Everyone needs a sprinkle of Abbey Stuart when they enter the PR industry. She’s a dynamo with confidence, conviction and creativity in spades. It was this drive and determination that had her cold calling The Nine Network for a job at the tender age of 21. 

Abbey has packed a lot into her four years as a communications professional. At The Nine Network she was the publicist for Getaway and also drove publicity for Married at First Sight, The Block, Ninja Warrior and Love Island Australia. 

In her current role as an Account Director at Sabio, she’s led countless campaigns across the consumer, hospitality, tourism, not for profit, tech and medtech sectors. 

Oh, and she recently took home an award at the 2021 PRIA Golden Target Awards, winning bronze in the Emerging Leader of The Year category. 

We covered A LOT of territory in today’s chat from how to break in and stand out in the industry to damage control when you’ve burnt your bridges with an important journalist. 

Plus, as someone that, to use Abbey's own analogy, ‘isn’t afraid to pop her joggers on’, she lets us in on her shoe of choice for any self-respecting PR professional. 

If you’re a PR newbie or you’re just as obsessed with the wide world of PR as we are, you’ll love this episode.

Available in all good poddy places. 

Find Odette Barry online

• https://www.odetteandco.com.au/hackyourownpr
• https://instagram.com/odetteandco
• https://instagram.com/hackyourownpr

Still think PR can’t make the world a better place? You haven't met Meg Harris, founder of MHPR, mumma of twin toddlers, and one of Australia's OGs in ‘Conscious PR.’

Meg earned her PR stripes working in Sydney and London across big brands such as Nestle, Amazon, Spotify, Covergirl and Johnson & Johnson. 

But after wrestling with the ethics of promoting consumer clients in a world of animal testing, plastic pollution and fast fashion, Meg knew she needed to switch focus. 

So she started MHPR in 2018 and now uses her PR superpowers to help ethical and sustainable brands move the needle towards conscious consumption. Whether that’s as one of her retained clients or through her nuts and bolts, D-I-Y PR training offering. 

And it’s paid off, with Bed Threads, Nash & Banks, The Common Good Company and The Base Collective among her dreamy client list. 

Meg is a PR powerhouse who expertly pairs her media insights and what journalists really want with her desire to do good for people and the planet.            

In this episode we cover the PR foundations every business owner needs to know, why nailing publication timelines is critical for success and how to get that coveted Vogue coverage. 

If you’re a PR DIY’er, own a product-based business or are looking to make that leap into freelance life, you’ll want to give this a listen. 

Live wherever you get your poddy action. 

Find Meg Harris online

• www.mhpr.com.au 
• [email protected] 
• https://www.instagram.com/__mhpr__

Find Odette Barry online

• https://www.odetteandco.com.au/hackyourownpr
• https://instagram.com/odetteandco
• https://instagram.com/hackyourownpr

Cara Waters is the startups and technology editor at Nine’s mastheads The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She’s also the lead of coverage for the recently launched Entrepreneur section published in the business pages every Tuesday.

Cara has a robust CV of covering the startups and tech landscape - she previously edited SmartCompany and was a journalist at the Sunday Times and Financial Times in London. 

Thanks to the launch of the dedicated Entrepreneur section covering the rise and impact of Australia’s startup boom and entrepreneurs, we’re seeing more feature profiles and interviews with Australia’s most interesting business founders and leaders.

In this episode Cara shares what she’s looking for in a pitch, the deadlines for startups and tech stories and the demands of her team. She also shares the golden rules when it comes to pitching a small business story to her. 

As Cara says, the startup scene is booming in Australia and their readers are fascinated by it. So if you’re a founder or representing one, this might just be a handy guide to snagging a coveted Sydney Morning Herald or The Age headline.

Find Cara Waters online

https://twitter.com/carawaters

https://www.smh.com.au/by/cara-waters-gkjzk0

Find Odette Barry online

https://www.odetteandco.com.au/hackyourownpr

https://instagram.com/odetteandco

https://instagram.com/hackyourownpr

Velvet Garvey is not too shabby when it comes to telling a story and sourcing the essential ingredients to conjure up a firecracker of a headline.

It is of no surprise then, when Velvet pitched to Channel 7 during Hack Your Own PR that her story snowballed into a viral success.

Velvet is the founder of Train My Mate, a platform that offers housework classes for men.

She came up with the concept after leaving her beloved career as a medical editor, to become a stay at home parent. Velvet was horrified to discover that motherhood actually equated to housework.

Feeling frustrated, she began to explore the concept of domestic labour and discovered that both the research and other women agreed: in the 21st century, women in relationships do the majority of housework and childcare, to the detriment of their relationships.

And so she created Train My Mate as a place for men to learn housework through fun and practical courses so that they can better support their partners and themselves.

And thanks to some well incredible research and groundwork, Train My Mate was featured on Channel 7 News, Sunrise, Studio 10, Triple M and the Daily Mail to name a few.

If you are wondering what the secret sauce is for viral news success, this episode is for you.

Find Velvet Garvey online

https://www.instagram.com/velvetgarvey/

https://www.instagram.com/trainmymate/

https://www.trainmymate.com/

Find Odette Barry online

https://www.odetteandco.com.au/hackyourownpr

https://instagram.com/odetteandco

https://instagram.com/hackyourownpr

Leigh Campbell is the executive editor of Mamamia and host of the podcast, You Beauty. She’s also a snack influencer - yep that’s a thing and mamma to her little man.

Leigh has worked in lifestyle media for 15 years, holding positions as Beauty Director at Cosmopolitan, Head of Lifestyle for HuffPost before joining Mamamia in 2018.

At Mamamia she oversees the whole editorial offering but still writes about her favourite stuff - fashion, food, wellness, travel, homewares and of course, beauty. 

Leigh sits in the new breed of journalists who have some significant social clout. She’s steadily built a sizable audience of her own via Instagram. And there’s a good reason why: she’s funny, open, playful and accessible in her articles, podcasts and social posts.

And yes, she’s built quite the name as a Snackfluencer, reviewing all of our fave supermarket snacks on her Instagram and they go OFF. 

In this episode, we explore how important the profile of a journalist is to media outlets, what she’s looking for in a product pitch and how important the story of the creator is, versus the story of the product. 

If you’re a beauty business or snack brand, you’ll want to tune into this episode.

Find Leigh Campbell online

https://www.instagram.com/leighacampbell/?hl=en

Find Odette Barry online

https://www.odetteandco.com.au/hackyourownpr

https://instagram.com/odetteandco

https://instagram.com/hackyourownpr

Annabel Bower is a Hack Your Own PR graduate who’s been featured in Sunday Life (The Age/Sydney Morning Herald), Mamamia, ABC Conversations.

But she didn’t just end up there by chance: she actively sought out this media coverage.

After experiencing a devastating still birth with her fourth child, Miles, Annabel was confronted with a totally unique experience of grief that few people could relate to. She decided to use her loss to write a book for other parents going through similar experiences. Miles Apart is a guide to navigating grief after baby loss, with chapters from Annabel and other parents on how they coped.

Stepping into the spotlight with such an emotional story was no easy feat, but Annabel has been superhuman every step on her PR journey with me in the Hack Your Own PR program. And her determination and passion to get more awareness for this important topic have paid off, as her roll call of media coverage shows.

I wanted to ask Annabel how she pulled off some of her impressive media coverage so I asked her for all the steps of her pitching process, how she keeps up with the news related to her area of expertise, and how she stays calm and mentally resilient when pitches get knocked back.

Small business owners, tune in for some seriously wise words from this hack your own pr graduate.

Find Annabel Bower online

www.milesapart.online

https://www.instagram.com/miles__apart/

Find Odette Barry online

https://www.odetteandco.com.au/hackyourownpr

https://instagram.com/odetteandco

https://instagram.com/hackyourownpr

Outside of the big-name media outlets, there are dozens of local news agencies that tell the stories of their local communities. David Kirkpatrick is editor-in-chief of my own local news source, The Northern Star, which has been in business reporting on the happenings of the Northern Rivers in New South Wales for a whopping 145 years. He’s been doing his thing as a journalist and, briefly, a publicist for 34 years.

Those of us living in rural and regional areas know local news outlets are a vital part of the community. 

But they’re also a valuable place for small businesses and local entrepreneurs to earn some media coverage that directly reaches a local audience. Make them a part of your media strategy and you’re in for some PR gold.

So what makes David Kirkpatrick’s ears prick up as an editor? 

He shared with me the value of a great subject line to catch the eye of busy journalists, the ideal length of a press release and why he doesn’t mind a bit of persistence - as long as you’re not pushy!

Listen to the episode to hear how to walk that line, plus get the list of six “passion areas” that The Northern Star know its readers love.

Find David Kirkpatrick online https://twitter.com/davidkirkpatri3

[email protected]

https://twitter.com/northern_star_

Find Odette Barry online

https://www.odetteandco.com.au/hackyourownpr

https://instagram.com/odetteandco

https://instagram.com/hackyourownpr

As a beauty editor, Amy Clark has tried everything - including poop stools, snail jizz and colonic irrigation - in the name of a great product review. This journo isn’t afraid to put herself in the firing line when it comes to road testing the latest and greatest - and the downright weird. But there’s one treatment she’ll never try (more on that soon!)

I got into the fun and fabulous world of beauty journalism in this chat, a world Amy has been part of since 2016. She worked her way through the ranks at Mamamia from editorial assistant to senior lifestyle content producer. Now she’s right at home as senior editor at Adore Beauty, one of Australia’s most reputable beauty retailers, and an impressive publisher in its own right.

With Beauty IQ, podcast Beauty IQ Uncensored and a demanding publishing schedule, at Adore, Amy’s job is just as rigorous as when she was at a magazine. 

We chat through what Amy is looking for from writers on the platform, what her typical day looks like and the changes afoot within the beauty industry that all publicists and brands should be aware of.

Find Amy Clark online https://www.instagram.com/theamyclark/

https://www.adorebeauty.com.au/beautyiq/

Find Odette Barry online

https://www.odetteandco.com.au/hackyourownpr

https://instagram.com/odetteandco

https://instagram.com/hackyourownpr

Who do you hire to do your PR when you work in the media business? Well, if you trust the opinion of executives at Clemenger BBDO, Leo Burnett and other world-class agencies, you turn to Katy Denis.

Katy is a PR specialist with 20 years experience, and the founder and CEO of Extollo, an agency that works hard to raise the profile of media professionals among their peers. Representing personalities like Todd Sampson of The Gruen Transfer, Laura Aldington of Havas Media and other big names in media and advertising, Katy has nailed the formula for thought leadership and building your visibility with a variety of tactics.

I knew Katy would have a treasure trove of tactics that entrepreneurs and small biz owners could take advantage of in their own PR outreach. 

We talked through the art of strategic stalking (including how long Katy stalked her dream client before winning them over), and how she cements quality relationships with journalists. Spoiler alert: they’re just like other relationships - you give what you get!

Katy also gives the lowdown on what thought leadership is and why it’s gold dust for businesses of all shapes and sizes that want to build their profile. 

Plus Katy shared her advice on how to dip your toe into the media space if you’re not comfortable yet, and I got to hear about how she brushed up against a Big Brother controversy early in her career. I know!

For a smart, strategic and extremely well-reasoned approach to PR, Katy Denis is essential listening.

Find Katy online

https://www.linkedin.com/in/katy-denis-7681618/

https://www.extollo.com.au/

Find Odette Barry online

https://www.odetteandco.com.au/hackyourownpr

https://instagram.com/odetteandco

https://instagram.com/hackyourownpr

So you wrote a book - amazing. But the work’s not done yet. How do you get people to write about YOU and what you created? Publicity for books is a topic that Isabelle O’Brien of Allen & Unwin knows inside and out.

Despite swearing she would never go into PR, thanks to her mum’s own career as a book publicist, today Isabelle is the Publicity Manager at Australia’s largest independent publishing house.

I couldn’t wait to hear what this smart cookie had to say about getting media coverage for books, after I worked on the launch of the Farmer cookbook in 2018, a book that portrayed life for Australia’s farmers and also raised money for those living in drought. Having never worked on a book publicity campaign prior to farmer, I knew I got bluddy lucky with the incredible coverage I secured (it really pays to have a great product!).

In this episode Isabelle talks about the ingredients that go into an excellent book pitch, how far out she starts talking to media, and what her process is for researching which outlets might be interested in a book (hint: there’s a bit of social media stalking that goes on here!).

Isabelle also shares her advice for authors feeling nervous about media and introduced me to the term “bookstagrammer”, which sounds like the most fun job in the world but also a super valuable source of influencer love for authors out there.

Find Isabelle online

https://www.instagram.com/isabelleobrien__/

Find Odette Barry online https://www.odetteandco.com.au/hackyourownpr https://instagram.com/odetteandco https://instagram.com/hackyourownpr