Sara Sheehan’s guest in this episode is Ashley Graham, CEO and founder of The Conscious Publicist. Ashley advocates for purpose-driven businesses and their potential to create positive change which she talks about in depth with Sara. She discusses her motivation for PR and assisting clients in increasing their reach and impact through the carefully curated services she offers. Ashley’s sense of strategy and leadership shine in this conversation.
Through sharing a bit of her personal story, it becomes clear that Ashley has always been drawn to utilizing her extroverted skill set and ability to define thought leadership for the benefit of others. She has an extensive history of PR and marketing so The Conscious Publicist and her desire to empower women in business were a match made in entrepreneurial heaven. Ashley describes how she creates value for her clients through the detailed packages she has to offer.
In this episode, Sara Sheehan and Ashley Graham reflect on Ashley’s guidance of Sara in her publicity journey and how the impact of Ashley’s knowledge greatly aided in Sara’s success. They break down the importance of the market research and the tracking resources Ashley accesses for her clients, how podcasts work to get their messages to a whole new audience, and some of Ashley’s aspirations for the future of her business. What comes across is a business with a clear purpose and a founder, in Ashley, who cares greatly about how thought leadership can benefit the growth of her clients.
About Ashley Graham:
Ashley Graham is a publicist, entrepreneur and thought leader who is widely acknowledged for her approach to business and leadership. Ashley has sharp business acumen and a passion for innovation, which has helped her navigate the complexities of entrepreneurship to become a trailblazer in her industry.
Ashley’s exceptional leadership skills and commitment to excellence have been the driving force behind her business. She is dedicated to fostering diversity and empowering women in business, which can be seen in the success and growth of her enterprise. Her strategic advisory, decision-making, and forward-thinking approach have earned her accolades for her contributions to the business world.
Apart from being a business founder, Ashley Graham is also a highly respected PR and thought leadership advisor. Her extensive experience provides valuable insights and guidance to individuals and organizations seeking to enhance their influence and impact. Ashley’s ability to navigate the dynamic landscape of PR, media, and thought leadership reflects her deep understanding of industry trends and commitment to driving meaningful change.
—
Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:
Contact Ashley Graham:
- Website: TheConsciousPublicist.com
- Podcast: The Conscious Publicist with Ashley Graham
- Ashley Graham on LinkedIn
__
Transcript
Sara Sheehan: [00:00:02] Hi there, I’m Sara Sheehan and welcome to my podcast Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. Today I’m talking with my friend Ashley Graham, CEO and founder of The Conscious Publicist. She advocates for purpose-driven businesses and their potential to create positive change. With a deep belief in the power of storytelling, Ashley and her team are dedicated to helping clients build meaningful connections and relationships. She considers her work’s people relations aspect to be vital in fostering a more conscious and sustainable world by guiding clients and developing the necessary practices and strategies to align their connections with their goals. Ashley aims to shape a future where conscious living is the norm. The Conscious Publicist solves the problem of purpose-driven businesses, digital entrepreneurs and visionaries needing assistance to amplify their message and gain visibility among their target audience by providing tailored PR and media services that align with the client’s values and goals. Ashley and her team help create a strong brand identity, increase visibility, and amplify messages that resonate with their intended audience. Ultimately, their mission is to empower these businesses and leaders to positively impact the world. Wow. With that, Ashley, I just want to welcome you. I am so glad to have you here with me today. Can you share with me and our listeners how you found your genius work in PR?
Ashley Graham: [00:01:51] Absolutely. Well, first off, Sara, it’s just amazing to be in this space with you. You and I have had an incredible journey together in the space of PR and media. So to have this conversation, I think, it’s in full alignment and it’s going to be really good.
Sara Sheehan: [00:02:08] Thank you so much I appreciate that.
Ashley Graham: [00:02:11] Yeah, of course. Well, just to start, my journey into PR, I like to say, found me. It was not something that I had intentionally set out to enter into public relations. But with roughly 14,15 years in marketing and PR being an influence in marketing, it was only inevitable that I was going to get to this intersection that I’m in today. As for my entrepreneurial journey, I started my first business in March of 2016 with the hopes to be a full-service marketing and branding agency for conscious businesses. But as I found where my skill set and my personality thrived was more so in the PR and media relations space. I am a very introverted person, but I have extroverted skill sets, extroverted qualities, and just with my personality, I find that the world of PR and media relations, given the capabilities to meet incredible people, I had found my space. But when it comes to the thought leadership part of my industry, or just my work in general, is where I have really found what they like to call your niche. Through my entrepreneur journey, the first eight years or so, being a solo founder and an entrepreneur, I had realized that where marketing and PR and media relations was evolving was really speaking the language of thought leadership. So through years of getting my own PR opportunities to shine in my thought leadership, I had really learned that my specialties and my expertise really lied in thought leadership as it pertained to public relations. So it’s kind of an unorthodox journey as to where I found where I am today, but I think that that is one of the most incredible things about entrepreneurship, is you might set out on a path to be in one phase of the business or one industry, but leaving things up to chance and letting yourself evolve and adapt. I really had transitioned and naturally was pulled into the thought leadership space as it pertained to PR and media, and that’s really where I found my genius work as you say.
Sara Sheehan: [00:04:42] Excellent. Well I can certainly attest to your effectiveness in the role, having been a client over time with you and having even had the opportunity to see you grow during that time. So I am a full client success story in and of for you and your business, even as a part of the podcast.
Ashley Graham: [00:05:13] Yes, it’s so amazing to see where the podcast has transformed since the very early stages. I remember sitting down with you and ideating what your title was going to be, your about copy, just different avenues that you can explore with the podcast. And that’s why I really led in with how much of an honor it is to be here, is because I’ve been able to watch you birth the show into creation and follow along with your guests in their journey since the launch of the show. And it’s been amazing to see.
Sara Sheehan: [00:05:51] Thank you so much. It’s been a wonderful experience, I will say, and I can even see my own growth in it as well. And so, Ashley, can you define a little bit about your PR expansion program and how you work with clients on it? I believe this is exactly what you did with me, but you can speak to that here today.
Ashley Graham: [00:06:20] Absolutely. So just from the traditional sense, my PR expansion program with The Conscious Publicist is what some of the listeners might recognize as a full-service or all-in representation retainer program with a PR agency. Now, I like to create a little bit of twist with my programs and really have the naming convention of our offers to really speak to the transformation that the service provides. So with the PR expansion program, it really is just that. You’re retaining The Conscious Publicist as your publicist and as your PR agency to really expand upon all of your PR and media relations, capacities, or even just room for growth and to adapt and evolve as a business in those spaces and doing all of the management and execution to bring your business into visibility in that space.
Ashley Graham: [00:07:25] So if I was going to again use, Sara, your experience as a client, we really dove into first, the onboarding process of extracting what your core thought leadership expertise was going to be and matching that to high-level research and development to understand exactly what your pulse of thought leadership was going to be in the media. And we were able to come together and work on a number of different articles to get placed in trade publications, worked with a number of podcast hosts to get you shown and highlighted on their platforms, but also one of the other forms of media that I think we really had a lot of success, was taking your quotes and your commentary and different conversations that we had to mold into different content pieces to put out to the right editors and to the right writers to get you placement in those publications or the media that directly aligned with your business. Another thing that I wanted to mention, is something that is managed in our PR expansion program, outside of managing all of our content writing, the media relations part of it, but is really tracking and understanding the digital SEO capacities that digital PR brings. So I know that that was something that you and I looked at very closely, was trying to understand exactly how those efforts were translating into even more reach and visibility for you, your business, online, and how to create those connection points.
Sara Sheehan: [00:09:09] Absolutely, yes. And I can say from my experience in working with you, all of the outlets that we worked with were in alignment with me, the type of work that I do and my personal values. So if there was anything that I didn’t feel resonated with the way I wanted to show up, that was a very open point of feedback. You were very open to the discussion of making sure that we were talking with outlets that supported me, and showing up as the professional that I am, and that’s something that is very important to me as I talk about PR. I could never work with someone that wasn’t focused on serving a client like you are.
Ashley Graham: [00:10:00] You know, you hit on a really incredible point there because I find that outside of showcasing what type of support somebody in Myspace, PR, public relations, what they can do to support a client. It goes so much deeper than just securing opportunities, really making sure that the language and the intentionality of where you’re being highlighted aligns with the core values. But there’s this space that needs to be nurtured as well as being flexible and adaptable, that even when you think an opportunity is going to be a good fit for the client, sometimes you don’t know that it is going to be a good fit unless you’ve taken those conversations further. So with all of the media contacts that we had built relationships with on behalf of you and your business, there was usually always multiple touching points. It took about maybe three different calls or three different emails to really understand exactly what that piece was going to look like, and if the language and the tone was going to best represent you. And I don’t think that that’s talked about nearly as much, and I’m going to take this as a good idea to nurture, is the, not nuance things that happen behind the scenes, but the things that a publicist or a PR agency really nurtures for a client, both interpersonally, but then also as it pertains to the business and the goals.
Sara Sheehan: [00:11:35] Absolutely. There’s no way that I could have gotten in front of so many people without the support of someone like you, involved in constantly putting me forward in pitches. “Oh my goodness, I think you need to talk with Sara”. I could have never accomplished what we accomplished in that amount of time without support and strategic help, that is for sure. If we were to look at what some of your VIP experiences are, can you walk us through them?
Ashley Graham: [00:12:16] Absolutely. So as a strategist, I like to think that I just naturally am a strategist, both from a business perspective, but then also PR and media relations, is I wanted to take on a strategist role for my own business to get a pulse on different conversations that I’ve had with prospective clients over the years, and see if there was any type of growth strategies or expansion opportunities that I could integrate to serve other clientele as well. So for some context and perspective, I’ve been primarily retainer-based for eight years in my business. But one of the things that I wanted to birth was these VIP experiences to match other types of clients where they’re at in their thought leadership or their PR and media relations journey. So thinking about the different types of VIP experiences, there’s three different ones. There’s the ideation VIP day, the creation VIP experience, and the transformation VIP experience. To not go fully into all the information about how they are separate or unique from one another, I’ll keep it condensed, but starting with the ideation VIP day, is really for the client who is very new to thought leadership. They don’t know what their thought leadership identity is, and they’re looking to gain valuable insights in a vision map as to what their thought leadership potential is from a publicist who understands the evolutions of media and bringing that narrative to the forefront.
Ashley Graham: [00:14:09] So it’s a VIP day, it’s basically done in a day to where a client would walk away exactly with their thought leadership positioning, they’d walk away with their core messaging, they’d get an understanding of how to use content and media as a way, as a starting point, to understand the differences of each. Because I know that sometimes people don’t have this robust educational background of different forms of media and would need to be educated a bit. That’s also included there. And so the goal is for them to walk away, again, with a very strategic thought leadership plan from a very surface level to really understand where they would need to go moving forward with that new plan.
Sara Sheehan: [00:14:51] That’s a very high-value day. You get a lot out of that. Just to compare, for someone that might be in a retainer-based situation, like the PR expansion program, that would be the initial few meetings that you have with Ashley. And so that’s a comparison.
Ashley Graham: [00:15:16] Yeah, the ideation process is really integrated into that PR expansion program, it’s part of the onboarding process. But what I’ve done is I’ve extracted that to be able to offer it into a workspace strategy plan for a client, if that’s all they wanted, was just an understanding of what their thought leadership identity would look like. That’s what they would walk away from.
Sara Sheehan: [00:15:39] That’s excellent.
Ashley Graham: [00:15:40] Yeah. Now this is where it kind of gets fun. So going into the creation and transformation VIP experiences, the creation is maybe for the client who already has an understanding of what their thought leadership identity is and they already have kind of a plan and a narrative in place, but they get they struggle with the content. They struggle with understanding what their pitches look like, struggle with what their articles will look like, struggle on where to pitch it, who to pitch it. This is where the creation VIP experience would come in. The client would basically work with me on a, more or less, five-day to a week basis where I would go through that ideation process during our discovery call, during our discovery onboarding process, and within a week they have a database or a workspace that’s presented to them with 3 to 6 months of content that they can now use.
Sara Sheehan: [00:16:41] That’s impressive. That is very impressive.
Ashley Graham: [00:16:43] So I wanted to give them a basically robust amount of content to walk away from. They will get a custom media list that’s curated for them and their industry of publications, editors, writers that pertain to exactly the narrative of what’s going to be showcased in those pitches when they send it. But there’s also a resources hub on different platforms on how to start nurturing their pitching, articles that I have written that would be able to support their pitching process. They would get a week of consulting after that VIP experience has concluded to help them with any kind of bumps or errors or further clarification that they may need, but it’s basically just for thinking about a business plan. It’s like a business plan that’s handed over to them with the resources, the assets, everything that they would need to support their PR if they were going to manage it themselves.
Sara Sheehan: [00:17:47] That’s incredible. If they have a package where they can use, let’s say, six different pieces and six different ways, that is very powerful for someone that really wants to do it themselves.
Ashley Graham: [00:18:01] There’s a lot of value that a client, or really anybody who’s looking to step into thought leadership, would get from an offer like this. And the reason why I felt so passionate about creating these VIP experiences is, the PR expansion program is great. It’s definitely for the high-level executive or for a business that does not have the capabilities to manage their own PR, they pass it over to a PR agency publicist like myself to manage it for them. It is done for them. But for a new entrepreneur or a coach or somebody who is in this curiosity phase and really wants to learn what PR and media entails when it comes to shining in their expertise, they get a plan built for them, and then they get to learn the natural flow and what comes with making PR and media a part of their every day.
Ashley Graham: [00:19:08] And then lastly, what’s really easy with the transformation VIP experience, is it’s blended between ideation and creation. So it’s for someone who is ready to think about their PR and media for the next year, if not five years. And they want just basically a whole plan built for them, everything from the ideation process to having the assets and the resources created for them. It’s blended between both. But in conclusion, with both of those combined is they do have a thought leadership add-on where they get a thought leadership bio written for them, they get a media kit written for them, and they get speaker topics that might completely align with their ideation vision map that we’ve created and then any other assets or resources that might be needed, it kind of is a little bit open-ended because every client is unique and they might need more resources or assets versus others. So it’s very customizable, it’s very open-ended to what the client needs.
Sara Sheehan: [00:20:12] That’s incredible. Clients can still work with you on a retainer basis, but if they need something that’s more fit for purpose based on where their business is, they have access to that as well, which I think is tremendous. I want for as many listeners as possible to hear this, so that they understand that you don’t have to do the month-to-month retainer situation if you really need help on a different scale, it’s available to you. That’s tremendous.
Ashley Graham: [00:20:50] There’s another idea that has always percolated through that whole process, that even for marketing teams that are so strapped with trying to find new, innovative ideas for their own marketing, whether it’s social media or for their blog or wherever they’re putting their content, newsletters, podcasts. Having an offer or an option like these VIP experiences can also pertain to the marketing teams who just do not have the bandwidth to think about PR or new fresh ideas and where to get those showcased or where to get them seen. I envision that these VIP experiences could be myself working with marketing teams or internal teams to give them other resources that they might not have internally as well. It really is kind of this universal, adaptable offer suite with these VIP experiences. And I think that’s what makes it most exciting, because every client in that experience with them could look different.
Sara Sheehan: [00:22:02] For sure. I definitely see tremendous value in the partnership that you could have with marketing, that where a company is really focusing on putting their leaders out there as the voice to the customer, you are a perfect partner for them. So I definitely see where you’re headed there and I think it’s incredibly high value because you could literally give a company a pre-built set of content that they could use in all kinds of different ways.
Ashley Graham: [00:22:43] Absolutely.
Sara Sheehan: [00:22:44] Very interesting.
Ashley Graham: [00:22:46] Yeah, speaking to that 3 to 6 month worth of content, it’s structured in a way that if you were to look for a new angle every single week, then you have an angle for every single week. But say, for instance, you only need one of those topics per month, maybe because you already have so many other topics and conversation starters and circulation. Although it’s gauged to be roughly between 3 or 6 months of content, if you only use one of those ideas a month, that can expand over the next 2 or 3 years of content if you already have so much in circulation. It really just is to give a good bulk of content to use. If you are someone starting off that doesn’t have content already, you have six months of solid content to use every single week and whatever capability that you want to use it as. But if you already, like I said, have enough content, you can basically expand that content over longer than six months depending on where it’s needed.
Sara Sheehan: [00:23:52] That is incredibly high value. I would think the one thing that we haven’t talked about here is, looking at your data and analytics so that you see what actually resonated with your audience by looking at views or engagement through comments and likes, if you will, the increase in your number of subscribers. These are things that I’m looking at all the time, and so I’m tailoring my topic list based on what resonated with my audience. And so your new clients can do that as well. Once they get their six-month database and they start using it, they can start looking at all of their numbers wherever it is that they engage, whether it’s social media or it’s articles, whatever they happen to be using and doing, they can start to see what’s resonating and make sure that they use that message in those places.
Ashley Graham: [00:25:09] Absolutely. And speaking to the resource hub that’s integrated into both the creation and transformation VIP experiences, is there is a section on how to best track and measure articles or podcast conversations that have been published, because there’s a number of different platforms that you can have subscription to track reach impressions. Someone like me has access to that because there needs to be metrics to be supported to the efforts. I give an overview in that resource hub of the best platforms to get some of that information to where you don’t have to do it organically. That’s the thing is, yes, you can get access to your Google Analytics and have a surface-level overview of like, okay, here’s our views, our metrics. But when it comes to getting third-party visibility on publications, you don’t always have access to updated numbers in that way because you don’t have, again, access to their databases, their resources. So there’s platforms out there that can basically bring those metrics to the forefront to show the success rates of different types of PR that you’re doing with third-party platforms.
Sara Sheehan: [00:26:33] That’s very powerful. That’s some really great intel, Ashley, that you can provide that I know would have new and different information that lay persons, those of us that aren’t experts like you are, have access to. So that’s totally fascinating. Ashley, can you talk with us a little bit about how you’re expanding your business today?
Ashley Graham: [00:27:03] Yeah. So, one of the biggest things that has happened recently has been the launch of this new offer suite. So the VIP experiences are new. We just got our updated website published in May of ’24.
Sara Sheehan: [00:27:20] Congratulations. That’s a big undertaking.
Ashley Graham: [00:27:25] It is, especially when you’re thinking about all of the things that go into showcasing offers online for it to hit a mark with the right client. So not only was there copywriting involved, but the website needed to be laid out and structured in a way to make sense. There’s also my own SEO that’s had to go into the website to support visibility, and so that was kind of two part. The VIP experiences were a big undertaking to really structure in a way that was going to resonate for the right clientele. And then second part with our new updated website published, it is a cleaner way to really speak the language of how we’re looking to serve and impact clients through those VIP experiences. But other than that, outside of offerings, our podcast The Conscious Publicist Podcast is always evolving and there’s always new, fresh content both that speaks to the language and narrative of what public relations, media relations, thought leadership, all of that entails. But one of the things that I think lights me up is it also brings awareness to different types of experiences that could aid in your thought leadership. We’re kind of exploring a grief series right now with a number of leaders who have their own businesses, have their own thought leadership avenues, but are also human beings who go through moments of grief and loss, but happiness and joy and how they navigate being a leader and entrepreneur through having very human experiences. So I’m bringing that narrative to the podcast as well. So it really is a channel that speaks just to the universal landscape of what thought leadership is, because thought leadership is a human having a human experience both personally and professionally, and finding ways to serve and impact others through their experience. So the podcast, like I said, is one of the expanded tools that we’re always nurturing.
Sara Sheehan: [00:29:35] Well, I applaud you for the work that you’re doing there. It truly reflects your personality and the care that you take in your work. It shows the respect for others and how you see that the human experience, although we all have different, unique experiences that are part of our lives, there are many things that we have in common. And you’re highlighting so many of those so well.
Ashley Graham: [00:30:14] It’s been fun. And as you said, starting a podcast, you’ve learned so much and you’ve grown so much. There’s just this, haven’t quite put my finger on how to put it into words just yet, but there is something that happens with a creator in this space that you have this new ability to really inspire people. You can inspire people in your community, your neighbors, your family and friends, but a podcast just gives you this global access to inspire others in a very intentional way and there’s a lot of personal growth and reflection that comes with that. And it can just continue to evolve and adapt and grow as you continue to nurture it and show up to the microphone with a core mission to inspire. So I’m right there with you, that there’s so much growth that has come from just the year of being a podcaster, and I can’t even imagine where I would be or where I will be in another year or two from now.
Sara Sheehan: [00:31:22] Well, I am excited to see it and excited to support you through your continued growth. For certain. It’s truly moving in so many ways. Tell me, Ashley, are there any big goals or aspirations that you’re working on accomplishing right now?
Ashley Graham: [00:31:46] Yes. I didn’t really have an answer to this when we had first talked about the questions, but this actually is kind of wearing on my heart right now. And I think that usually when that happens, it’s something worthwhile to say. And I know there’s other publicists and PR agency owners out there who will understand this very well, that it’s often difficult for us to do for ourselves the way that we do for clients. And I think that really goes with anybody that is in a service-based leadership position. Sometimes you just want to give, give, give outwardly and sometimes it’s hard to receive that yourself.
Ashley Graham: [00:32:27] So one of the big goals that I’m working on right now in aspirations is to really nurture my own thought leadership in a way to really expand me in other ways that I am expanding right now. So I’m in the process of launching a personal platform to nurture my own writing, to nurture my own speaker topics, and hopes to really get the confidence and the courage to really go after my own thought leadership, the way that I inspire and want to be a liaison for my clients as well. So it’s a big question mark in the air on what that looks like. But I’m just going to create and see what happens. And, again, similar with the podcast, who knows where I could be a year from now with nurturing my own thought leadership narrative.
Sara Sheehan: [00:33:21] And so you’re thinking across different media channels for yourself where you are writing, you’re speaking, you are showing up for people personally.
Ashley Graham: [00:33:42] Yes, absolutely.
Sara Sheehan: [00:33:44] That’s phenomenal.
Ashley Graham: [00:33:45] I guess just to put it into a little bit more perspective, and this actually helps me workshop it, is I reach this point where I’m like, okay, this identity with the conscious publicist being a founder and an entrepreneur for eight years, I’ve really learned to master that and how to get to this new stage for The Conscious Publicist to be my legacy business. But I always question, I’m like, but I am so much more than just my business. I am always so much more than just The Conscious Publicist. I’m always so much more than that. What other parts of me can I bring to the table that can also inspire other people on their journey? And so for me, podcasting and writing are really big strengths that I’ve come to find over the years. And so I’m launching, more or less, a personal blog. That’s just the best way to describe it. And I want to write about things that I also experience as a human that are outside of business. I know you know one of the most personal experiences, but, I want to step into motherhood, and I will be entering marriage here soon. And I want to talk about my journey and my experiences through those things as a means to also connect with the community that have also gone through that experience.
Sara Sheehan: [00:35:16] Absolutely. And I know that your story will resonate. I’m super confident in that.
Ashley Graham: [00:35:23] Yeah. So I’m, again, I’m just going to take it as it comes and don’t really know exactly how I will create my own ideation process of what that thought leadership for myself on a personal scale looks like. But, again, when it comes to content and media, one of the things that I want to say, is it is so abundant in the opportunities that can come from it. It’s just really staying consistent and staying clear as to how you’re looking to serve and impact. So it’s kind of fun workshopping all this with myself as my own client.
Sara Sheehan: [00:35:56] There you go. Well, I can attest that if you do the work, great things will come from it. Because I know that when people look me up, they’re not just looking me up on LinkedIn. They are Googling me and they’re finding all kinds of articles that I wrote and got placed with help from you. And I know that is helping them to decide that they want to talk with me. And I’m at the point in my journey where people are reaching out to me that I don’t know that are absolute ideal clients. So I know it works.
Ashley Graham: [00:36:45] And that is a big case study to the impact of media, but we nurtured your narrative so well with keywords and abundant resources that you gave in your pieces. I mean, when you use the media as a means to give, give, give from your expertise, your career that you know so well because you’re an expert, it’s just only going to continue to create that ripple effect for more people finding you. And the great thing about PR from the digital sense is it only gets stronger the longer that it lives in the online space. That’s where the SEO capabilities really come from and the strengths that come with that is, the longer that a piece is optimized and it lives in the digital space, it just only has more capacity to even bring more awareness to you.
Sara Sheehan: [00:37:41] That is so powerful. I hope our listeners take note of that statement, because it can pay tremendous dividends for them and their business. Ashley, what does being a transformational thinker mean to you?
Ashley Graham: [00:38:02] I believe there was a couple of little takeaways that I’ve already hit on, on what being a transformational thinker means to me. But when I think about transformation just as a word, it’s always being in this state of curiosity and growth and expansion and taking experiences, both the highs and the lows, and finding the meaning and the purpose and how to evolve from there. So transformational, again, key word “transformation” is just always being in a state of wanting to evolve and change and adapt for the better. I always say this to my fiancé, when I get on my soapbox, sometimes talking about just experiences and conversations, it’s like I’m always striving to be the best possible version of myself than I was the day before. And I think, again, that ties into what that represents. Being a transformational thinker is also just wanting to be the best version of yourself possible.
Sara Sheehan: [00:39:16] That’s fabulous. And I can definitely say that I know you are continuing to sharpen the saw and evolve every single day. That’s definitely what I want to do as well. Definitely.
Ashley Graham: [00:39:33] That’s why we’re so aligned.
Sara Sheehan: [00:39:35] It is why we’re so aligned. Is there anything else that you’re working on that you would like to share?
Ashley Graham: [00:39:41] You know, I pretty much covered it with the podcast and this new personal platform that I’m creating. If you are curious or if anybody is curious to know what I’m integrating into the podcast, this is an open invitation to check it out. Basically with our grief series, I’m going to talk about that as the example. One of the things that I am exploring is taking this audio journalism route with that series. And so instead of doing in real-time, face-to-face interviews, I’m taking audio submissions from leaders who feel like they have 15 minutes of audio to really hit the punch on what grief has taught them as their greatest teacher and guide. And with the narrative and the format of that is it’s a dedicated 15 minutes or however long they submit the audio for, it’s dedicated to them being the storyteller to lead them from an introduction, the main transformation, and then the takeaways that someone else can take from their story and their journey. And myself as the host, or in this case, the audio journalist, would come in and then now talk about how they would further expand on that story into transform grief into their own thought leadership language or thought leadership narrative.
Ashley Graham: [00:41:11] So, again, it’s something that I’m exploring, but I see myself taking on this unorthodox approach to podcasting because it almost speaks to the very traditional journalistic approach that you’re taking an expert and their main feedback for a piece, and creating it to be this very universal, hits the mark on how they’re looking to serve through that content piece. We’re just doing it in like a fun, almost kind of radio format. So, again, I see myself exploring this format for other series, not necessarily just the grief series, but so far the response that I’ve gotten has been very positive. And so I guess if you’re just curious, again, open invitation to follow along with the podcast, see if I do open callouts for more submissions if you’re interested in getting your voice heard on the platform. I like to be an innovator, and so I’m, again, I’m taking a new approach to type of interviews on the podcast.
Sara Sheehan: [00:42:18] That is a very innovative approach. You’re making it flexible so they don’t have to schedule an interview, and I love that. You could even have your own app involved in that.
Ashley Graham: [00:42:33] Well, and I don’t want to get too much into this, but I plan on doing a voice activation series talking about how to go through the normal psychological beliefs that we go through of either feeling like our voice isn’t the right tone enough or we don’t know how to really lead somebody through a conversation for 30 minutes to an hour. The natural ping-pong thoughts that we go through, the monkey brain. With this format, it really gives the leader, who’s wanting to submit their submission, a way to feel so confident in the words that they’re using, the story that they’re telling, the sound in their voice. It gives them full agency to feel so confident and so good about that piece. And then I’m just basically continuing to add on to their brilliance.
Sara Sheehan: [00:43:30] Wow.
Ashley Graham: [00:43:31] In traditional one-on-one interviews, I feel if somebody is in a newer stage that hasn’t mastered how to be on the microphone or hasn’t mastered where their confidence levels or confidence abilities need to be for them to feel confident in their speaking voice, it takes away all that pressure to feel like they need to say the right things, lead the right way. It gives them, like I said, just full agency to feel so confident and comfortable with what it is that they’re saying and that is what’s highlighted.
Sara Sheehan: [00:44:07] That is truly phenomenal, and it doesn’t surprise me at all that you’re on the bleeding edge of putting people in their best light. So I will be so excited to see it come into fruition. And so for our listeners, they need to look you up. The Conscious Publicist. You are on Apple and Spotify. And how else can our listeners find you?
Ashley Graham: [00:44:37] Yeah, LinkedIn is probably the best social media platform to connect with me on. Love LinkedIn. You can find me at Ashley Graham, The Conscious Publicist. I have an incredible LinkedIn newsletter that I try to publish every single week that is packed with a lot of good insight into PR, media relations, thought leadership, but just all the other human experience things that has some value and good takeaways. You can also connect with The Conscious Publicist through our email newsletter that you can sign up on. theconciouspublicist.com. And you already covered the podcast, that’s really where you can get a lot of good insight into the space that I’m in.
Sara Sheehan: [00:45:19] And theconsciouspublicist.com, your website. Excellent, well, Ashley, I can’t thank you enough for spending some time with me today and giving me the opportunity to showcase you and to highlight your genius work, which I know has made a tremendous difference for me.
Ashley Graham: [00:45:41] That’s just amazing to hear. It’s an honor to have this conversation and to be on your platform that we helped create together.
Sara Sheehan: [00:45:51] Fantastic.
Sara Sheehan: [00:45:53] Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan with my friend Ashley Graham, the CEO of The Conscious Publicist. The three key takeaways from today’s conversation include: media and PR power, understand how effective PR can amplify your online presence and create a significant positive ripple effect. VIP experiences, learn how Ashley’s three tailored VIP experiences designed to help clients with ideation, content creation and comprehensive PR transformation. Finally, continuous growth, embrace transformational thinking by fostering continuous curiosity, growth and evolution to become the best version of yourself. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and never miss an episode. And as always, let’s continue the conversation. Please like, comment and share with anyone that you think needs the inspiration. Thanks so much for listening and we’ll catch you on a future episode.
