Conscious publicity for spiritual entrepreneurs with Lydia Belton.
The following interview is a transcript excerpt from The Heallist Podcast episode. Listen to the full audio version below and subscribe to get notified of new episodes.
In this episode of Heallist, we discuss the art of conscious publicity with Lydia Belton (Dr. Tranquility), a renowned practitioner of Relaxation Physiology for Mind-Body Medicine and an expert in Wellness, Relationships, and Anxiety Relief. As a National Syndicated Radio & Podcast Host on iHeart Radio, Lydia shares her journey, having garnered media coverage in prestigious outlets like the Chicago Tribune, ABC's The View, Glamour, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, and Forbes.com. What sets Lydia apart is her commitment to conscious messaging and tapping into the flow of mass attention in a mindful way.
Lydia's expertise extends beyond her own practice; she has ventured into the realm of Public Relations, establishing Satory X PR to uplift the wellness and spiritual community. Our conversation explores key topics, including expanding your message through conscious publicity, balancing dual roles as a practitioner and your own PR agent, effective PR strategies for practitioners and businesses, the best PR channels for healers, and insights into PR training, skills, and outsourcing. If you're a spiritual entrepreneur looking to build your brand and amplify your message ethically, this episode is a must-listen. Lydia also offers a DIY PR course, guiding participants through private and group sessions, empowering them to navigate the world of conscious publicity. Tune in to gain valuable insights and elevate your presence in the wellness space.
Expanding your message through conscious publicity
Yuli Ziv: A lot of us in this space are now in expansion mode. I felt compelled to do our first episode of 2024 on the topic of expansion and getting your message out there through publicity, tapping into the flow of mass attention and how do we do that in a conscious way? I couldn't think of a better guest to cover this topic than Lydia Belton, also known as Dr. Tranquility.
Lydia, you have dual expertise; you are a practitioner yourself and guide many others. You are also savvy on everything related to media coverage, business, and publicity. How do you balance those sides? I would love to hear from you how those two sides may be balanced in yourself and where you see they merge together.
Lydia Belton: First of all, you have to give yourself grace. When you’re merging being a practitioner with business like PR and a radio show, I'm also a hypnotic anesthesiologist as a practitioner, further credentialing in hypnotherapy, you have to create a space to set aside one business and take up the next. I am a manifesting generator, so I thrive on going from business to business, but not everyone is that way. It's important to understand where you are when taking on multiple roles.
I do a lot of meditation but the best way is just to decide to start. Doing your own PR can be complicated, but it can also be rewarding. It teaches you a lot about people and the business aspects. As practitioners, we're not always the best business people; we're healers. It teaches you to find the balance between being a practitioner and honoring your business. That involves having the confidence to request certain fees for your PR work if you're doing it for someone else. If you're doing it for yourself, Instagram is a great resource. I have a smaller account, only 22,000 and 6,000 on my dating and relationship account, but you can still connect. DM people, get them on your podcast, make new friends, get the word out. Snapchat is good, but Instagram is more the business angle of doing your own PR work.
Yuli Ziv: A lot of our listeners have a love-hate relationship with Instagram. It's beautiful, especially for someone who practices every day, they’re probably away from their phone for most part of the day. There's pressure like, “I’m not doing enough. I should be there more. The FOMO.” All kinds of emotion that it brings with it. How do you tackle that?
Lydia Belton: For some, it can be a wonderful adjunct or extra activity, looking at it as its own business. For others, it might be better to hire someone. I'm doing my own DIY course to teach people how to do their own PR, what's required, and what's optional.
Yuli Ziv: So, you say start by releasing that pressure and look at it as a fun activity for yourself.
Lydia Belton: It is meant to be fun. If you approach it from that direction then the way that you go about it will just blossom for you if you’re coming from a place of love and grace with yourself. We all beat up on ourselves a bit as practitioners when stepping into the PR space. I've been doing spiritual PR, now conscious PR, for the health and wellness and spiritual communities for over a decade. Don't compare yourself to someone else; they're a different person with different skills. As you step into the PR arena, figuring out your skill set is important. Figuring out what isn't in your skill set is important, then bring in a freelancer to handle that aspect for you.
Yuli Ziv: What is the one skill that you think is absolutely necessary to do your own PR successfully?
Lydia Belton: The way I do it is different; I use my intuition. I will be on Instagram scrolling, and I'll get an idea of who might be a good fit for one of my clients. I intuitively and instinctively reach out, and 99% of the time, they reach back out. You need to be a good connector, able to connect with people where they are. You'll be an excellent publicist.
Yuli Ziv: You're bringing some of the healing skills like intuition into this work and basically saying to use your own toolbox but in this different capacity.
Lydia Belton: Use your intuition to connect with people, whether on Instagram or at events. Connecting intuitively is paramount; it's very important. Use it all the time because you're usually right. If you have a gut feeling and the information and clarity to back it up, you're usually correct.
Utilize the event as a connector; that's what it's for. Utilize Instagram as a connector; that's what it's for. If you approach it as if you’re there to meet new people, you'll enjoy it. You'll be amazed by who you'll meet. Set an intention before you go into live events or on Instagram; decide with clarity what you're looking for, what you want to attract, and who you'd like to work with.
PR strategies for practitioners and businesses
Lydia Belton: It comes from a spiritual basis. I do health and wellness PR as well, but I started in spiritual PR. It provides an open space to meet wonderful people where they are, creating a collaboration, showcasing them with all their best aspects, and helping them get the word out. There are many wonderful healers, but, as I say in my relationship protocol, they won't come knocking on your door while you sit on the couch eating ice cream. You've got to get out there to be a part of it.
I don't have to get out there as much as I once did because I've earned that place. But if you're just starting out, you've got to get out there, connect with people, talk with them, communicate, find out what they need. Then you can offer your PR services.
For me, I don't have a standard PR package. It's about finding out what the practitioner or the business needs and where they're looking to go. From that point, the package is created.
Yuli Ziv: How do you suggest people start thinking about that possibility? Many may not even be aware of the possibilities in terms of getting publicity. What if you're a practitioner looking to grow your practice and maybe switch into more of a teacher and leader mode? They aim to move away or downsize their one-on-one practice and shift into more group practices due to so much demand that cannot accommodate individual appointments anymore or they want to impact more groups because so many people need their services these days. How do you even start thinking about where you want to be? What are my PR goals? Because they might be starting from a blank page completely.
Lydia Belton: Think about what you do, what you want to express to the world about what you do, and what your intention is once you've expressed yourself. What do you want to gain? What's the goal? Be real with yourself. If your goal is to be in magazines, or radio, or TV, or podcasts, then focus on that. If your goal is to do a lot of speaking engagements, then you focus there. Connect with people who can introduce you to the people you need to meet to take those stages.
A publicist who can take you from a speaker to a keynote is very important if speaking engagements are what you're going for. That's one of my little secrets. Having time and the publicist having the right connections helps. That's why I'm saying to make those connections early on because you'll carry them with you throughout your personal PR.
Best PR channels for healers
Lydia Belton: Really, these days, there are more opportunities, but not as many easy doorways. You're going to spend a little money. Set aside how much you want to spend to accomplish this. You can do some things for free, but very few, and they're not really going to get you where you need to be in most cases. You might want to consider a package with your local Natural Awakenings. I do a lot of work with central and northern New Jersey in that specific issue of the magazine.
It's important to think about your intention and what you want to achieve. Hiring a publicist for $99 is not going to provide what you need. Someone who's not charging you properly won't accomplish what you need because much of their work for you will incur costs. If you're doing a magazine, it might include an article, promotion, and an ad. Brace yourself because you need to be in it at least a couple of times for people to recognize you for you to become familiar.
Most of the time it's about repetition. You can accomplish repetition in many different ways. You can do a magazine, and then a podcast and you promote the podcast on Instagram. You can also do a speaking engagement and you tie them all in together with videos or reels. There are ways of hitting the public with your information. It's kind of a collaboration; you want to get in front of people, but you also want those people to receive, so you need to have a broad-spectrum approach. You can't just funnel it in one direction; you need to have them interlocking, coming from different pathways and avenues.
Sit down, think about your budget because you have to have a budget. You can also look up podcasts and see what people are doing, then DM the podcasts to see if you can get on. Some can be quite easy because they're smaller podcasts, and that's a great way to practice what you're doing. For others, it's harder to get on without experience. It's like that old adage, "How do you get experience if you don't get experience?" I would recommend going to smaller podcasts and reaching out to them.
Also, getting your courage up, learning how to speak what you want to say, how you want to come across is key also. If you have a feeling for something, you know you have a flair for something, you feel like you really want to get your message out, then you're ready to get your message out. Don't doubt yourself. You don't doubt yourself as a healer, why are you going to doubt yourself getting the message out?
PR training, skills, and outsourcing
Yuli Ziv: In terms of the skills, a lot of this stuff you're mentioning requires developing your own voice and the ability to speak publicly, sometimes on the spot or in interviews where you don't know the questions in advance. How does it work in the conscious PR and spiritual world?
Lydia Belton: You want to stand in your authenticity. Also, working with someone is important. I can't say this enough. That's why, after being in the game for 10 years, I decided to create this course. Working with someone and learning from someone who has already done it is important.
I would say that the most important bit of all of this is that you figure out where your skills are the strongest in the public relations arena, and capitalize on those skills, and employ freelancers who have the other set of skills.
For example, I know what I need to get to whoever needs to receive it, and I know what it's supposed to look like, but I am not gifted as a graphic artist. So, I hire graphic artists and tell them what I want. They give me back something that looks like what I want and then I can take it to people. If you're not skilled in a particular area, there's nothing wrong with it, there are freelancers in every area that you can work with who can help you and be a part of your team, you know. Hire what you need.
Yuli Ziv: You can get incredible people on a very small budget, especially if you open your horizons to other parts of the world where there are skillful individuals. It could be as small a task as editing content or creating a graphic. Many people think they have to connect with and retain someone with a monthly set budget for graphic work, which they might not have.
However, as you mentioned, there are plenty of experts willing to work as freelancers on small projects, with the idea that it might grow in the future. Maybe you just need one thing right now, but next month, there will be another small task. As you expand, give yourself permission to find people who will help you grow and have them available when needed. Many incredible people are willing to assist in this way, and that has been my experience as well.
Building your brand as a spiritual entrepreneur
Lydia Belton: There are things out there that you can utilize to help package yourself. You definitely want to have—and this is the last thing I'm thinking of in terms of packaging—a one-sheet. It's a quick glance for editors, producers, and talent bookers. They're busy and they're looking at people all day long for different projects. You want them to be able to have something where they can take a quick look at you and get all the information that you've put in there. It's usually only a paragraph or so but it includes your contact information. It should include a picture of yourself, an achievement, and get that out. Your achievement could be that you're a great healer with a fabulous testimonial from someone who has had great success with you. Maybe you've been honored with some sort of award.
Yuli Ziv: As a podcast host, I get exposed to some of those one-sheets from my guests. Some also include topics that people can speak on, which is helpful for me as a host to identify. If you want to be super helpful, include a one-sentence bio and a paragraph bio, offering different lengths depending on the use. You can give people ideas. For example, if I always wanted to do an episode on topic X and didn't know this person might be an expert on the subject, it gives me a lot of ideas to chew on.
Lydia Belton: Rather than one sentence, they might want to try the title and then their paragraph bio because most people have bios longer than one sentence. Also, you don't want to duplicate what you're saying. It might be an opening line like a tagline, and then in the bio, a full paragraph describing what you do and who you are.
Yuli Ziv: How about imagery? I think this is such a hot topic because I see a lot of healers, spiritual leaders, especially women entering this space feeling the pressure to have perfect photos representing them beautifully and inspiringly. Many hire incredible photographers to craft not just headshots but a full narrative of what their brand is about, including aspirational photos. Beautiful photos still come at a cost, even in our AI age. How do you feel about people investing in these visuals? Is it necessary, or can they go into expansion mode with just an authentic picture of themselves?
Lydia Belton: If you're doing it in a way that's cheap and cheerful, you can easily have a friend take a series of great pictures of you. Pull the one or two that you like best, and start using it. As more money comes in, maybe you want to use a professional photographer and a lot of professional photographers these days will do some of the work on an iPhone.
Feel free to listen to this interview a few times to try them for yourself. The beauty of today is that you can try on different services you can try on different parts of your personal media kit. You have an opportunity to create the way that you want to create it. If you don't like it, that's okay, start over. Do it again, figure out what you don't like, figure out what you do, and then take that and go forward to brand yourself and your practice.
