263: Media is a Mom’s Best Marketing Hack—How Leveraging the Media to Grow Your Business and Generate Visibility Can Give You More Time to Spend with your Kids

Mercedes: 0:00

It's a matter of figuring out your angle, figuring out the target media publications that your story fits and then directing it and structuring your story that will get the attention of the journalist.

Camille: 0:21

So you want to make an impact. You're thinking about starting a business, sharing your voice. How do women do it that handle motherhood, family and still chase after those dreams? We'll listen each week as we dive into the stories of women who know this is Call Me CEO. Welcome back everyone to Call Me CEO.

Camille: 0:43

This is Camille Walker, your host, and here we celebrate mothers building businesses and finding different ways to make your life your own. What is that path? What is that division of your time personal and also business that makes you feel your best self? And so today we're talking about how to use marketing to your advantage, specifically with public relations and journalists and all of those things that sometimes you think gosh, is this publicist? Is that the way to go? Do I need to pay for ads? How do I do this?

Camille: 1:16

Well, Mercedes Barba is with us today. She is the CEO of Mercedes and Media. She spent nearly 15 years as a journalist covering entertainment, personal finance and entrepreneurship. She's seen firsthand the power that media has to elevate small businesses and helps entrepreneurs and small businesses get featured in big media to help you get the exposure you deserve. So what I love about this is that she can help you to be discovered and featured in Forbes, business Insider and more. But also, how do you do this while being a mom? How do you create the visibility without losing your identity or your privacy? I think that that's a really interesting piece as well. So so excited, mercedes, to have you on the show. Thank you for being with us today.

Mercedes: 2:05

Camille, thank you so much for having me and hello to everyone listening.

Camille: 2:09

Yeah, so when we talk about marketing and leveraging media to grow our business visibility, I feel like social media has been fantastic because, let's face it, most of it is free. Where we can get on these different challenge channels, we can do our best to put ourselves out there, but even then to be really seen, it is a pay to play If you're looking for big exposure and finding access to audiences you wouldn't otherwise have access to. So tell us a little bit more about how you got into this line of work and a little bit more about you.

Mercedes: 2:46

Yeah, thank you so much for that incredible introduction. Hello everyone, my name is Mercedes Barba. I am a former journalist turned publicist that helps entrepreneurs, small business owners, moms get featured in the media in order to grow their business, generate visibility and gain clients and revenue. Grow their business, generate visibility and gain clients and revenue. I spent, as you mentioned, camille, in the introduction I spent almost 15 years about 13 and a half years in journalism. When I was 18, I knew I wanted to be a journalist.

Mercedes: 3:18

I was born and raised in LA. Somehow I found myself at 18 years old interviewing on red carpets and press junkets and interviewing celebrities, and I've worked with Morgan Freeman, justin Timberlake, jason Siegel, cameron Diaz, and I was like, oh my gosh, this is so cool, but there was something about covering entertainment that didn't give me that like passion that I was really sort of looking for in journalism. And so, you know, growing up in LA, being a city girl, I always loved New York City, and so I moved to New York to pursue my master's in journalism and it was there that I fell into covering personal finance, entrepreneurship, business, and I was realizing, wow, you know, we're featuring small companies or small CEOs or founders about maybe their struggles in their business or what they learned or how they bootstrapped themselves. And then all of a sudden I'm noticing, oh wow, like look, you know, we covered them at Money Magazine, and now Yahoo Finance is covering them, and now Bankrate is covering them, and now Business Insider is covering them. And oh look, their visibility is getting bigger and their business is growing.

Mercedes: 4:19

And I was like, how can I do that for entrepreneurs, and particularly women? I work a lot with women and actually most of my clients are mothers, right, and I'm a mother myself. I have a two and a half year old little boy. So how can we get the most bang for our buck in marketing so that we can spend more time being at home with our little ones, right? And so that's sort of my ethos and what I do for myself. You know, my son goes to school in the morning and that's my time where I can kind of focus in and make sure that I'm doing. I'm pulling all of the levers that are going to get me the greatest bang for my buck. So then when I pick him up from school, I'm focused with him, right, and so I try to do that with the entrepreneurs that I work with.

Mercedes: 5:02

So you look at a media publication like Business Insider, right, they get about 200 million readers a month on average. Okay, it could be 100 one month, it could be 300 the next month, but on average they get about 200 million readers a month. If you get yourself featured in there, okay, as a feature or maybe as an expert source, you're instantly being put in front of potential. You know, I'm not saying 200 million, but a million, right, if you click to that article and boom, all of a sudden Camille Walker is in front of a million eyeballs and you know it really.

Mercedes: 5:39

You know media and PR really gives that instant credibility and that instant visibility that you can't really get. It's a lot harder to get with, maybe, other avenues of marketing like social media or maybe some paid ads. Right, you kind of got to fork out a lot of money in paid ads to get a lot of visibility. So I do a type of PR that is called earned media. So we don't pay like my clients don't pay to be featured in Business Insider. What we do is we generate story ideas that target the audiences that read Business Insider and we send our emails to journalists that are covering those stories. So you just have to make sure that you are formulating a story that resonates with the audience of whatever media publication you're targeting.

Camille: 6:24

Okay and I love that too, because I don't know how many of you listening have ever been in this situation but you'll get a DM on Instagram where it's like be featured in Forbes and Business Insider. All you have to pay is $5,000 or whatever, and maybe those articles or those features do actually happen, but it's always been this pay to play scenario. So I would love to hear where it is a legitimate. You've created a story, you're sharing something that people find value in and then you are featured. What are the steps or what's the process of doing that?

Mercedes: 7:01

Yeah, definitely so. So, for example, I have I have a client that we got her a feature in business insider and it was a story about her. Here's how she shaved 20 years off of her retirement age. She's a personal finance expert, she coaches women on investing, and, and here's how she did it. Here's four steps that she leveraged in order to start investing more money.

Mercedes: 7:22

Uh, you know, she, she, she built a side hustle, started investing that money, she bought real estate, she bought a triplex, rented out two, lived in one right, so she's kind of creating a little bit of wealth for herself. And so that business insider immediately generated 5,000 leads to her website. Boom, because media publication they will link your website. It'll be like Mercedes Barba, founder of Mercedes and media, says that media is the number one thing. That and that that website link that you get in there. That is your like meal ticket, as not only does it help your SEO, which is your search engine optimization, which is where Google recognizes you as the expert in your industry Um, because the better your SEO is, the higher up in the search rankings you are.

Camille: 8:05

Oh yeah, and if you're getting linked from Business Insider, that's huge, huge.

Mercedes: 8:10

It's major and not only is it for your SEO, but it is to generate direct leads to your site. So I always want to make sure that the clients that I work with have some sort of lead magnet or some sort of like automatic opt-in page that says, hey, sign up for my newsletter, get my free guide, and so that way you are capturing those leads, because we're doing a lot of the behind the scenes work of getting you in Business Insider and then, once we do, we want to make sure that you're grabbing those leads right. And so some of the things that you can kind of start thinking about is like what is my story? Like what could I talk about? Right, I just got off a call this morning with one of my newest clients. Today was our kickoff call and I'm helping her.

Mercedes: 8:52

It's my pitch, the press program where I coach one-on-one on how to get featured in the media, and so I'm like all right, tell me everything. Just word vomit everything to me. Tell me your life story, tell me how you grew up, tell me some of the talking points. And so we were able to really pinpoint a very interesting story. She grew up in a very religious family. She was never taught about finances, never taught about business, because in that religion it was the men that ran everything. And so for her, you know, now she's a mother and she teaches her children about money and they have weekly conversations and I'm like that's the story, right, I grew up in a religious cult where women weren't taught finances. But I'm changing that narrative with my own kids and so we're pitching that out to business insider right now. And actually she just sent me a text that, um, that she got a response from a journalist there that was like Ooh, I like the story. So it's a matter of like.

Mercedes: 9:39

It's a matter of figuring out your angle, figuring out the target media publications.

Mercedes: 9:43

That your angle, that your story fits, and then directing it and and and structuring your story that will get the attention of the journalist. Because journalists I mean I was a journalist for 13 and a half years Like I knew, like I know what pitch lands, because I would get hundreds of them, even to this day, because I'm just in like a journalist database somewhere, I get pitches all the time and even to this day I'm like no, no, that's not a good one. That's not a good one. You got to keep it short, you keep it succinct. You got to make sure you're speaking to the audience that that publication is writing to and make sure you target the right journalists that are covering your story or your industry or your niche, because if you start emailing journalists that are covering something totally different, they're going to be like Mercedes didn't do her research on me. Had she looked me up on LinkedIn, she would know I don't cover that, I cover this. So it's all about getting those pieces in order and sending out the pitch and waiting for the response.

Camille: 10:43

Ooh, I like that. So with that, I think on your website you share your net work. Is your net worth when you're pitching to these publicists, is it who you know Like? How do you find the right people to reach out to that? It could even be a potential opportunity.

Mercedes: 11:03

That's a great question.

Mercedes: 11:04

So when you hire a publicist so I'm also a publicist I take pitching off of media of entrepreneurs as plates and I do the media pitching for them and for me it's great because I was a journalist for so long so I built those connections, so that is a really great arm If you want to get into journalism.

Mercedes: 11:20

Hire a publicist that is covering your industry because they built those connections and their emails actually go to somebody that knows their name and they get opened For my Pitch the Press program because I'm coaching entrepreneurs through it. The beauty about that is you are building those relationships with those journalists because we worked together for three months and after three months we will have pitched that journalist over and over and over again and they will start to your name and perhaps they used you as a source in one story and they're like Ooh, camille, I like her, you know what? I have an idea. Maybe she could be a good source for my second story I'm working on. And so with my pitch the press program, it's beautiful because you are creating your own network and so as your business grows, no-transcript you're not pitching them. The right story that speaks to the audience of the New York times, then your story is not your, your pitch is not going to go anywhere.

Camille: 12:41

Yeah, okay, so let's let's pretend for a minute that we're pitching someone. How long of a pitch do they want and how often do you pitch them?

Mercedes: 12:52

Great question, you, okay. So because I'm I'm still in this database of journalists and I still constantly get emails to my personal Gmail. I look at them and when they're long, I don't read them. And even when I was a journalist, if they're too long, I'm not going to read it because, as a journalist, I'm working on my own deadlines. I have my own stories that I'm working on. I've already interviewed five people for a story. I'm going through a transcript. The last thing I want to do is read something else that is too long and that you know.

Mercedes: 13:23

There's a, there's a saying in journalism burying the lead right. Don't bury the lead. Don't bury the the most important part of the story right. The lead is your, is your very first sentence. It's going to grab the viewer and so when you're sending your pitch email, don't bury the lead. Start with the most important grabby thing first. Like, for example, my client who grew up in a religious cult. It was like I grew up in a religious cult where I were as a woman. I was never taught about money. Like that is the lead, that is the most amazing, incredible part of her story. Like, wow, look, she grew up in this religious cult. They didn't teach her about money, but now she's changing the narrative with her own kids, and so when you're pitching a journalist, you want to keep it really short.

Mercedes: 14:04

I do have a free guide on my website, and if you go to my website, mercedesbarbacom, you'll see it there. It is three steps, three ways to get featured in the media today, and I actually have a pitch template in there that I use every single day on my own clients. I'll copy it, I'll put it in a Google Doc and I'll rewrite it, and it basically gives you the framework of how to write a short, succinct pitch. So you just want to make sure that your lead, you know your hook, is there A little bit of context about who you are, and then you know a way to maybe check out your website or your LinkedIn or learn a little bit more about you and your signature, and that's it. You want to keep it short. You want to keep it short. You want to keep it punchy and to the point.

Mercedes: 14:47

Okay, so subject line what do you typically suggest for a subject line? I always write pitch, colon, uh, and then whatever your headline is. So I grew up in a religious cult and was never taught about money. That could be a good headline or a good subject line for you, because that's going to grab the attention of someone. But you always want to make sure it says pitch so that the journalist says, oh okay, they know what it is. They know what it is, and also some journalists will filter it into a different folder later and if it says pitch, it'll potentially get filtered into a different folder. Or they'll search and they'll search pitch, and then yours comes up, because sometimes or they'll search and they'll search pitch, and then yours comes up because sometimes journalists will get it and they'll look at it later. Sure End of Friday going through all their pitches, right? So, yeah, yeah, those are great questions. I mean, you're like spot on with well, thank you.

Camille: 15:42

So I love well, we will link that freebie in the show notes below. And what an amazing resource. I think that is so helpful because I can relate to this in terms of working with sponsors for over a decade, where either I'm getting pitched or I've pitched with someone and it's always the shorter the better where it's almost like making that offer. Are you interested in this? Is it a hook, literally, that you would want to spend time digging a little deeper, yes or no, and then you can continue the conversation, or is is this even the right person to be sending the pitch to? In terms of if you're reaching out to a company and you're not quite sure where, that's where research would come into play. And one thing that I did as if I was looking to reach out to a sponsor for one of my blog posts sponsors or whatever is I would Google a PR release and then the company name and see who came up?

Camille: 16:37

and see if I could link. You know, figure out that way, or go to LinkedIn and then take that name and plug it in and see if that's the current one, because it could be that they moved to a new position or you know something like that. What? What is your advice for finding those people?

Mercedes: 16:52

Yeah, yeah. So if actually finding the journalists right, and that was the question that you asked me before. So so what I do with my clients, or what I advise my clients to typically do, is go to business insider right, go to businessinsidercom. Typically on a media publication, there's a little search bar, a little search bar on the corner. Click that search bar, type in something associated with your niche so motherhood, entrepreneurship, career, business, uh, finance and look to see the articles that they have coming up. And look, you know, click the article that you like that kind of resonates with you and look to see who wrote it. Look to see by. It's called a byline by Mercedes Barba, written by Mercedes, and that's a byline. And if you typically those, those names are hyperlinked and if you click that name, if you click that link that byline page, it'll take you to their byline page and a lot of the times their email addresses will be there.

Mercedes: 17:50

A lot of the times it'll it'll link to other stories that they've covered and you're like, oh okay, this person definitely covers career, so let me send her a pitch.

Mercedes: 17:59

Or, if they don't have their contact info, find them on LinkedIn and on their LinkedIn sometimes they'll have their email addresses, especially if they're journalists. That's the thing with journalists it's like we want good stories, right, we're going to put our emails out there so that you pitch me a good story, because, especially if I'm a freelance writer and I write for business, insider, success magazine, forbes, fortune, essence, if I'm writing for all these publications, I'm going to want multiple stories because I want to get paid. So I'm going to put my email address out there so that you can continually send me pitch emails because I want to pitch them to my media publications that I'm writing for because I want to get money to write a story. So you know, with journalists sending them a blind email, I know it's a little scary for some people, but we welcome that, we want that, that's so interesting, yeah, where it's like, why not?

Camille: 18:51

And one thing you mentioned earlier was something like I mean, you mentioned that you are contacting these people many times. Yeah, what would you suggest? Let's say that I am reaching out to someone and I have the same idea, or it's this I'm the same person. Do I send the same pitch every time? Do I modify it every time? How many times is too much Like? What's your advice in that regard? Great question.

Mercedes: 19:17

So initially, I like to send two versions of a pitch. So the first pitch that I typically advise my clients to do is let's write an introduction of who you are, okay, so this takes the guesswork out of what journalists are covering. So for you, camille, like, uh, hi, my name is Camille Walker and I'm an entrepreneur and I'm the founder of XYZ. I'm also a mother, you know if you're writing, and then we could target this to like mommy, like right, like parentingcom. You know motherly, right, and you could say if you're ever writing a story where you need, um, a mom's point of view, you know who's an entrepreneur.

Mercedes: 19:57

I can touch on these five different things. Number one running a business full time with four kids in the house. Number two, building a business while my child is napping. Number three, you know right, xyz, you know, building a sustainable podcast that brings you know guests in, right, or whatever. And I would send that to journalists that are covering your industry, because if you give them four or five different talking points of what you can touch on, then they're like ooh, you know what I am writing. I'm actually writing a story on entrepreneurship. Camille, thank you for sending this email. Can you touch on? Dah dah, dah, dah dah, because you're taking the guesswork out of like what they're working on by sending them five different ideas of what you can talk on.

Camille: 20:41

I love that because then it it establishes you in different categories that you want to be seen as an expert in, and also, if any, so okay. So that's our first one. Yeah, like this is who I am, nice to meet you.

Mercedes: 20:55

Meet you. So you send that today, today's, you know, let's say today's Monday, send that on Monday morning. I like to. I liked because journalists typically are on the East coast. I like to schedule my emails and send them for like 9 am Eastern and since I'm on the West Coast, I'm sleeping, so all of my emails go out. So when I wake up at 630 am, my time, which is 930 Eastern, I usually have a bunch of emails I need to respond to because I've already scheduled them and sent them out.

Mercedes: 21:20

So typically, because journalists are on the East Coast, you want to send them on East Coast time. There's journalists everywhere, but for the most part they're in New York and so you want to follow up, always in two days. So if I send a pitch email on a Monday, I want to follow up on Wednesday. Hey, mercedes, just following up here, if you're ever writing any stories on moms and entrepreneurs, I would be happy to be a source. And if the thing with journalists, if they like the story, if, or if they like you as a source, they're going to, they're going to respond to you.

Mercedes: 21:54

If you don't hear from them, don't get discouraged. It is very normal and being a publicist now this is my karma, because I would get pitch emails and I would never respond. If I didn't, if I, if they, if they didn't resonate with me, I wouldn't respond to them. And so this is my karma now, because I get ghosted all the time and but it's all very normal, right, it's all part of the game and so I would not give up on that journalist. It's just, it just doesn't work right now. So what I would do is I would follow up once and then kind of leave it alone for that introduction pitch email. I would send it to a number of reporters and if you don't get any bites, I would rewrite it and add like different talking points, send it to the same people and do the same again, but a different pitch, a different, like different bullet points.

Mercedes: 22:43

Okay, because maybe those bullet points didn't resonate. Well, there's been so many times where I've rewritten a pitch and it's generally the same idea, but it's just rewritten a little differently. And then that lands with people. They're like Ooh, yes, that so it. You know, whatever works, you go with it. So if you get a response, continue using that. So that would be.

Mercedes: 23:04

My first advice is just to send an introduction of who you are to journalists that are covering your industry. The second thing is writing an individual pitch. So let's kind of take out what your story is, let's find a hook. Don't bury the lead. Let's find the hook and then let's write a little bit of like a descriptor, a little bit more about what your story is, and then we'll send that out to targeted journalists that write features. And again, doing your research is extremely important. So going on CNBCcom, going to that search bar and typing in stories associated with your niche, finding the journalist's name, trying to get their contact information via the website on the byline page, or finding them on LinkedIn and finding their email addresses there. I also do suggest connecting with them on LinkedIn, because if you're very active on LinkedIn and you're like hey, I'm writing, let me write a post about how media can create the visibility da, da, da, da.

Mercedes: 24:00

And let's say I'm connected to a journalist that is writing an article about that. She'll see that I'm already talking about it in the media and she'll be like oh Mercedes, can I use you as a source? So there's a lot of different things you got to do. It's not going to happen overnight. It definitely takes some time to get off the ground and it's work, you know, which is why a lot of people outsource it to a professional that just automatically do it.

Mercedes: 24:23

But what I like to do is I like to teach people how to do it themselves, so that they know how to do it. And and maybe you can create that offer in your coaching program later down the line hey, here's how I use media to grow my business. Here's what I learned from my media coach. Now I'm going to teach you. So there's a lot of different, like incredible things that the media can do. Uh, create that visibility for you. It's fun, you know, cause you send an email out to the ether and then you get a response and you're like oh my God, or you get featured in an article and you're like that's me, that's so cool.

Mercedes: 24:59

I didn't think it would happen for me, but it can.

Camille: 25:03

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Camille: 26:04

Do you think it's a good idea? Let's say, for example, um the Washington. This is a real story. The Washington post came to my house and it was during a time that they were looking at um Nash. I'm trying to remember exactly what the poll was, but it was something like building national pride and how they got to.

Camille: 26:29

They did two interviews with a person from each state and they sent a team to your house and talked about who you were in America. So it was presenting, like people of all different ages, what they did for work, what their background was, and I was featured as one of the people in the state. Way cool, that's very cool. Yeah, thank you, and I'm curious if I were to approach another news line or another resource or news center, would you want to bring up something like that, to say I was saying that it relates somehow, that you are a mother in America, as an entrepreneur or whatever the story is. Is it a good idea to say as seen in and then put different resources or places that you've been seen? Does that help for people to be like, oh, she has some authority, that's helpful, or is that just like, eh, don't mention it.

Mercedes: 27:26

I would a hundred percent mention it.

Camille: 27:28

Okay.

Mercedes: 27:29

Yeah, yeah. So the beauty about this is like now, if you get featured in the in the wall street, it was at wall no.

Camille: 27:34

Washington post yeah.

Mercedes: 27:35

You get featured in the Washington post and it's related to your cause. There's a lot of entrepreneurs out there that are like I was featured in a USA today article, but it has nothing to do with your business. It was like some random.

Mercedes: 27:47

You know, maybe they interviewed you in a restaurant on, like, a different idea topic that has nothing to do with your industry. A lot of entrepreneurs will be like I was featured in that article and I'm like, yeah, but were you not really? Um, if it's not associated with your niche, I don't suggest putting it on your website. Same with these pay to play things. So like forbes is like pay us five thousand dollars and we'll put you on the cover. Like, no, like it's very obvious that you paid for that.

Camille: 28:13

What is that? Like, how do you are people getting into that? And then, but how do people know if it's legit versus someone? Just I mean for it like how, how does that work?

Mercedes: 28:24

unless you're're like Mark Cuban or like Jeff Bezos, you're probably not going to be on the cover of Forbes. Right, that's the truth. Oh yeah, we. You know um, or Sarah Blakely or you know Kim Kardashian right, you're not going to be on the cover of Forbes. Uh, and so when I see entrepreneurs like I was on the cover, it's like no, and the reason these media publications do that is because media is it doesn't generate as much money as it did back in the day. Right, it's sort of an evolving. I'm not going to say it's a dying industry, because I hate when people say it's a dying industry, cause it's not it's, it's evolving.

Camille: 28:58

It's an evolving industry, for sure.

Mercedes: 29:00

Evolving industry and they're just trying to see how how to make money. That's why there's a lot of paywall, you know. That's why, like business insiders behind a paywall, fortunes behind a paywall LA times, new York times you read three articles a month and now you can't read anymore unless you pay for it. So they're all just trying to to stay alive in this crazy economy that we're in. So the reason they do those things is to generate money and it's guaranteed placement. And that's why you see a lot of these like give us 5,000, because Fortune is probably only charging 2,500. And so this media publication is pocketing 2,500. And so I don't like those. I don't say, I say steer away from those. You get more visibility, more credibility, more expertise and authority when you do earned media, when you have earned your way into the media.

Camille: 29:51

Yeah, you know, and is there a way to decipher, or how do people know, like one that was paid for versus one that was earned?

Mercedes: 30:00

Sometimes it'll say like a sponsored post. Actually, if it is sponsored, it will say sponsored post, maybe me, because I've been. I was a journalist that I can see right through it you can spot it, yeah, spot it.

Mercedes: 30:13

I'm like no, no, like you're not going to be.

Mercedes: 30:15

I mean me, as much as I would love to be on the cover of Forbes, I'm not going to be on the cover of Forbes, you know, unless I'm a multi-billionaire one day. Right, and so you can kind of spot those things. Um, if you get a larger feature, typically it's an earned placement. Um, I mean, there are smaller, really really smaller, smaller, like blogs and publications that people are like we have a hundred thousand subscribers on our newsletter and we get, uh, you know, 200,000 clicks to our website a month and for $500, you can have a full spread. And again, I would take those with a grain of salt, because how true are those numbers? How many engaged subscribers are there on their newsletter? So if you're paying 500 bucks and you only get 3% people click, it's not really effective for you. So earned media for me is number one. It's like when you get featured in Business Insider, you're building that credibility for yourself, you're building that SEO, you're building that authority and those are the types of articles that you want to be placed in.

Camille: 31:24

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Let's switch gears just a little bit With building this business. I mean, you were in New York city, you were doing the big corporate deal and you became a mom and switched gears and built this business for yourself. Can you tell us a little bit about how you did that for yourself and how you were able to grow that and balance the craziness with also being a mom, like that's? That's why we're here.

Mercedes: 31:49

I'd love to hear about that, how you were able to do that, of course, and you know we're all moms, somehow we get it done. I don't know how we I mean, I have one and I'm, like, you know, like drowning with one, you have four. You know we're women can just, can just make it work Like we can multitask, we can hold a baby, we can type with one hand and do a podcast at the same time, you know. But for me I felt very blessed because I was living in New York. Covid hit and I'm originally from LA, so my family was like come home. I'm like okay.

Mercedes: 32:23

So then when I moved back, that's when I found I met, I had my son and but I was because of COVID, I was working remotely and so I was able to, you know, have my son. I was nursing him, I was in meetings you know remote meetings and I would hop off the call, go go nurse him, come back, get on my other meetings. And so I felt very blessed because, as a journalist at the time, I was working remotely and COVID kind of changed everything for moms, I think a hundred percent like it really kind of it made it a lot easier because I didn't have to put my three month old baby in a daycare. You know, if I was in New York, I, I, I would have, I mean, I probably would have needed it would have been program as usual.

Camille: 33:05

You would have just done the thing, yeah.

Mercedes: 33:14

Put my kid there, take the subway down, work five, six, eight hours, come back, right so, but for me I it was a. It was a total blessing in disguise, right? You know, covid was a horrible event that we all went through, but the fact that I was able to be home with my baby was was incredible and and but I was working a lot and and I didn't have I wasn't feeling that passion again. You know, I was just kind of going through the motions of journalism and I was like you know what I want my little boy, because my parents were entrepreneurs.

Mercedes: 33:37

I watched them as entrepreneurs growing up and I was like I want my son to see me working from home, being a mom building my own business, because I want to show him that it's not about getting a college degree and working in corporate America for 40 years and then retiring at 65. I want him to build his own business, control his own time, and I'm doing that with myself. I'm like I'm building my business, I'm controlling my own time so that when he's here, I'm focused on him and I want him to see that. And when he's at school, I'm focused on my business and uh, you know it's, it's been beautiful, being able to, to stay home with him and and every day, you know I'm I feel very lucky. I know a lot of moms can't do that and for me it's just it's. It's something that is such a passion for me. I need my son to see me being an entrepreneur, Just like your kids, you, yeah.

Camille: 34:30

It's.

Camille: 34:30

You know it, it has been such a gift in that regard.

Camille: 34:34

And as they get older, the questions that they ask you about well, what does this mean?

Camille: 34:39

And how do you make the money, and how do you do this and that and just seeing the the wheels turn, you know, as they bring in that information and translate it for their own meaning, is really cool, especially where, in many cases, you can make them a part of well, I'm working on this and I need to have you help with X, y, z, because that will help me and we work as one big team. And then it becomes this partnership where they're like, oh, this is cool. And then we go on vacation and I'm like, hey, you know how I work and do this and that coaching and I'm writing those blog posts, that pays for this fun that we're having together. And it clicks for them in a different way when I think they can see and be a part of it in the day to day, where they get to be a part of the cog, of that functioning wheel to make the life and the fun and the work all come together. So I'm happy for you, like that's so cool that you're building that for yourself.

Mercedes: 35:36

And you too. I mean, you've been, you've been so incredible since you said 2011 is when you started building, so yeah, it's, it's wild, it just goes so fast and it's so cool.

Camille: 35:47

I would love to know for you, especially with client acquisition? I think that's something that I coach a lot of people on. Marketing is not my number one skill. I'm more about the systems and building the teams and putting it all together. I have some marketing skills, but client acquisition is always that number one pain point. When someone's starting a business and they're saying I need to make money, how do I find the clients, where are they? Where did you start with that and what do you suggest other people do with your experience that?

Mercedes: 36:18

you've had Great question. I think there's a lot of, like people talk about imposter syndrome, which is definitely real. I mean I wake up, I mean I quit my full-time job and I'm doing this full-time, like this is my full-time gig. Yeah, quitting my job was the scariest thing, but I was like, if I don't do it now, I'm never going to do it. I'm in my I'm 35. Like, if I don't do it now, I'm going to, I'm going to work at this business till I'm 65. And then I'm going to live my life. That's not gonna. That's not gonna work for me.

Mercedes: 36:52

I will, I will I will shrivel up.

Mercedes: 36:56

We know one wants that. Yeah, I can't. So so for me, what I did, you know? So you have this imposter syndrome that definitely comes in.

Mercedes: 36:59

I think there's this also, this fear of success and this fear of like oh, if I get a client now I have to deliver. And so I think a lot of entrepreneurs I feel like nobody really talks about this, but it's a fear of like oh, if I actually get a client, like I know I will be successful in my business, but oh, if I actually get a client now, I have to like, deliver, and that's scary. And so I think trying to realize that you are the expert, that people are paying you for your expertise, for a reason they have gravitated towards you, I think sort of getting away from that and over delivering and over prom, over under promising and over delivering, I think can help you get away from that imposter syndrome, can help you get away from that uh, fear of success syndrome. Uh, that I definitely have.

Mercedes: 37:49

Um and so for me, getting my first client, it was, it was amazing. And what I did is I just created an Instagram and I just started like hey, this is Mercedes, I'm a journalist, you want to get featured in the media, I'll teach you. And boom, boom, boom, got one, got two. One really big thing that has helped me is networking calls.

Mercedes: 38:07

Tell us about that Getting on virtual networking calls and, and you know cause, at the beginning of every call it's like okay, everyone goes around telling each other what you do and if you have something really interesting, people are like oh, Mercedes, they send you messages on Zoom and they're like I got to talk to you later and so that's in the follow me on Instagram. Like that's a really good way to kind of create that visibility and you're not selling yourself per se, but you're saying hi, I'm Mercedes Barba, I'm a media coach. I help entrepreneurs get featured in the media to grow their business. And having a quick elevator pitch, they're like yes, I need you, I need that, yeah and uh. And also another big thing too is like getting in Facebook groups and saying hi, everyone, I'm Mercedes, I just launched my business.

Mercedes: 38:52

I'm looking for people because I'm doing market research, Market research. I'm looking for people that want to hop on a call with me, who fall within this category. You know, have you ever thought about media? You know, getting featured in the media, I can offer you some free tips in return of a market research, Right? And so what? What you're gaining from them is their, their pain points. You know, you get their pain points, and then you sort of re I don't want to say regurgitate, because that's such a gross word, but you, you know you repeat it back to them and you say, oh, so you have this problem of no visibility while I have the solution, or you have a no problem of dah, dah, dah, dah. Yeah, you know. So that's that's kind of how I did it in the beginning, and I was working full time and I did this as a side hustle and then, and then my side hustle became my main hustle and I left that.

Camille: 39:44

So Very cool Networking calls. Where are we finding this?

Mercedes: 39:58

There's a lot of really great ones. If you go on Instagram and you follow networking like influencers, there's a lot of people out there that are like that are networkers that will create these networking calls. So if you just kind of search on Instagram like networking, call networking, or go to Eventbrite, you know there's a lot of virtual ones, a lot of in-person ones too in your community can do that yeah.

Camille: 40:16

I love all these ideas. This has been so helpful. You are awesome and I love that you're not gatekeeping anything. You're like this is how it is. This is how I did it yeah. And I think that genuineness comes across where people want to work with you because they can feel that you have a really good energy that way.

Mercedes: 40:32

You know? And that's, we're all in the same boat, right? We're all moms. We all want to gain our time back, because time is the most valuable asset. Money means nothing, you know. Time is your valid, the most valuable asset, because life is fleeting, it changes from one day to the next and you need to be able to control your own time. That's, that's the biggest commodity that we all have.

Camille: 40:54

Yeah, and yes it is.

Mercedes: 40:56

It is it's life. Life goes like that. I mean, how quickly do you remember your little, your 17 year old? Don't bring it up. I know, like at two, you know and I know that my two year old, I'm going to blink and he's going to be 17. Right, and it's spending. That it's, it's, it's reclaiming your time, especially as a mom, and you know to, to create income where you can, where you can stay home or you can show your kids entrepreneurship and business. The world is changing, you know, especially with AI, like we don't know where the world is going to be when our kids are older. You know, you know, and so I want to show them that no, you don't have to work 40, 50 hours a week in an office. No, you could be on a beach right now in Mexico, working remotely. You know.

Camille: 41:41

Yeah, it's funny because I created my 60 days to VA course pre COVID and when I released it, a lot of people were saying to me well, what's a VA? Like a veteran, you're making this for a veteran. And I'm like, no, a virtual assistant, this is something women, I made it for mothers to do from home, or it could be anyone. Half of the people who have done that course are retired people who don't want to work in an office anymore, but have amazing business experience, and post COVID, they're like, oh my gosh, how did I not think about this working remotely, of course and then it became this norm and everyone knew what a virtual assistant was, or an, a virtual admin or whatever, and so it's been really interesting to watch that trend and how that's changed and how much more opportunity is available for all of us. It's so cool.

Camille: 42:32

So, yeah, I really appreciate you sharing your experience and everything you've done, and we are going to link that freebie below I I know I'm going to be checking that out because I for sure have work to do in this area. And also, I ask three questions to all of my guests, and the first is well, it's really two, but it's like, well, you'll see. So it's what are you reading, watching or listening to? You can pick one of each, or just one, and then share a motherhood moment.

Mercedes: 43:02

Oh, oh, okay, oh, you're gonna make me cry. So what am I watching at the moment? I always I'll finish it and then I'll start it over and then I'll watch it through a month. I'm watching sex in the city for like a hundredth time.

Camille: 43:15

I've never seen it. Oh, you have to, I have to but it's good. I mean you watch it when you're older, from a different lens, that you sure Younger now it's like a comfort video where you're like I get it now, especially where you lived in the city.

Mercedes: 43:28

I bet that's so fun and I'm like, oh, I know exactly where they are Exactly, but it's comforting because you know what I really like about it. I love the writing. I love the writing. It's very witty, it's funny.

Camille: 43:55

You know, obviously there's a lot of issues with like Big and Carrie and like whatever. But if you want to get into like the nitty gritty psychological stuff, like you know you can with them, but I just I. I appreciate the writing and the humor, clever writing. That's one of the reasons why I love Gilmore girls. The writing is so clever and like the theater, music and book references, or like pop culture, that a lot of people don't even catch because they say it so quickly. It's a very clever writing.

Mercedes: 44:08

Yeah, it's so great, I love it, I love it, so I'll just put it on the background. When I'm like writing my pitch email, I look up.

Mercedes: 44:14

I'm like, oh, I remember that part, but yeah, you got to see, you got to watch it. Okay, I will, I will report back. Yeah, just put it out, it's great. And then my motherhood moment just happened the other day. Like my little boy mean, he's, he's so smart and he's like he's funny, and he's only two and a half and he says, I mean it's, he loves to sing.

Mercedes: 44:34

Oh, my god, this kid will sing he knows every word to, like he knows abracadabra by lady gaga. He knows, like the words, like I didn't know the words, um, that app appa 2 song with bruno mars, and it's like a Korean the APT, apt.

Mercedes: 44:50

He loves us, which I know all the kids are nowadays like catnip for kids. Yes, he knows the words, like the, the, even the Korean words, like it's so funny, it's so funny, and he'll sing it in his crib. I hear him in his bed like singing all night Um. But one of the things is, um, I always call him angel baby. I'm like hi, angel baby, and I would say you're so cute. I was telling you're so cute.

Mercedes: 45:11

And so the other day I picked him up and I was holding him like you know, holding where he had his head resting on my shoulder, and he was like, oh, mama, you're so cute, my angel baby. And I went oh, you know, and these kids are listening, you know, they're listening and they're absorbing, and the fact that I'm in, sometimes I'm in a zoom call and he runs in and I'm like, hey, babe, say hi to my client, you know. And he's like hi, and it's just, it's great for them to see this like this new world of work. I want him to see that because for me, my parents, they were entrepreneurs, they never worked in an office, so I saw that, you know, and that's what I want for him.

Camille: 45:51

So that's a cool legacy. That's so awesome. Oh, I love it. And just a little pitch here my podcast, five minute meditations for kids, is designed for kids ages two through 12. And it's five minute episodes of video and audio that helps to develop resiliency. Episodes video and audio that helps to develop resiliency. Good affirmations we go through all the emotions for emotional regulation and we're actually opening up a Patreon that is starting in June, so it's going to have more nighttime bedtime stories and it's been so fun to watch that grow, because it's again something I researched in during COVID five minute meditations for kids. My youngest was three at the time and I just wanted a place of calm for my family and I couldn't find enough of it, so I created it. So if that's something that would be of help to you, please subscribe. That's just my little plug for the moment. But, mercedes, thank you so much for sharing everything you've shared today. Please tell our audience where they can find you.

Mercedes: 46:53

Of course. Thank you, camille, so much for having me. Thank you everyone listening. Again. My name is Mercedes Barba. You can find me on Instagram Mercedes and media is my handle or you can go to Mercedes Barba dot com and send me a message there. Go ahead and pick up that freebie. That pitch template will literally help you write a pitch email today and send it out to a reporter. So I use it all the time. I will copy and paste my own lead magnet into Google and plug and play that template. So definitely go there. And I'm also on LinkedIn too. I'm very active there, but Instagram is a great way to get hold of me. So if any of you listening have any questions on media and just want to know even where to get started, I would love to just say hello and send you a voice note and and you know, I'd love to just I love to help entrepreneurs and you know, I think a lot of people don't realize that media is for them and then like, oh my God huge resource.

Camille: 47:46

Thank you, thank you, thank you. That's amazing. And thank you everyone for tuning in. Please make sure you are subscribed so you never miss an inspiring story like this one. All right, we'll see you next time. Hey CEOs, thank you so much for spending your time with me. If you found this episode inspiring or helpful, please let me know in a comment and a five-star review. You could have the chance of being a featured review on an upcoming episode. Continue the conversation on Instagram at callmeCEOPodcast, and remember you are the boss.