Self-motivation is the stimulation behind many of history’s most inspiring success stories, yet more than a few others were driven by naysayers – doubters who focus on what might seem out of reach.
We ran into this type of cynic when we recently set out to pitch one of our clients as an authority to top-level financial media in New York City, the nation’s financial media capital.
During early stages of planning, we reached out to a peer firm in New York to gauge if we might need local “boots on the ground” to assist us. 
We were told in no uncertain terms, “You can’t do it. No one will meet with your guy.” We’ve had lots of national media success for clients before so this response was puzzling.
Well if delivering for our client weren’t motivation enough, such an out-of-hand dismissal was. The challenge was clear; the gauntlet thrown down.
We already had the key ingredients in place for success: a highly credentialed client and a great angle.
Peers and industry experts regard our client as an authority, backed by an unblemished reputation throughout his 40 years of counseling investors.
The angle wasn’t difficult to determine either. Recent polls indicate 70 percent of Americans viewed Wall Street negatively, so we sought to position our client as a source who could provide a “view from Main Street.”
The next step was to identify appropriate media outlets and build relationships with relevant editors and reporters. We settled on individuals at 11 New York-based TV networks, newspapers and magazines.
From there, our account team –former journalists with more than 50 years of combined journalism experience – crafted the story pitch, which concisely focused on the client’s experience, industry recognition, previous media appearances and other points of distinction.
The results? Six of 11 people responded, including four interested in meeting with our client.
Yet the work was only beginning.
We needed to coordinate dates, times and places. Certain details weren’t final until the day before the trip, so we had to account for a fluid event-planning component even after we had a few media bites on the line.
We also had to be quick on our feet after we arrived. National media don’t have time to waste, and schedules change in a New York minute (pardon the cliché). One of our appointments canceled lunch 45 minutes before our meeting and told us he’d have only 15 minutes to speak. The day was only half over, so I called a different journalist who had shown early interest but never confirmed. I convinced her to meet us that afternoon.
By days end, we had seen a staff writer for SmartMoney and The Wall Street Journal, editors from Money and Forbes, respectively, and a program host at Fox Business Network.
Exhausting and exhilarating, the trip was an unqualified success. So if a PR firm says you can’t get in front of the big boys if you’re not from New York or Los Angeles, we’re here to tell you we’ve done it and will be doing it again for others who want to share their stories with the preeminent media in their fields.
New York awaits, and as its unofficial spokesman Frank Sinatra sang, “Start spreading the news . . . ”
Please click here to download the WordWrite Communications team’s “Six tips for generating national media interest for your business.”
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Jeremy Church is an account supervisor for WordWrite Communications.
He can be reached at jeremy.church@wordwritepr.com and on Twitter@churchjeremy.
