Hiya 🌊! I’m Lucy from Hype Yourself. If you are new to this page, pop your email below to ensure you receive my posts sent every Sunday. Challenge tasks are sent out every fortnight(ish) to help you with self-promotion, templates, expert tips and opportunities. Come and sit with us.
Hello all!
January marks my second quarter of writing on the Substack platform 🎉
To make my Substack better for you in 2024, I have sought some paid mentorship with
for both her Substack and writing expertise.As solopreneurs, I think it’s important to share and shout out the external experts we use (and are influenced by) because the journey is rarely solo.
With that in mind, I’m making a few subtle tweaks based on her feedback to make it feel better for you.
What does this mean for you?
🧩 The next three 52 PR Tips sent out will be available to all subscribers to give you an aperitif of our work together here.
👩🏻🏫 As the paid community grows, so do the numbers on the monthly live Q&As. To improve, I will test hosting a micro-workshop based on that month’s challenge.
✍🏼 Group LIVE Q&As for paid subscribers will now be on the last Wednesday of every month. (A replay will be sent out for those who can’t attend)
Workshops coming up:
💻 January’s workshop: “Let’s get pitching” will be about how to put a pitch email together
🖼 February’s workshop: “Picture Perfect” will cover headshots, picture stories and video news ideas
🎤 March’s workshop: “Mic Me Up” will look at how to secure our first paid speaking gigs
Let’s get going.
Lucy x
WELCOME TO THIS WEEKS CHALLENGE
Facebook groups:
These can be a great places to promote your company or find organic new business leads. Many have a specific day when you can post about your business.
*Reminder: PR is more than just pitching to the press - (this is just publicity) it is everything you do to manage your relationship with the public.*
How do you behave in online spaces?
Have you ever thought about it?
Could you reflect on Facebook and other online groups and how you could improve your use of them to Hype Yourself?
A few types of groups we could think about using that we are not already:
Local FB or Community Groups: Back to the first pilot challenge and thinking locally.
These can be great for collaborating with other businesses/creatives, finding out about local events that could be relevant for you or even being aware of local issues that might form part of any charitable work you do with your business.
Example: Connecting English speakers where I live is Fayence and Beyond great for physical businesses to advertise promotions and opening hours but also service-based businesses such as IT support, photographers and chimney sweeps
Career-specific groups: If you are new or even need a refresher on how you think about your career, industry-specific groups can be great for sharing resources, industry news and even work.
Example: Freelance PR group separate to people looking for Freelance PR jobs
If you are struggling to find clients or paid work in your industry is there a relevant group like this?
Business community groups: The biggest shift since I’ve written these prompt cards is how many business groups I’ve seen have moved their community off of Facebook into their own spaces. I’ve popped examples of those who were formerly on FB below.
Substack: A bit meta I know but there are some great places to introduce and connect yourself. (Reminder: give more than you take!)
👯Collaboration Corner - Have a Substack and are looking for guests, OR are you a guest looking to write on a Substack? This thread is the easiest corner on Substack to start looking for collaboration opportunities
(🚨 paid subscribers: coming to your inbox soon will be a directory post of guest for guest swaps to get you started! )
✍🏼 Sarah' Fay’s Office Hours: If you are new to Substack, you can introduce yourself if you have been on the platform a while, you can help support others
In today’s challenge, I will talk through:
Some of my favourite online spaces
My favourite Facebook group for getting PR (and my topline framework for pitching in there)
Top 10 Tips from Steve at Being Freelance on how to behave in a community space
MY FAVOURITE ONLINE SPACES
I know I have.
When I started my consultancy in 2014, I was clueless. I made another pivot in 2019 when I started to write my first book, and I had 0 audience. (No subscribers on my newsletter and a heritage Instagram account that was mostly nosey old friends and colleagues but not a ripe audience).
Some of the places I have refuge and support historically include:
Found & Flourish: Created by Lara Sheldrake - you don’t need to be a member to attend their sell-out Hugs and Brunch events, where you can meet up with other like-minded founders in person. There is also an online membership community with several tiers full of training, support and community.
Networking and mentoring for the creative industry with Isabel Sachs. With a suite of events and resources, including the very handy jobs board.DOING IT FOR THE KIDS (DIFTK) For freelance parents trying to make flexible working, work. This community is fantastic for a giggle and support when that juggle of running a business and trying to juggle the daycare closing, and many of the contacts I made here are still biz friends I have today.
BEING FREELANCE We have Steve Folland from Being Freelance giving us some guest tips below (he also co-hosts a podcast with the hilarious Frankie from DIFTK). His community includes co-working, non-employee of the week and many other fantastic engagement ideas, which is why he is our guest this week.
MY FAVOURITE FACEBOOK GROUP FOR GETTING PR
Disclaimer: This is a paid FB Group and not an ad or affiliate
The best and easiest place to secure press on the internet is former journalist (and former colleague of mine from Mr & Mrs Smith) Charlotte Fall’s Lightbulb Press & Entrepreneur Hangout
Journalists are looking for case studies for stories OR, as a founder, you can pitch.
Here is a very simple framework for using in that group, which I will talk through how and why in January’s workshops, as the components are key parts of the pitch recipe to make yours rise.
Pitch: “Sample headline” Name, Age, Location
Supporting bullet one
Supporting bullet two
Supporting bullet three
Photo
What might that look like in real-life?
9 TIPS FROM STEVE FOLLAND, FOUNDER OF BEING FREELANCE ON USING GROUPS FOR SELF-PROMOTION
Try not to think of it as self promotion, show up, be yourself, be helpful.
Be a regular. The more you’re there and comment or be part of online/IRL activities, the sooner you’ll be known. Before you know it, you’ll be welcoming others in like you’ve been there forever.
On most community platforms, you can search for specific words or phrases to find relevant posts.
When you see a post where people might need your help - be genuinely helpful (don’t just post a link to a product).
But don’t just reply to those posts; be part of wider conversations.
It’s a (not-so) long game. What do I mean? Well, relationships build over time so don’t expect to become immediately known. But it’s amazing how quickly I’ve seen people get known and be referred in a group.
Turn up, get involved, get to know others. I’ve seen lots of people in the Being Freelance Community refer each other, become co-mentors, collaborate, hire each other… and most of it has come from getting to know what each other are like in chats, events, socials etc
No one likes a sneaky spammer. They come in, say something which is clearly just trying to get attention about their ‘thing’ - Don’t do it.
Be part of it and be you. When people turn up to our virtual coworking or ‘tea break socials’, we get chatting about all kind of things that aren’t to do with our work/services/products. Getting to know people for real builds a much better place to be recommended from. AND it feels good, because it can be lonely doing your own thing.
You can listen on Spotify or wherever you catch your podcasts to hear Steve chat to me all about my freelance journey to date.
Challenge action
I dare you, even double-dare you, to use the comments below to start practising a press pitch. This can be rough and ready, and we can refine them in January’s workshop.
Let’s use my simple Lightbulb framework:
Pitch: “Sample headline” Name, Age, Location
Supporting bullet one
Supporting bullet two
Supporting bullet three
Photo
Remember key things:
DO: Keep it short; succinct, bullet points, NOT paragraphs. Try to think why now
DON’Ts: Read like an advert for your product or service. Long or waffly. Focus less on business, this for telling stories not selling - but can link to your business.
*Paid subscribers: Register for free to all the next workshops from this post where we shall refine these together*
All other comments, questions or excellent online groups we need to know about are welcome. Please pop em below.
See you in the comments. Have a great week.
Lucy xx
Amazing what paying for a subscription does 😂 I’m now an ‘expert’ in a networking group that’s all my target audience, pitched to speak at their events, said yes to a video interview and I’ve joined Lightbulb.
Thank you for these amazing tips, Lucy! Taking up your double dare to say that I'm also a Lucy, 36, and Founder of Treble & Trumpet. We mix classical music with nursery rhymes to develop little ones' brains and inspire a love of music. As it's Blue Monday, we've just released a classical arrangement of 'I can sing a Rainbow' to encourage people to get singing again (like we do in December with all those carols and feel-good Christmas songs!), which has been proven to release endorphins and make us feel great! It's free on Spotify and all the streaming services, as we believe all parents should have access to high-quality music for their children.