DIY PR for Beauty Pros: Local Media, Influencers, and the Power of Visibility

You don’t need a massive budget or a celebrity agent to get publicity—you just need a story, some scrappy energy, and the confidence to be seen. In this episode, I’m joined by Melinda Jackson, founder of Melinda Jackson Public Relations, a North Carolina-based agency that specializes in media placements and brand storytelling. With a background in entertainment PR and clients ranging from music icons to lifestyle brands, Melinda shares what it really takes to get your name out there—and how beauty pros can apply these same strategies locally.

We dive into:

• The difference between PR, marketing, and advertising (and why it matters)
• Fast, messy action: how Melinda built a sold-out networking event from a Threads post
• Easy PR wins for stylists, salon owners, and educators
• Why hiding is doing your dream clients a disservice
• How to pitch yourself to local news stations and influencers without cringing
• Media training 101 (no, you don’t need to be perfect)
• And the power of personal branding to unlock what's next in your career

Whether you're dreaming of education, growing your salon, or just ready to be more visible—this conversation is your permission slip to go for it.

Resources & Links:
🔗 Connect with Melinda Jackson: IG: @melindajacksonpr @melindagale
www.melindajacksonpr.com
📣 DM me if you try any of these PR strategies—I want to cheer you on!

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Transcript

Audio Only - All Participants: 0:05

Hello friends. Welcome back to Stylist Soul Tribe Conversations. I am joined today by Melinda Jackson. She is the founder of Melinda Jackson Public Relations, a rally North Carolina based agencies specializing in media placements and brand storytelling with a background in entertainment. She has worked with top names across music. Film, fashion and lifestyle. Melinda is known for crafting narratives that demand attention and drive impact. A few weeks back, maybe a few months back, Melinda reached out to me pitching one of her clients that she works with, saying like, would you like to have this person on the podcast? I think they'd be a great fit. And I was like, yes, absolutely. I'm always open to having people on the podcast, but also I went to Melinda's Instagram and started just. Consuming some of her content. And I was like, girl, I also want you on the podcast'cause I'm really fascinated about what you're talking about. I love getting my education and inspiration from outside industries. And I was looking at Melinda's, Instagram, and I was like. This is fascinating from so many levels and so many perspectives that I think you guys would really get a lot out of it. So before we hit record, we were just kind of touching base, talking about things that we can go over and I'm really, really excited for you guys to get to know Melinda, and we're just gonna have a really candid conversation like I always do here. So, Melinda, go ahead and give a little intro. Tell us who you are. A little bit about your business, how you've got started, and we'll dive in. Yeah, absolutely. So it's time for me to trauma dump now. My favorite, let's go. so I'm Mil Jackson. I was, born and raised in a small town in North Carolina. And after I. College. I, moved to Los Angeles with$500 in my pocket. No job knew no one. Amazing. Nothing. Drove across the country, literally as far as you can go, you know, from one coast to the other. Amazing. and, and moved to LA literally with$500 in just a ton of shit in my car. And, made it work because I wanted to work in public relations and I didn't know anybody that worked in that or anything that wasn't on tv. And so that's what I did. So moved to la. hustled for seven years, did all the glitz and glam PR things. So when you even say PR and public relations, like what does that consist of? Yeah, so obviously entertainment is gonna be a little bit different than what I do now. So, for entertainment, it's, We had, like musicians, so say that would be like tour press, like trying to help them promote their tour dates, sell those out, get them into award shows, get them into premieres. I would be the person on the red carpet wearing all black with like the headset on and like shuffling someone down team. Okay. If the person in the background that al always photo bombs, that was me. Cool. so is there any, like, do you ever name drop some really cool people? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like I've literally some examples like I've. I've worked with everyone, so I have a Grammy, which is great. And that was for a random audio book that a client did and they won. And I'm like, I am now a Grammy award-winning publicist. I also have an Emmy. Incredible. and so these were just projects, but like I got to take boys to men to the Grammys and it was so funny'cause I'm on the red carpet with boys to men and I'm like. No one would dance with me in eighth grade to your songs. And I'm seeing people from MTV that I grew up like, like the journalists that work for MTV who now work for other outlets and I'm like. I'm fangirling over them, but like, people from TRL and then like, 30 seconds to Mars and Jared Leto come up and they're like, can we speak to boys? I'm like, you can speak to anyone you want. And like seeing Stevie Nicks walk by and like, wow, I have all these weird photo bombs of me at the Grammys. And it was, that was my life all the time. So, very long story short, I did that for seven years. I was making$0 and I was working 24 7 and my mental health was not where it needed to be. So right before I turned 30. I at my dream PR firm in, in la and it was so toxic. It was the worst. And like, it doesn't exist anymore. So it's fine. I can say that. Yeah. And the, the person no longer works there that I was working under, but it was horrible. It was so bad. Mm-hmm. And so I just. Packed up everything, sold as much as I could and moved back to North Carolina. Okay. So I worked in an agency here and realized it was just as toxic as anyone else. So I started my own company, honestly, by accident because I couldn't find a job. No one here in North Carolina understood what my background was. So I started my own company six years ago, and now I work, primarily with female founders who wanna position themselves as thought leaders. some have product based, businesses and some don't. But, really just helping them get exposure and, do brand partnerships or influencer partnerships or get on podcasts like this one. So neat, so cool. not only are people not gonna really know, what having a publicist looks like, but they've never even thought that they ever would in any world need one. And so I said to Melinda, Who I think this is relevant to is probably everybody I'd love to go into very intentionally building a personal brand'cause I'm very passionate about that as well. That's something that I've been doing for years as I've been growing just because I consume so much business content and personal branding content. and I think that serves anyone and everyone well if they wanna build anything. so I think this is really gonna speak to a lot of salon owners. I think this is gonna speak to a lot of people who want to pursue education one day. Or kind of figure out their, I call it big magic, what's next? Something beyond behind the chair and an exit strategy. So really like how would you explain this to somebody who is so. Naive to all of this and have no idea what any of this is. How would you explain it? Yeah, so PR is different than marketing or advertising. Advertising is gonna be your, like, I paid for this thing, here's a billboard, here's my photo on something. Here's my commercial. Here's my ad in a newspaper that's advertising. Marketing, I say, is more tangible, but marketing is very fluid and it's just kind of all over the place. But normally is more fee related as well. So you know, it can be your website, it can be making sure you have SEO, it can be your social media. It can be a lot of things. PR is. Again, any of that outward facing stuff, but it's really how you're relating to the public. So what is the public's view of you? How are you interacting with the public? So that's interviews and newspapers that's getting on your local TV station, lifestyle show, podcast interviews. Anything like that. So any of that organic media. My what, what comes up in my brain?'cause I talk to hairstylists and salon owners all day, every day is like a salon owner who has, created this dream salon, has the vision, has the mission, has all the things, maybe has like one or two stylists, but they wanna like grow to be that level. Not only that level for all the clients to be flowing in, but even for that's where they want stylists to work. Like how would you speak to somebody with your background and. Your education in that position. Yeah. So I think it, it really just depends on what their, their goals look like. Totally. And you know, like, obviously if you wanna grow, great. Okay. So, is there a local influencer you could partner with and have them come in and, and style them or do their hairstyle or whatever, do a blowout for them even, just anything like that, just to get that content rolling and just to, to get, the word out. Awareness. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Is there a local maker that could do a pop-up shop in your salon? Just to get a little more foot traffic in, just so you become top of mind for people, you know, those creative things like that. Don't take a lot of time, don't take a lot of money, but can really help you increase awareness, so then you increase your customers, then you have to grow. Yes, absolutely. And I was looking at your Instagram before we hopped on and I saw you do this female founder Happy Hour. Tell us a little bit about what that is and as I was watching your videos of it, it is honestly kind of similar to even what I've created inside of Stylus Soul Tribe. I just really believe in connection. I consider myself a super connector. I think that's the one thing that like is very naturally comes to me. But I do think there's just so much power in local networking. Networking as a whole, but especially local networking. And I'm constantly encouraging my, students and members to collaborate with a local med spa, collaborate with a local boutique, have a popup, have an event. So I would love to just kind of hear what. Other ideas come to you for our industry that maybe we don't think about all the time. Yeah. So, and tell us a little bit about the, the Happy hour as well. so the happy hour really, I created it from a place of, okay, I've gone to all of these other networking events. They're either charging too much and it's just like weirdos there. It's a lot of MLM girlies, which I mean, if that's your thing, that's your thing. It's not my thing. It's not my thing either. And we've found that as well. Like, the local hairstylist will want to network and collaborate and they go to one of those things. And it is a ton of MLS. Yes, exactly. Not doing that. For sure. We're not doing that. And like I grew up 45 minutes from Raleigh, but it's still the good old boys club here. And I, I didn't go to the college here and or colleges here, and I wasn't in the sororities, so. I feel like I'm already at a disadvantage, then I'm doing something that people don't understand. Yeah. You dunno what PR is. And I don't have clients here. My clients are all over the world, so I was like, fuck this, I'm just gonna do my own thing. And so I posted on threads one day and I said, Hey, anybody in Raleigh, any female founders, you wanna like meet up for happy hour? Last month it was a brand new idea. Brand new. It already looks so legit. Amazing. Keep going. So literally it was an accident. I had over a hundred likes. I had like 30 something comments, people sliding into my DM saying, I want this. So I was like, the market wants it. Yeah. So I go to my coworking space. I talked to the person at the front desk and I'm like, can I just host a happy hour here, blah, blah, blah. And they said, sure. We don't care. We'll give you extra wine and snacks that we have. I'm like, wonderful. So literally, I just made something on my calendar. I call it fast, messy action. I didn't make an event, right. I was like, I'm doing this on Calendly. I don't care. It'll send'em text messages. It does what it needs to do. Amazing. I posted it everywhere that night. I had 15 RSVPs and I was capping it at 15 years. Free. You charging for it? No free. Amazing. I don't wanna charge because I don't want it to not be accessible to everybody. The long term goal is to connect and have business come from there. It's not for this to be the business. Yes, yes, yes. I don't care like. I always say my rent is paid. My rent is paid. So whatever. I just want a space to connect and for people to connect. Totally, totally. Because I'm like you, I love connection. So, yeah, like literally sold it out. and I just sent it to my newsletter list. I have like 500 people on it and one of the people on it was a local, journalist, and she was like, Hey, we wanna come cover it. For the ABC station, and I said no. Three times. I was like, no, no, nobody's gonna come. You were just afraid. Yeah. I was like, don't come. Nobody's gonna come. You're gonna be in there with a camera and just me. Please don't come. And she's like, are you sure? I'm like, fuck it. We're doing it. Like let's go. Literally go. Yeah. It wasn't live right? They could have scrapped it. No, it was live. Oh, okay. So that is really scary. I did really scared. They did pre-recording and live hits. Wow. So the second I got to like 46 RSVPs out of 50, I said. Okay, we're gonna hit 50. There's gonna be some people. It's okay. We'll be alright. Love. So I let them come. We ended up having about 40 women there because some people drop off. Of course. it was on the news and that night I posted the link for the next one. So my next one is next month. amazing. I have 25 people already out of 50. Wow. And I still have two or three weeks. And we need to continue to connect after we're recording.'cause I have some people in your area that I would love to connect you with. Yes. And I, I got a wine sponsor, I got everything. So it's so fun. Yes. So all of that to say is you can do this in your salon, in your med spa, whatever. Yes. I did PR for a national Med spa brand, medical Aesthetics Studio. Okay. That's what we called it. And they have 25 locations. This is the kinda shit we would do all the time. we would contact the local networking group and said, Hey, we would love to host you four and a happy hour. We'll give everybody$10 unit Botox. We'll give you, 20% off memberships. If you sign up tonight, we'll provide the food and drinks. And it would bring in 30 women to their lobby. And half of'em would get 12 shots that night. So this is easy stuff that you can do to create community and be a resource for your community. Absolutely. Could not agree more. And I agree. Every single salon owner, or even, even if you're an independent stylist, if you're a booth renter, if you have a studio suite, you could do this in a different location. It doesn't have to be in your salon space. I. So hardcore agree with local networking. When I was building my clientele behind the chair, people will ask me, you know, sometimes to teach the marketing. I don't love teaching, like growing your clientele from scratch. Because quite literally when I was doing that, I. I was just literally throwing thing at the wall. What is gonna work? Every single morning I woke up and I was like, how can I kill something and drag it home today? And I love that you take fast, messy action. The original post that I saw on your Instagram that made me message you of like, why don't you come on, you were talking about how it's okay to be seen and how when you hide you're doing so many people a disservice. And I was like that alone. My people need to hear because there are so many people, in our industry, they'll talk about like, God, when I got into this, I just thought I was gonna be making people feel beautiful. I didn't realize I was gonna have to be this public figure. I didn't realize I was gonna have to be this social media marketer, this photographer, this videographer. And I think a lot of that does come from fear and mental blocks and the fear of being seen and the stories that they've had. So I'd love for you to pop off on that a little bit and share your insight there. Yeah, I mean, it's hard for me too, and, and I realized a long time ago, like. Okay. I am a voice for other people. I, I grew up, I was a cheerleader for 12 years. I cheered in college. I was a cheerleader too. I love it. Yes. I was all cheer. That's why Cheer, competitive cheer. Yes. That's why we're like this amazing. and then after college I coached when I lived in LA and I couldn't find a job. So all that fun stuff. So I am now just a cheerleader for other people and I realized like. my business will not grow unless I get in front of it. And my business is literally Melinda Jackson Public Relations. I was like, this is easy. It's my name. I have to actually be the face, I have to get out in front. People are not going to bang my door down and ask me to be on a panel, ask me to be on a podcast. I have to reach out. And I think so many people tell themselves that story. like even when we talk about, like right now, I'll have people hairstylists that wanna go into education that I'll be like, okay, let's, you know, this month, focus on pitching yourself. And they'll be like. Oh, I just assumed that like I had to be invited or I had to like, no, no. That's not how any of this works. No. You have to not just like kind of put yourself in front of people. You have to like throw yourself at people in order to build these connections. Get your name out there. I could not agree more. I. Yeah. And I even, I took a LinkedIn cohort recently. And one of the prompts for us was, if you want speaking gigs, literally post on LinkedIn and say, I've been so booked in busy with speaking gigs. Even if you haven't, I've been so booked in busy with speaking gigs, I would love to book some more. Because my calendar's filling up. Let me know if you know any tag, somebody that needs somebody. Something like that. Yeah. And it works like if you wanna be on podcast, if you wanna. You know, have thought leadership and do speaking gigs and things like that. You can post it and it's okay. Which I realized that's really fucking scary. But I all day, every day have to show up for other people. I have to be their cheerleader. I have to pitch other people and get rejected for other people every day. I can't be afraid to pitch myself. I can't be afraid to get rejected because somebody's gonna say, oh, fuck you out. Like. Let's go and like you, like I literally reached out to you and you're like, wait, you need to be on my podcast. Yeah. It still gives you the same. Credibility. but I, I did really click and connect with, and it's really no surprise that we were both cheerleaders and I kind of hate the, the notion that goes with that, but I think that's true. And I think when you kind of get over the fear of being seen from such a young age, it's a little bit. Easier. do you remember a time or it sounds like it does come natural to you. I'm always trying to figure out what I need to say to those people who it just does not come natural to them and they can't even get the momentum started of getting them, like putting themselves out there. Has that always been who you are or what tips do you have? Because I really loved when you said you're doing so many people a disservice when you don't show up. Like, yeah. What would you say to that? So, a few things. So I have always been naturally extroverted. That's just me. Mm-hmm. I am in therapy. I have anxiety and depression, all the things that all millennial women probably have at this point. But I have all of that, and at some point I just have to say, fuck it. Like, fuck it, like. Sure. it's like they say, choose your hard. Like you're miserable not being seen. And you say Next year, one year one day one, I'll, I'll do it. But eventually you just have to go for it. and I also realize, and this is something I tell my clients all the time. Especially in thought leadership, we all have a completely different story. And for me, my story is always saying, look, I. I trusted myself. For some reason I moved across the country and made it work. Yeah. And I struggle with anxiety and depression and I made it work and I got myself outta bad situations. And now look, I'm thriving. And yes, I still have bullshit that happens. And my brain doesn't always work properly, but I'm making it happen and I'm showing up. by me telling that story, I am showing other people that if they are going through the same thing, then they can show up too. And so everyone has a story. Everyone has a testimony that they can. Speak to. And you never know who's listening or who you're gonna help or who's gonna connect with you. Yeah. And be like, I would ride or die for this bitch. Totally. Like I have to support her business. Totally. So that's why it's so important. And you do do someone a disservice when you stay silent. Absolutely. I could not agree more. And I think we all have. A different pull on our heart, and I'm so like intuitive and I'm so intuitively led, and I think, some people have a harder time tapping into that. But like if there's a moment where I'm just like driving or taking a shower, those moments of white space where those ideas come to you and you're like, I really feel like I should share this, or like, I, it was so many people just stuff that down and be like, oh no, who am I? I'm not gonna say that. I'm not gonna do that, but I'm just. Constantly kind of following that, almost like a breadcrumb trail, trusting that that will bring me, to where it needs to bring me. So I think I agree with you wholeheartedly. I think it takes one to know, one of, just kind of like going for it fast, messy action, putting yourself out there, you put in the talking points, how to get PR for yourself. If you don't have a budget, how would you expect? Explain that specifically to my industry, that piece. Yeah, absolutely. So, I know a lot of your audience are probably like solopreneurs like me. Like I am also a service-based business. There's so many easy things you can do, and I already mentioned some of it. Is it like connecting with a local influencer? It's like, Hey, we would love to have you come in. Yeah. How? Okay, let's really break that down to like a micro level. Yeah. Where do they start? How do they find them? What do they say? Yes. What does that actually look like? Yeah. How do we properly navigate doing something like that? Well, one, you might get screwed. that's just a gamble you have to take. but I would really just like go through and lurk, like lurk your local influencers, people that, you know, are gaining traction locally and that have really good engagement and just see who feels like a good fit. And follow them and engage with them a little bit. Then slide into their dms and say, Hey, Melinda. we love your content. Like you're so silly. We would love to welcome you in for X, y, and Z service. Like totally on the house. obviously we, we would love it if you posted stories about it, posted some content about it. We're really trying to grow our business and we understand that you normally get paid for these things, but any help you could give us would be amazing. If they say no, they say no and move on to the next one. But I just wanna say I, for a while there was like getting PR packages. I still do a little bit, but I was like really pitching for PR packages a long time ago and I was doing YouTube videos and talking about hair product. Even for local influencers. So eventually it's like, okay, the packages of just stuff gets exhausting, but they need to get their hair done. They could use a fresh blowout even if they don't, even if they love, love, love their hair, girl who gives them their highlights or their extensions or anything like that. A fresh blowout with a little bit of, and then like really show the amenities and really show the guest experience. That could be huge. Exactly. And I think for on the receiving end, it's not like you're like, let me send you my bracelets, which that's incredible too, but like. Chances are a local person would jump on something like that. Exactly. And it can be as simple as, Hey girl, we know you go to a lot of events, we would love to give you a blowout before one of them. Or we would love to do your makeup before one, or your nails or whatever. and like obviously you're not paying them and you're giving them a service. Some, every influencer is different. Just do not 100% bank on this completely changing the game for you Or them doing like perfect content for you. it could go wrong and that's okay. But again, it's the throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. If you do 15 things and one of them really takes off, that's better than doing nothing at all. influencers are great. Like I said before, welcome people in. If you have a physical space, welcome people in. that did wonders for the, med Spa brand. I did PR four. Mm-hmm. I've worked with Drybar locally here in North Carolina. Same thing, or we would pop up at events. I would reach out to organizations and say, Hey, we know you're doing an event on X Day. We would love to do a braid bar at it. We would love to do dress styling at it if we could. Absolutely. So things like that are really simple. It's just getting in front of people and it takes a few times, I think when I was in college, they said, oh, you have to see something like. Five to seven times before someone buys in. Well, now it's 30, I believe it's, yes. It's all the, you know, social media and everything. The volume of advertisements we get. Absolutely. So you have to do something, but also think about if you are at an event and you get that one-on-one time with someone And invest in them. They're gonna invest in you. So that's so important. So those things are easy. Then another thing, if you're a stylist and you're like. Okay, wedding season is coming up. I have all these ideas for Updos, for brides. Go to your local TV station. If there's a lifestyle show, reach out to them. You can DM them. You can find their email on their website. Normally it's like, hello@abceleven.com or whatever. Okay. Send them an email and. Hey, I'm Melinda. I'm a stylist of 15 years. I would love to come in and do a segment, about bridal hairstyles. I can bring in models and here's the talking points that I would love to speak. Okay? And again, I coach a lot to specialization. That's very much going on in our industry right now. And the people who are specializing are really seeing success. So. Bridal stylist. Absolutely. curl specialist. Mm-hmm. What if you came on and did a curly styling? yep. tutorial. hair loss specialist. Speaking of things like that, extension specialists, toppers, there are so many things that you could do. So really stop and think of like. Who is your target market and your target audience? And I love the idea of reaching out to, local. I would also feel nervous to do that. So you're saying like even obviously the big cities, it's probably even harder. But like I am, I'm in a small town Illinois, that's kind of where I'm at. But like, my guess is they probably have way less content to talk about small town Illinois. And they need talk on math. They need it. Yeah, they need it. So where are you in Illinois? central Illinois, like Bloomington area. Okay, so it's kind of like college town. Yeah. So, is there, there has to be a news station there. Oh yeah, definitely. There definitely is. I have a client that works at Fund actually. Yeah. Yes. So it's like reaching out to them and saying, Hey, I would love to talk about X, Y, and Z. All you need is three talking points. That's all they need because this segment is three minutes. So how? what do you say to somebody who's like, I'm so incredibly scared to do that. How on earth do I actually pull that off? Well, one ask if it's pre-taped or live. If it's pre-taped, you'll be fine. They can edit it a little bit. If it's live practice, like literally. Record yourself. Ask them for the questions that they're gonna ask you beforehand. Or say, Hey, I've never done this before. I'm really scared. These are the questions I would love for you to ask me. So If you make it super easy on them, they're gonna love you because they have to produce 15 segments in an hour. They don't have time for this shit. So if you're like, Hey, here's the three questions. I'm prepared to an like answer. Here's my answers, here's makes my salon experience different. Yes. Here's yes. Love a, another thing that is like the easiest win in the world mm-hmm. Is go to all those, all the media outlets in your area. They have an events calendar. there's a submission button on most of those. Submit your events. If you're having like, a 10% off Botox week. amazing. Put it on there. Amazing. Put it because that helps with SEO that gets on there and sometimes they'll even pull that and put it. In a main news segment or,'cause they just need things to talk about. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And again, our industry is so local based, and I don't think this is talked about a lot in our industry that if you are a local stylist, salon owner, nail technician, aesthetician, like why would you not take advantage of that? And then my guess is once you connect with somebody, again, I'm thinking of my client that works at the One news station, they're gonna circle back and try to promote you and talk about you all the time. So your goal is to be their go-to. Their go-to stylist, nail artist, whatever. Yeah. Like be their go-to invite. If, if you have a local news station and you're like that, the like head anchor, she's awesome. I would love to give her blowouts great because they get paid.$2 a day. They, like journalists are grossly underpaid. They normally don't have any kind of styling budget. they have to pay all that outta their pocket and they're also on camera. Like I, my husband and grandma always talks about the lady on the news's hair. Think about it. So if she came on with fresh hair and it looked incredible and she mentioned who did it, like that would be huge. Yeah, exactly. Even so normally they can't mention it on air. Okay. But they can mention on their social media. Okay. So like for dry bar, I invited all the, the news ladies in there because I know they're in there at five o'clock in the morning trying to do their hair and you know, if you get a blowout you can, you can keep that blowout good for a couple of days. So I still see to this day, and I haven't done their PR in five years. Still see these ladies tagging Drybar all the time. Incredible. Because they go in there. This is such a fun, fresh, new perspective and something that I've totally never, I mean obviously I've thought about a little bit with like local events, but not from a public relations standpoint to it. So, I guess one other thing I had on my talking points, and then you also feel free to share anything else that feels relevant to, my audience. But, I just kind of wanted to ask like, media training, what does that mean? What is that? Is that, should people be out here? Seeking that. Can you in a quick blurb give us an overview of what that is, but like what does that even mean? Yeah. Media training is just kind of making sure you're not doing the Ron Burgundy. Like, what do I do with my hands? Or for anchorman or whatever. No, like making sure you're not doing that. So like I talk a lot with my hands. You probably saw on my Instagram, the news came to the freaking thing. Yeah. so media training is really like making sure you know what to wear if you're on camera. So don't wear something really busy because that's gonna. Distract. Distract. Yeah. Like try to try to wear like simple things and like how to fix your hair or how to move your hands or, trying to keep things to like three to four talking points. So if you go on there and you completely fucking black out mm-hmm. You know what to say and you have these things in your brain. Yeah. that's really media training. Do you need it all the time? Not always. but what I always tell people to do is, practice, like record yourself, practice on camera. Have one of your friends or husband or whoever, do a fake interview with you. And just see how weird you look and you'll notice what you have to change very quickly. for our industry, I do things called intensives inside a stylist soul tribe, where I coach people much more intense for like a three month span. And this last intensive that we're in the middle of right now is marketing. Focused and there is someone specifically who's coming to my mind. She'll know I'm talking about her when she hears this, but she has never really like done a face to camera video. She's just done like pictures of the back'cause of people's head pictures of products. And during this intensive, she is like setting up her camera. She's learning so much. And so I think in our industry that is you've, if you've really gotten stuck in your ways with social media and you're just posting the same things over and over and over again. It all still makes me nervous as hell. And I think that's the answer that most people just need to hear is you've gotta do it scared. but I think that that's probably what our version of media training would look like. Yeah. Yeah. And like you said, do the messy action. just go on your Instagram. On your stories and do it. I posted something on my personal yesterday and I had like a crazy filter on and I was like, I feel so bad for women that feel like they have to have this on every time. They go on their stories because I'll go in there with no makeup looking like somebody's grandma and I don't give a shit. I don't care that I look ugly on the internet sometimes because this is me and this is me being authentic and people connect with that. Yeah, absolutely. I could not agree more. So I'm really glad that I trusted my gut and asked you to come on. I think this has been really fun. is there anything else that you wanna add or anything else you feel like we didn't cover that we should? Yeah, like if anyone has any PR questions, please feel free to reach out to me. Okay. I am happy to answer anything if you're like, Hey, I just need 15 minutes and, and like, pick your brain. I have a. A link for that. I have all the things, if you actually wanna do consulting or something. I got you. If you just are like, slide into my dms and you're like, I just need you to answer this one question, I'm happy to help. Like you're a real person. Yes. Mm-hmm. My rent is paid. I can. And you're just trying to connect to help people. It doesn't hurt me to help people, so I say that all the time. This is one of my favorite reasons I started the podcast a little over a year ago, and this has been my favorite thing is like, dms, you just. You connect with someone on dms, you kind of forget you ever had the conversation. I am just obsessed with getting to have these longer form conversations.'cause now you're gonna be my girl. I'm gonna think about you. When something comes up and it's like, oh, I actually know whose brain I can pick for that. Love, love, love. If you guys take action on any of these things, whether it's the open house in the salon, the influencer, you know, reach out, for complimentary services, reaching out to your local news station. Shoot Melinda dm. Shoot me a DM too. Yeah, because I wanna hear about that as well. thank you Melinda. I appreciate it so much. This has been a boy. thank you. And I'll have all of Melinda's, website, social medias, everything in the show notes, all the information you guys could ever need will be in the show notes. thank you again for coming on and thank you everybody so much for listening, and I will talk to you all next week. Bye bye.