Andrea Pass – Public Relations is Key

Apr 11, 2022

Season 3 / Episode #62 : Andrea Pass

by Work @ Home RockStar Podcast

The Back-Story

For over 30 years, Andrea Pass has created and implement public relations campaigns in a wide range of categories including consumer products, lifestyle, business-to-business, education, health/wellness/fitness, beauty, food, authors, non-profits and more. Andrea Pass Public Relations has an expertise in national, regional and local media relations outreach. Her strength in relationships coupled with her knowledge of the ever-growing media base results in securing top tier, targeted media placements to increase brand awareness, reputation management and sales for established businesses and growing entrepreneurs alike. Andrea Pass serves on the Board of Directors of the non-profit United Inventors Association (UIA), Workshop Council Chair for The Performance-Driven Marketing Institute (PDMI), and Vice President Membership of the New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners (NJAWBO). She has created the webinar series “Resonate to Revenue.” Pass is also the Founder of a widely successful networking group.

Show Notes

Guest, Andrea Pass is the owner of Andrea pass public relations, and she increases brand awareness using earned media coverage, which means she gets you in the news

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Show Notes:
[0:00] Intro
[0:37] The Good Note – Story of Success
[3:37] The Bad Note – Story of Failure
[10:01] Practice Makes Progress
[20:17] Gathering Fans
[30:02] Keeping the Hat Full
[34:07] Guest Solo

Transcript

Read Transcript

Intro/Outro: Are you a work at home rock star, or do you dream of becoming one? Then you found the right podcast, your host, Tim Melanson talks with successful work at home rock stars to learn their secrets and help you in your journey. Are you ready to rock? Here’s Tim?

Tim Melanson: Hello, and welcome to today’s episode of the work home rockstar podcast.

Today’s guest is Andrea pass. She is the owner of Andrea pass public relations, and she increases brand awareness using earned media coverage, which means she gets you in the news. Very excited to be rocking out today. Hey, are you ready to rock?

Andrea Pass: I am ready to rock.

Tim Melanson: Perfect. So we start off on a good note here.

So tell me a story of success in your business that we can be inspired by.

Andrea Pass: To me, every single press placement for a client is success, but one of my favorites and it was always an interview question. I asked people back in my days that I worked in corporate, what was your placement of a lifetime? And I secured a double segment on ABC 2020 for an, as seen on TV, client of mine and their pitch events and all of their products.

So to have a double segment on ABC 2020 national. It was just a dream come true. So there are so many success stories of being on TV, great magazine and newspaper coverage, wonderful articles in blogs and on podcasts and on radio. And so every day, no matter what the coverage I get for a client that’s success to me,

Tim Melanson: you know?

And isn’t that cool that all the successes that you create are like recorded and stuff that you could go back to.

Andrea Pass: Yeah, there’s a, it’s very interesting because I’ve been in public relations for a long, long time, over 30 years. I like to think of myself as younger than I am, but you know, back in the day you waited for a clipping service to mail you a clip from the newspaper or magazine, or you’d have to run out to a newsstand and see if you can buy something or you’d have to hire a service to get you a TV or an audio.

And then you’d have to wait for it. So there wasn’t that instant gratification to be able to then send it to your client quickly because of the fact that you had to wait and then you had to copy everything and then you had to get everything to your client. And so a lot of stuff really was lost back in those early days.

But today. Everything stays in existence until a blog shuts down, or there’s a technical logical glitch or what have you. But the most important thing today in public relations is making sure all of these articles, quotes, reviews, interviews, appear somewhere online.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And you know, once it’s there, it’s there for a very, very long time, which is good.

Andrea Pass: And I’m happy about that.

Tim Melanson: Do you worry about like getting things taken down that don’t follow brand?

Andrea Pass: Uh, no, because of the fact that I’m on top of every placement and every interview. So I make sure that when someone’s reviewing a product or quoting my client or interviewing my client, they have all of the right information.

And so the client is educated and media trained by me. So they know how to answer the questions the right way. So they’re staying on brand. And quite honestly, if a client does say something slightly, off-brand during an interview, it’s not going to topple their entire brand, but because I am not working with huge corporations, that could make a huge mistake by saying the wrong thing.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Great. Um, well, speaking of mistakes, we all make mistakes from time to time and we all hit bad notes. So along this journey, is there anything that didn’t go quite as planned that we can learn?

Andrea Pass: I think that when I became a solopreneur and I found it, Andrea passed public relations, gosh, almost four years ago, my mistake was not having a well prepared letter of agreement.

And I think that when you’re getting new clients and you want them to sign on the dotted line, you want to make it as simple as possible. And I had one prospective client who was someone I knew from years before he sought me out. And my letter of agreement was probably about nine pages eek he took that to his attorney who red lined it I changed it?

He changed it. The hours the attorney probably spent on this was ridiculous. I didn’t agree with the changes. Needless to say, the client never signed the agreement. We never worked together, but you know, in the end it ends up the product never came out and the client never did the business. He was going to be doing.

So I guess that he was looking for an underlying reason, but now I have a very concise two and a half page, letter of agreement.

Tim Melanson: Good. Yeah. Yeah. I I’ve heard, I’ve had people on the show before talk about, you know, having good letters of agreement, but, uh, this is the first one that’s like scaled it back and made it easier for, because that’s, that’s a lot of the reason why people don’t even have contracts and agreements because it’s just an extra hoop to walk through.

Andrea Pass: And you needed, I mean, if you don’t have yourself covered, then the client can say, oh, nevermind, I’m not paying you goodbye toodle doo and, and so, especially when you’re in a service-based business and in my case, in public relations, it’s not an immediate tangible, so there’s a lot of work that’s happening behind the scenes that you may not see as a client for a few weeks or a few months.

So an ex an example is when you do an interview, You could be doing the interview one day, but the interview may not appear for three months. And so you have to be patient. You have to make sure you understand, but I don’t want that client to not pay me for doing the work, to set up that interview. And so having a contract covers me as the publicist covers the client.

So they know where there is an out clause or where there’s not. And it’s all nice, neat. Tied up with a bow. So I think in business contract is very important for me, lesson learned.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. And actually another thing another big benefit to going through that process is that you do tend to learn a lot while you’re going through the process of creating that agreement or whether when you go through the process of researching what to put in the agreement, next thing you know, you find out, oh, geez.

I didn’t even think that that could happen to me. Okay. Need to keep an eye out for that. Right.

Andrea Pass: Exactly. Exactly. And I think that, you know, another lesson that I learned was I was doing business with someone in Canada and they stiffed me and I kept working because it was a feel-good story. And the guy was giving back to the community and I got so much press and did not get paid.

I lost so much money and so much time that I could have devoted to another client, but am I going to sue someone based in Canada it’ll cost me more money. And so, and so, you know, you learn lessons as a person who works from a home office. A person who is a solo preneur that you don’t necessarily have those people right around you handling those things.

So, you know, I think for every bad note you’ve learned from it, so it becomes a positive,

Tim Melanson: wow. I’m in Canada. So, uh, hopefully you don’t look at us on, on all

of us.

Andrea Pass: No. And, and quite honestly, I need to, if, should I do business. With a client in Canada and I’m actually talking to someone right now from Canada.

I have to make sure there’s something in there that has me covered. So I don’t have to do an international lawsuit. And also I get paid at the beginning of the month and I let this person slide and I should have taken the red flags when you know, I still, he couldn’t pay any. He kept telling me he’s good.

Don’t worry. Don’t worry. I, I, he appealed to my emotions. Because of the client, what the client did. And I think now I know I am paid at the beginning of the month. I won’t work until I am paid for that month. And if I’m not paid for that month, then we have. to figure out what’s going on.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. I do a ton of business internationally and in my work I build websites.

That’s my main business. And, uh, so I have things in place with deposits and all that stuff to make sure that I’m covered for things I could get stiffed. And, you know, every once in awhile, weird stuff happens, but it’s not the same. But one of the things that I will make a point on is that you said something about the heart strings and the, the sob story.

Every time, something weird has happened. There has been a red flag. So, I mean, it is one of those things where, you know, if you follow your gut, you, you probably knew. Right.

Andrea Pass: I did. And I kept thinking, yeah. Yeah. And he, he was a crier and you know, when a man cries you’re on a call and he’s blubbering and he’s got the tissues and he’s a young guy and he had disability and yeah.

Pulled at the heartstrings. But again, lesson learned, I don’t regret any of the press coverage that I secured for him or his story. I think he has a great story. I wish him nothing, but the best. All right, move on lesson learned. Won’t do that again.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. I would, I would probably have taken that as a learning experience and done well, you know, at least at least I know what to do next time.

Right. So good, good on you for that too. Yeah. So now in all this time, you know, you gotta, you gotta get better. You gotta improve at what you’re doing. So I always say practice makes progress instead of practice makes perfect. And I’m wondering how do you approach, you know, getting good at what you do?

Andrea Pass: It’s very interesting because the public relations world has changed so much since I was a baby PR person working for the CBS radio division in New York city. And in those days you’d type a press release. On an electric typewriter and you’d bring it to the printing room and you give them the disc that had all of the mailing addresses, the mailing room would then print it out and mail it out.

And then you’d wait two weeks before you’d start following up with the press and, you know, on the, on the phone, if they didn’t see the press release, you then faxed it to them through the fax room. So, so much has changed since that time, because you, you have. Instant need instant outreach and you want instant gratification.

But I think what has perfected for me in the world of public relations is I know how to research. I always joke and say, I’m a PI in PR I’m a private investigator researching the right media outlet and the right reporter or producer to be in touch with to get the story, to happen so I think that over the years, the perfection or the progress that has been perfected has been that research and recognition that not everyone needs to be on the today show for it to be a successful press campaign.

I was speaking with a prospective client yesterday who said, I want to feature in the wall street journal. Well, he’s not traded on the stock exchange. He doesn’t have a big following. No one knows his name. He’s a CEO of a company that has five employees. He’s not in the billions of dollars in revenue.

And I said to him, if you’re looking for a PR person to lie to you, then don’t look at me. I said, because the wall street journal might quote you on something. They’re not doing a feature on. And so I think the, that practice is that I know how to do the job. I’m not a newbie. I know how to do public relations.

I know how to make the right connections. I know when it’ll work or it won’t work. I know how to formulate a story and a pitch. And I also know when to say this, one’s not working. We have to change our pitch or our approach or the media we’re reaching out to. Uh, and so I think that that is, is a way to hone the craft of public relations, but I think you have to be an effective communicator and effective researcher to be able to get the job done.

And I think that so many people write a pitch and they email blast it and throw spaghetti at the wall and say, all right, I’ll see what sticks. And then they’ll send this list to a client. I pitched all these media. Who cares. They want to know what you’ve succeeded in. They want to know where’s the next interview.

Where’s the next article? What are we working on next? Where’s the feature that, that I was in or the quote I was featured and they’re in touch. I’m in touch with them constantly. Clients don’t go days and days without hearing from me. You know, they hear from me throughout the entire week and that’s an important thing, communication.

So I think that that practice makes perfect practice makes progress. That’s definitely something that I totally agree with you, Tim, you have to keep working at it, but you also have to Zig and zag because the world is constantly changing and you have to change with it, because if you don’t change with it, you’re not going to be successful for your clients.

And I find that all of the clients were Andrea past public relations. know, I’m going to find a way for there to be success for those clients.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and, and you mentioned something big because the world is changing faster and faster and faster as we go along. And so something that might have worked before might not work now. Right. And so

Andrea Pass: 100% a hundred. I have so many clients. Oh, let’s do a PR wire service. They’re so antiquated. Nobody is picking up your press release and writing a feature story on you. Because a press release went over a wire service. It’s going to increase your SEO for a blip for an hour. It’s not worth your money to do a wire service and any PR person that’s convincing you to do that.

They’re probably marking it up so high that they’re making money off of it. Not the way that I work.

Tim Melanson: So how do you keep up on the times then? Or like, are you constantly looking at news or like how, how are you doing it?

Andrea Pass: Yeah, it’s very, it’s very interesting. As a professional and public relations, I do subscribe to a variety of databases that are a starting point.

They are not end all be all because the information they have or reporters or producers is outdated, very outdated, but it’s a starting point. So at least I can get to a starting point through these databases. I subscribed to a lot of newsletters, a lot of private social media groups. And I’m constantly reading, watching, listening.

And that’s how I find things, because I say, wow, this would be a good media outlet for my client. You know, this is a really interesting, you know, magazine. I need to get my client in here or now this podcast is perfect for my client because that audience is going to be interested in what my client has to say.

So it’s a lot of constant homework and learning. Because I’m not going to know every media outlet, no PR person is because there are new ones popping up every day, especially with the influx of homegrown journalists. And so you’ve got to be flexible and you’ve got to be out there and learn things. And every day is an adventure.

Every day, I uncover a new media outlet that I didn’t know about or a new category or what have you. And I’m able to bring that to my clients and secure press coverage for.

Tim Melanson: Wow. So that sounds like a lot of work. I got, how do you manage your time? Because I mean, all of that research is, I mean, it is paying you, but it isn’t directly paying you.

So how do you sort of make the differentiation between like, am I spending too much time researching and not enough time doing the work? Right.

Andrea Pass: I think that they go hand in hand. I mean, my clients pay me on a monthly retainer basis for certain number of hours per month. I always go over that out those hours because I am researching and I’m making sure I have the right information.

And that’s okay with me that works for my business model. So I do spend a lot of time, but I also have understood in all of these years being in public relations that I also need to have a life and I’ve come up with that. Wonderful. Life-work balance. And I love work. If you love what you do. You never worked a day in your life, but I do put life before work because for many years I was strapped to my desk, strapped to my computer, and I was working from seven in the morning until 10 11 at night, weekends vacations.

And that’s not, we need to quality here of our life. And what I do is not finding the cure for COVID. What I do is helping to increase brand awareness by using press coverage, to keep my clients relevant and have other people talking about my clients and patting them on the back instead of my clients doing that for themselves.

So when someone else says something nice about you or interviews you, or reviews your book or your product, that’s giving you third-party editorial endorsement. And so that’s helping my clients able to say, Hey, Tim really liked my product. Or Tim featured my product on, on his show. So that’s a bonus to the clients.

And so I think that I balance my time. Well, I understand when the day has to end and I understand when it’s time to sit down and actually eat dinner at the table.

Tim Melanson: Yep. And that probably took a lot of practice to, to get to that point.

Andrea Pass: I think it took, it took a lot of tears. To be honest, because I was working so much when I would call a client from a vacation and the client would say to me, why are you calling me aren’t you on vacation?

And I’d say, well, my boss called and said, there was this, this and this question. And the client says, I sent you an email. So it was waiting for you when you got back, is he reading your emails? I said, obviously, you know, and the clients were fine with me taking a vacation, but the bully boss. Was not even though he approved the vacation.

And, uh, and so it took a lot of tears and, uh, clients who really cared about me as a person and respected the work that I did for them to increase publicity and PR awareness of them with.

Intro/Outro: Hey rockstars. It’s Tim here. Hope you enjoy this episode. And if you are, feel free to leave us a review while I’ve got you here. I want this to tell you about my business. Creative Crew agency is a one-stop shop for your online business. We provide graphic design websites, ongoing support hosting, and so much more. If you’re looking for a shiny new website or you need some technical help with your current platform, feel free to visit creative crew agency.com and book a time to talk now, back to the show.

Tim Melanson: Wow. So now your business is all about generating fans. So I’m wondering like how do you do it personally for yourself?

Andrea Pass: And it’s a great, a great question. And I consider Andrea past public relations, a client of mine. So by making myself my own client, I spend time on getting my name out there. So, whether it’s being a guest on a show like yours and having a chance to talk about my PR skills, uh, whether it’s getting quoted somewhere, excuse me.

Uh, whether it’s, uh, placing all of these interviews that I’ve done on my social media pages, making sure I’m tagging the media outlets. So they know I really appreciated being featured. Um, and I’m really keeping my name out there by networking and constantly meeting people. And I think that that’s, that’s been the saving grace of this pandemic is all of the wonderful people that we’ve met in a box on a screen.

And, and I think, you know, getting fans and increasing awareness of Andrea Pass public relations. Has really benefited from zoom, networking and meeting people who refer me to other people or people who hear me on a podcast or see that I’m quoted and reach out to me to hire me to do their PR. So, um, I think to, to get fans and to keep fans, you have to stay relevant, you have to be in it to win it. And I know I’m totally, I’m admitting I’m a total dork when I say that, but, but if you’re not out there promoting yourself and you’re not hiring someone else to promote you, how are you going to have fans? So either you do it yourself or you hire an expert and, and those are your two choices.

There is no other choice. If you’re not a big celebrity so that’s what you have to do. If you want to increase your fan base, stay relevant and grow awareness, you know, in, in today’s super crowded world of content.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and you mentioned if you’re a celebrity. Probably all celebrities have a PR person.

Andrea Pass: They don’t, they have a PR team and that team is working on that celebrity alone. So, you know, that celebrity, every move they make is being reported in to. TMZ or whoever else so that there are crowds there. So, and, and these photographers and freelancers, they’re only gonna make money if they get that celebrity photo or that celebrity scoop.

But the average person is not a celebrity. The average business is not Elon Musk. So for you, the person that might have a business, a product, a service, a book. And you might work out of a home office. You’re going to need a public relations person that understands that and does the same as you. So for you to be successful and get that fan base, you have to surround yourself with the right team.

So you want to hire the best website developer, you know, you want to have a good effective website. So that’s what you do. So people should hire you Tim to do their website. And when that website is done and you’re ready to roll and the businesses up and running, then you hire me to do public relations to keep you relevant along the way.

And then you hire a social media pro to be able to take all of this press, use it on social media. All of the press gets featured on the website. So you have an in the news section, that’s up to date. How many times do you go to someone’s in the news section on their website. And it was from 2008.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, exactly.

Andrea Pass: I was on a networking call a few months ago, and a gentleman out of the call say, wait, I have to show you something. And he proceeds to take a picture off the wall from behind him. It was an article written about him in like the 1990s, but I was featured in this article and I said, that’s lovely, but nobody cares. Now you need to be featured again. It might be evergreen information, but if you haven’t been featured since that long ago, it’s not appearing at the top of any website, press coverage can be evergreen and you can use it again and again and again, post it today when it comes out, post it in three weeks, three months, six months it’s content.

People will read it, but one article a gazillion years ago does not a PR program make.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. It’s got to be spaced out and you can’t keep on posting the same article every day, so you need to have a whole bunch of them. Right.

Andrea Pass: Exactly. And, and, and, you know, I, I found a statistic that is probably a little outdated now, but it said that we spend about eleven hours a day absorbing content.

And if you think about it, I mean, we’re absorbing this content. And how many times are you maybe watching a TV show and you’re scrolling on your phone? Or I was actually reading my local newspaper this morning over a cup of coffee, but I was also scrolling on my phone, you know, and I might be reading an article.

Someone sent me, but I might be listening to a podcast in the background. We are the multitasking society. And absorbing all of this content. And so to get those fans, you’ve got to be in the content. You’ve got to be there. You’ve, you know, I have people who say, oh yeah, I don’t really do social media. I don’t need it.

Well then you’re not, you’re not with the program. You need social media and there’s different audiences that you need to have your social media focus on. But if you’re going to be a person in business, you need to have Instagram, Facebook, potentially YouTube, not as much Twitter, but maybe tic Tok. You know, it depends on your audience.

And you’ve got to read that audience and understand that audience, and you need to surround yourself with the right team. And so. It’s important, you know, you know, it’s, they’ve got to have you on their team. They’ve got to have me on their team.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I think the good news is that there is so much opportunity now to get your name out there and to do this stuff, that number one.

You can probably get pretty far doing it on your own. If you do enough research and you figure it out. But definitely if you hire somebody, there’s tons of opportunity for them to find for you. Right. So, you know, it’s, it’s not something that, you know, you’re not sure if you’re going to get a return on investment, you would definitely are going to get your name out there if you hire somebody. Right.

Andrea Pass: Exactly. And, and the thing is, is a lot of times, in fact, all the time, you’re more important if someone else is doing it for you. It’s that perception is reality thing. And if someone else I’m calling on behalf of. Then, then you’re more important and no one needs to know that you are a company of one.

Tim Melanson: Yep. No, absolutely. I, uh, well in, in the music world, so, you know, I’ve, I’ve promoted my music for a very long time and my band and, uh, it is totally different going into an establishment of venue and saying, Hey, you know, uh, I’m awesome. You should hire me versus going in and saying, Hey, I got this great band.

They’re actually really quite good. You should hire them. Totally different conversation. So it is, yeah. When it comes to public relations, when it comes to sales and all that stuff, it is easier to sell somebody else than it is to sell yourself.

Andrea Pass: And it’s also better because it makes you more important. You know, I have people, my people were speaking for me.

Oh, talk to my person. And so on. I’m going to put you in touch with my publicist, the publicist, and then I’m reaching out. And I’m asking the right questions and I’m getting the information. You know, people frequently email my clients directly at the press and I have this great opportunity. I could feature you on this TV show.

They forward it to me. And I say, this is pay for play. This is going to be 25,000 to 30,000 minimum to participate on this. How do you know? I said, I’ll make a phone call, but I know, I know the sign. And I call up and I’ll say, is, is this, is there a fee for this? Oh, just to handle the production, just, you know, for you to run this in the middle of the night, it’s it’s okay.

That’s not benefited my client and they can use that, you know, 20, 30 grand for many other things. And so it’s, it’s not necessarily, but I know what to do. So, so it’s really, it’s really important that if you’re seeing your competitors. Get coverage in the press. That’s the starting point. Google your competitor.

Simple, simple. If your competitor is out there and you’re not out there. Well, you’re making a big mistake and you’re losing potential clients, potential opportunities.

Tim Melanson: So let’s talk a little bit about keeping the hat full and keeping the cashflow positive. So what do you do to make sure that more’s coming in and it’s going out

Andrea Pass: network network.

And so I am constantly meeting people, uh, uh, believe it or not. A lot of my clients come from people who I’ve worked with over the many, many years of my career, because they know my work firsthand and know that I will get the public relations job done. So I’m constantly out there. I’m publicizing Andrea Pass public relations, and many times I’ve secured new business from people hearing me on a podcast.

Or being featured in an article or, or what have you. So I I’m out there because you’ve got to take time to keep that cashflow going and to constantly meet people and to constantly follow up. And I think that for so many people in home-based businesses, they might be juggling a lot. Okay. I don’t have the same situation as others because I’m an empty nester.

My children are out on their own they’re adults. They have their own careers and lives. So I’m not driving children to and from school or having to work, do homework or anything like that. So I do have a different situation because I have the time to devote to following up. And I think that’s the biggest challenge people have.

I was talking to someone who I met through networking a number of years ago, and she and I go to a lot of virtual networking events together. And I said, had you ever talked to, I forgot the name. I said, she says, no. I said you never had a one-on-one with that person. And no, I said, do you follow up after these meetings and schedule, one-on-one get togethers.

I really should do that. If you’re not going to take the time to follow up and schedule one-on-one calls. Um, I have a one-on-one pretty much every single day of the week with someone who I want to get to know better. And I would say 75% of those meetings I’ve initially initiated. Yeah. Because you never know who knows, who knows who, and I think to keep your cashflow going.

In a business, especially a home-based business, you have to constantly meet new people. And, and they tell two friends who tell two friends and so on and so on. And I know that the future is bright. I know for Andrea Pass public relations, I have the availability to take on a few new clients for this year.

Really excited about that opportunity. I I’ve also branched out tremendously representing many, many authors, both non-fiction and fiction. So that’s a lot of fun. I love to read their books first. And then come up with the angles and get them out there. And, and, uh, people who have consumer products, I happen to sit on the board of the United inventors association of America.

And so I need a lot of inventors who have really great consumer products, and I love to be able to do press around consumer products. I work in health and wellness and beauty and travel. And there’s so many categories that I’ve represented clients in. And so by constantly staying in touch, networking, and meeting new people.

You just never know when you’re going to say a buzzword and it’s going to resonate with someone who then says, wait a minute. I know someone I can introduce you to that might have a potential client or themselves be a potential.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, no, that’s, it’s a really great answer. I mean, that’s the whole thing is that you’ve got to keep on working on sales, on the marketing side of it while you’re fulfilling the contracts that you currently have.

Otherwise, once that contract is done, you won’t have anything else to move on to. So, uh, so yeah, very, very good answer. Now, Andrea, it’s time for your guests solo. So you know tell me what’s exciting in your business other than what you just said.

Andrea Pass: Oh, my goodness. Public relations is exciting. The press is exciting.

Andrew PEs public relations for me is very exciting. It’s a dream come true that I didn’t know. I had. That’s the interesting part about, about creating your own business for years, clients said, Andrea, you need to go out on your own, start your own PR firm. And I guess I just had that nervousness and pit in my stomach that, how am I going to do that?

And one thing led to another and the door opened up for me almost four years ago to launch Andrea Pass public relations and I haven’t looked back. So I think that it’s exciting because I’m always learning something new. I don’t have to be an expert in what my client does for a living. I have to be an expert at finding the press to cover that.

And that’s where there’s a difference. You know, someone says, oh, well, can you give me examples of the clients you represented in XYZ category? Doesn’t matter. I don’t need to know every single person in the media. I need to know how to reach them. And anyone who focuses on their relationships in the world we’re in now is losing opportunities because of the fact that so many people leave their jobs.

Media outlets. Let go. A lot of people, there’s a lot of freelancers working and there’s a lot of new media growing. So I think for me, the excitement is who’s going to be that next client. What is their product or service or book, or, or message that they want to get across and I’ll get it across. And I think that’s, what’s really exciting for me.

What’s exciting for me is who’s going to be the next person. That I meet that I work with that I secure press coverage for that. I could be really happy each time. Hey, there’s another interview or there’s another product review or this person’s reviewing your book. Uh it’s, it’s exciting. It’s it’s exciting.

So my, my excitement is the future. My excitement is I love what I do. Don’t plan on retiring, doing nothing. I love PR. So I’m going to continue. To do public relations, meet new people and secure press coverage for a long, long time to come.

Tim Melanson: Love it. So how do we find out more about you then?

Andrea Pass: Well, you could visit my website, Andrea Pass PR, or check me out on Facebook, enter your past public relations or LinkedIn Andrea Pass and connect with me because we can have that conversation.

And I always welcome that opportunity on my website. I do have an appointments calendar schedule. Some time I do offer your, your listeners and viewers, a half-hour complimentary consultation. So we can talk about what do you need and when do you need it? And the answer is you need it today. And I, and I have an author I’m working with and her book is fascinating.

I’m actually waiting for her to hire me. And she says, well, I want to perfect. And I said, the longer you wait, the more business you’re not getting. You’ll perfect. Your message. As you go along the way, but no, one’s paying attention to those little words. They’re paying attention to the bigger picture. So today is the day to get press coverage and to start PR.

For your business because there’s something new happening every day. There’s a new opportunity to tie something in whether it’s a holiday or a graduation or a birthday or a back to school or summertime or wintertime, or, you know, spring clean all year long. There are angles to work you and your business into that angle.

So reach out to Andrea Pass pr.com. Or check me out on Facebook, Andrea pass public relations, send me a private message or message me on LinkedIn. And, and let’s talk let’s, let’s spend some time and I’ll explain to you how it happens and how we can start.

Tim Melanson: Awesome.

Thank you so much for rocking out with me today, Andrea, this has been a lot of fun.

Andrea Pass: Thank you so much, Tim. This has been terrific and rock on

Tim Melanson: exactly to the listeners. Make sure you subscribe, rate and comment. We’ll see you next time on the work at home rockstar podcast.

Intro/Outro: Thanks for listening to learn how you can become a work at home rock star or become a better one, head on over to workathomerockstar.com today.

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