Don’t you just love when you’re crazy busy and out of nowhere the universe delivers exactly what you need? So does the media.

One of my favorite things I tell clients (because it has them go “hmmm”) is while they’re paying us, we really work for the media. This might seem like a strange way to look at PR, but it’s the truth. We know that making the media’s job easier will ultimately produce the results our clients are looking for.

When we’re working with people going the PR journey alone, we encourage them to look at the world from the media’s perspective. One important thing we consistently drive home is the media need what they need, when they need it. In other words, if you want to land top-tier media coverage, you must make yourself and your materials available at the drop of a hat.

There are a variety of things the media may need immediately:

  • Bio, photos, logo, book cover, interview questions, etc.

  • Other times, a ready-to-use quote from a trusted expert is all that’s required to fulfill a request.

A great example of this is when our team received an incoming lead from a journalist working on an article for Fast Company.

Our client Anne Grady is an internationally renowned speaker, author and organizational communication consultant. Her inspiring talks have made her a favorite speaker for corporations and organizations of all kinds. Fortunately, Anne hired us to create her online press kit.

As part of that process, we placed the main body of Anne’s owned media materials on an internal server accessible only to Anne and our team of PR professionals. Having all these materials on hand—in one spot so no one has to go hunting for them—made it possible to respond quickly and easily to an incoming lead.

When the Fast Company journalist came looking for a relevant expert, we had digital copies of Anne’s books at the ready and we provided just the quote the journalist needed to round out her article. Having the materials on hand to provide a ready-to-use quote and keeping our fingers on the pulse of incoming media leads led to a major media placement for Anne.

Anne was happy and the media was happy. And that’s what makes us tick here at Wasabi Publicity.

The moral of the story is simple: If you’re doing PR, you need to shift your thinking from “What can the media do for me?” to “What exactly can I do for the media?”

And when I think about this moral, it applies to more than PR… it applies to life.