More than a decade ago, Colorado consultant Debra Benton gave her career a lasting boost in less than one minute. She called a famous columnist and told him in one sentence what she did: teach executives how to have charisma. The columnist took her number and called her back a week later for an interview.The day his article appeared, she received calls from Time and Newsweek as well as from several executives who turned into clients. Time ran its own story on her, which led to writeups in Barron's, Financial Weekly, The New York Times, "CBS This Morning" and "Good Morning America." Much of her business -- and her ability to charge thousands of dollars a day for her services -- indirectly stems from that phone call to that columnist.
What can you learn from this?
First, she used a concise, intriguing characterization of herself. This takes most people much more than one minute to formulate. Unless you have an unusual job title, such as Florida State Official Handwriting Analyst, your job title won't perform this function. Instead you need to delve below "stockbroker," "specialty shoe wholesaler" or "sports trainer" to put into words
results that you produce for some group of people. The shoe wholesaler might say, "I help men spend a whole day on their feet in comfort."
You'll know you've done it right when people lean forward after you reel off your sentence and ask you, "How do you do that?"
Second, Benton did research necessary to reach someone who would probably respond well to her pitch. Although her research consisted simply of taking note of personality and interests of columnist, whom she regularly read anyway, you may need a few trips to library or Internet to find right media person to call. Consider audience you hope to reach and what publications they read or what programs they watch or listen to. Or consult an up-to-date media directory in reference department of almost any public library.
