I’m often asked what gave rise to the idea of SourceBottle, or what was the single defining moment that made me decide to start a free publicity service like this.
I respond by reflecting back to day 273 (week 39) of my never-ending second pregnancy, when I was desperately trying to finish the last of my client work before taking some time off. I’d been a self-employed PR consultant since the birth of my first child, and was only breaking for a few weeks before getting back into it again (albeit a tired and more cranky version of myself).
Little did I know my plans were about to change as my blood pressure rose in response to a client prospect expecting me to be on hand the following week (what, mid-birth?), should she need it, and could I confirm my availability? (I’m serious.)
That was my light bulb moment. When I just knew I had to take steps to put my (until then) future plan to start a service to redress the problems I saw with the whole cat and mouse ‘tango’ being danced by sources and journalists.
All I knew, was that something like SourceBottle was needed to help journalists and bloggers find expert sources because (to be frank) the relationship between journalists, PR professionals and businesses irked me. Every single day, journalists were being inundated with unsolicited PR pitches with no relevance to their beats, while hundreds of thousands of businesses with interesting stories to share were being passed through to the keeper because journalists were sticking to their usual sources.
The whole dynamic was extremely inefficient and what’s more, I felt there were no winners - least of all readers who wanted fresh perspectives from credible, thought-provoking sources.
That was nearly three years ago, and my now humble little Australian-based sourcing service has grown exponentially both here in Australia, but also in New Zealand, North America and the United Kingdom.
Oh, and I don’t believe in charging a fee to make this connection. Journalists and bloggers will never have to pay to post a query for a source on SourceBottle, nor will anyone signed up to receive up-to-the-minute email alerts with relevant media queries.
Enjoy.