Tampa, Fla. – The Key Person of Influence Program (KPI), a one day leadership event for business owners and entrepreneurs, has selected Bruce Serbin, president and CEO of Serbin Media, Inc., to join its team of five top speakers from around the country who are all considered industry leaders in their fields.

The event is based on the book “Become a Key Person of Influence” which was a business bestseller in the UK and Australia. The book stresses the importance of becoming recognized as a highly valued person of influence in one’s own industry by focusing on  five core strengths: pitching, publishing, product creation, profile building and partnerships.

“It’s truly an honor to be part of the KPI team and join such a strong group of talent,” said Serbin. “Together, our team of speakers will help small business owners take it to the next level of success.”

The first KPI event will be held in Tampa, Fla., at The David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts, located at 1010 N. Macinnes Place, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tickets are still available by visiting http://keypersonofinfluence.com/usa/go.php?p=a101&w=bkpi

Serbin will share the stage with five other speakers, including Kevin Harrington, the former star of ABC’s hit show Shark Tank who is known as “the king of the infomercial,” and Forbes Riley, better known as “the two billion dollar host” who is known for her role in the success of the Jack Lallane Power Juicer, Montel Williams HealthMaster Blender and other products that have become household names.

Since its launch in 2010, the one day event has run in London, Sydney and Melbourne, and a new Singaporean event is planned later this year. In each location, approximately 500 entrepreneurs participate and learn from iconic “local heroes” of business.

“We’ve featured best-selling authors, CEO’s, large charity founders and people who have sold their businesses for vast sums of money,” the organizers say.  “The large audience and the highly esteemed speaker line-up makes for an exciting and highly charged learning environment.”

The event is fast expanding into new locations. “Our goal is to operate the Key Person of Influence program in 20 cities around the world within the next four years,” says founder Daniel Priestley.  “We believe this is an exciting time to be in business and that small business has an important role to play in a productive, functioning economy. At the core of our mission is a desire to share stories of small businesses that are thriving in this transformational time.”

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Imagine doing one short phone interview and instead of your quotes appearing in one newspaper or on one website, it appears on 20, 50 or even 100 of them? That’s exactly what happens when you score an interview with the Associated Press or another news service. Their articles are distributed to other news organizations around the world and it puts you right in the spotlight. All of a sudden your name or company name is appearing everywhere.

Today I pitched a client’s remarks against the $7 fee that Wells Fargo will be charging customers. While we landed several interviews with various newspapers and websites around the country, the Associated Press interviewed him and now he is everywhere.

When pitching the media, don’t forget to go after news services like the Assoicated Press. It’s a great way to maximize exposure. His one interview landed in The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, USA Today, Chicago Tribune and many other major newspapers and websites.  What’s even better is with just about all of these websites the reader can link the article to his or her Facebook and Twitter accounts, increasing the exposure even more.

The more people I talk to about media publicity, the more I realize people are misinformed about the role of a publicist and what it takes to get media coverage.

During a phone call yesterday, a prospective client said, “I’m sure you can just pick up the phone and get us on CNN and FOX News.” Or better yet was when she asked, “So what kind of coverage can you guarantee us?”

I can guarantee you absolutely nothing, and I only wish it was as easy as picking up the phone and calling CNN and FOX News. If any publicist makes any guarantees, run as fast as you can.

The reality is that good publicists do book their clients on these national networks, but it’s not as easy as a phone call. In this business, what matters most is the story you have to offer. The best publicist in the world, given nothing to work with, will have a hard time securing national TV coverage.

The old rule that “it’s about who you know” is certainly a consideration but never a guarantee. I’ve leveraged one client appearance on a show to get another client booked on the same show. I’ve reached deep into my contacts to get a book reviewed or an interview arranged. But at the same time, I’ve had plenty of journalists I know turn me down simply because the story I was offering wasn’t strong enough. So again, content is king in this business.

So instead of asking a publicist what kind of results they can guarantee and how long it will take to get you booked on CNN, ask yourself: what do you have to offer?

Some guidelines for getting tons of publicity:

• Don’t say the same thing everyone else is saying. Say something different.
• Don’t be afraid to be controversial.
• Bring it to the public market. How can you take your area of expertise and make it so people care or want to hear about it?
• Tie your message to current events. What insights can you offer on what’s going on in the world? What tips or suggestions do you have that people need to hear?
• Develop an out-of-the-box “hook.” Some of my favorite examples among people I’ve represented: the diet book that says if you’re fat it’s your fault; the gold expert who says the price of gold is headed to $5,000 dollars per ounce; the man who was living on the street for years and is now a multi-millionaire; the claustrophobic fighter pilot; the high school dropout turned entrepreneur who started a non-profit to support education.
• They say everybody’s an expert at something. What’s your expertise that you can talk about?
• Don’t be boring!

Like any other business, there are good publicists and bad ones. And while good publicists can often make a difficult message interesting to the media, in some cases even the best publicist with thousands of contacts won’t be able to do you any good. Someone who truly is among the best publicists will on one hand help your message succeed if at all possible, including helping to further develop it into something sexier if it has potential. But on the other hand, he or she won’t be afraid to tell you if you’re going to have a tough time despite all the best efforts and contacts.