Pitching yourself, without selling your soul
How I've used my personal story to get media coverage - and you can too
Editors are usually inundated with pitches about concepts, data and “things” - but what they really want is stories about people.
If you flick through the pages (or scroll down the homepage or social media feed) of any national news publication you’ll see lots and lots of pictures of faces. We love reading about what other humans have been up to - whether that’s celebrities, Royals and politicians or ordinary people doing extraordinary things. The lives of real people make up most of the news.
This means pitching your (or your client’s) personal story is a great way to secure media coverage. But personal stories are just that - personal. So how do you share yours without feeling like you’re selling out?
For the first few years of my career, I refused to be involved in any article where I had to talk about myself. I worried it would be far too cringeworthy and the thought of people reading about my life made me die a little inside... But now I do it on a regular basis (I like to think of this as a positive career development, rather than a policy U-turn).
Here are three things I do - which you can do too - to make sure the experience of sharing personal stories is empowering and positive for raising profile, instead of a bit icky:
(And PRs - this all totally applies to pitching your clients’ stories too.)
1. Set boundaries to avoid regrets
I wrote last week about how to respond to #journorequests for case studies. It can be tempting to respond instantly when you see a request that matches your experience - but the last thing you want is to agree in haste to share an intimate story from your life and then later regret it.
Before you even think about pitching your personal story, you need to make sure you - and anyone else it might affect - are comfortable with what you’re sharing publicly.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve interviewed people who agreed to be a case study for an article but who then backed out because they hadn’t discussed it with their partner first and it turned out they weren’t happy about it. And backing out is bad: it wastes everyone’s time, looks really unprofessional and can burn bridges with journalists. It’s far better not to put yourself forward in the first place and wait for an opportunity which is better suited to you.
So before you consider responding to any requests or pitching your story, make sure you decide:
What subject areas are you happy to talk about? Where do you draw the line - are there any absolute no-go areas?
Are you happy to feature in all types of newspapers/online news publications? Is there any type of media (e.g. TV, magazines) you’re not OK doing? Is there any reason you wouldn’t be happy being featured in a particular publication?
If you have children, are you happy for them to be named and/or pictured in the media? What about your partner/family? Are they on board (if they need to be)?
In my case, for example, I have a personal rule that I don’t mention my partner (other than in a vague mysterious way like this) or include my son’s name or photos of his face in articles.
It really helps me know whether to reply to a request or not - e.g. if an editor says: “We need a mum who will be pictured with her kids talking about X” or “I need a couple to talk about their experience of X in their relationship”, I know it’s not worth me pitching myself, no matter how perfectly my life story fits the request.
It’s also worth noting that for any personal story, journalists will need to know your age, job and where you live. You can be vague about the job and location if necessary - “manager” or “entrepreneur” cover a multitude of professions, and journalists are usually happy to name your county or nearest major city if you don’t want to share your exact location in a small village, for example. But you can’t lie about your age, so make sure you’re OK with it being public knowledge!
2. Identify what you DO want to talk about
Just as important as setting clear boundaries about what you don’t want to share, is deciding what parts of your story you do want to put out there in public. My advice is to identify two or three subject areas/topics relevant to whatever you want to promote and pitch personal stories connected to these.
For example, although I actually report on all sort of varied topics in my day job, in recent years I’ve wanted to raise my profile as a journalist covering women’s health and parents’ rights. As a result, I have pitched some personal stories specifically linked to those topics, including my experiences of side effects from the Pill, systemic problems with maternity pay, birth trauma, more problems with maternity pay… (you get the idea).
These have helped raise my profile - so now I often get editors coming to me asking me to write about these subjects - and also helped promote my postnatal health podcast Mother Bodies.
You can use exactly the same strategy to pitch yourself, whatever field you’re connected to and whatever your personal story:
If you’re a career coach?: Pitch about your worst ever job experience and the final straw which made you quit.
A dog trainer?: Pitch about how working with dogs has helped your mental health - or how you secretly prefer dogs to your husband.
Launching a product to keep food fresher in the fridge?: Pitch a story about how you once threw away £100 of food in a month because you hadn’t eaten it in time.
The possibilities are endless - what is important is to be clear what subject areas you want to target and pitch personal stories relating to these.
3. Don’t try to pitch your whole life story at once
I regularly get pitch emails asking if I want to interview someone, which go more or less along these lines:
Ed Jones is a the founder of XYZ Company and is a fascinating person. He started his career in the meat processing business where he rose up to CEO before the age of 30. Then a mental health crisis inspired him to move to Bali and run a surfing school, where the amount of plastic pollution in the sea gave him the idea of turning waste plastic into jewellery. When the pandemic struck, he moved back to the UK and his waste jewellery business really took off! Now it has been awarded a XYZ Award for Small Businesses. Ed is also passionate about children’s musical education, he says that learning the drums saved him from being bullied at school. So 5% of all profits from XYZ Company go towards XYZ Charity bringing music into schools. Let me know if you’d like to interview Ed!
Ed has clearly led a very interesting and varied life, and it’s understandable why he wants to shout about all of these achievements, but there is WAY too much in here for a single pitch.
Journalists are almost always very short of time and get hundreds of emails a day. The best way to get a pitch accepted is to make it really clear, succinct and about one thing - in short, make it as easy as possible for the journalist. A pitch like this is far too much work for most journalists, because it’s asking us to make editorial decisions about what elements of Ed's complex life we should pick for a story.
A much better way of getting Ed’s experiences featured in the media would be to break these down into separate personal story pitches, targeted at relevant journalists/publications. Here are just a few examples:
Seeing my surfboard get tangled in plastic made me determined to clear up the oceans
I was a young CEO of a major firm but I burnt out - here’s why I advise people under-30 not to climb the career ladder too fast
I left the sunshine and beaches of Bali for the UK but I’ve never looked back
Learning the drums saved me from vicious school bullies
Not only are these pitches much easier for journalists to read and understand quickly, but Ed’s story is now multiple pitches, not just one. And the more ways you can find to pitch your story, the greater your chances of successfully landing coverage.
By breaking down your bigger life story down into single experiences, you create multiple opportunities to approach different journalists and publications - and you’re making it much more likely editors will say “yes” to your pitches.
So, we’ve covered how to decide what parts of your life story to pitch, but how do you actually pitch these?
Next week’s newsletter will cover some practical ways you can pitch yourself and your experiences to different publications - subscribe now so you don’t miss out!