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This is the first episode that I have ever had two guests on my show and I’m so happy that it is these two ladies. Kelly Lynn Adams and Seema Alexander.

As a certified business and leadership coach, motivational speaker and founder The After 5 Club, Kelly Lynn has helped hundreds of women build smart and sustainable businesses (especially those who are in 9 to 5 jobs). Kelly Lynn has also spent over 12 years in corporate finance for some of the top fashion houses and biggest retailers in the world.

Kelly Lynn’s passion for business, love of entrepreneurship and proven success secrets are often sought out by the media, she has been featured on CBS, FOX, ABC, CTStyle, Forbes.com, Huffington Post, and Good Morning America’s Tory Johnson’s Spark & Hustle to name a few.

She has been a guest speaker for companies including PNC Bank, ETTWomen’s Network and you can see her must watch business videos on her YouTube channel KellyLynnAdamsTV. Kelly Lynn contributed to one of Amazon.com’s best selling books of 2014, Jersey Women Mean Business!

Seema Ponda Alexander is a Business & Brand strategist, personal branding expert, speaker, trainer, and Making Moves podcast co-host, helping disruptive entrepreneurs who want to make their mark in this world.
She combines experience as a former corporate director for a Fortune 500 company responsible for brand and marketing strategy for a billion dollar business with more than nine years of consulting for entrepreneurs and start-ups.

A business-savvy strategist with deep personal insight, Seema has the unique ability to create personal brands that stand out in a commoditized marketplace and designs strategic roadmaps and action plans that help clients see the full potential of their businesses and reach their goals faster.
This intuitive consultant has worked with over 100+ service and product-based entrepreneurs, coaches, and small businesses from IT and finance to sports, health & wellness to life and business coaching to…medical marijuana. Across this wide range of industries, clients come to one conclusion about Seema – she’s their “strategic partner that they have been yearning for.”

Featured in publications like USA Today, Savor Life Magazine, Makers Row, Insureon, Identity Magazine and a contributor to the Huffington Post, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters. They all love dancing and singing to 90s hip hop and R&B (and definitely some Beyonce!)

After they both shared their story with me, we got to talking about how both their businesses grew out of a true soul calling. And of course the both started as “side hustles”. Seema talked about how her life has been guided pretty much by signs constantly showing up for her and she has started to truly follow them after some major life events. Kelly talked about how she has also been guided by something deep inside her and has had a spiritual journey but also wanted to make a great deal of money. However her journey was also changed by a pivotal moment when she found herself in debt, overweight and dating all the wrong people. She made the decision to follow her true journey so that she could have an impact. Spirituality is very big for Kelly and her mission is to help people get and have what they really want.

Both these women have been featured in major press outlets and so I wanted to ask them how they got the coverage that they have. Seema talked about how she pitched and there was one key word: AUTHENTICITY. She also talked about how much she used HARO to get leads of reporters looking for certain opportunities. She also was part of a couple of organizations that send PR opportunities her way. She also advises that people listen to the editors out there who are sharing about “how to pitch” and that we follow what they suggest. Don’t make it more complicated than it needs to be. She also said something brilliant which is “PR gets other PR” meaning you should leverage anything you get. (Remember my episode with Paulina Brusca when we talked about how to publicize your PR – listen here)

Kelly Lynn shared that her PR story is a little more “scrappy”. When she was starting out she followed the lead of many of her friends and whenever they would get coverage she would ask them how she did it.  She also followed the lead of one of her mentors Gabrielle Bernstein who as you probably know is a PR powerhouse.  She also did many of the things I suggest which is to reach out to people, go to the actual websites and follow editors and reporters online. She utilized everything she possibly could to get placed.  To get on TV she actually made it a resolutions goal to get on TV by February.  Talk about scrappy!

I hope you enjoy this episode and pick up some wonderful tips from these women who have so much wisdom and “secret sauce” that you can learn from.

As always, we’d be ever so grateful if you would subscribe to The Pitch Podcast on iTunes, and leave us a review. It helps the podcast grow and serve more people.