We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lydia Bagarozza a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Lydia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, let’s start with trends – what are some of the largest or more impactful trends you are seeing in the industry?
– ChatGPT and other AI tools are only as good as the questions that you ask them. If you ask a very generic question such as, “write me a media pitch about the benefits of investing,” there’s a chance you and hundreds of other companies are going to generate the same pitch. This is a problem because it lacks originality, will likely feel robotic, and writers can see right through it. This jeopardizes the publicists and the brands, because the industry itself operates on new, timely and creative information.
– There are ethical concerns because AI tools blurs the lines for what constitutes as plagiarism. For example, if I used an AI tool to answer these interview questions, and another business in my industry does the same thing, who gets featured and is this considered plagiarism if we’re both using the same text?
– Many publicists and writers fear that their jobs are being threatened. I do, as much as I do not, agree with this statement. I believe that we are being challenged to evolve our industry as new AI tools continue to be presented.
– AI tools can provide inspiration for many media activities such as pitch topics, interview answers, and article topics. We just need to make sure that they aren’t abused and solely act as a starting point to then update appropriately.
– Since AI tools are able to receive information and “learn” about a brand, they can be used to create things like press releases and media kits with very catered, specific content from the brand. In my opinion, using AI for these more generic acts is a big time saver and appropriate ethically.
– Like I shared above, AI allows us to see how we need to evolve the industry.
Lydia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am Lydia Bagarozza, the Head Publicist and CEO of my boutique PR agency. For over a decade, I have dedicated my career to helping brands earn the recognition that they deserve through organic media exposure. I am responsible for over 4,000 pieces of press floating around on the internet and have spearheaded PR campaigns for some of the world’s top brands.
One of the main reasons why I went into business for myself was the realization that a lot of the bigger agencies don’t take the time to understand their clients. This typically generated disappointing results. I’m not only passionate about utilizing my PR efforts to earn valuable, impactful and aligned press features, but I take pride in seamlessly integrating as a valuable part of their team.
My boutique PR agency represents a roster of thoughtfully selected brands in the lifestyle, health & wellness, spirituality, business, and beauty industries. Our clients are seen on media giants like: Oprah, mindbodygreen, Business Insider, Well+Good, Forbes, Apartment Therapy, Nylon, Women’s Health, New York Post, and more.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I want to say that most entrepreneurs emulate some form of intense resilience. Owning a business is not for the faint of heart! However, one particular point that demonstrates my resilience is that my business didn’t generate six figures overnight. It took time. It’s funny how I spent nearly 10 years establishing a PR career that would soon not “really” matter because I no longer had the big agency names to back it. I rebuilt my case studies from scratch when I started my own agency, which took a couple of years and a full roster to achieve. Now, the agency has a great reputation from the hard work and dedication that I put into this business.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
I own another business called, Visibility on Purpose, alongside my Co-Founder Bridget Aileen Sicsko. I met Bridget in a self-development community that I was a part of back in 2017. I was always inspired by her confidence and the way that she marched to the beat of her own drum. Late last year, the two of us realized that we had a ton of overlap in our businesses where our audiences could seriously benefit from each other’s skills. She owned a publishing house at the time, was a speaker and marketing expert. In her book projects and networking events, she would talked about how important “visibility” was to expand a business’s impact. I felt similarly, and that’s honestly how Visibility on Purpose was born! What started as a program to merge our geniuses, which shortly turned into an entire company. Now, we have a full offer suite of media-focused courses and workshops for business owners who are ready to take their visibility to the next level.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lydiabagarozza.com/ and https://www.visibilityonpurpose.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lydmariebag/ and https://www.instagram.com/visibilityonpurpose
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lydia.bagarozza/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydia-bagarozza-9212b180/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@lydiabagarozza