The Time When Free Media
Was The Last Thing I Wanted
In this issue:
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How free publicity can do you more damage than good
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The story of my 3 pound miracles
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The questions you need to ask yourself before launching a media blitz
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And much more!
Fellow business builder,
This week I want to share with you a very personal story that happened to me, almost 7 years ago today. This event changed my life forever … and it taught me a very important lesson about the media.
Free media publicity is GREAT, but it isn’t for everyone at all times.
It all started at around 12:15 pm on October 8th, 2000. A warm weather October day, we were sitting around the kitchen having some lunch. My wife Kari was 31 weeks pregnant, with our twin daughters tucked away safely inside her.
My life changed right then and there.
She went to the washroom and came out looking VERY pale.
I’ll never forget what came next – “I think my water just broke!”
I thought she was kidding
– the babies weren’t due
for another 2 MONTHS!
She wasn’t.
Off to the hospital we went. Unfortunately our regular doctor was on holiday (why is it they are always on holiday when you need them most?). The doctor that saw Kari did his evaluation and went off for a few minutes.
When he came back, my life changed again!
“I’m afraid we have a problem” he said in a thick British accent. “There are no incubators left in the entire province – we are going to have to send you to another province.” A province of 3 million people and hundreds of incubators for premature babies – and they are ALL full.
Next thing we know, less than an hour and a half later we’re on a Lear Jet with a medical team at our side – on our way to Vancouver.
By this time we are scared to death
on what is happening
and what state
the babies are in.
We get to the BC Women’s Hospital in Vancouver to a very welcome reception and prepared medical team. They do their thing and inform us on what is happening. Kari’s water had broken – 9 weeks early. They want the babies to stay inside as long as possible to help their lungs develop further. So they give Kari some kind of steroid shot specifically designed to help premature babies lungs develop faster than usual.
The next 2 days were pure torture … Not knowing what was happening … how the babies were … and what would ultimately happen.
On October 10th, 2000 right around 1:17 pm
Kari started having labor pains – this is it!
Emergency c-section is in store as both babies are laying in there breach. At 3:03 Katrina was born and at 3:06 Hailey was born – they both came out screaming so we knew their lungs were fine (6 years later those lungs work just fine still – very healthy – and loud). |
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Katrina was just under 3 pounds – Hailey just over 3 pounds. Tiny – but healthy. |
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From there, it was a whirlwind. Every day we would go visit them in the nursery as often as we could – watching them – cuddling them (Kangaroo Cuddles they call it with preemie babies – when the parents hold them tight against their bare chest and cuddle them for 30 minutes at a time. It gives the babies a chance to feel close and warm to the parents they are so used to being close to – especially mom. It helps them develop faster – and is medically proven for preemies to help them grow in a world they were not supposed to be in yet – they were supposed to be doing this growing inside Kari for another 2 months). |
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Kari stayed in the hospital all this time – I wasn’t allowed. Hailey and Katrina ended up staying in Vancouver for 3 weeks – then a Calgary hospital for 2 more – to finally return home all healthy, happy, and a little bigger (just about a whopping 6 pounds when we took them home). |
How does all this apply to you?
During all of this, money was flying out of our pockets right, left and center. In Canada, we pay ~$2400 a year for a family of 4 to have medical coverage. That includes all hospital, doctors and emergency care.
Because this was an emergency trip and was not handled properly by the Health Authority in charge, and because we were flown to another province (we pay provincial health care coverage – each province is different) … many of the expenses were not being paid by them – it came out of our own pocket.
Granted, if this was any other country,
it would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars!
Not here – my total outlay of cash was ~$5,000 for hotels, food, plane fare for Kari to come home (another story there on why we had to pay for her while they shipped the babies without her back to Calgary).
While this was happening to us … it was also happening to other couples.
For whatever reason, this was the trend to ship pregnant couples far away to have their babies (you may have heard of the couple that was flown to Montana this past week to give birth to their identical quadruplet daughters? Have twins, all I can say to them is – GOOD LUCK! 2 at the same time is a handful – 4 is a MAJOR handful).
Many couples go STRAIGHT to the media in times like this.
Why?
Out of pocket expenses are a big one. They don’t want to have to pay for a lot themselves and hope that someone steps up to the plate. They also want to show the world all the screw-ups that the health system is making (it costs them 3 to 4 times as much to ship a couple out than to keep them local).
There were couples in the paper, and on the news once a week while all this was happening.
Everyone told us to MILK the media for all we could.
But, I couldn’t.
At this time in my life, I was selling high-end computer systems to large corporations for a living.
At this same time, I had a multi-million dollar deal on the table with … The Health Authority.
The LAST thing I wanted right then
was to not only be stressed out about all of this,
but to have my face plastered all over the papers
beating up on one of my biggest clients!
So we avoided alerting the media, the girls got bigger and went home – and I kept the Health Authority as one of my largest clients (collecting nice commission checks from the sales I made to them for a long time after). All this from keeping my mouth shut when it wasn’t appropriate, and thinking about the repercussions of using the media.
My point is …
Free media exposure is a wonderful thing … but make sure you think through the repercussions of your actions.
WHAT IF YOU DO get front page of the paper …
Can you handle the orders in a timely fashion?
Can you deliver top quality service to everyone if your sales doubled or tripled?
Do you have the manpower to deal with all the new clients?
Do you want to become a media spokesperson and have your face all over the news?
Are there any repercussions of you and your business being in the spotlight at this time?
Think it through – I know many that didn’t. When the media attention hits – it may feel like a wonderful thing at the time – but if you aren’t prepared – it can be the one thing that destroys your business (and your home life).
I hope you see my point here – the money isn’t everything if it destroys areas of your life that are as important to you.
Everything turned out just perfectly here – because I kept my head about me and realized how powerful the media really can be.
To your success,
Troy White
Editor, Small Business Mastery
Supplement to THE TOTAL PACKAGE
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A Final Note:
If you have specific subjects you would like addressed, or have any comments on what you have seen here, please submit a comment below and I will see how I can help.
"The way to get started is to quit talking
and begin doing.”
– Walt Disney
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“3 days, solid, packed with information and great speakers! It was great. Well worth it." Troy, you did fantastic. By far the best seminar I’ve been to. Thank you." – Denise Williams |
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Comment by Cherilyn Lester — August 28, 2007 @ 2:49 pm
Great post… Its so true that the media isn\’t always the best route, and you should really consider who you\’ll be dealing with (and dealing ABOUT) before doing anything like that.
In any case, you still got lucky - there was a Vancouver couple who recently had premie twins… They were sent to Washington State. One of the babies died, border patrol wouldn\’t let them through in time to hold her one last time… And then, the child is still an American citizen, so while they\’re waiting for her Canadian Citizenship, she has NO medical coverage and her parents can\’t get the Child Tax Benefit.
Talk about a nightmare… The border patrol cost that family the chance to say goodbye to their first born child, and the Canadian government (the ones who shipped the mum off in the first place!) are now saying the surviving child isn\’t Canadian.
Fortunately, they aren\’t working any deals with the Health Authority - so the media ate it up, and baby is now back home.
Oh, and happy birthday to the twins - it sounds like that is coming up soon!
- Cherilyn