My Top·Down Approach to getting in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times & More

Ten years ago before I started my first company CitiKitty I made a hit list of press outlets I wanted my business and product to be mentioned in. The list included The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Good Morning America and Live with Regis & Kelly.

I desired to have these mentions because growing up I always viewed businesses that were mentioned by them as successful. I kept this list in a notebook for years and checked them off after I achieved them. 

GOOD MORNING AMERICA
My goal started to become reality during my first weeks of business in 2005 when CitiKitty was feature on Good Morning America during a July 4th segment in which products that provided you 'freedom' were featured. CitiKitty was declared to give you freedom from having to scoop a litter box. While I watched the segment air live from my tiny New York City apartment I nearly passed out when Diane Sawyer declared to the millions watching that she had a toilet trained cat growing up and that "CitiKitty works, try this!".

CitiKitty received 200+ orders that day and I happily picked, packed and shipped each one from my 500 sq. foot apartment in my pajamas. You couldn't wipe the grin off my face for weeks. 

Years later my second business HoodiePillow secured two mentions on Good Morning America in 2012 and 2013. 

THE NEW YORK TIMES
The craze of eco-friendly products hit a peak from 2006-2008 and CitiKitty rode the wave a press hits relating to the topic. By toilet training your cat you could help reduce the 8 billion pounds of kitty litter waste sent to landfills every year (yes, billion with a 'B'). A New York Times reporter came calling in 2008 wanting to write about the benefits of cat toilet trained and my second press goal became a reality. 

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
I nearly passed out when noticed in 2009 that a CitiKitty question that was emailed in came from the extension '@wsj.com'. I saw this as my opportunity to make someones simple idea of toilet training their cat turn into the next article on CitiKitty. 

My goal of being in The Wall Street Journal stemmed from my fathers love and dedication to reading the paper. While growing up I remember seeing my father catch up on a weeks worth of WSJ papers every weekend. I felt that a mention in this paper would be a highlight moment to my father who has dedicated his life to entrepreneurship.

In 2009 The Wall Street Journal article featuring CitiKitty was published. I was then blessed by another two write-ups on WSJ.com in 2011 here and here. And most recently, an article published in 2015 about my experience on How to Survive Being an Overnight Success.

LIVE WITH KELLY AND MICHAEL
My goal began in 2005 to be on Live with Regis and Kelly and ironically, this goal became reality after Regis left the show. In 2013 HoodiePillow was contacted by producers of the show to get samples of HoodiePillow. The following day Kelly was going to present products to her husband Mark that could help him sleep anywhere. As I watched Kelly slip HoodiePillow on her head I beamed from inside. I remember thinking how crazy it was that this goal I thought up 8 years before and now fully become reality. 

MY TOP·DOWN APPROACH
This goal was able to become a reality because I took a 'top·down' approach. I clearly defined what the goal was, 4 press mentions. I then broke the goal down into small actionable steps that could help make the goal a reality.  

As you can see with each press mention the positioning of the products and the story varies greatly from being an overnight success in The Wall Street Journal to helping Mark Consuelos sleep on the go on Live with Kelly and Michael. The same story wouldn't be interesting to all of the outlets so I had to change my approach in order to land each one. 

WRITE DOWN YOUR GOAL
Writing down goals is an essential step in making your goal become a reality. When you write down a goal it instantly becomes tangible. And then by sharing this written goal with others you become accountable to make it reality.

Given my method to making goals become reality it should not be a surprise that the Top·Down Planner is designed they way it is. Top·Down Planner uses the science behind goal declaration and proven time management techniques to help any person reach any success they desire.

The only thing that separates each of us from making our goals become reality are two things:

1. You have to write your goal down so you don't forget it or purposefully ignore it. 
2. You have to take small actionable steps every week and month to make the goal become a reality.

Achieving any goal is really quite simple, we insist on making it complicated. 

Have a great week friends!

- xoxo 
Rebecca Rescate

Leave a comment

Comments will be approved before showing up.