KO Your Brand

Katrina Owens (00:00.974)
What's up guys, welcome to another episode of KO Your Brand pulling punches, quick actionable takeaways, gripes, hot takes. And today I, oh my God, I am so excited to do this. I have been wanting to do this. We are going to do a live pitch review.

Katrina Owens (00:28.302)
So this is something that I was waiting to be able to do. I did not know that it was going to happen this quickly, but one of the things that I freaking love doing is analyzing, reviewing pitches and telling you exactly why they won't work so you can stop making the same mistakes because I'm all about building strong pitches. I was gonna say.

building strong pitches and bad bitches. I think that's a, my God. Heather, we gotta make that a graphic. You can leave this part in. You don't have to edit it out. Okay, so today what I wanna do, I woke up this morning and I received a terrible pitch, a terrible pitch. It's an agency pitching their client to be on my podcast, which was a moment where I'm like, my God, I made it. But.

There are a couple of key things that this agency, this publicist, this cold outreach specialist, whatever she's calling herself, there are some key things that she did wrong and I wanna unpack them here with all of you. So first I gotta read it to you. So I'm obviously going to redact any of the personal identifiers, but obviously to keep this interesting, I gotta tell you like some of the juicy bits. So.

Let's kick it off. I will read you this email. It says, Hi Katrina, I hope this email finds you well. I wanted to introduce you to, let's call her Sally, senior vice president and head of.

So.

Katrina Owens (02:17.995)
Okay, Heather, you can edit out that first part. I'm gonna try it again. just want to make sure I'm redacting parts. Okay. Okay, I'm going back in.

Hi Katrina, I hope this email finds you well. I wanted to introduce you to, let's call her Sally, senior vice president and head of PR at XYZ Company and a potential guest. With over two decades of experience working on high profile accounts, she goes on to list some actually major brands based out of the US.

Sally is a seasoned PR executive who has consistently shaped cultural conversations across entertainment, consumer brands, and nonprofits. Sally's impressive career includes launching hit series like, she goes on to name a couple incredible TV shows, as well as spearheading social impact campaigns on some very notable networks.

She's a master at connecting brands with culture and audiences through creative, strategic storytelling. In a potential interview, Sally could discuss insights into launching high profile campaigns that break through the noise, her approach to shaping conversations that align with cultural moments, trends in entertainment and consumer PR that are redefining the industry, personal anecdotes and lessons from managing iconic campaigns.

Let me know if you'd be interested in featuring Sally on an upcoming episode and I'd be happy to coordinate a time that works for you. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Should I send her my thoughts? Nah, I can't do that. That'd be too. We're gonna, I'm just gonna share all my thoughts here instead. So here are a couple things I have for this publicist who funnily enough, like looks very familiar to me. She has her photo in the...

Katrina Owens (04:21.505)
in her signature and I'm like, I feel like I was seeing you before a girlfriend. Okay, so let me tell you a couple of things wrong with this pitch and why it was a hell no for me and it's probably a hell no from others. honestly, the fact that this pitch is on behalf of a PR executive also kind of blows my mind because this PR executive should in theory know better, judging by how much experience she has,

People might tell me I'm a bit ageist, but there is a big divide between like traditional public relations and what I like to call modern PR. And I hate to say this, this is where people might come for me. I do not feel like those who thrived and built amazing PR firms during the rise of traditional PR, they do not understand modern PR.

I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but this is what I see all the time. Okay, so let's dive into the top three things that are wrong with this pitch. So to start, this podcast is way too fucking small for a woman that has this much experience. So I know I redacted and I didn't mention the actual experience she has, what brands she's worked with, but that's all included in this email. This is a woman who's worked at

some very notable companies in a high level position and has worked on some incredible campaigns. mean, KO your brand is a big deal to me. And at the time of this recording, we've had like 60 downloads and like 12 subscribers. I'm recording this in my second week post launch, just for tax. But this woman has so much experience, she needs to be on a higher level podcast.

And by the way, this publicist actually does not mention the name of my podcast in this email at all. So I'm not sure that she even researched my podcast. Because if she did, she would also know that I'm not accepting guests. We talked about this in another Pulling Punches episode. If a show does not...

Katrina Owens (06:41.117)
actually state that they are looking for guests at that time, please do not pitch yourself or you know, a client. Read the room, read the content. I'm clearly not accepting guests at this time. If I am, you'll know.

The other thing that goes terribly wrong in this pitch is that although this publicist has given me a couple different potential talking points for this guest, they are all way too broad. This woman has some incredible experience. I'm sure there is one particular topic that she could be recognized as an expert on.

but there was far too much information at the beginning just to show me that she was a credible expert. And then the publicist goes on to give me four different points that she could speak on. And also by the way, I'm a public relations for personal brands expert and nowhere in this pitch does the publicist mention that.

Katrina Owens (07:50.742)
And that right there is the problem. This woman would see zero benefit from going on my podcast. Actually, in all honesty, I should have this woman on my podcast because I actually think it would be better for my show than her brand. And I actually thought about that. I thought to myself, maybe I should have this woman on because she's worked with some big names and...

Maybe that could raise the profile of my brand. But that's just not a road I wanna go down. I know that I can continue to raise the profile of KO your brand, Knockout Directive, and myself, Katrina Owens, all on my own. I do not need to align myself with certain guests or other experts to be able to see that rise. I know it comes from me. And I was like, honestly, I...

I actually don't even want this pitch to win. I don't want this publicist to think that this pitch is a winning pitch, because it's not. And if I was to say yes to this pitch, even if it came from a selfish place, I would be endorsing the fact that, this pitch actually worked, but for not the right reasons. And I've watched enough of The Bachelor to know when I'm here for the right reasons, okay?

Katrina Owens (09:13.931)
And finally, there's one other thing that actually really bothers me about this pitch. The last point. So this publicist gives me four different points. Okay. I read them to you. they're basically like, in a potential interview, Julie could discuss insights into launching high profile campaigns that break through the noise. Pretty generic, not specific enough. Number two.

her approach to shaping conversations that align with cultural moments. Still a lot of buzzwords. Trends in entertainment and consumer PR that are redefining the industry. Trends in entertainment and consumer PR? Far too broad. What is this woman actually an expert in? And finally, this is the one that gets me. Personal anecdotes and lessons from managing iconic campaigns.

Katrina Owens (10:10.175)
You think that my podcast is the place for your personal anecdotes? No, it's the place for my personal anecdotes. You want to share your own personal anecdotes, that's for your own platform, If you're coming on to a podcast or you're pitching yourself to a publication or you want to speak at an event, your personal anecdotes must still provide value. But nowhere in this pitch

does this publicist actually tell me how this person would be providing value by being on my show? And that's why I'm punches today, okay? Because we cannot be sending pitches like that. And worst of all, we should not be paying people to send pitches like this. I have to imagine this woman who is a PR executive herself, by the way.

who has hired an external PR team to pitch on her behalf.

I wish she knew just how much time and money she was wasting. And this is why I believe that you can do PR yourself. If this woman, let's flip the script, okay? If this woman, this very talented, experienced professional reached out to me to form a relationship with me, maybe she found me on LinkedIn and saw what I was doing and wanted to chat and learn more and exchange ideas.

Maybe she reached out and yeah, maybe she does really want to be on my podcast, but she's got to form the relationship first. And none of that is happening here. I always say, take me out for dinner first. You got to like warm me up. You got to like, you know, take me out for dinner. Like words of affirmation is my love language. You got to set the tone before you just come out here pitching.

Katrina Owens (12:12.269)
So that's the problem with this pitch is there's no relationship. Once again, we are seeing someone who is looking for an opportunity and they've hired someone to go out there and get the opportunities, but in the totally wrong way.

So that's that. So what are the key takeaways as you go out and work on your own pitches? Whether you're pitching yourself to podcasts, speaking gigs, whatever it is, I'm gonna give you the three biggest takeaways from this pitch so you don't make them say mistakes yourself. Okay, so the first one, do not give somebody four different topics that you can speak on. Pick one. Pick the one thing that you wanna be known for, that you wanna be an expert on.

and that is your pitch. And you're gonna get so good at sending that pitch that it won't matter if you give people three or four different topics. You just need one. It's so much more effective. Number two, form a freaking relationship first. Before you start pitching out of the blue, you need to do your research on people. Do your research on the podcast or publication or event that you're pitching to.

Know if you're at right fit, know that the opportunity you're pitching for is actually looking for people like you. Know all of those things before you go out there and do it and send that pitch and maybe end up embarrassing yourself.

Katrina Owens (13:45.142)
Number three, do your fucking PR yourself, you guys. That's what I'm here for. That's what I'm here to teach you. You can do it yourself. Stop wasting your money on agencies and publicists that are sending these types of pitches that go immediately into the trash bin. The only reason why this email didn't get immediately deleted was because I knew it was going to make a great podcast episode and also a great piece of content on Instagram. So with that, that is pulling punches.

That's it for today. I'm going to see you next week. Please rate and review this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, follow Knockout Directive and KO your brand on Instagram. And with that, I will see you next week.