How to Dominate the Media Without a Publicist with Erin Palinski

Transcription

Healthpreneurs, what’s up? Yuri here. Welcome back to another great episode of the Healthpreneur Podcast.

I’m pumped. It’s a cold January day, but it’s all good. You know why? Because I’m here with you, you’re here with me, and we’ve got another great guest on today’s show.

Now, if you missed the last episode, be sure to listen to that afterwards. We had a great conversation with nutritionist extraordinaire Brett Hawes, and he shared how he merged his offline clinic with his online practice and all that cool stuff. So be sure to check that out, if you haven’t already.

Today, we are speaking with Erin Palinski, who is a dietitian and diabetes educator. She has authored four books, served as a consultant to multiple global brands and is a sought-after media source and keynote speaker.

She currently juggles her time between her private practice and media work, writing, speaking and being a mom of two young boys. She’s written several bestselling books, including The 2-Day Diabetes Diet, which was published with Reader’s Digest, and she’s also working on a new book with Prevention Magazine which will be released a little bit later this coming year. She’s been on The CBS Early Show, The Doctors, and the Dr. Oz Show.

What we’re going to talk about in this episode is going to be extremely valuable, in the sense of really garnering and capturing as much credibility from the media as possible without using a publicist. Now, a little while ago, we had my previous publicist Nicole Dunn on, and she showed us how we can approach the media with or without a publicist, in terms of what to think about and putting ourselves in the producer’s shoes.

Today, we’re going to just further that conversation, and what’s cool about Erin is that she’s done all of this without a PR firm. She’s going to show you exactly what she did to manually outreach—how you find these people, how you can act with them, how you get them excited to have them on your show or publish your stuff in their magazines.

This is going to be extremely valuable for you—so, again, grab a piece of paper, a pen. As long as you’re not driving obviously, get ready to take some notes. With that said, let’s bring Erin on to the show and let’s just get in, all right? Let’s get in to it.

Yuri:                Erin, welcome to the Healthpreneur Podcast! How’s it going?

Erin:                Great! Thank you so much for having me. I’m thrilled to be here

Yuri:                Yeah, it’s a lot fun. I always love speaking with other entrepreneurs. That’s one of the reasons that I started the podcast, because I’ve always been happy to pay for better friends. And that’s why I join different masterminds and groups, and I think that’s why I’ve started this podcast is just to connect with people like yourself who are doing great things, have cool conversations and inspire our listeners to what’s possible with their expertise with health, fitness and wellness, so I’m pumped to dive in.

Erin:                Me, too, and I love that mission. I’m so excited.

Yuri:                Yeah. Thank you very much.

So, you’ve been at this for a while, and recently you’ve become pretty well-known for helping other health experts leverage the media. You’ve been on Dr. Oz, you’ve been on some big shows.

Talk to us about that journey—how did that even happen? How did you get so much exposure with your work?

Erin’s journey through her practice, writing books, and getting into the media

Erin:                Sure. It’s really an interesting journey. I had started out, and I knew I always wanted to go into business for myself.

So, when I first became a dietitian, I started a private practice. And I really started to reach out to the media with the sole focus of bringing more clients in the door—just establishing myself as an expert in my area of nutrition and getting more people to come in.

I really didn’t understand the media world at all. I just started to reach out locally and then on a regional scale to drive more clients, and it just started to snowball a bit. Once I was doing a little bit of local news, then more national reporters were reaching out and, before I knew it, I had opportunities to do some national broadcasts. It helped that I’m in New Jersey, so I’m close to the New York metropolitan area.

It was more putting my name out there, getting noticed, being quoted on topics that were timely and having those people identify me and ask me to be interviewed on these larger stages and these bigger media outlets.

What happened for me was that, once I started to do this media work, I really had no idea in my head. I was just thinking, “Oh, a few more people will see my name. They’ll think I’m credible, and they’ll come in the door.”

I really didn’t expect it to have this profound impact on my business, and it really opened up so many more opportunities, so many more revenue streams. And it really helped me with my mission, which was to put my message of nutrition and health promotion out there to a larger audiences versus just in my own practice.

Seeing the value in that, I really have made it my mission now to help other healthcare professionals break into the media so that they can have that same benefit and help a wider audience as well.

 Yuri:                That’s pretty cool. Because a lot of people might use the excuse of, “Oh, I don’t know so-and-so. I’m never going to get on that show,” or never get featured on this website or magazine.

You mentioned giving them timely news and really kind of approaching things intelligently. How did you figure this game out? Were there any kind of trial and error or were there any kind of mentors or books you read? How did you figure this media thing out?

 Media coverage: starting out on your own

Erin:                Yeah, so a lot of trial and error, which is why I now have made it my mission to help others, so they don’t have to go through that whole crazy path.

But a lot of it was consistency. I’m a list person, so I’d be making lists. These are my top media outlets I want to connect with, and I would try to find the reporter that works there, the producer, what type of stories they typically run, where I can fold in my expertise and how I can hook it to something that’s happening in the news today.

I will do that and reach out and be consistent about it. It didn’t always pan out. I would say a lot of times I was pitching and pitching, and if they even got back to me to say, “No, we’re not interested,” I considered that a win because they opened my email.

 Yuri:                That’s great.

 Erin:                I’m like, “Yes, they at least rejected me versus ignored me!”

It was just trying to build that credibility. And what I really found was, sometimes it would be kind of convoluted. Like, you would get a placement in a print magazine and you’d be pitching to producers and nothing was happening … But, all of a sudden, they would see your name in an article.

For instance, I was interviewed for Consumer Reports and when I landed my first national broadcast, which was with the CBS Early Show, they had seen my interview in Consumer Reports. That’s how they got my name and asked me to be on the show.

A lot of times, it was just kind of a backwards way of entry, but anywhere you got your name out, you never knew who exactly was going to see that and connect with you.

Yuri:                Yeah, that is so awesome, and I just want to rewind for a second. You said, “I did the research. I found the editors, the writers, the producers, figured out what the kind of stuff they’re already talking about and written about and spoken about,” and then you kind of took your secret sauce, tied it in with some timely news bits and some stuff that might be more current.

Anyone can do that.

There’s nothing proprietary about that, that would stop someone from doing it, but very few people do that and that’s amazing. So, I just want to thank you for being awesome, for actually doing the work …

Erin:                Thank you.

Yuri:                … Because people are always saying, “Hey, I need a PR person or a publicist.” You can go that route, but sometimes it’s just a matter of being resourceful, and I think you’re a great example of doing that.

Erin:                Thank you, and it’s so true. I mean, yes, a PR firm can be helpful, but for me, as a solo entrepreneur first and in the nutrition practice, I wasn’t making a ton of money.

I didn’t have thousands and thousands of dollars to put out for PR that may or may not land anything, but I did have the ability to stay up a little bit later, craft some emails and really be persistent.

Yuri:                That’s awesome. You had your practice. You’re seeing patients in the clinic on the nutrition side. What was the thinking of like, “Yeah, I want to get on shows,” or get featured in different magazines and publications, as opposed to spending your energy doing YouTube or creating a big blog or podcast or different avenues?

Was there like a light bulb moment for you that you just said, “This is the way to do it?”

Erin:                This was 10 years ago, so I think the biggest thing was that social media wasn’t as relevant as it is today. I think that’s why. Because I was seeing more of the push towards the traditional media.

I will say my view has shifted a bit in the last few years, so I absolutely have been focusing a lot of my time now to build up those social media platforms and to build up the blog and the traffic because I see a big value in that. And even from a consumer audience, many of them are turning online for their information and prefer that versus the face-to-face or the traditional media, so I definitely think it’s important to build up that area, too.

Yuri:                Yeah, that’s great.

Knowing what you know now and having experienced this whole journey, if you were to start all over again, would you do anything differently or would you still go after the media in the way that you did—without … let’s say with today’s technology at your fingertips?

Erin:                Yeah, I think I would have started earlier.

There was a few years where I was just plugging away at the private practice, working one-on-one with people and just putting in long, long days and long hours. It’s a missed opportunity. I didn’t start to focus on the social media and the traditional media sooner, so I definitely think, if I was doing it from day one, I would have started that outreach right away.

Knowing what’s available today, the other thing I would say is, I think it’s so important to really build that audience, build your credibility and that trust factor. And the only way to do that is to share more about you and give away free content via all these amazing social media platforms.

I’m always sharing recipes on Instagram. I’m trying to do more Facebook live and really engage with the audience that way, because that’s the only way you’re going to stand out from the crowd and build trust with the audience, too.

Yuri:                That’s awesome. For everyone listening—I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but like every single guest had said the same thing—it’s just to provide value, add value, do what you do and just put it out there and be consistent with it.

I’ve had this conversation with so many different entrepreneurs. There’s no magic pill. There’s no overnight success. You’d just have to do it day in and day out, and that’s how you stand out, and that’s so cool.

 Erin:                Exactly. Yeah.

Books, books, books

Yuri:                You’ve written four books. This is during the time where, obviously, you were working in the clinic. Why did you want to write a book? What was the impetus for doing that?

 Erin:                I think one of my bucket list things was always to be a published author. I just always had that goal. I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to write, but I always knew that would be a goal.

Once I started to build my practice and I was working with clients one-on-one, it kind of starts to be like a broken record. Everybody has a similar problem. It’s just presented in a bit of a different way, so you’re giving them the same information over and over.

In my head, I was like, “Man, you know, if I could just write this down and point them as a reference, I could give them this education in person but then provide them with something they can take home or a resource that they can reference to have those ideas repeated and help them be more successful, that would be phenomenal.”

When the opportunity came about to write a book, I took it. And my very first book was Belly Fat Diet For Dummies. So, with belly fat, we all think about that as something we want to get rid of for vanity reasons, but it’s really a huge deficit.

When we look at too much belly fat, it increases diabetes risk and heart disease risk—and that’s the population I work with, pre-diabetes and diabetes. So, having the opportunity to write on that topic was huge because it was the same thing I was telling my clients, but I was able to give them this resource and also give it out to more people who couldn’t necessarily work with me one-on-one.

Yuri:                That’s smart. How did writing the book or the books change your business?

The credibility factor

Erin:                I think there’s a big credibility factor when you’re a published author. I didn’t necessarily become smarter because I wrote a book, but I find that looking at other health professionals who might be referring to me, there was an added layer of credibility.

Event planners, businesses that wanted to work with me or bring me on as a speaker—they were looking for someone who was a published author because they could give out that book to their audience and have that takeaway message that could go home with them.

I found that as soon as that book was published, the additional revenue stream and that additional exposure really took off. Because even producers and journalists, they wanted to have that byline when they were interviewing me to say not just, “Here’s Erin, who’s a generic dietitian,” like, “Here’s Erin, a published author. This is her book. This is where you can get it.”

I think it made it easier for me to continue to break into the media and grow my business as a whole from publishing that first book.

Yuri:                Yeah, that’s smart. There’s a lot of dietitians. Not all of them are authors and not even a few of them are published authors, so it’s just another kind of credibility factor that helps you stand out above a lot of the noise, which is pretty cool.

If you were to sit down with a dietitian or someone who wants to write a book in the field of nutrition, what advice would you give them? Let’s just say they want to write a published book.

What advice would you give them based on your experience—some of the mistakes to avoid, some of the things to look out for and maybe some words of encouragement?

Erin’s advice for other entrepreneurs

Erin:                Yeah, I think you really have to have two things clear.

You have to know who the ideal audience is. Who’s going to read that book? Keep that person in mind when you do everything because, if you want to publish a book and you want to go through a publishing house and have a literary agent take notice and sell your book idea, you have to have a platform.

You have to have some form of either traditional media presence or a big social media following. Or, you’re doing a lot of speaking on a large circuit where they know that they’re going to get sales.

So, you really have to think about, “Who’s my audience? How can I reach out to them, whether it be social media or traditional media, and get them behind me so that when I do make this book, I know automatically they’re going to want it, they’re going to want to buy it, and it’s going to be helping them.”

Yuri:                That’s important. It’s funny, because a lot of people I’ve spoken to in our space are like, “I’ve got this amazing book,” and I’m like, “That’s great. Well, what is your platform? Do you have an email list? Do you have a social following?” because, the publishers, that’s all they care about really.

They want to see that you can sell books. So I think it’s smart what you’re saying.

You’re just going back to day one, kind of building up all that media exposure and really building that snowball, so, by the time you can approach a publisher or they approach you, you have stuff to bring to the table. That gives you a bit more bargaining power with what you want, so that’s pretty cool.

So, over the next year, what are you excited about? What are you bringing to fruition?

Erin:                Yeah, so, this year seems like it’s going to be an exciting year.

I’m working on a project that’s coming out with the editors of Prevention Magazine that’s called Love Your Age. It’s a push, in general, to get away from that diet mentality or focusing on the number, and instead really embracing your body, nourishing it, focusing on health and being your best self versus defining yourself by the number on the scale.

I’m really excited about that project, and that’s my consumer focus for the next year.

Then, I’ve been working with my business partner, Amy Gorin, on building out our E-course for healthcare professionals to really guide them in their journey and get them to understand how to break into the news and leverage that to increase those revenue streams in their platform. So, I’m really excited about both of those things in the coming year.

 Yuri:                That’s awesome, and do you have a URL for that right now, because I want to be sure we linked up to that in the show notes?

Erin:                Yes, thank you so much. It’s masterthemedia.co

Yuri:                That’s a good name, masterthemedia. So, masterthemedia.co. Guys, we’ll be sure to link up to that in the show notes as well.

Were you going to say something there, Erin? I just cut you off a little bit.

Erin:                Oh, no. No. I just wanted to say thank you so much for sharing that. I’m so excited about that project.

It’s funny, because I’ve always been passionate about helping the consumer audience, but now, with the healthcare professionals and seeing how it can add value to their business and help them to spread their own messages wider … It’s like my newfound passion, so I’m really excited.

 Yuri:                Yeah, it’s awesome. It’s a lot of fun.

When you look at these healthcare practitioners and professionals coming into the Master  The Media world and if you were to just look through some of the stuff they’re doing or if they’re asking you questions about ideas that they had—what would be some alarms?

Like, “This person is totally off the path here. Let’s kind of give them advice to come back on a path to actually get booked on a show.” What are some mistakes that you see people make when they’re approaching the media for something they’re pitching?

Erin:                Yeah, so that’s a great question, and I see this a lot when I do things. When I’m writing a story as a journalist myself and connecting with the sources and even from the students in our course as they transition, one of the biggest things I think is just being too generic.

In any field, but especially in the nutrition field, you can’t be great at everything. There’s so many various areas of nutrition that you can’t just be this general vanilla nutritionist that covers everything.

You really have to be specific. The more specific you can be, the better it is when you’re reaching out to the media because it makes you unique. It makes you stand out from the crowd.

A lot of people are scared to do that because they think, “If I’m too specific, it’s really limiting my ability to reach out and not many people are going to want to connect with me,” but, instead, you can really master that niche and really be the person that owns that particular area of the nutrition space or any healthcare space.

You’ll find that the media is just really knocking down your door because there’s no one else that has that same level of expertise.

Yuri:                Yeah, that’s really good advice. I think just for business in general, you’re better off going niche than going broad.

But also, with the media, they like soundbites. Right? If you call yourself the weight loss wizard, that’s easy for them to grasp, instead of saying like, “I help people lose weight,” and do this and that. So it’s really good advice. It’s great.

What might be something else? Let’s say they have their niche narrowed down and they’re approaching the media with a specific idea. What are some common pitfalls that people make when they’re reaching out?

Erin:    Yeah, whoever you’re reaching out to, whether it’s a journalist, whether it’s a producer, you have to put yourself in their shoes. What are they trying to do? How are you going to add value to their day?

A producer is getting bombarded with pitches. They’re incredibly busy. They’re trying to figure out what’s going to work for their audience, what their audience is going to tune into, so you can’t just throw out this random pitch that might sound good to ten shows.

You really have to do your research.

If it’s a TV show, DVR it. Watch it. See what kind of segments they run. Are they tabletop segments with props? Are they sit-down interviews? Are they controversial? Make sure when you’re crafting your pitch that it is very specific to that show.

I think some people make these generic pitches and then they just send them out like a press release to everybody and hope they land, and nobody responds because it’s not specific enough to one show where it’s really helpful.

Yuri:                That’s really good. Smart.

I think, at the end of the day, it’s just human to human relationship. If you sent a broadcast email to a thousand people, you’re not going to get the same responses as if you personally sent an email saying, “Hey, Erin, hope the kids are doing well. What’s new?”

That’s always going to get a better response, and I think the same thing is going to happen with the media as you mentioned.

 Erin:                Right, and I know myself, and I’m sure you see it, too—if it’s somebody who doesn’t know anything about you, you don’t really feel like they’re going to add value and it might even annoy you a bit.

So, if you do your research, see what stories they’ve run, maybe you present it with, “Hey, I love the story you recently did, and I can see myself being a good fit in X, Y and Z,” it’s a great way to start that conversation.

Yuri:                Yeah. That’s really good. Speaking of that, I actually had an email a little while ago from somebody—and this is so good, I had to repost it on Facebook.

It was, “Hey, you know, I really love your work,” and then it was like “[insert thing here].”

Erin:                Oh my God.

 Yuri:                I was like, “This is so classic. I’m going to put it up on Facebook.”

I’m like, “This is the problem. This is the problem, guys.” You cannot … I don’t know. It was just hilarious, so please avoid making that mistake.

Erin:                Yes. I know. I get emails all the time like, “Hey, Eric.” I’m like, “Yeah? I’m not a boy.” That’s not my name.

Yuri:                So, looking back over your last 10 year or so in business, what would you say is a lesson you had learned the hard way, and how can you help others avoid that mistake?

Erin:                Yeah, I think the biggest lesson is that—and this probably goes for any entrepreneur—we always have these great ideas and we’re always thinking, “Oh, this would be amazing,” or, “That would be amazing,” and you can really start to be like a pinball where you’re going from idea to idea and not really accomplishing anything…

I think you just have to take a step back and set specific goals for yourself. Work on one project at a time and have that end vision in sight, but don’t let yourself get side-railed to every new opportunity or every new idea because then you’re just spinning your wheels and you’re constantly sort of creating something, but you’re never creating something great. You’re never making progress.

 Yuri:                What’s worked for you to stay focused on one thing at a time?

Lists

Erin:                I’m a list person, so I have this Word doc that I keep every day and I kind of make today’s list of all the things I need to get accomplished—which never actually all gets accomplished, but at least I get to cut a few things down. And then I just tack on the rest to the next day.

But then I have my short term goals, “What do I want to accomplish at the end of this month? At the end of the quarter? What does my long term goal and outreach for the year look like?” so that I’m always keeping those end goals in sight.

Even when I started with the media, I knew long term it was going to lead to a bigger platform, book opportunities, increased revenue potential, bigger clients and a bigger practice … But doing it, it’s a lot of grunt work that you don’t get paid for.

And I know my husband would think I was absolutely insane leaving the house at 4:00 a.m. with all my food props, walking through the Port Authority with this giant Tupperware. He’s like, “What are you doing?”

It’s valuable because you’d have to pay so much for that same exposure when you’re asked on as an expert, so you have to have the end goal in sight because otherwise, you might not want to put in that unpaid work up front. But it definitely pays off in the end.

So, I like to look at the goals and just do it list-by-list each day.

 Yuri:                Sweet. Yeah, lists are good. They’re good.

 Erin:                Yep.

 Yuri:                It’s amazing how everyone has their own system. Right?

I like writing stuff down. Other people like using the digital stuff. You’ve just got to find your thing. I think that’s what matters most, but, yeah, that’s great advice.

What do you think is the number one skill entrepreneurs need to have for lasting success?

Erin:                That’s a great question. I honestly think you have to be a really good communicator on numerous levels.

You have to be a really good communicator to your ideal audience. So, when you’re doing anything, whether you’re selling a new product, putting together your website, you really have to be clear in what that call to action is to the person you’re ultimately hoping is going to buy from you or do business with you.

I think it’s also really important that you’re communicating with those around you and that you network. And not just to another person specifically in the healthcare field, but look at people that are selling in various areas of business you want to be better at.

In the beginning, I always tried to do everything myself and just thought that was the way to do it, but when I really started to branch out and network with others and learn from other people, it made a world of difference.

Because I’m not going to know everything and I’m never going to be able to fine tune everything if I don’t have any help and learn from others , so I think that’s a really important benefit.

Yuri:                Yeah, that’s awesome. What advice would you give to other dietitians or maybe even practitioners in an office, as they’re starting to build more of their presence online?

Maybe they’re writing a book. Maybe they’re trying to do a little bit of virtual, a little bit of offline. For you, what are some of the initial things you outsourced to give yourself more freedom to pursue the book writing, to do the other things?

Erin:                Yes, so that’s a great question, because that’s something you really struggle with and I think a lot of us are the same especially in business for yourself. Like, I’m a type A personality, so I feel like if I give something to someone else, it’s not going to be done the exact same way I need it done.

 Yuri:                Never.

 Erin:                Yes, so I have to let go of that perfectionism thing, and just feel like it’s good enough.

Especially with the social media, obviously you want to craft your own messaging, but it’s so important to be consistent with social media and be posting consistently. Even if you did a media placement, sharing it and letting people know what you’re doing.

I find that, if I can outsource, I create the actual content. The outsourcing is someone who’s going to help schedule or post it or organize it or blog-post format it—those are all the little things that you don’t have to be doing yourself. That’s not really a unique skill.

The unique skill is you forming the copy or you writing the piece. I try to do the things that I know only I can do correctly, and then the other things, really find the person to hook up with that I can trust, that I can outsource it with.

 Yuri:                It’s great. Great advice.

What would you say your superpower is, when you look at it? What are the one or two things that you do best that no one else can touch, and everything else you’d be happy to get off your plate?

Outsourcing and kids (but not outsourcing your kids!)

 Erin:                I think knowing my audience and speaking to them, I don’t think I could give that to somebody else.

If I’m crafting a blog post or I’m working on a pitch, I want to have my hands in it because I know how I want that message to translate and I know who I’m trying to speak to. It would be really hard to translate that to someone else.

But I’m terrible at the proofreading part of it. I can get the message down there, but it’s really good to have a second set of eyes or someone that can help me out in the proofreading part to make sure that I didn’t miss anything.

I’m more of a person that is very productive. I can work fast, but I also am not the person that likes to go back and nitpick my own work. I can get it done, but I need to have somebody on my team that’s going to oversee it and just fine-tune it so I’m not making little grammatical mistakes and whatnot.

Yuri:                Cool. I’m the same way.

It’s funny, I actually have an article that’s supposed to be published on a huge site, and it’s been seven months in the editing process, and I don’t even want to touch it. I don’t even want to touch it anymore.

And it’s the type of article that I can’t have an editor do because there’s a lot of things I need to have input in from my business. I’m like, “Oh, man, I’ve just got to bite the bullet to get it done,” but, for me, I would rather do anything else than that. So, I completely understand where you’re coming from on that.

I want to ask you a question because you’ve got two young kids. What has having kids taught you about business and/or marketing? Before you answer, I want to share why I’m asking this question.

I’ve got, as I mentioned, three boys. What I’ve learned is that I’ve become a much better negotiator, like really learning how to appeal and influence kids, so I’m also interested to talk to parents and see what lessons they’ve learned from having kids with respect to their business.

What’s that been for you?

Erin:                Yeah, definitely a lot, and I think negotiating with the three-year-old … I have a three-year-old and a nine-month-old, so I get that. One, I’ve learned that I can function on very little sleep I guess.

But, in general, I think what having kids really opened my eyes to was just the value of our own time.

Before having kids, I didn’t outsource as much as I could have. I would just stay up late and do silly things that I could’ve been paying someone else to do. It didn’t make sense for me to do it, and I think having children, seeing the value of my time and understanding that life isn’t only about work, that you really want to embrace your children … They’re only young once.

You want to be a parent and spend time with them. And that really made me look and say, “Okay, what are the things that I truly need to do?”

I’m still helping the individuals I want to help, but what are the things I can take off my plate and how can I get more members on my team? It really helped me to grow a team, but it also taught me a lot with patience.

I mean, I think I’ve been a slightly patient person, but, in general, seeing how my older son learns and how you talk to him and then explain things … When it was just me, I’d understand something, but trying to translate that to a member of my team if they weren’t getting it right away, I would get impatient and get frustrated.

Now that I’m dealing with this everyday 24/7, I am getting more patient and getting better at communicating and explaining things, so I think that’s translated into the business as well.

Yuri:                That’s awesome. I can relate to that as well because I’m very much like you, type A.

I want things done a certain way, and, with my kids, I’m like, “Why don’t you understand this?” but then I’m like, “Oh, you’re only three. Okay. That’s why.” It’s like a personal development seminar every day, which is awesome.

 Erin:                Exactly.

 Yuri:                It’s a lot of fun. Erin, this has been tremendous. I’m so grateful for having you on and for sharing all this stuff you’ve been able to share. Are you ready for the rapid five?

 The Rapid-Five Questions

Erin:                Let’s go. Yeah, I’m ready. 

Yuri:                All right, you’ve got no prior knowledge to these questions. I’m just going to fire them at you. Here we go. Number one, what is your biggest weakness?

Erin:                My biggest weakness is definitely just being a perfectionist. I think it holds you back, because you want to do things and make them perfect, and sometimes you just have to get it out there and know that things don’t have to be perfect all the time.

I definitely think that’s my biggest weakness.

Yuri:                Nice. Number two, what is your biggest strength 

Erin:                I think that I am pretty good at trying to put myself in other people’s shoes. Whenever I’m working with somebody, whether it’s a business to business or the consumer, I think I’m pretty good at understanding their pain points and putting myself in their situation so that I can really craft what I’m doing to help them to reach their own goals.

Yuri:                That’s great. It’s kind of like emotional intelligence, right? That’s what 

Erin:                Yeah. Yeah, that’s what I was trying to say.

Yuri:                No, that’s fine. Having interviewed so many people and knowing so many entrepreneurs, I think emotional intelligence is one of the biggest strengths that we all have in common, and there’s a reason for that. I think that’s awesome.

Alright, number three, the one skill you’ve become dangerously good at in order to grow your business?

Erin:                Oh, that’s a tough one. Man, I think time management.

I mean, right now, I have the three-year-old, I have the nine-month-old, neither one sleep. They’re only daycare part time. I just feel like there’s a lot of balls in the air. I feel like I’ve been very blessed to be much better at time management and being effective with my time and getting a lot done without having a lot of time to get it done—so I think that’s been the big one.

Yuri:                That’s good. Yeah, so I think if you want to be more productive with your time, guys, just have kids. It’s the best. It forces you.

All right, number four, what do you do first thing in the morning?

Erin:                First thing in the morning? Right now, first thing in the morning is I get up. I change the diaper. But, in general, I think the first thing I do—and it’s probably a bad habit, but it’s like the only time I get five minutes for myself—is I just go and I love to just check the news of the day.

See what’s happening, and in my head it kind of gets the wheels spinning for the day. Is there a way I can tie in what I’m doing with what’s happening in the news and really craft that for some kind of media outreach or something that’s relevant to my consumer audience?

Yuri:                Nice. That’s actually a good way of looking at it. That’s very smart, very cool.

Okay, the final one, complete this sentence. I know I’m being successful when ____.

Erin:                When I know that I am achieving the work balance, the work-life balance that I’ve always dreamed of, and that really is much more valuable than a return on investment in a monetary way.

The fact that I can be the mom that I want to be, the fact that I can run the business I want to be and have a balance where I’m enjoying both, to me, has been the epitome of success.

 Yuri:                Awesome. Good for you. That’s terrific. Erin, thank you so much. What is the best place for people to follow your work online and learn more about your awesome stuff?

 Erin:                Thank you. Yes, you can come to my website. It’s erinpalinski.com, and you can follow me on my social channels at erinpalanski and, if you’re interested in the E-course, it’s masterthemedia.co.

Yuri:                Perfect. Erin, thank you so much, once again, for taking the time out of your day to share your wisdom with us. And I know our listeners will get a ton of value.

If you guys haven’t, just go back and rewind and repeat this again because there’s a lot of really, really good nuggets that I’ve written down from this episode. Thank you so much, Erin.

Erin:                Thank you. Thanks so much for having me. It’s been a pleasure.

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Yuri’s take

If you’re like me, you probably took a ton of notes in this episode and hopefully you got some really good actionable bits of advice to put into play because, at the end of the day,this podcast is all about inspiring you to just raise your inner drive.

But, at the same time, we do touch on some how-tos, as you know. So you want to be jotting down some things, and not like a ton of pages of notes.

What I usually suggest to people that I work with or even if you’re going to live events and stuff is to listen. Right? Take a couple of notes and, from all the stuff that you just kind of got in—what’s the one thing, what’s the one big “a-ha” for you? What’s the one big insight where you can foresee putting it to action for you in your business based on what you have access to in your current setup?

Now, the reason I say this is because it’s very easy. And this is the dilemma of information, right? It’s kind of ironic that we’ve got a podcast where we publish three episodes per week, and the name of game nowadays is to be prolific everywhere, yet the irony is that the only education you need is to become truly aware of who you really are.

You don’t need to listen to more podcasts. You don’t need to read more books. Obviously, I do appreciate your listening to this and these conversations. Hopefully, they really muster up your self-esteem and confidence and inspire you about what’s possible, but you are the only one to know what is right for you.

So, if you listen to this interview and you’re thinking to yourself, “You know what? I don’t want to reach out to the media. I’d rather have someone else do that,” then that’s cool. That’s fine. Be honest about that.

I’m the same way. I mean, I commend Erin on what she’s done. It’s amazing. I’m not the person who has ever wanted to reach out to the media en masse like she has. It’s amazing what she’s done, and I give her full credit for doing so, but I know myself. I am not the guy who’s going to do that. You have to be honest with who you are, what you love to do and what you have time for with what you have going on.

That’s with anything. That’s with any idea, not just this—with anything you ever come across. We had two of our Luminary Mastermind members recently ask me, “Hey, Yuri, do I need to get the certification on copywriting?” I’m like, “No, you don’t. You don’t need to take other courses. What you do need to do is actually implement what you already know, and then we can course correct.”

See, copywriting is one of those skills that, sure, you can grab a course and work on it, but unless you’re going full in immersion, it’s really not worth it.

I mean, you’re better off just taking what you know about your audience, moving them from a place of where they are to where they want to be. You don’t need to be a fancy copywriter to do that. You simply have to understand what people are going through, what their pain is and how you can solve that for them.

The same thing with media, right? Understand where the producers are at. What’s the pain point? What’s the thing that they’re trying to solve? And you have content to help solve that and then basically make their life as easy as possible.

Life doesn’t have to be more complicated than figuring out a problem and solving it for people. That’s how we get paid. Okay?

That’s all for today’s episode. I just want to drop some little thought bombs on you as we finish off here. As always, if you haven’t subscribed to the podcast, be sure to do so now over in iTunes—Healthpreneur Podcast—and leave a rating or a review if you’ve enjoyed these interviews. I’ve really enjoyed bringing them to you. It’s a lot fun, at least for me.

If you haven’t yet grabbed a copy of the Health Profits Secrets book, you can do so over at healthpreneurbook.com. I’m covering the cost of the book. You can just cover the minimal cost of shipping, and I will send it right to your front door within the next five or seven days.

Inside that book, I’m unveiling the four big secrets that all successful online health businesses have in common and how you can use them to your advantage.

If you want to impact a lot of people, if you want to make more money, if you want to enjoy more free time—these four secrets are really, really important to know and master. That’s what I’m going to show you how to do inside that book, so grab it today, if you haven’t already.

That’s all for me. Continue to be awesome. Go out. Be great. Do great, and I will see you in our next episode, which is a solo round coming up your way on Monday.

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https://masterthemedia.co/

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