Christina Nicholson is a mother of three, TV host, and business owner who lives in Wellington, Florida.

Christina started her PR agency, Media Maven, after working as a TV anchor and reporter for more than 10 years. Since then, she has created an online course and group program for solopreneurs and small business owners who want to earn coverage in the media, but don’t have a budget to hire an agency.

Christina is also the host of the Become A Media Maven podcast and the founder of Podcast Clout, a podcast database that makes it easier for PR professionals to build podcast pitch lists. Podcast Clout was acquired in 2023.

You can still see her in front of the camera as a host on Lifetime TV, in national commercials, on the TEDx stage, and read her work online in Huff Post, Thrive Global, Inc. Magazine, Business Insider, Fast Company, and Boss Babe.

She was selected as an Oprah Magazine Insider and Ambassador out of thousands of applicants. In Boca Raton, Christina gave a TEDx talk titled, “Fake News: It’s Your Fault” which has more than 100,000 views on YouTube.

Christina has a local lifestyle and family blog, Christina All Day.

As an avid reader and book lover, she is also a steward of her very own Little Free Library.

Key Moments

[00:03:33] Husband is stay-at-home dad, balancing work.

[00:07:08] We know what works; we’re experienced.

[00:12:02] No worries, work ethic remains amazing.

[00:13:48] Restaurant clients struggling during COVID, losing attention.

Find Christina Online

Website: https://MediaMavenAndMore.com

Lifestyle Blog: https://ChristinaAllDay.com

Podcast: https://BecomeAMediaAMaven.com

Facebook: https://Facebook.com/MediaMavenAndMore

Twitter: https://Twitter.com/ChristinaAllDay

Lifestyle Instagram: https://Instagram.com/ChristinaAllDay

Professional Instagram: https://Instagram.com/MediaMavenAndMore

LinkedIn: https://LinkedIn.com/in/ChristinaAllDay

Pinterest: https://Pinterest.com/ChristinaAllDay

Professional YouTube: https://Youtube.com/c/MediaMavenAndMore

Lifestyle YouTube: https://Youtube.com/c/ChristinaDanielle723

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@christinaallday

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Transcript (Provided by CastMagic.io)

Seth [00:00:00]:

Entrepreneurs Enigma is a podcast for the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, for the wins and the fails that we all face being entrepreneurs. How we learn from adversity. Every week I talk to a different entrepreneur with a story to tell. I’m Seth Goldstein. Come with me on the journey. This is Entrepreneurs Enigma. Let’s get started. Hey, everybody.

Seth [00:00:33]:

Welcome to another edition of the Entrepreneurs and Digma podcast. I am, as always, your host, Seth. Today I have Christina Nicholson of Media, mavens of Christina all day of the Huff Post of her own podcast, which is a really good podcast. I love it. Become a Media maven, which is a really good one. She is a former or also recovering journalist, TV journalist from Florida. She did that for ten years. Then she opened up her Media Maven PR agency and then she has create online courses for solopreneurs and small businesses who want to learn how to get coverage in the media.

Seth [00:01:16]:

Kind of makes sense because she was in the media, so she knows how to get in touch with people like herself. That makes perfect sense. She writes for the HuffPost Thrive Global Business Insider, fast company boss babe. And guess what? She was even a TEDx speaker. And I love the title of her talk. Fake news. It’s your fault. I love it.

Seth [00:01:36]:

We’ll talk a little bit about that, but let’s bring Christina in here. Hello, friend and fellow recovering journalist extraordinaire.

Christina [00:01:46]:

Hello, Seth. Thank you for having me.

Seth [00:01:48]:

This is so much fun. We’ve talked a little bit in the past about the journalism experience that we both experienced. It’s fun until it’s not, and then it’s like exactly. It’s really what it is. It’s fun until it’s not. And you burn out. It’s long hours. I was a newspaper guy.

Seth [00:02:07]:

You were a TV person. But still, same thing. Long hours. I could go in with scruff on if I had to work late. You couldn’t go in with you were on TV, you had to be on, which is, I think, even more exhausting, in my opinion.

Christina [00:02:22]:

Yeah.

Seth [00:02:25]:

But then you went into PR, which logical transition it’s either marketing or PR journals escape to. I always joke that it was the dark side, but sometimes I wonder if journalism is really the dark side and marketing isn’t, because it’s a lot easier to do when you’ve done the journalism thing. And so you started me and Mavens and then you’re busy like I am, and you have three kids and your hubby. So you have four kids sometimes. Yes, exactly. So, I mean, I don’t know how you do it all. I mean, you’re a constant writer. You do your podcast.

Seth [00:03:00]:

Oh, I forgot to mention your podcast Cloud site, which was a podcast database to make it easier for PR professionals to build podcast pitch lists, was acquired this year. Yeah, that’s pretty cool.

Christina [00:03:12]:

I’m doing less because that was acquired.

Seth [00:03:15]:

I think you’ve added more. It seems, I don’t know, you’re busy like I am, which is keeps structure going. I mean, when you have three kids, I’m sure I have one kid and a dog and a wife, and structure is key to get this stuff done. Otherwise I don’t know how you do three kids.

Christina [00:03:33]:

My husband does most things, like we have a sick boy at home today. He’s out there taking care of him. Yeah. So my husband is a stay at home dad. That happened during COVID when he was working full time. I had an infant and two kids in virtual school, so I was like, honey, you got to quit your job or I’m going to go freaking crazy. So he’s always wanted to be a stay at home dad, so he’s been a stay at home dad for about three years now, living his best life. So I get a lot of family help there and then on the agency side, so I have a PR agency, and then I also have the online courses that help business owners or solopreneurs who don’t have an agency budget.

Christina [00:04:08]:

And on the agency side, I have a team that does most of the implementing for clients and all of that.

Seth [00:04:14]:

You make sure everyone gets paid is what you do.

Christina [00:04:16]:

Yeah, exactly. I make sure everybody gets paid. I make sure that the clients are happy, the team is happy, and they’re amazing, so that’s pretty easy.

Seth [00:04:25]:

It’s good to have an at home team and at work team, but it.

Christina [00:04:30]:

Wasn’T always like that.

Seth [00:04:32]:

I’m sure it’s never like that in the first years, getting out of journalism, figuring out what to do. Let’s talk a little bit about that because as a journalist, you do come up with your own stories from time to time.

Christina [00:04:43]:

Yeah.

Seth [00:04:44]:

You also are also handed by the editorial desk. Hey, Christina, go cover this mule that does arithmetic. Or that was more me, but literally, I knew I made it when I had to go cover a donkey that could do arithmetic.

Christina [00:04:57]:

Oh, my gosh, that was a cute story.

Seth [00:05:00]:

I enjoyed it. I blamed it on you. I gave you this story. But no, I did that story and it was a cute story, but it was like, yeah, this is journalism, it’s not glamorous. Is that Woodward and Bernstein every day.

Christina [00:05:11]:

Yeah. No, I mean, at first it was like you said, it’s fun until it’s not fun. At first it was fun, but after 12 hours of standing in a hurricane yes. Windy and rainy, literally.

Seth [00:05:26]:

You don’t have to put a person out there, just show the palm trees going sideways.

Christina [00:05:30]:

Yes, but people like to see the people out there. And remember, the people sending us out there are in their air conditioned office with access to food in a bathroom.

Seth [00:05:40]:

They’re the ones I know. You have to avoid flying stop signs.

Christina [00:05:43]:

Yeah, exactly. We’re the ones that have to be out there doing because that’s what people watch, right? Like, whatever gets ratings. So unfortunately, crime stories get ratings. So we’re outside crime scenes all the time. And just after a few years, it got a little yeah, it got depressing. Then you have kids, you get softer and all of that. So I needed something more flexible and something not as depressing. All day, every day.

Christina [00:06:06]:

I did do some fun stories every once in a while, but most of the time they weren’t the human interest stuff that I enjoy.

Seth [00:06:14]:

You did local news, right?

Christina [00:06:16]:

Yep, local news, yeah. I worked from markets like New York City, beaumont, Texas, fort Myers, Florida. And then the last one was the Miami Fort Lauderdale market down.

Seth [00:06:24]:

Oh, so good weather one. You have it, but not always the good weather because you had hurricanes. So I guess when you were in New York, you didn’t have to do hurricanes as much. Or were you there during Sandy? Did you have to be out there.

Christina [00:06:37]:

In no, no, I was there for a very short stint, and it was in the winter, so it was cold. And then down here yeah, and then down here you have the hurricanes, and in the summer it’s just so freaking hot that it sucks. But it is what it is. That’s the business. And I loved it, but then I had a family and my goals changed. So that’s when I went to the dark side, as you call it. And a lot of people make this move just because we know how to pitch the media. We’re on the receiving end of it.

Christina [00:07:08]:

Yeah, we know what works and what doesn’t because we’re in those morning meetings and we know what is a good story and how to create a good story and how to put it on air or in your case, online or in print. So I think it’s a natural move to make when you are looking to do something different. And I worked at an agency for six months, but had a terrible boss, had the same problems I was trying to get away from. Like, I wanted that flexible schedule. I didn’t want to commute 2 hours a day to sit in front of a computer when I could save that time and do it from home. So after working at an agency for six months, I just started my own. And I started as a professional freelancer, and I just started getting clients on LinkedIn or Upwork. And then after a couple of years and hiring a business coach, I knew better, so I did better and then slowly started building a team.

Seth [00:07:59]:

How about your team now?

Christina [00:08:01]:

Right now it is five people.

Seth [00:08:04]:

It’s manageable.

Christina [00:08:05]:

Yeah, half of them are former journalists and then the other half come from publicity, or one actually comes from a book publisher. She did PR for them. Yeah, I have a great variety because when we get inbound clients, it’s like, okay, this one is a lifestyle product sold online. So that goes to the ecommerce publicist. If we get a local hotel or restaurant, then that one goes to the hospitality publicist.

Seth [00:08:33]:

We’re going to take a quick break here from our sponsors and get right back to the show. You get this done to a system I love.

Christina [00:08:40]:

Yeah, yeah. And that’s why we know these specific publicists in place. Everyone has their niche. Everyone has their strengths, and they’re all amazing. They’re very, you know, they don’t need to be babysat. That’s something I hate in corporate America. I feel like that’s why a lot of people want you to go into the office. They want to babysit you.

Christina [00:08:57]:

Like, listen, these are the goals. If you hit them, you do a good job, you get like that’s the way it is. I’m not going to babysit you. You don’t want to be babysat. You want a flexible schedule. You want to just do your job and get paid.

Seth [00:09:10]:

Just get your stuff done. And if you get your stuff done by three, go hang out with your kids. That’s what I do with my people. I say literally get the stuff done. I mean, if you want to work at night to get it done.

Christina [00:09:25]:

I don’t care where you work, when you work, what you wear when you work. Like, it’s irrelevant. Are you hitting the goals? Yes. Good enough for me.

Seth [00:09:32]:

That makes you a good boss because you’re flexible. And I think that people crave the flexibility. And I think with now with everyone trying to get back into the office, they’re realizing there’s more than just coming into the office and the commute. So that’s really good. So you also have Christinaallday.com.

Christina [00:09:58]:

For me, I can monetize it a little bit, but it’s more so like a fun thing for me. Like, for example, this weekend we’re going to go to a five star resort on the beach here in Miami. We’re going to create content. I’m going to share it on social media. I’m going to write a blog post about it. It’s just a fun thing. I would love to grow it. I would love to get better at SEO on that specific website so I can monetize it with ads.

Christina [00:10:26]:

But other things, it’s always been on the back it’s been on the back burner for years. I don’t treat it as a priority. And so that’s why it’s still like the side hustle hobby.

Seth [00:10:36]:

But it’s good that everyone has to have a side hustle, even if it’s some people have their entrepreneurial journey, it’s their side hustle, and they work in corporate. Others are entrepreneurs, and then they have a side hustle still because everyone it’s like, what is that thing? You can’t just have just one lollipop or something. Like you can’t just have just one. You have to have more. There’s a candy out there that you can’t just have one. And it’s like when you’re an entrepreneur, you’re always kind of going you’re always kind of, oh, that’s a good idea, I’m going to go try to do that too. Kind of entrepreneur.

Christina [00:11:09]:

That’s a problem, I think.

Seth [00:11:11]:

I don’t know if you have a.

Christina [00:11:12]:

Problem, Seth, but it’s like, I have so many tabs open right now on my laptop and it’s like, oh, I could learn this, but then could I implement that? Should I implement that? And it’s like, there’s so much to do. I really need to get focused and have tunnel vision on one thing at a time because there’s so many amazing people sharing amazing content and I just want to learn from them and implement what they’re doing. But it’s like I’m one person. There’s only so many hours in the day.

Seth [00:11:36]:

Yes, exactly. So what is the best thing about because you’ve done a little bit of corporate PR, you’ve done the news business, which is its own beast, and now you’re out on your own with the team and team at home, team at work. What’s the best thing about being an entrepreneur?

Christina [00:11:56]:

It’s like the days when my husband and I can go out to lunch in the middle of the afternoon on a weekend.

Seth [00:12:02]:

Wonderful.

Christina [00:12:02]:

And it’s no big deal. I don’t have to worry about being back at a certain time or right now. Yesterday and today, the little guy was sick, so I laid in bed with him until 11:00 a.m.. I would be scolded by a boss if I did such a thing. So the best part is just being able to do these things. And the funny thing is that I still have an amazing work ethic. I can still do these things and get things done and have an amazing work ethic. And I feel like the way people look at corporate America, it’s just so antiquated and they pay attention to things that don’t even really matter in the short term or long term.

Christina [00:12:41]:

I think just not dealing with that BS is lovely.

Seth [00:12:46]:

That’s fantastic. So what keeps you up at night, besides the kid being sick? Business wise? What keeps you up at night.

Christina [00:12:55]:

Business wise? I would say when there’s ever any hurdle with a client or with a team member, I’m not a perfectionist, but when it comes to business, I am a people pleaser. And I always want the team and the clients to be happy. And a lot of what we do in public relations is out of our control. So if we have a client that wants coverage on a specific story, we’ll do our best and set expectations. But sometimes the story isn’t newsworthy or sometimes the time of year isn’t a good time of year to pitch it. Yeah, sometimes. I mean, there’s just a lot that goes into it and a lot is out of our control. And no matter how many times I can educate and explain this to the client, that’s when things get stressful for me.

Christina [00:13:48]:

And I think another thing like this happened during COVID when we had a couple of restaurant clients who were struggling. I had to tell some publicists like, look, we’re probably going to lose these restaurant clients in a few months. And it’s funny, like right after COVID, we actually got them a whole bunch of coverage because restaurants were doing creative things with pickup and people were supporting the restaurants and the servers in however ways they could and that made a lot of coverage. But a few months after that, there was nothing more to tell. And the restaurants, they needed to save money. And unfortunately, the first thing a lot of businesses cut when it should be the last thing is the thing that gets them attention to get more leads, to do more business. But unfortunately, the first thing that they cut is PR. So I had to tell a couple of team members like, look, we’re going to lose this client.

Christina [00:14:37]:

I don’t want to say fortunately, but I wasn’t the only one that was going through that. I feel like it’s an industry thing when a lot of people in PR or marketing are losing clients or it’s slow. It’s just very common amongst the industry. It’s not just one or two. It’s just a sign of the time sometimes. But I would say those two things. It’s really just like ensuring that the client and the team are happy.

Seth [00:15:00]:

I love it. And so what is the most important thing to carry with you all the time?

Christina [00:15:07]:

Like physically or you can go as.

Seth [00:15:10]:

Deep as you want on this.

Christina [00:15:12]:

Okay. Physically. Your freaking phone. Not to sound like a total millennial, but like everything is on it.

Seth [00:15:21]:

I can even run this podcast on it.

Christina [00:15:23]:

Right?

Seth [00:15:24]:

It’s crazy.

Christina [00:15:26]:

Physically, you need a phone. I always like to have a book too. Whatever current book I’m reading, I like to have that.

Seth [00:15:31]:

Something about a physical book too.

Christina [00:15:33]:

I like a physical book. I do have a Kindle, but I only use it when I travel. I just prefer a physical book. I don’t know. And then I’ll do audiobooks, but I’ve listened to audiobooks a lot less since I started my own business. Just because I’m not in the car as much. Yeah, you yeah. And right now it’s very warm outside in South Florida, so I’m not walking outside.

Christina [00:15:58]:

So I’m not listening to as many audiobooks. So physically I would say you carry that. Mentally or internally, I would say you always need to carry kindness. Especially now when there’s so many crazy ass people out there saying crazy things and just being ridiculous. Don’t be a Karen. Carry kindness.

Seth [00:16:20]:

I feel bad for Karen’s that are.

Christina [00:16:21]:

Not Karen’s I feel bad name to have right now.

Seth [00:16:26]:

That and Chad.

Christina [00:16:28]:

So I would say kindness and of.

Seth [00:16:32]:

Those are two really good ones.

Christina [00:16:34]:

Yeah.

Seth [00:16:35]:

Very need right now. And so where’s your big watering hole? Online? Because you are a social media person. Like you’re on Instagram, but what’s your favorite online space, if there is one? How you don’t have to have funny.

Christina [00:16:48]:

No, it’s funny you ask because Instagram, I don’t do any business there. And not too long ago, I created a media maven, Instagram, because I wanted to keep personal and business separate on Instagram because I wanted to keep Instagram fun. I don’t want to be one of those business owners that stresses about the algorithm and everything else. I wanted to keep it fun. So I created a media maven, Instagram, but I’m not posting to it very.

Seth [00:17:14]:

I mean, honestly, Instagram tells me about Instagram accounts I set up a while ago that I forgot about. Hey, you should follow Seth. I’m like, well, that is me. I didn’t know I had that account.

Christina [00:17:26]:

I don’t need to follow him. I know what’s going on.

Seth [00:17:28]:

Yeah.

Christina [00:17:29]:

So Instagram and TikTok are fun for me. That’s where the Christina all day lifestyle stuff comes.

Seth [00:17:35]:

Yeah.

Christina [00:17:35]:

And then professionally, I use I would say LinkedIn is probably the biggest one for me just because that’s where I get most of my business leads, would be LinkedIn. I’m not amazing at not one of these big thought leaders on LinkedIn, but I like LinkedIn. Twitter’s great just because, as you know, that’s like the news platform. That’s the quick short. Get it all you like. If I fall asleep and I need to know who won the Miami Heat game, I just go to Twitter and I search Miami Heat and I find it. So I like those for business. And then Facebook is just there because it just needs to be there because it was the first one.

Seth [00:18:09]:

Stay in touch with mom, that kind of stuff.

Christina [00:18:11]:

Yeah, exactly.

Seth [00:18:12]:

Because that’s all the place they’re at. Well, Christina, thank you so much for being on. This is so much fun. I’m glad we got to get together on podcast and make sure you check out her podcast, which is come on over. It’s so good. There’s some Soul episodes, some Pontification episodes, and she has people on every once in a while, which is.

Christina [00:18:42]:

Yeah. You you will hear on the podcast. I overshare a lot.

Seth [00:18:48]:

Well, this has been great, Christina. Thank you for taking the time out. I’m going to let you go. Take care of your sick little baby boy.

Christina [00:18:56]:

Thank you, Seth.

Seth [00:18:57]:

All right. And we’ll see everyone next. That was a great show. If you’re enjoying Entrepreneurs Enigma, please view us in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps other podcast listeners find our show. If you’re looking for other podcasts in the marketing space, look no further than the Marketing Podcast Network at Marketingpodcasts Network. Goldsteinia hopes you have enjoyed this episode. This podcast is one of the many great shows on the MPN Marketing Podcast Network.