came up to me and said what you told me
like totally changed my life I’m now running 10 miles a day I’m like what
right so it was that starting small so I really believe in starting small and
anything that you do and taking those micro movements you know and taking just like start anywhere start where you
are but just start small and and start to gain
some proficiency competency so some people believe that confidence comes
just comes to you but but it’s really when you start to become competent your
confidence raises so it’s that competency that gives us the actual
experience when we start to and it doesn’t mean we’re not going to get nervous like I still get nervous I’m
still nervous I was still nervous to talk to you I don’t know who I’ve never met you should be
but I still get nervous before any of these it’s just the way it is and then to to just acknowledge that and turn
that into more I was still I was excited but I was also a little nervous you know
yeah so it’s just and then I do exercises to calm myself down so I can
relax right wonderful I’m glad you shared that and thank you for all the
beautiful illustrations that you’re providing I mean it’s just so wonderful to 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 or D oh I went to
ucsbc you you see Santa Barbara and I graduated from UC Berkeley so I graduated from there I was a
sheriff’s deputy with the Santa Barbara County insurance department and I worked in Isla Vista well I used to run on the
beach and run around that Lagoon where I ran on the beach in the morning and around the Lagoon in the afternoon well
I’m pretty sure sure I never gave you a ticket because you were too fast I think you’re way younger than I am so
I don’t think you were there at the same time what a beautiful time yay great
um Susan media public relations
is all centered around stories right we’re people it’s it’s all about stories that’s news it’s all about stories what
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 I mean 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 you mean about me about you about your experience something a story
that you like to share from stage or not or maybe something over coffee or
you know yeah I think I think story on stage and
I told maybe 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 I I
Play with your stories
do recommend that you play with your stories and try them in different ways
for different audiences and find like different parts and then that way you can find the most effective way to tell
it but when you have different time frames in different audiences you want to tell it and be more expanded or more
details and and just play with with that aspect of it right so so yeah I was
thinking about this this morning so um I’m a black belt in Aikido and I
um and I before that I was a teaching tennis pro so I consider myself an athlete but when I got onto the mat and
Aikido I’m so awkward it’s like dancing I would just like the worst kid I would be like the kid that was chosen last in
soccer and in fact that’s what would happen we would have to pair up an Ikea 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 and people would literally get up and run to not train with me
I know I think so now I know what the the kids you know who get chosen last
feel like and so it was horrifying to go every single night because I was so
stressed out about like is nobody going to want to train with me and I was so awkward and every single night I would
actually go and cry afterwards in my car never on the Ikea map 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 and so I kept training I trained two
hours a day five days a week every single day and was just very little Improvement
and one night I went to a training with a senior a senior student there he said
it was not our Sensei and you know I’m being awkward and he and he says in
front of the whole class Susan you’re always doing your footwork is always
wrong and it’s totally cattywampus and you usually in the on the Aquino
Mount you do not single out people and and embarrass them in that way if someone’s having trouble you share it
with everyone so because most people may be having that same trouble but not this he’s like you pointing me out and people
were mortified and there were new students in there and ex and experienced black belts and people just everything
just sort of stopped and I thought you know I’m wanted to maintain my Equanimity and not give it any energy
because even if when you give something negative energy you’re still giving it energy so just like I’m just gonna try
to do the best I can with my with my footwork and improve it and so when I came 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
and until I can master myself and be a beautiful aikidoka on the mat and what I
want to so okay we’re talking about like creating then a teaching moment if I wanted to create a teaching moment I
would say I would say probably three things number one is iteration it’s not
10 to doing ten thousand things the same way doing ten thousand times iterating
and changing and improving each time and that’s what we do in media like you have a media appearance we look at what do
you do right what do you what do you want to shift for next time and then you keep getting better and better same from
speaking the stage did that Story Land what part didn’t work what is working what isn’t working and then the second
part of that is mastering yourself like when you’re on stage or when you’re in a media appearance you may get thrown off
center and 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 that 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 as 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 wonderful beautiful lessons and so I’ll I I take it before I ask you a
little bit more about the lessons you got your footwork right because you became a black belt but not a pretty one
I’m still not okay I’m not a graceful beautiful I I am a black belt and that
and we by the way in the dojo were considered when you become a black belt you are now teachable so it’s really
just teachable wow yeah so it’s it’s not considered mastery it’s considered you
are somewhat competent wow you’re just beginning at that you’re just beginning wow now you now you’re teachable once
you’ve you’ve gotten your black belt wow look at that does that same uh philosophy holds true in storytelling is
there ever a point perhaps is there anybody on the planet that you know that is just a masterful
Storyteller they don’t need any further development no no I think everyone can develop
further a master Storyteller like someone on stage who we can learn a lot
Learn from Jerry Seinfeld
from is Jerry Seinfeld you know timing body I mean he’s a master at at getting
us to laugh right and that that’s part of it but no I think that we can all
always and in in the media realm it’s it’s expert Authority thought leader
so as you but there’s 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 oh 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 you know and learning new things and I think
it’s it’s I think it’s infinite yeah wonderful I I happen to agree with you on that point 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 and so 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 exactly so I
reach every day every moment and this is what you’re talking about in the iterations in the self-mastery is that
perform deliver work show up to your best capacity to to the capacity that
you’re that 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 the iterations we like to call them practice you might know them
as rehearsals and I love the fact that she pointed out don’t 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 perhaps your tonality um there’s there’s just so many things that that go into this until
you get the connection with the audience right um that’s the iterations and so don’t do
it Rhythm it’s um it’s Rhythm pacing pauses waist variation movement on the
stage how do you use your body all the dimensions because most most people just like walk back and forth but we have all
we have top bottom side um you know spinning you know
arms you know right like exactly kinds of ways we can use our body expressively
that’s why I brought up Jerry Seinfeld too because it’s like sometimes the slightest movement that’s what makes you
laugh it’s like the pause or the pop right 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 and I’m like well we’ll
work on the pacing and the pausing and try it another way and what do you want to emphasize where
do you want the audience to wait you know so all of that is in practicing a
story different ways pausing in different ways emphasizing it speeding it up slowing it down Legato staccato
right but music musical terms 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 wonderful and when you’re
talking about pausing um a lot of people find that very awkward and discomforting but silence
how do you how do you recommend that people include silence as well as deal with silence like if if you’re a speaker
and you’ve posed a question and there’s immediate silence you might want to I
don’t know try and fill in the gaps or if you are intentionally using silence
you know what do you recommend there in other words how do we employ silence
judiciously judiciously and for you to get comfortable with it
Use silence judiciously
first and what happens because sometimes particularly like in a
negotiation you don’t want to seek you want to wait and it can be uncomfortable
but to 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 because here’s one of the issues I know
that comes out a lot in book talks authors because I’ve media trained a lot of authors right when you’re in a mode
meaning 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 so 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
yours you’re schooling them on how to participate first and small things maybe just say yay or raise your hand or how
are you or whatever that is that you’re that you’re doing like how many of you think this raise your hand so you start
to get them moving so when you are asking for something then the
expectation is that that they will respond so you need to
give them that instruction and and make it safe for them to respond by asking
for little things first and then going up to bigger more perhaps more uncomfortable things but that’s that’s
one of the intrinsic things about the energetic is sometimes people go well it didn’t work it’s like but wait it’s it’s
not working because um the question might be too hard or
um you know for any number of reasons I think so we we want to look at that and other ways
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 the so
you’re having like a column response it’s not just you you you out out there
is a kind of call and response anyway even if if your audience isn’t speaking
oh oh yeah you’re just thinking no I was being silent no it’s a little harder to
read I’m like no I was practicing what you just showed us and being said okay because I was
like Frozen no I was reflecting on what Susan said and was yeah before I respond
let me just think about this and let it sink in yeah it can be uncomfortable and
um I know that a lot of people uh you know need to get over that and so 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 too
our organization the voices of impact Awards um because uh
one of the reasons that we created this event this annual year-long event is not
just 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 and what they can teach the world um because we all need that regardless
of our stage in life or stage in society or whether you’re a CEO or you’re a
five-year-old child we all need Stories We all live for these stories right they help us get through the day and through
tough moments and and even happy moments and so you Susan having you as one of
our mentors um official Resource Partners is is a beautiful beautiful gift uh that you’re
giving of your time to our audience uh 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 oh we want more we want more yes you’re going to get more
of Susan but just not today right we’re gonna space it out so that she doesn’t get tired of us okay
um um but 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 and share with us a little bit about what that is you talked about it earlier some signature story templates
Your signature story
yeah so so through you know really analyzing thousands and thousands of
people on TV 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 I was just for the client yesterday she’s a cyber security expert in diversity inclusion expert and she I had
given her that sheet and she was we were working on we we have some oftentimes we have more than one signature Story by
the way so we were working on the signature story and it wasn’t like 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 stories if these
formats lend themselves to the story that you want to tell choose the one that fits and 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 this is flexible too
and if there need to be other added details into it you are free to play with it but we have five the five
templates it’s called your signature story and they’re the five templates that you can that are fill in the blank
so it makes it super super easy to get started especially if you and you can do all
five like you you might you might have 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 wonderful wonderful that’s going to be so valuable
and essentially what Susan is giving you folks is recipes right and like she said
not every story fits into this particular template or a specific
template and 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 then the recipe calls for do it right exactly or sugar more butter whatever
you want to do modify it until it um uh suits you and and helps you um not only
develop uh write your story but to deliver it as well now Susan we’re giving them a little bit of you know the
preparation to sharing their story on a big scale
um what happens when one of our audience members wants to work with you and they
should we’re going to encourage as many of them as can and want to to work with you because we want to develop people
right we want to the reason we’re offering you is is not just so they can go and share their story and say goodbye
but through the process of sharing their story you you’re also growing you’re evolving you’re becoming better whatever
it is that you do whether it’s 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 and so making Susan available to you
will help you do that understanding her time is very limited and so Susan I want
to ask you um 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 a media calling them uh what’s the best way to
work with you yeah um and and I love that you’re talking about all those different types
Work with people
of people whether you’re a church leader or or a parent or a soccer mom or or you
know already a leader in your community or a founder of a company I love that you’ve like included everyone and I
think that’s really beautiful and thank you for offering this I think it’s so valuable for people and and not just to
win the prize right like but to really develop yourself and develop your
stories and really connect with people so and work with people um and you ask like I work with
beginners and I work with people who are already famous and celebrities you know so it really everything it really
doesn’t matter to me who you know what stage you are in some people already
have a PR firm booking them that’s ideal because we we have a container and we
know that you are 40 media worthy but sometimes um 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 and I said let’s find
you a PR firm and then I’m going to Media train you and we work hand in hand so I that’s how I work one-on-one with
people if they want to work with me very intensively the uh the next level is with my zen of Fame course which is a
publicity course that shows you how to develop your message create your systems
behind the scene 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 your
um 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
and then so the so the first part is creating your messaging because you want to create that before you reach out to
the media because you want to be able to explain your business and brand and what you stand for and your philosophy and
what’s connecting with the audience first then the system set up and then the last thing is to create a PR campaign that suits your style and suits
your energy so it’s those three aspects so you can take that now 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 and I’ve had people in the past when I first
started this and I had it all separate people would some people Zoom through the course on the on an airplane right
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 it’s a lifetime so you can access it whenever you want so those are the
three levels and I invite anyone to 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 prccrets.com
forward slash I think it’s forward slash 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 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 here in the uh near future I highly
recommend that you connect with our official resource partner Ms Susan Harrow to guide you through that because
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 I mean you’ve heard it on this interview right in fact I personally
um you know 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 some really really powerful and helpful full nuggets
um in closing Susan I wanted to make a um
a point here as the audience is listening to you they’re watching you they’re looking at you your beautiful
office set up your you know your your demeanor your posture and everything
and they’re going to get the senses I do that you are the ultimate professional
you are polished you you put in the time you put in the work you 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
um 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 and articulate her thoughts 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 um 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 I don’t want you to be like me okay I
Be yourself
one of my favorite things is Oscar Wilde like um what he said what did he say
um oh my God now I’m facing out on that it’s one of my favorite things um do you know which one I’m talking
about I do not but we can right away if you ever have you know if you ever space out like that so ask the audience what
was I saying you know to get that back um be yourself everyone else is already
taken um be yourself everyone else is already what else is already taken yeah
because that’s what we’re looking for we’re looking for your originality we’re looking for your quirks so
um you know I’ve had training in all of these different areas and worked with you know transformational speakers and
all of that so what we want to do is look in your background and find you
know there’s not one right way to do it like there’s all these different types of speakers like I would recommend
people start listening to the ma if you haven’t like them the radio hour it’s a
podcast you can hear like all these different types of speakers which is so
fascinating and 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 so it’s finding your own way and lots of
times we start with um oh I want to be like that and and that’s fine too to look at people and go that’s one part
something that I want to master so instead of having it be insecure or
imposter syndrome say how can I 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 myself in something that maybe I don’t like so well you know or maybe and
and I think that’s an uh you know iterative process I was thinking about this like
um you know I also love the saying by the Dalai Lama um 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 even when like I’ll have a bad
thought about somebody in line or I’m crabby in the grocery line and then I say well it’s mind training
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 and do I always get there
absolutely not sometimes I’m just so crabbed out right and 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 so I I and I’m always looking to other people to see what
qualities that they have that I want to uh shift or improve in myself
wonderful so what Susan has just shared with us I think is absolutely brilliant a lot of us say you know I want to be
like so and so I want to be I remember when I was um pursuing a career as a music
recording artist I wanted to be like Julio Iglesias uh that was my aim at the
time um but you know I wasn’t re I hadn’t really thought about it and I in over
the years if I studied personal development um 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 right or results that would
Fascinate and and fit in with me right 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 right but you can certainly emulate the excellent qualities that she has
right the excellent advice that she’s giving you the excellent training and
counsel that she’s given us and and do some of the things that she’s gone through right in terms of educating
yourself she’s obviously a great reader right so you can become a great reader she’s obviously a great listener so you
can become a great listener right so 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
because that’s who we’re looking for as Susan pointed out Susan we are at the
top of the um at the top of the hour here thank you so much for being here with us I truly truly appreciate your
gift your your wisdom your time your talents and so so grateful
um our team is that you raised your hand and you said yes I want to support the voices of impact Awards and be of
service uh you’re one of the first and so we are just truly truly great thank you for inviting me and I love that
Make people comfortable
you’re creating this and 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 a Johnson President Johnson said be like an old shoe and I don’t want to say that
you’re like an old shoe you’re like you’re like a Gucci loafer maybe nice nice that is you know you’re very
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 make sometimes make people uncomfortable
it 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 know that’s taken I mean you you were a
lawyer first you’ve had so much experience on the other stage as as a
lawyer right and as a trainer and that sort of thing and that’s what you’re seeing in your presence today it’s the sum of
all of that that experience right yeah exactly thank you for that the whole world is a stage each one of us are on
stage at one point or another yeah oh really yes you have you have all these quotes on
these beautiful quotes memories yeah I love quotes wonderful well ladies and
gentlemen I I thoroughly enjoyed um producing this interview and hosting this interview and having the the
privilege because it is a privilege for me to speak to Susan heroin ask her these questions and have her share about
herself and her story her career um and to bring all that wisdom to you
so know that you can work with Susan she’s one of the official Resource Partners or the voices in Impact Awards
go to voi awards.com the official Resource Partners or the resources menu
tab on the website and pull down you’ll see uh Susan Harrow’s name listed on there
and you can connect with her to get her free gift uh she’s also going to be delivering a complimentary training to
the applicants of the awards and if you want to Deep dive and take your relationship with Susan Harrow even
further all her links are on the on her page um her social media links her website
um all of that where you can connect with her directly and work with her to elevate your life and 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