Lisa K Stephenson

00;00;01;05 – 00;00;30;20
Anika
Welcome to Your Brand Amplified the podcast where we interview marketers, publicists and brands to learn their stories, what makes them tick and tips and tricks that make a difference. Welcome to another week of Your Brand Amplified. I’m Anika Jackson and I’m really excited. I’m bringing somebody here. We haven’t had this point of view before from a journalist and writer and publisher of a magazine, so I’m so excited to welcome Lisa K. Stephenson to the show.

00;00;31;11 – 00;00;33;22
Lisa K. Stephenson
Hi. Thank you for having me.

00;00;33;28 – 00;00;52;00
Anika
Absolutely. So before we get into She’s Single magazine and all of your other- everything else you’re doing right now, I’d love for you to give some background information who you are, you know, all the different things that led you to being the author speaker entrepreneur, philanthropist that you are today.

00;00;53;24 – 00;01;17;19
Lisa K. Stephenson
Oh man, so the journey was very interesting. You know, it’s so funny because I know in high school we all take those career tests and I remember I took mine and my occupation, said journalist. And I was so disappointed. Like, I would my first thought as a kid is just like journalists don’t make money. Like, why would I want to be a journalist?

00;01;18;05 – 00;01;38;23
Lisa K. Stephenson
And, you know, fast forward all these years later, I mean, I joined the Army, and while I was there you know, I was I started working on a book, but I never finished it. And then, you know, I was injured. So I was home on convalescent leave. And I finally finished the book. And I’m going to be really honest with you, that book went absolutely nowhere.

00;01;39;07 – 00;02;02;15
Lisa K. Stephenson
Nobody saw it. Nobody read it. I was just like, at least I wrote it, though, you know, I was happy about that. And then, you know, I came home and there were so many things that transpired after that. I was in like, you know, this domestic abuse relationship and I was like, cheated on. It was a lot. And then I decided, you know, I wanted to take that experience and I wanted to write about it.

00;02;02;24 – 00;02;20;27
Lisa K. Stephenson
And then I wrote my second book, which is Covenant, and I just did like three short stories. But I, I pretty much connected all of them through the characters and the last story was pretty much about me. And, you know, at first, again, I just thought, you know, I’m going to publish this. No one’s going to read it.

00;02;20;27 – 00;02;50;27
Lisa K. Stephenson
But at least I got it out. It was like my therapy. And, you know, surprisingly, people read it. People loved it. And next thing I know, you know, I thought, well, I should get a publicist and I did get one. And then I started touring the book, and then my fanbase just, like, really grew. And I was just like, you know, it’s funny, At some point, I felt very insecure and I felt very, like, embarrassed about some of the decisions that I made while I was in that relationship.

00;02;51;10 – 00;03;10;08
Lisa K. Stephenson
But then I met some amazing, incredible women who they to, you know, make bad decisions. And, you know, ultimately, they want to be judged Yeah. You don’t want to be judged, it’s just like, oh, my God, love can be so scary. And I didn’t judge them because hello, I was one.

00;03;10;09 – 00;03;10;18
Anika
(laugh)

00;03;12;17 – 00;03;23;11
Lisa K. Stephenson
And, you know, from there, you know, more people started connecting. And then, you know, I was working nine to five. I lost my job. And then I just thought, OK, let’s just do the magazine and here we are today.

00;03;23;15 – 00;03;48;00
Anika
Amazing! That’s so funny. I think when I was in high school, I wanted to be a writer but that’s kind of same thing. It’s like it takes a lot of time and investment to sit down and the whole creative process. Right. And for any creative. And it’s funny, when you were talking about your first book, I was like, you needed a publicist because I think that’s a lot of things.

00;03;48;00 – 00;03;51;15
Anika
People write stuff and then but if they don’t market it. Right.

00;03;51;23 – 00;03;52;06
Lisa K. Stephenson
Right.

00;03;53;02 – 00;04;05;27
Anika
It doesn’t go anywhere. But you can build a beautiful website, but if you don’t tell people about it, it doesn’t go anywhere. So this brought you to this amazing place you are today. Talk about your magazine.

00;04;06;16 – 00;04;28;04
Lisa K. Stephenson
Sure. So funny. Story. I was working at a law firm and I hated my job. And I was I was a lead paralegal there. And, you know, I was I did I love the fact that I could get up and go to work, but I hate the fact that I had to do a nine to five. Like, I didn’t like obligation that came with it.

00;04;29;11 – 00;04;46;29
Lisa K. Stephenson
So, you know, I got fired and I wasn’t sad. You know, I was just like, well, thank God, you know, now my books because at the time, you know, Covenant was doing really well. And then I ended up publishing about four books after that. I think in one summer, I wrote three books.

00;04;47;00 – 00;04;47;24
Anika
Oh, my gosh.

00;04;48;09 – 00;05;09;08
Lisa K. Stephenson
Yeah. So it was very interesting. And then my publicist loved me because I just kept pumping them out, you know? So I ended up, you know, home and I was watching the Hugh Hefner documentary. Funny Hugh Hefner. Why did you like that idea? And I was watching the documentary, and I kept thinking, well, you know, books are great.

00;05;09;16 – 00;05;29;10
Lisa K. Stephenson
But I feel like when it comes to talking about relationships and giving relationship advice, it’s even better when there’s like when it when it can be visually appealing You know, so I decided, well, maybe a magazine will be a good thing because we can add visuals to the text and, you know, we can really get people invested. You know, to want to really take their place.

00;05;30;13 – 00;05;38;11
Lisa K. Stephenson
And so, yeah, I what I did was I did like a mock-up cover at first. And then I just started throwing them in Facebook groups to like, you know, get people review.

00;05;38;11 – 00;05;38;28
Anika
Oh yeah?

00;05;39;25 – 00;05;49;16
Lisa K. Stephenson
And people were commenting. They’re like, oh, where can I read this? And where do I download this? And I was like, OK, it’s time for me to make this magazine. People are interested.

00;05;49;28 – 00;06;07;12
Anika
Yeah, well, you took your personal experience, right? All these things, all these lived experiences that you had and thought like, what do I want to see in the world? What’s missing? And you created that for us other women out there who have been in these situations need advice, need a community to get together.

00;06;08;05 – 00;06;29;02
Lisa K. Stephenson
Exactly. Exactly. So we’re doing that now. You know, ultimately the goal is to we want to empower all women. You know, we’re not just speaking to a specific demographic or a specific age group. We have articles for women who are 40 and over. We have articles for the Gen Z, for the millennials we have advice. We speak with financial coaches.

00;06;29;08 – 00;06;39;08
Lisa K. Stephenson
We try to educate people as well, you know, not just with relationships, but just with life overall. Yeah, there’s things that, you know, we don’t learn in school. You know, we don’t.

00;06;39;08 – 00;06;39;27
Anika
Like so many.

00;06;40;13 – 00;07;00;19
Lisa K. Stephenson
Yeah. You know, we don’t learn about credit. We don’t learn about businesses. We don’t learn about the different structures of businesses and how it necessarily works. So these are things that we do teach. And, you know, we’re not asking, you know, our audience for anything, you know, if they want to subscribe to the publication, they can. However, we don’t put them on any type of retainer.

00;07;00;24 – 00;07;19;20
Lisa K. Stephenson
You know, they’re paying monthly. It’s literally buy as you go. So you want this on this month’s issue. Go ahead. You can grab that. You know, you’re not in any commitment. So of course, you know, we want our we want our readers to feel free and we want our readers to be able to quickly connect with individuals who can assist them.

00;07;20;00 – 00;07;41;01
Lisa K. Stephenson
And we do have people that write in almost every single day asking for relationship advice. So you know, some of the coaches that we have affiliated with our brand, we’ll just link them directly. And it’s a way for us to, you know, put client and customer together client and coach together on site. And it’s very feasible. It’s quick and, you know, people love it.

00;07;41;11 – 00;07;46;24
Anika
Mm hmm. And you are printing and digital, right? Print and digital.

00;07;47;08 – 00;07;47;25
Lisa K. Stephenson
Yes.

00;07;47;25 – 00;07;57;10
Anika
Which is fantastic. I think so many things are just digital nowadays, but it’s actually really nice to get a magazine I want to read in the mail.

00;07;57;19 – 00;07;58;05
Lisa K. Stephenson
Yeah.

00;07;58;11 – 00;07;59;13
Anika
Or at- you know-

00;08;00;13 – 00;08;22;08
Lisa K. Stephenson
I agree. And honestly, the journey towards getting this into a print edition, it was not easy because, you know, I have so much respect for the other magazines that came before us and that are still you know, going strong and are still doing their thing because, you know, the economy’s change, you know, people want things, you know, quickly.

00;08;22;08 – 00;08;41;21
Lisa K. Stephenson
And then, you know, you have all these blogs that is able to beat you to the punch, so to speak. So, you know, we kind of had to structure our brand a little bit differently where, you know, we’re appealing to people who are asking direct questions, saying if they’re asking specifically, well, how do I get over this or what do I do when this happens?

00;08;42;04 – 00;08;49;19
Lisa K. Stephenson
You know, we kind of want to make sure that we’re giving them that me-to-you conversation and. Yeah, it works. It works.

00;08;50;06 – 00;09;04;22
Anika
Well. What would you say is the hardest thing about starting a magazine, being the publisher, writing to having, you know, sales like all the different hats and jobs there are when it comes to your business.

00;09;06;00 – 00;09;34;13
Lisa K. Stephenson
Yeah. So I was actually blessed. I did start out with a good team and then eventually so initially I started off with about four employees and about nine interns. Right. And then everyone was so excited to write for the publication and it was great. And then it got to a point where I didn’t even need to write anymore, you know, and literally like a year we managed to pump out about 500 blogs.

00;09;34;17 – 00;10;07;11
Lisa K. Stephenson
So now we have about 500 blogs. Yeah. And, you know, we’re averaging now close to 458,000 views a month, and that was in a year. So I’m only looking forward to going forward from here, but it’s definitely not the easiest thing. And I want to say sales primarily because, you know, we live in a time where when you’re trying to develop a B2B company, you have to pretty much show, you know, your business how they are going to benefit.

00;10;07;20 – 00;10;32;07
Lisa K. Stephenson
And me being and being a writer and having books and being an author anywhere prior, I know the importance of marketing and having the right audience, you know, otherwise you’re just burning money. So I had to do a lot of research, I had to do my due diligence, I had to learn that, you know, what makes my business different from Google, what makes my business different from Facebook?

00;10;32;15 – 00;10;52;06
Lisa K. Stephenson
And one of the things that sets us apart is, you know, even when you’re going with Google, there’s no one to speak to. Yeah. You know, they create this platform and they say, go in, create your own ads. We don’t care if you’re a newbie. If you’ve never done this before, go in. And if you can’t do it, sure, you know, someone will pick up the phone and help you.

00;10;52;25 – 00;11;25;09
Lisa K. Stephenson
And I think that’s so bad. So what we do is we make sure that each of our clients have their own account executive and handles their portfolio and actually goes over the numbers with them. So, you know, if we if they’re doing like a digital ad or if they’re doing an ad, you know, in our blogs or in the publication, we’re able to say, well, this is how many were printed, this is how many clicks you got from our digital platform is how many people, you know, read this particular blogs or this for me, impressions you did get.

00;11;25;17 – 00;11;48;03
Lisa K. Stephenson
So we’re able to break that down. And to be honest, like people love that, you know, they love that that feeling of you care, you know, and we do care. We want their repeated business. We want people to trust us. We want people to understand that, you know, we know the importance of our ROI. Yeah. And, you know, and not just, you know, having the publication, but I’m also a publicist.

00;11;48;09 – 00;12;25;21
Lisa K. Stephenson
So I do have clients that I work with as well. So my job for them is to get them organic traffic and also to do my due diligence to figure out where is the best place to get their brand in order to reach their audience in order for them to get conversion. So, you know, it does have its challenges, but as in on as in as an entrepreneur, I’m sorry, it’s my job to do my due diligence and really dove in so that I have the knowledge that I can share with a potential individual, you know, just them being able to see that I put the work in.

00;12;26;06 – 00;12;50;00
Lisa K. Stephenson
It also helps to increase trust. And we do get a lot of clients that way. So we’re blessed now. You know, we have about 52 PR clients. We have a very healthy advertising portfolio and we have some of our advertisers who become PR clients because they like the results that they got from the advertising. And then we have people who want to be a part of our events.

00;12;50;08 – 00;12;54;28
Lisa K. Stephenson
So it’s kind of like, you know, they just stay with us and they keep they keep things going.

00;12;55;11 – 00;13;18;00
Anika
That’s the way to do it, you know, and I think that’s a good point is I’m hearing you talk about authenticity of messaging, knowing who your audience is and what where they are, what they’re reading, right? You want to be where they are and then also the ROI. It’s so important in business to know that you’re able to do that and you’re actually able to show, OK, this really delivered for you.

00;13;18;00 – 00;13;42;09
Anika
And here’s how and that’s something I don’t think everybody does when they’re putting together a magazine or trying to sell ads. You know, it’s just another sale for them. It’s not intentional as what you’re putting into it. And so that’s one side of things that I think a lot of our audience will be really interested in. And the other side is, how do you take submissions now?

00;13;42;09 – 00;14;04;21
Anika
I know personally, like as a publicist, I have, you know, sent you press releases or pitches or my team has kind of culled. But then I know sometimes people like that, sometimes people don’t. And so you said you talk about everything that would affect a woman’s life, not just, you know, the one, but not just the relationship piece, which is important piece, but like everything else.

00;14;05;00 – 00;14;21;15
Anika
And so do you have, you know, an editorial calendar that you like to work off of? So, OK, we’re going to cover this this business month. Let’s find that content and search for it. Or do you just get enough inbound requests from publicists and people that you’re like, OK, our job is done on this side.

00;14;21;15 – 00;14;45;17
Lisa K. Stephenson
We go so I do believe in structure. I’m very, very organized. I’m very I want to say that I have a really good attention to detail. If sometimes, you know, someone will do something and you know they’ll fix it really quick before it gets to my desk. And the thing is, I they’ll say, well, I knew you were going to see it.

00;14;45;17 – 00;15;05;12
Lisa K. Stephenson
So I just wanted to fix it really quick. And I’m sorry it’s late. And I’m like, OK, good, because, you know, but yeah, I do have an editorial calendar. A lot of times I get pitches mainly Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then we’ll get some things that trickle in other days. But what I like to do, what I’m getting pitches.

00;15;05;12 – 00;15;22;09
Lisa K. Stephenson
I don’t mind them at all. I don’t mind any amount of pitches. Right. But if usually if I you know, if I get an email maybe more than twice and I’m not interested in the content, I will let the publicists know, you know, if they have something else they can share with me. But I’m not interested in that particular content.

00;15;22;09 – 00;15;47;17
Lisa K. Stephenson
So I do try to get back to people. Sometimes I can’t, but I do try because again, I’m a publicist as well. And I do I’m on both sides you definitely want to give the same courtesy that I would hope that someone would give to me. Yeah. As far as, you know, what we get in I like to have different ideas and I have someone specifically to work on specific things.

00;15;47;25 – 00;16;11;00
Lisa K. Stephenson
So, you know, I have a journalist that covers relationships. I have a journalist that covers cultural events or trending topics, things like that. So depending on the email that I’ll get in, I may, you know, skim in. I’ll see, OK, what’s this person that I’m being told about? What can they cover? Are they a financial expert? Are they a sex expert?

00;16;11;00 – 00;16;27;18
Lisa K. Stephenson
You know, where exactly do they fall? And then depending on that, I’ll just forward the email to my editorial assistants. And depending on where that where we are in the editorial calendar, they’ll be the ones to contact those publicists and say, oh, you know, I know you sent this to my editor. This is what we’re working on this month.

00;16;27;23 – 00;16;55;01
Lisa K. Stephenson
Do you mind sending over some more information or can we schedule an interview? Yeah, it’s very seldom. I’ll put my hands in like I respond to an email and set up an interview. I generally speaking, to be quite honest with you, I don’t like doing interviews. I do some, I do make exceptions, but as far as like interviewing for the magazine and things like that, I don’t do that

00;16;55;01 – 00;17;04;20
Anika
you’re a little busy. I mean, you know, magazine. 52 PR clients. I mean, that that is a lot of work.

00;17;06;12 – 00;17;26;13
Lisa K. Stephenson
I try to just, you know, delegate as much as possible and, you know, and everyone loves it because it makes them feel needed and makes them feel wanted. It makes them feel respected, you know? And I do I’m not one of those managers who micromanage. I like to do a full training, get the training wheels off and you know, go on your way.

00;17;27;09 – 00;17;34;18
Lisa K. Stephenson
I like to just double check, oversee things. But other than that, you know, we have a smooth sailing ship here.

00;17;34;18 – 00;17;42;08
Anika
I love that. So what is next for you? Do you have any more books coming out? You’re going to, you know, have some expansion plans?

00;17;42;08 – 00;18;06;26
Lisa K. Stephenson
So I did sign a deal with Simon and Schuster for my self-help book. So publishing that and like 2024. So I’ve been like holding off, but I do have that in the works. It’s called Love Smart Love Independently. So that would be my first self-help book. And I also am executive producer to a reality TV show called

00;18;06;26 – 00;18;29;16
Lisa K. Stephenson
She’s single in New York. So I do have that. And we also have our own streaming platform. So we have original content. So we did start with that show and I also have a scripted series that I’m going into production with in the summer and then the magazine, you know, the magazine is doing its thing. You know, again, I have an amazing team.

00;18;29;16 – 00;18;51;21
Lisa K. Stephenson
You know, I, I started out with a very small team and then it kind of just expanded itself. And one thing that I’m super grateful for is the loyalty of my staff. Yeah. You know, we’ve been through some things and, you know, as the, the economy changes, things change, you know, especially the individuals who are in sales because they’re mostly commissioned with like a base salary.

00;18;51;21 – 00;19;03;23
Lisa K. Stephenson
So sometimes it gets a little discouraging, you know, when the economy is down. But they stuck it out. We stuck it out. And, you know, we’re continuing to, you know, steady, take slow but steady.

00;19;03;28 – 00;19;10;05
Anika
Yeah. Well, that speaks a lot to who you are. I mean, you know, people want to stick with you because you’re doing right by them.

00;19;10;23 – 00;19;13;20
Lisa K. Stephenson
Yeah. It’s important. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00;19;14;04 – 00;19;20;02
Anika
I you’re well. Wow, you are busy. Do you have time for self-care?

00;19;20;02 – 00;19;32;20
Lisa K. Stephenson
Sleep oh, man. I’m going to be really honest. Like I be. I know I did my hair like two days ago, and I haven’t done my hair in, like, a month and a half.

00;19;33;14 – 00;19;36;05
Anika
I don’t even my roots right now, like, I’m like.

00;19;37;28 – 00;19;53;13
Lisa K. Stephenson
Maybe I can’t. I comb my hair up and I haven’t, like, let it down all the way, but I was just like, I looked in the mirror the other day and I was like, girl, it just feels nice to take care of yourself every once in a while.

00;19;53;21 – 00;20;02;05
Anika
Yeah. And, you know, I’m I’m trying to get better about that, too. Like, you can’t that adage, right? You can’t put somebody else’s you put your own oxygen mask on first.

00;20;02;12 – 00;20;03;05
Lisa K. Stephenson
Mhm.

00;20;03;08 – 00;20;19;28
Anika
And we forget that when we’re working entrepreneur hours you’re in the grind, you’re, you know, you have all these different moving parts. Yeah. But then I just started doing that. I’m like, OK, I can make an appointment for my hair, I’m going to make an appointment for nails, I’m going to do, you know, my eyelashes like all those little things yet.

00;20;20;08 – 00;20;27;25
Anika
And I’m like, I should be doing this because this makes me feel good. And then I think it makes me feel better and more relaxed I have everything else you have.

00;20;28;06 – 00;20;45;21
Lisa K. Stephenson
I agree. You know, what I’ve learned too is like, you know, we should be celebrating small steps. You know, I realize that even though my client, my my staff, they have quotas that they would have to meet, like, at the end of the month, you know, if they don’t meet the quotas, I don’t beat them over the head.

00;20;45;25 – 00;21;08;08
Lisa K. Stephenson
I, I prefer that, you know, they’ve made X amount of calls and even if they’ve closed a certain amount of accounts, but they’ve made, you know, a great deal of effort I think that’s worth celebrating, you know, so I try to have these staff meetings where, like, we’re having so many discussions and, you know, our staff, they love it, you know, and outside of that, I try to do it at home as well.

00;21;08;08 – 00;21;19;11
Lisa K. Stephenson
Now I have a little puppy, and she just she gets so angry with me now. Like when I’m at work, she’s like barking at me or she’s tapping me.

00;21;19;12 – 00;21;20;07
Anika
Oh.

00;21;21;09 – 00;21;36;05
Lisa K. Stephenson
I’m not upset with it. I think that that’s just her way of asking me to take time for her as well and just make time for me, too. So I implement it in the office. I’m implementing it at home. Small steps. Can’t sweat the small stuff.

00;21;36;05 – 00;21;42;10
Anika
Exactly. Yeah. Every little change, every little step forward is a victory.

00;21;42;22 – 00;21;46;01
Lisa K. Stephenson
Yes, exactly. One step closer to a goal.

00;21;46;06 – 00;22;05;05
Anika
Yeah. So now you have your book. Are your books also on your website for your magazine or is that separate? Like, how do people find? Because now I want to go read all your books. Yeah, I already read the magazine. I’m going to subscribe now. I want to read the books, too. So how does somebody find each part of that?

00;22;06;00 – 00;22;38;11
Lisa K. Stephenson
Oh, so I do have an Amazon author page. I used to have my own separate website for myself and my books and my speaking agents, and then I did take it down. I wanted to solely focus on the PR and the magazine. I felt like adding anything else to that would have been rich but right now my books are totally on Amazon and we do affiliate marketing with Amazon, so we’re able to have affiliate marketing where we put the books in the boxes as well, and people can, you know, purchase the books through there.

00;22;38;15 – 00;22;47;15
Lisa K. Stephenson
Yeah, well, yeah, it kind of just works out. So I didn’t really have to have a whole separate website so yeah, I would just get them off Amazon for now.

00;22;48;02 – 00;22;55;08
Anika
Very cool. And then for your magazine, go to the website on social all the same.

00;22;55;20 – 00;23;21;11
Lisa K. Stephenson
Yes. So Shessinglemag.com is for the magazine. I mean, you can also see snippets of the show we do digital advertising as well. So our advertising is both in the publication and online. It’s good in my experience for potential customers and individuals to see, you know, an ad more than once in order for them to gain trust and most likely click and things like that.

00;23;21;11 – 00;23;48;11
Lisa K. Stephenson
So that’s another thing we do with our clients. Anyone who’s in the publication, they’re also in print, digital, and on the website, they’re wonderful. You know, our readers get to see them everywhere. Right? Yeah. So the show is on there, blogs are on there. Our blogs are amazing if I do say so myself. You know, I love them. I’m always like sharing them with my friends too, because I’m just like, Look what my assistant wrote today.

00;23;49;01 – 00;24;13;02
Lisa K. Stephenson
Yeah, it was great. And I love the fact that, you know, our writers, they do very in-depth research, you know, so even though we’re not medical professionals, which we do, you know, include a little blurb at the bottom, if the advice contains anything medical and we do let them know that we’re not medical professionals. But this information was thoroughly researched and we do speak with professionals.

00;24;13;10 – 00;24;23;28
Lisa K. Stephenson
And one of the good things about it, too, is, you know, we do utilize places like Harrow, which has been amazing, you know, in finding professionals to comment on things. Yeah.

00;24;24;16 – 00;24;24;25
Anika
Wonderful.

00;24;27;13 – 00;24;32;19
Anika
Do you have a favorite quote that you like to live by or share with people?

00;24;33;06 – 00;24;37;10
Lisa K. Stephenson
We do one thing every day that makes you happy.

00;24;37;14 – 00;24;38;25
Anika
Oh, I like that.

00;24;39;02 – 00;25;07;01
Lisa K. Stephenson
Yeah, that’s the one. And I also have it hanging in my apartment, too. And I think that for a long time, I I wasn’t doing what made me happy, especially after, like, my relationship ended and it took it. It was so traumatic, that experience. Like, I was in therapy for like two years. And I remember, you know, just trying to remind myself that I’m young, you know, I have my life ahead of me.

00;25;07;01 – 00;25;29;17
Lisa K. Stephenson
I am ambitious. I work hard and, you know, I should be doing things that make me happy. And that was another thing when I was working at the law firm, and I was just like so annoyed because I’m like, I don’t want to go here anymore. And then eventually, you know, like I said, when I got fired, I wasn’t sad at all.

00;25;29;17 – 00;25;39;22
Lisa K. Stephenson
I was just like, OK, now I can do something that makes me happy. And you believe it or not, you know? Right. Working on the magazine makes me happy.

00;25;40;17 – 00;25;42;22
Anika
Now you exude the happiness from it.

00;25;43;03 – 00;26;03;18
Lisa K. Stephenson
Yeah. Just, you know, working on the show makes me happy because, you know, when we’re filming, you know, it’s like family, you know, the cameramen, the producers, we’re literally like a big family with them. For, like, 2 hours. And then in a restaurant, they’ll, you know, they accomplished some food or something like that just for filming there. So we end up having dinner after.

00;26;03;18 – 00;26;17;23
Lisa K. Stephenson
It’s just nice. It’s a nice experience. I’m free, I’m happy, and I wish that for everyone. Yeah, I. I definitely wish freedom and to just be able to do what you love every day. I do wish that.

00;26;18;14 – 00;26;41;13
Anika
I think that’s a perfect place to end this episode because you are clearly doing what you love, and it shows not just in your happiness and what you’re exuding, but the success that you’re having with it, with all with all of the different things that you’re doing. Because I don’t believe that you would be having that success unless it was something that you really, you know, authentically felt inside that.

00;26;41;13 – 00;26;59;06
Anika
And that made you happy to show up. And obviously all of the people who work with you, it makes them happy to show up to work today, you know, every day also. So you can’t ask for better than that. Well, I really appreciate you coming on today and sharing your story and sharing some of the tips that we know about.

00;26;59;06 – 00;27;20;26
Anika
Actually, you know what, when you’re looking at advertising some of the things that you brought up, does the magazine or does the publication or wherever you’re going to advertise provide ROI? What kind of ROI, you know, are they sharing with you? The click through and and the impacts that you’re actually making and, you know, are they working with you to be a partner and a solution, not just somebody who’s like taking your money.

00;27;22;06 – 00;27;41;11
Anika
And then on the other side, you mentioned Harrow Health, a reporter out. That is I actually interviewed the guy who found that a few episodes back originally. And. Yeah, but that is a great resource for anybody who’s new to PR and just wants to learn, like what kind of things are any questions people are looking to get answered.

00;27;42;01 – 00;27;51;25
Anika
And that can help you know, formulate PR plans, too. So Lisa, thank you so much for spending some time with me today. I really appreciate it. And-

00;27;52;15 – 00;27;52;24
Lisa K. Stephenson
Thank you for having me.

00;27;53;20 – 00;28;14;23
Anika
Of course, and I am like super excited. And I didn’t even say to our audience, like this whole thing came out of we’d sent you a pitch. You responded Oh, I included this quote. And I was like, I want to interview you. I mean, I know your publication for a while, so I’m really happy and excited that you could join us and well, you know, provide some great information.

00;28;14;23 – 00;28;35;18
Anika
And I will provide some information on your platforms and your author page in the show notes. Yeah. And an audience. Thanks for coming back for another week. And we’ll be back next week with another episode of Your Brand Amplified. Want more? Check out AmplifywithAnika.com or follow me on socials @AmplifywithAnika.