Hi Reader,

You may or may not remember that last year, I interviewed PR pro Stephanie Lee, who taught me her PRO pitching framework. The ambitious goal? To get into Business Insider.

I was skeptical, but Stephanie promised it was worth a try.

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Within an hour of sending my Stephanie-approved pitch, I got a reply indicating interest from an editor at Insider. But then things went back and forth -- she had a family emergency, she was on holiday, she dropped the ball for a few months.

Somehow, time flew and it was 10 months later. I'd honestly given up hope of ever getting published. I didn't take it personally -- it happens.

But one year later, my pitch finally bore fruit. I had an article published in Business Insider.

The outcomes

It was wild, how much came out of that. I'll list what happened as a direct result:

• I got tons of LinkedIn requests and a few client calls off the back of that article.
• I went from 10-12 newsletter signups a day to between 30-50.
• I sold a few products mentioned in the article.
• Business Insider was way more open to additional pitches from me, so I've since had articles syndicated and commissioned by them.
  • That increased my own website's domain authority, since BI was linking to it. Pretty amazing!

All in all, it was 100% worth the wait. And what I loved was that Stephanie's process was NOT unique to me. It was NOT tailored to creators, or people who make over six figures, or anything like that. It was solid for ANYONE who had a story to tell.

If you're interested in giving it a try, I highly recommend you check out Stephanie's framwork. Stephanie talks about her "Pitch Like a Pro" process in this article and it's a must-read.

I get so caught up in trying to go viral that sometimes I forget the very real benefits of getting published in traditional media. You get:

• Authority. BI is a big name, and it means a lot that I got published with them.
• More guaranteed traffic. BI has its own audience!
• Sometimes a flat fee! BI paid between $250 and $350 for that, and other, articles. I've earned more from Medium articles, yes, but I've also earned a heck of a lot less way more often.

This was such a good reminder that it pays to vary your strategy. If social media like Medium or YouTube isn't working super well, pivot to pitching publications, and vice versa. I learned a ton from the experience, and I'm thrilled to share this outcome with y'all.

Happy writing,

Zulie