How To Land Dr. Phil In Less Than 24 Hours

In March of 2009 Michelle Tennant Nicholson of Wasabi Publicity

, Inc., sat down to speak with Yum Yum Dishes founder Tracy Adler about how to land Dr. Phil and CNN in less than 24 Hours.

Heres the transcript:

Michelle:Okay. Were at the top of the hour, and were gonna go ahead and get started. Today is Wednesday, March 25th. Im Michelle Tennant Nicholson. And thanks for joining us. We have a how-to conversation, sort of like a little lounge atmosphere, where we talk about how to score ink and air time for yourself.

And todays topic is: how to get booked on Dr. Phil. And Ive got with me Tracy Adler, who is the creator of Yum Yum Dishes, and she is all atwitter about Hey. How can you actually get booked on Dr. Phil? I heard that you did that for some other clients, and so I want to know how to do it for me.

And if you dont know who I am, let me introduce myself, so that you kind of get a little idea of who youre speaking to. And we are using a new conference system, so Im not quite sure Im gonna have to ask my team how to suppress everybodys name when they come on.

So everybody will just have to kind of ignore that. Because were probably gonna hear more people logging on. Theyre gonna introduce themselves. And in the future, I promise Ill figure out how to suppress that. But for the time being, lets just kind of include it and let it be and welcome everyone.

(Laughter)

And we will actually do a little bit of a presentation between Tracy and me first, where shes gonna be asking me questions. And then were gonna open it up to others on the line, those of you who have already introduced yourselves, and others.

If you are eating or cooking dinner or lunch in the background youve got the dishes going, and you want to mute yourself, its very easy. You just hit *6 to mute yourself. And to un-mute yourself, you hit *6. Okay?

And if youre listening to this recording, and you have a question for me for the future, at any time you can definitely email me at: michelle@publicityresults.com. If youre in front of your computer right now, too, you can just kind of log on to PublicityResults.com, and then you can kind of see all about Wasabi Publicity and who I am.

And you can also check out my blog in the future. Its StorytellertotheMedia.com. So for sure Im accessible to you if you have questions in the future. Okay?

A little bit about who I am. Ive been doing PR for 20 years. Most of the people know me as my moniker Storyteller to the Media. And Ive really been doing PR even before the Internet. I turn 40 this August, and I really feel 40.

I started placing PR when I was in undergraduate school. And we used a Brother typewriter and a fax machine, and that Brother typewriter only had room for three cover letters. So just a lot has happened in my two decades of doing PR, where now we not only have the Internet under us to _____, but also social networking and lots of other things that Ill get into and how to use that for Dr. Phil and other talk venues that Ive placed, like

Let me just go through a list of some of them. Good Morning America. Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell. CNN. BBC. The Today Show. Oprah. Glenn Beck. Fox and Friends. CBS Early Show. Womens World. Entrepreneur. Parents Magazine. Health Magazine. CNBC. The Associated Press. And I could go on and on and on.

You know when youve been doing this for a few years, you tend to get some friends in the media. So they do come to me as a source regularly, and I just love my job, and I love serving them, and thats really what were gonna be talking about today.

So without any further ado, let me introduce my co-host, Tracy Adler. Hi, Tracy.

Tracy:Hey, Michelle.

Michelle:Tracy is a client of Wasabi Publicity, and also a friend of mine. And Ive asked Tracy to join us today, so that she can actually ask me whats on her mind about Dr. Phil. I thought it would be really valuable for a lot of people, when Im out and about at a coffee shop or whatever, or just at a seminar or whatever and theyre like, Oh, youre a publicist, and you book Oprah and Dr. Phil. How do I do it?

So I thought we would have some authentic questions from people who are really interested in scoring top media for themselves, and then actually ask me: How do you do it? And then Ill answer that in the same call. And I really invite you to share this recording with other people who have similar interests. We will make it available free to everyone at PublicityResults.com. You just have to sign up as a VIP member to actually download it.

And I will also link to it this week from my blog at StorytellertotheMedia.com. But if youre listening in the future, the place to get this recording and our other recordings for free would be in the VIP Membership area of PublicityResults.com. Tracy, welcome.

Tracy:Hey. Thanks, Michelle.

Michelle:Why dont you tell us a little bit about your product, Yum Yum Dishes, so that people actually know kind of the context that youre interested in, in scoring top media.

Tracy:Well, the Yum Yum Dishes are portion-control dishes that I sell for, oh, children, adults, anybody interested in eating smaller portions, that dont necessarily want to give up any of the good foods. And I sell those on the website. And as you know, Michelle, I used to sell those out of my restaurant, which I just recently sold.

And its interesting, because when I was thinking of the questions I wanted to ask you today, some of my questions are related to national PR, in regards to Yum Yum Dishes. But I also, through experience in trying to promote the restaurant a casual, fine dining restaurant just the kinds of things that would come up in trying to get PR I have some questions related to that.

Michelle:Sure.

Tracy:So itll be sort of a mix.

Michelle:Okay.

Tracy:And you mentioned, just a few minutes ago, that over the years over the 20 years you developed relationships with folks in the media. And Im just wondering, first of all I hadnt thought about this until you mentioned it but did you actually know ?

Michelle:Let me just interject there.

Tracy:Sure.

Michelle:Because this is a very casual atmosphere. But if someone actually wants to mute yourself, because youve got a phone ringing in the background, or any other background noise, its simple just to hit *6 to mute yourself. And as the coordinator, I may just go ahead and actually enable that for others. But I want to keep it open, before I do that. So if you find that youve got some background noises, hit *6. Go ahead, Tracy.

(Laughter)

Tracy:Thanks.

Michelle:Thats okay. Youre on a teleconference, and youre like, Oh crap. My phones ringing. Its fine. Thats cool.

Tracy:Im curious. Like right off the top of the bat, did you know somebody at Dr. Phil at the Dr. Phil show? I mean was that a connection that you already had?

Michelle:Dr. Phil Ive been trying to crack that nut for years, I will admit. And so I have not previously had a friendship over at Dr. Phil. No. Did I have contact over at Dr. Phil? Yes. All publicists have access to media databases that we purchase. You know we purchase it from different sources. Theyre also available online. You can go to Dr. Phil and actually see them.

Tracy:Uh-huh.

Michelle:But what I did is I went to my list, that Ive actually purchased and we purchase from Cision.

Tracy:Oh okay.

(Crosstalk)

Michelle:But I also have other you know there are three media lists two online which are sometimes just as good. They might not keep up with all the turnover of the media. Most publicists, doing what I do, will have access to a list. So its not that you need to know somebody.

Tracy:Uh-huh.

Michelle:You know? Like I always say, Its not just who you know; its who knows about you.

Tracy:Uh-huh.

Michelle:So even if I dont have a personal relationship with a producer over at Dr. Phil of course, now I do. Now I can go back to that producer. But if I give them something that they can actually use, theyre gonna pay attention to that.

Tracy:Okay. So what did you send to the Dr. Phil producer to get their attention this particular time?

Michelle:Okay. Well, first what I did is I interviewed the client. Her name is Dr. Jill Murray, and she is a psychotherapist in Orange County, California. And she contacted us it was really interesting like Tuesday evening. Right? I think that was yeah, Tuesday evening. No. Monday evening, the 9th of March, 2009. And she said, Id like to have some PR. Now this is not a typical result.

(Laughter)

I just want everybody to know, it usually takes like a year. You know? It usually takes something. But when you have the factors together, like she did, and like I did with her, you can actually produce a result in short order.

And heres what she had going for her. She contacted me. She said, Ive already been on Oprah once. So right there, shes got the credibility established that all of the other top dogs need. Right?

Tracy:Uh-huh.

Michelle:And then I interviewed her Tuesday morning, the 10th. She signed a contract with us and said, I want you to please do a distribution and pitch to everybody about the breaking news around Rhianna and Chris Brown. And I said, Okay. Great.

So she signed her contract about noon on March 10th. So by 1:00, after my team had processed the contract, I was on the phone interviewing her. And I was actually interviewing her about what I said to her specific things I said, What do you want to say to the public, thats not being said right now with this breaking news?

You know many of us like you, of course, Tracy youre gonna be seeing breaking news around portion control. And youre like, If you had me on Ellen or Oprah, I would say X, Y, Z. Right?

Tracy:Right.

Michelle:All of us who have some kind of expert level at something have that inclination in our gut, like Well, if they asked me, I would say X,Y, Z. You want to write that down, because thats what theyre looking for.

Tracy:Okay.

Michelle:Theyre looking for something fresh and different about that same topic. And thats all I asked Dr. Murray. I said, What are you saying to your friends and associates about Boy, this is what people need.?

And so about Chris Brown and Rhianna, in particular, she had specific things like: how text messaging actually can contribute to domestic violence, how it interplays with that. She had specific information about what it says about Chris Brown, that he attacked her neck and face, which is how she makes her money. You know she had specific things that nobody else is talking about.

Tracy:Hmm.

Michelle:So I interviewed her, and then I kind of reflected on what she said. And all I did was I crafted her three to five messages that were fresh and different, that nobody was saying, and I put them in this nice little sandwich pitch.

And it goes something like this: Hi, Tracy. Blah, blah, blah. I personalize it to all the producers over at Dr. Phil. Because I have their names and numbers and all of that. And if you dont have the names and numbers, you can easily purchase it, hire a PR firm, or research it online for free however you need to do that. Its out there; its public information.

The producers, in particular there were two that I interacted with Stephanie and Annette and I said, Dear Stephanie, Dr. Jill Murray First I answer credibility. So I say, Shes good to go. Shes been on Oprah.

You want to get right to the point. Do you need an expert to talk about Rhianna and Chris Brown breaking news? Number one. So they first know what to do with that information. You have to be very clear what youre talking about. Mabel Chan, over at Good Morning America, told me this year she was like, You know what? I get 1,500 emails in three hours.

Tracy:Geez.

Michelle:Okay? So you know that its upon us, in the subject header and the first sentence thats all they have time to read, is that. So youve got to stand out. Well, how do you stand out? You get to the point, and very succinctly.

I put Rhianna in the subject header, and I say, Dr. Jill Murray blah, blah, blah has three stages of violence, and she has and then these other topics around text messaging, and what it says about Chris about the abuser how he attacks the woman. So do you want ______?

Then it was about her credibility. Shes been on Oprah. Shes been on 20/20. Shes good to go. And then Heres what shell say when she comes on air. Heres what she can discuss. Boom. Boom. Boom.

And then her location. Because its very important for broadcast, in particular. For print, it doesnt matter. They can call you on the phone. Radio, it doesnt matter. They can call you on the phone. But for people who need in-studio, they need to know where you are, and by when you can get to them. So the last part was: Shes based in Orange County, and can be in L.A. at a moments notice.

Tracy:Hmm.

Michelle:And I also said, Shes working as a psychotherapist. But her clients are used to her being in the media, so she can actually handle her schedule quickly. And they called that night. We pushed the distribution to all of our contacts between 3:00 to 6:00. You know it takes us a while to get it out to all the top newsmakers. And then by 8:00 Eastern Time that evening, I had Dr. Phils producers I was actually at a seminar in Charlotte.

But Im very committed to getting back to people in a short time, so I had my assistant she was watching incoming communication, both on phone and email, for me. And I was alerted to leave my seminar, go outside, and help this producer who needed Jill in-studio by Wednesday morning.

Tracy:Hmm. Wow.

Michelle:Thats what I said.

Tracy:Okay.

Michelle:So what I sent was basically an email, a personalized email.

Tracy:Okay. Well, of course youll be totally honest, because youre Michelle. But if she if Dr. Murray has sent that email herself, would it have been as well-received as coming from a publicist? Do you need a publicist? Is that a bonus?

Michelle:I think so. As long as she has those elements. No, I dont think that it matters. And, in fact, sometimes people prefer that they get it directly from the expert. But then others prefer that it comes from a publicist. Its really your call. Okay? If you are using a publicist, it does communicate to the media that you have somebody who is available to them to serve them.

See, it was easier for us to book Jill. Because otherwise, she would have had to wait several hours. Because she was with patients Tuesday night. So I was able to line up everything for her, so that when she because she was on the West Coast. So she was with clients until 7:00, her time, which was like 10:00, our time.

Tracy:Uh-huh.

Michelle:Meanwhile, I had lined everything up.

Tracy:I see.

Michelle:So the plus side of actually using a publicist is that they can reply in short order, when youre out busy doing your work, which is a huge bonus for people. And if your publicist does not respond in a quick fashion, or does not make it a priority to get back to the media in a day or two, you need to fire that publicist. I believe that vehemently. They need to get back to the media when the media needs them.

So you need to ask that, if youre shopping around for a publicist. You need to ask them about how often they check their email, how often they check their voicemail. What do they do on the weekends? You know Oprahs people call Friday night, because theyre setting up the next week. And theyre on Central Time.

And then New York talk shows, like Good Morning America, theyre working through the weekend. So theyre calling on a Saturday. So what are the provisions for after-hours assistance to the media? Its very important that you get back to them. If you sit on something for more than 24 hours, youve lost the opportunity.

Tracy:Okay. So they responded to your email, which was kind of the bait. They were all interested in everything that you had sent. But then what were they looking for after that? What did you have ready for her? Did she have a press kit? Did she have an online press kit? What else? Or was there not enough time for them to really ask you for a bunch of other stuff on her?

Michelle:Thats a great question, and its really something that is also just kind of what you do first. Right? Jill already had her past media clips from Oprah and others already up on the Internet. And thats imperative, for people to really prepare and get ready. You need to have your media clip especially if youre pitching broadcast TV, you need to have TV clips up.

And if youve not yet been on Dr. Phil, try to get on your local TV first. Try to get on cable TV. Just get your broadcast legs, so that you can actually show the top dogs what you can do. You know? I cant tell you how many times Ive been on the phone with people like The Today Show or Good Morning America, and the producers like, Okay. Show me what youve got.

They get so many emails. Right? I need to have an Internet link to share with them right away, and its got to be something that I can mention over the phone, like MichelleTennant.com/thepersons name or whatever. I like to use PressKit247.com, because it is an online press kit switch that I can update while Im on the phone with somebody or while Im working with a new client.

And then I get up all the media clips and everything that I need to get an order. Or their talking points, whatever their news angle their bio, their headshots, whatever I need to present, that would normally, years ago, have been put in a folder and mailed to them. We dont have time for that anymore, in todays media world; its instant.

So youve got to have all your stuff online for them to just and the most important thing is if youve got a book that youve written, you want to make sure that the cover of your book is in a high resolution format, where they can just go on and download it. And its not that Web-ready format.

Thats the only thi

by: Michelle Tennant

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