"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author

Today's episode is another deep dive. It's in the world of startup PR. My guest today is Ed Zitron.

Ed went from being a journalist to a PR professional within a large firm to start his own firm, EZPR about a decade ago. We got to know each other about nine years ago when he helped me navigate the strange foray into startup PR with my company at the time, Tilt. He was insanely helpful then, and he's even more helpful now with another decade of experience under his belt.

This is an episode on a topic that is on so many creators’ minds — but it's something that was a black box for me for many years. What is PR? How do you navigate the world of PR well? How do you get those great articles you read about other companies? How do you get others to help amplify a message that you're trying to bring to the world with your product or your company?

We touch on everything that PR is good for, everything that is not good for, and what you can expect to get out of “great PR” (and what you can’t really expect from it).

We talk about price ranges that you might pay for a great PR firm, the tactics that can help you get press *without* a PR firm if you are aiming to get press yourself, and also about the topic of “crisis management” which is something that I had never heard a PR professional breakdown as simply as Ed did for me in this episode.

It was great to hear insight into something as gnarly and really disorienting as having to manage through a PR crisis — and do it with a level head as a founder as a creator.

As I said, startup PR is a topic that is on many people's minds. It is something that I knew took me a few years to really understand, and I wish I had an episode like this with someone that broke it down for me.

You can email James questions directly at askbelowtheline@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC.

204 - Blame and Responsibility