Lisa Drennon: ⁓ when you start to court your money, you're pursuing it, not it. And this is what brings true And I just want you to ponder this question. ⁓ What does financial freedom mean to you? Because so many of you wanting this. This is your desire, but you don't have it because you really don't know what it means. So ask yourself, what does financial freedom and share it? Send me a message at info at idatemoney.com. I would love to hear your response. And who knows, maybe I'll do an entire episode just based on your answer. ⁓ So today we are hanging out with Lynn Arenberg. She is a former Miami Dolphins cheerleader ⁓ who now acts as a spokesperson for Palm Beach Art, Culture and Business Communities representing many talented entrepreneurs. She is a PR maven and is highly publicized, divorced from a Florida state attorney, her worldwide recognition as the first Trump divorcee. When not appearing on national television, Lynn is a busy owner and CEO of Lynn Ehrenberg Public Relations LLC. And I like the initials for this. I'm just gonna say lapper. I retired from the social security administration and everything had an acronym. So I just, when I see like the large

Lynn Aronberg: That's right.

Lisa Drennon: letters with the acronym style. It's like, ⁓ wait a minute. I'm going to remember that now. So she has a full service public relations agency with an international reach. So stay tuned because this might be somebody that you can connect with to do PR. And I know PR gets a lot of attention in the entrepreneurial world. So Lynn, thank you so much for being here. Tell us how you got started from cheerleader to PR. I mean, you're in the spotlight all the time. So what made you want to, you know,

Lynn Aronberg: Yeah.

Lisa Drennon: A lot of times the cheerleaders will go into a quieter career, right? So what made you transition into the PR?

Lynn Aronberg: started in PR. ⁓ was working for a PR agency while ⁓ was a Dolphins cheerleader. And then I started my own company, my own PR company when I turned 30. So I always knew I wanted to be in PR. actually high school when I was going into college, I was going to be a teacher. And I had told my math teacher at the time, Mr. Smith, I said, I got into the University of Florida. I'm so excited. And he said, great, what are you gonna major in? And I said, I'm going to be in elementary school, like teacher. And he was, ⁓ this so vividly, he's like, do not do that. I'm like, what am I gonna do? Literally, don't know, ⁓ I tunnel vision was gonna be a teacher. ⁓ And like, I don't know. And he ⁓ thought it. And he turned to me, goes, because we were walking down the hall, he goes, how about public relations? Lo and behold, ⁓ I I went to the UF, I majored PR. I graduated in PR. I worked in PR and then I started my own PR company. And then I saw Mr. Smith at a wedding recently and I said, Mr. Smith, you probably don't remember this, but you told me to go into PR. he teared up to see that come full circle. So not everybody who majors in PR or thinks they want to be in PR end up staying in it. Definitely not only in company. So that's how that happened.

Lisa Drennon: You are. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and it's so important to help our businesses grow. I think it's, you know, there's a lot of, I'm to say this nicely. There's lot of people promoting PR, you know, and then not following through. You know, I know last year on Instagram, there was someone, you know, showcasing this beautiful magazine and for $49, you can have a two page thing and she interviewed you. And then she, you you had to, you know, you got the article printed, but in order to get a copy, you had to pay an additional fee. And it's like, well, wait a minute, that's not what you said initially. And, you know, I've heard of stories like that from my clients and stories of, well, you know, I have to pay, you know, to be in a magazine, it's $5,000. It was like,

Lynn Aronberg: Yeah. understand those stories because those are the type of things that happen that confuse my entire industry. ⁓ if it's too good to be true, then it is. There's no way. First of all, it's media, right? It's not purchased media. It's not advertising. So if anybody is saying to you, ⁓ guaranteeing article, then run away.

Lisa Drennon: Mm-hmm.

Lynn Aronberg: run away unless it's an advertising campaign. If they're saying they will pitch stories about you, your business, your product, they will, they have relationships or they, I don't like to like hang my hat on those relationships because the people in the media change all the time. So you have to understand that the process works also. But if they have a track record, you've seen them work with other clients and they secure media coverage, which is not always glamorous. It's hard.

Lisa Drennon: Mm-hmm.

Lynn Aronberg: then that's PR. But everybody else, there's so many of those people out there that, you know, me in my business, it's important for me to explain that, differentiate myself, try to educate the potential client on what it is I do. The who have had PR agencies in the past, even if they're unhappy or for whatever reason, those people are easier because they understand it's not advertising and it's a marathon. sprint typically.

Lisa Drennon: Right. Yeah, in any business that we do, especially online, there's always challenges, especially financially. What has been the biggest financial challenge for you in starting your own company?

Lynn Aronberg: ⁓ I would say... The type of clientele that we target and we cater to are typically big companies who either we work with investors in other countries like Israel who are buying American companies and making them go public, or are of companies that create products with national and international distribution. So tapping into these type of people is not the easiest thing. have one or two or three of that type of client. really, ⁓ found that me and my team, we focus, because it's a lot of work, ⁓ those types of clients. But you have to also keep and keep growing to the not so glamorous ones that potentially pay same retainer. They can afford it too, ⁓ but it's we won't be like hobnobbing around on Wall Street, working on this, you know, changing the stock price, affecting that price through media.

Lisa Drennon: Yeah.

Lynn Aronberg: that stuff we like to do versus the stuff that isn't quite as enjoyable, but you have to scale. have to keep going. They're not all going to be like your favorite, but that's not the point. So that, think for me personally, steering the ship, I've had to learn and focus on.

Lisa Drennon: And it's so important to learn those lessons and reflect and refine and just look at it and say, okay, this is working, this is not working. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs, especially those listening, feel like, oh, it's not working, I just want to give up. And maybe I should invest in PR, but maybe I shouldn't. And then they look at the cost and then they get really fearful. So what would you say to somebody that wants to get more visibility but is afraid to invest?

Lynn Aronberg: Yeah. I would say now that we have like so much available to us online, I think I don't think you should invest in PR until you have a budget for it because it is not. It's not it's a long game. It's the long game and I would hate for anybody to say, okay, you know what? I'm going to sign a six month contract, but there's a 60 day out clause. So after two months, if it doesn't work, I'll just execute it leave that you just threw that money out. throw it out unless you can really budget for that or a PR agency will work with you somehow. Sometimes they'll do a trade deal with you to offset that cost. I would suggest they educate themselves and try to do some PR in-house for themselves. I Donald Trump, I don't know if this is true or not, but they said that he used to a long time ago pretend to be somebody else and be his own publicist. And I remember my dad telling me that too. He's like, I used to call and say,

Lisa Drennon: Mm-hmm.

Lynn Aronberg: I was so and so from this company, he called the St. Pete Times and publicity. So you have to be creative. And ⁓ I'm talking people out of hiring an ⁓ expert, course, but I don't think ⁓ you go into it without the budget. If you're scared and you have the budget, then I think you should go for it because there's nothing, in my opinion, in this business. It's the way I market myself and my own business through publicity. So I don't think if you have the right people with you, it's worth its weight in gold.

Lisa Drennon: Yeah, definitely. And I want to, since you mentioned Trump's name in your bio, it talks about you being the first Trump divorcee and your divorce was very public. you tell more about that?

Lynn Aronberg: I can't. So I was going through my divorce, he was the top elected official in the county, right? So he had an entire team and I'm PR. So ⁓ I knew seeing some of his peers go through divorces how the image of the ex-wife just tanked. was bad. And I watched that and I'm like, ⁓ heck no, this is not gonna happen me, especially in my own business. So collaborated my former PR agency that I worked for when I was a cheerleader. And I look, I'm already getting from the media about my position. And ⁓ they saw me these calls and... They were like, let us represent you. Let us feel those calls. Let us shape the narrative. Well, took that and ⁓ with it. ⁓ mean, next level. I and he's brilliant. I learned a lot from my former boss. So he issued press releases, had a field day with it. And the next thing I know, I'm all over the news, losing sight of what my point is, right? I was just trying to mitigate any ⁓ negative or not have a voice in my in that divorce when it could have been like out of my hands. So I was proactive and then it just went, you know, to another level. It really did. ⁓

Lisa Drennon: Mm-hmm. Wow. And you know, that's gotta be kind of scary to realize like, wait a minute, this is going to go public and you your reputation's at stake. It affects your profit margin for your business and all that. So what does it mean to be a Trump divorcy?

Lynn Aronberg: That was, credit ⁓ former PR agency and they take credit for it too because they basically took a really old cheerleader and a local DA and made it international news that we got a divorce. That's pretty clever just by tying in Donald Trump. And at that time, it was during the first administration, but the first time he was in office and he just got elected. So it was like a really controversial, right? So ⁓ positioned me. ⁓ like way more hyperbole, right? Okay, we're gonna make this, we're gonna lean in. While it was the truth, it was salacious. So imagine from my perspective, I have to go on national news and international. was on Good Morning Australia, not defending the new president, but talking about the president and talking about my ex-husband and divorce and all of it and trying to keep. And at that point to what you mentioned earlier, while running my business and how it would potentially affect my business. I threw caution to the wind with that. I was like, all right, if you're not going to hire me because you don't agree with my politics, well, then that's on you because frankly, if I can turn my divorce with the help of my old PR firm into international publicity, I think I can represent you and your brand too. here we go, I'm like, like proof of that. it, luckily,

Lisa Drennon: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ⁓

Lynn Aronberg: It never affected, it helped me in my business. And if it hurt it at all, or if there's somebody who didn't hire me because of it, I don't know about that. And one more thing, a lot of the media people, because I'm the middleman between the client and the media, those people don't always agree with, they don't necessarily like Donald Trump, all of them. Most of them do not. And it didn't even faze them. In fact, they, people will come to me now, still at the New York Times, and

Lisa Drennon: Right.

Lynn Aronberg: when they want information or they want access to like Mar-a-Lago or something like that, they'll come to me. So I became their Republican source. So it worked out.

Lisa Drennon: That's awesome. It increased sales. That's awesome. And credibility.

Lynn Aronberg: Yeah, and relationships. And my relationships with the media because they saw that I was willing to talk to them.

Lisa Drennon: Yeah. So when you ended up going through the divorce, a lot of times divorced women feel like they're a failure and a sense of, I'm going to make mistakes and especially financially, especially if they came from a very wealthy family and then, you know, maybe they don't split everything 50-50, but they have to start all over again. I know when my parents got divorced, they were entrepreneurs and my mom had to start her business from scratch because my dad took over the business that they had together. And it was really challenging for her to do that. So what was your experience like?

Lynn Aronberg: think it's always scary. And I tell myself this all the time. If it were easy, everybody would do it. Everyone would do it. So, so, and whenever I feel fearful or ⁓ every stage, like after a divorce or when you're first starting out or there's a fork in the road with business decisions, ⁓ when it's really hard and I'm really am nervous, I, that's what I tell myself. I'm like, if it were

Lisa Drennon: Yeah.

Lynn Aronberg: Easy everybody would do this. This is what I'm paying in order to have my freedom and run a company and the opportunity for a growth the opportunity that is the cost that emotional that's that fear is what you're paying Does that make sense?

Lisa Drennon: Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely.

Lynn Aronberg: So I have to, I try to tell myself that because I have, you know, friends and family members are going to a nine to five job and, and yeah, that's steady and it's stable, but which path would I choose? Because I'm not going to choose that one unless I have, I'm just not, because that's the other thing I tell myself, worst case scenario, I'll just go get a job. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to get a job.

Lisa Drennon: Yeah. Yeah

Lynn Aronberg: I'm going to keep forging forward to the best of my ability and understand this is part of the process. Anybody who's ever like made it, are, I think they have stories, right? ⁓ just like, otherwise again, I think everybody would just show, you know, do it. ⁓ with that, that fear, I think you should just take that and be like, ⁓ this is part of my, the plan. There's going to be fear. What am I going to do when I get fearful?

Lisa Drennon: Mm-hmm.

Lynn Aronberg: well, I'm going to have a support system. I'm going to have people around me who support me. I'm going to have people, I'm going to know that in advance, in times of uncertainty, that I have like a core group of people, one person, two people who I can share this with. And they, you you don't want to go to the people that are like, like my mom sometimes, what do you, just go get a job. Like I do have a job. Thank you, mom. I do like, I do have a job.

Lisa Drennon: you

Lynn Aronberg: You want to go to not that person. You want to go to the people who will share their stories and also maybe help. I found that people, entrepreneurs like to help other entrepreneurs.

Lisa Drennon: Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. having that network system in place is so important. Having that support, especially for soulpreneurs, there's a lot of soulpreneurs listening to the show. And a lot of times they feel alone, like, and they see everybody else doing, making six, seven figures and they're like, well, how come I can't make it? And so that constant battle, and I always say the thoughts are the most important tool that we have because whatever we think is true,

Lynn Aronberg: build a community.

Lisa Drennon: And it's so easy to fall into that victim mode that, this isn't working. I just want to throw in the towel. mean, and a lot of times I think there's a misconception is like, we should just ignore that and just talk over it and have positive toxicity. it's like, no, you want to be able to process all of your emotions because you can't just glean over that and say, ⁓ yeah, yeah, yeah, no, that's just a lie because there's a reason why that thought comes up. that's when you want to reach out and get your support system and encouragement.

Lynn Aronberg: That's right.

Lisa Drennon: You know, and I have a community called The Smell of Money where we use aromatherapy to help change our relationship with money and to create wealth and to activate wealth. And it's so simple because it's just captivating that thought and saying, okay, what do I think is really true and how can I shift it so that I can find financial freedom? So, you know, I said earlier in the beginning of show about financial freedom, it means something different for all of us. So what does financial freedom look like for you?

Lynn Aronberg: Financial freedom to me is having the ability to my basic needs met, right? I'm not going to worry about any of my basic needs. And on top of that, I can travel ⁓ shop like I want to have those extras. ⁓ freedom. ⁓ had over the years, you you have clients and sometimes want to bring poach you bring you in house and

Lisa Drennon: Mm-hmm.

Lynn Aronberg: One of my clients was telling me this story. He was like, ⁓ yeah ⁓ he they want to hire you he goes and I told that person. ⁓ you can't afford her and person was like, what do you mean? I mean how much does she need like talking throwing numbers out? He's like you don't understand her freedom is more important to her than any dollar you could ever pay her and He told me that which made me learn about myself because I was like good answer. You're right. So as long as I have ⁓ I can take care of myself grow. Whenever know that there's opportunity and hope, ⁓ there's that gives me, I can breathe. Of course it's difficult when like a client quits ⁓ or execute the outlaws properly ⁓ or there's so many things that you can't control. Those ⁓ times difficult. so ⁓ like think a lot of it is experience and learning from mistakes.

Lisa Drennon: Mm-hmm.

Lynn Aronberg: And also, or even if not mistakes, learning that this is what happens at times and mitigate next time. How that's going to affect you. Also, don't think, ⁓ think maybe it's because I'm in PR, but the perception of your peers or not peers, other people in your industry or the people that you think are doing so great.

Lisa Drennon: Right. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Lynn Aronberg: Let's have them open up their books. Let's take a look at their books. They could be doing great and that's wonderful. That's great. I think it's important to run your own race and surround yourself with people who are smarter than you, more experienced, people who you can grow with because that's how it's going to elevate you and not necessarily believe any of the hyperbole about how great everybody else is doing. Unless of course it's coming

Lisa Drennon: Yeah.

Lynn Aronberg: It's encouraging you. If it's not, I doubt it. I really, really doubt it. I doubt they're as successful as you think they are. They want you to do that.

Lisa Drennon: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. No, I know, because I see the books. And, you know, their gross sales are, you know, six figures, but when it comes to the bottom line, they don't realize there's a lot of leakage with, you know, the way that they're spending their money, the way that they're investing. A lot of them have fees and services that they're double, triple paying for, and they don't even realize it.

Lynn Aronberg: Right? Right.

Lisa Drennon: I don't know how much money is invested in different types of coaching programs because they feel like they're not getting something and they'll start complaining about the coach. ⁓ this coach isn't doing this and this is like, well, wait a minute. You've invested this money. What exactly did you expect from this program? And when I work with different clients, invest, ⁓ believe in something so much and they'll invest. everything into a retreat or an experience, and then they don't get the ROI. like, well, what you looking for in your ROI? Because it might not just be money, it could have been ⁓ an it could have been a shift, it could have been ⁓ a forming or something. ⁓ We just look at the ROI as the monetary value, although we think the most important thing, but it's not because the energy from whatever it is that we are disappointed in affects the next move that we make. And when I do the, in the smell of money, when we talk about this, they're like, I never realized it. I'm like, no, because you're too busy chasing money. Everyone believes, and I've talked to enough people to know that this is true. Everyone believes that I'm gonna make more money and that will solve all my problems. When I make more money, then.

Lynn Aronberg: Hmm.

Lisa Drennon: No, because if you don't know how to manage $1,000, you're not going to know how to manage $10,000. And if you keep doing the pattern, the spedding pattern that you have in place, you keep taking all of your money and putting it back into your business, yeah, on paper, your grocery seats might be six figures, but the net profit, the bottom line is zero. Or maybe you're in the negative because you've over invested in an experience that you wanted your clients to have and ... someone didn't pay, like you said, they backed out of the contract, they asked for a refund and so many different factors and we don't foresee that. And so with the PR, you had mentioned a couple of times about your out clause. Do people actually take advantage of that?

Lynn Aronberg: they either, okay. So since 2010, I've had three people ⁓ honor the contract according to the contract. I've had to enforce it. Everybody else, they either complete contract. Did we go keep going ⁓ or it properly? Yeah. So because it automatically renews. So I have a six month contract that automatically renews with a 60 day out clause.

Lisa Drennon: Hmm. Hmm.

Lynn Aronberg: So they don't feel like if this isn't what we both do, we both can do it. This is not where we're gonna part ways ambitably. But because I have a business to run, I need to plan accordingly. So that's why you have that two month buffer. And yeah, people, ⁓ I respect that. it's, ⁓ had who was writing a book and they were highly like, they're very positive about the book and when it was gonna be completed. ⁓ they brought on.

Lisa Drennon: Right. Right.

Lynn Aronberg: to publicize this book. Well, this book was not anywhere near being completed. Like we had nothing to promote. It was not working. So it made sense to execute this out clause because you, your, your, your literary, your people agent was behind. So that means that I'm going to jump in and do what I can to help you and prep for that launch, but we're not ready to launch and like yet. So that's an example of executing that out clause.

Lisa Drennon: Right. Yeah. I have a lot of listeners who are authors. I'm an author myself. I'm getting ready to release my first children's book. It's a series of seven. So I started pre-order for Lionfin's Money Adventure. the Magic of Saving, Spending, and Sharing is the first book. And it'll actually be available in print on December 17th. ⁓ And I always think like, you I went through Book Baby publishing.

Lynn Aronberg: I Always.

Lisa Drennon: I had an illustrator and I thought to do traditional publishing. But one of the things that Book Baby asked as well, do you want us to do PR for you? And I'm like, I don't know. ⁓ I have a PR guy and I'm like, maybe, I'll think about it. But interesting because if you don't know how to market and the timing and all of that, ⁓ it get visible and you don't hit the numbers that you desire. So we have a desire to hit a thousand sales on pre-order.

Lynn Aronberg: Right. When is it launching? I'm sorry. just said pre-order. ⁓

Lisa Drennon: And it's pre-launched on October 20th. And then the book will be available to go out on print December ⁓ yeah, just in time for the holidays. it's a financial literacy book for ages three to seven year olds. yeah, so it's got activities. And when they pre-order, they get a coloring book.

Lynn Aronberg: ⁓ good, right, in time for the holidays. important.

Lisa Drennon: an activity book and then the parent whoever orders gets a special gift from me so like I'm not gonna tell what it is but they'll find out in their inbox with a special gift and it's fun ⁓ it's on the ocean theme so lion fin is half lion half dolphin But I always think about like the PR piece. It's like, even the illustrator is like, she's like, ⁓ I'm so excited, but know, marketing is gonna be really challenging. And I'm like, I love a challenge. ⁓ when you... ⁓

Lynn Aronberg: Yeah. You know, I love I have a book club. I have a passion for like, reading and literacy. I sat on the board of our local library. And so we donate our books to library, all these things. So ⁓ have to I'll have to get your disinformation and post about your book because I ⁓ supporting authors. And I don't know if it'd be ⁓ the book for our book club read. But ⁓ a lot of the ⁓ women our book club are moms with two small children.

Lisa Drennon: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Lynn Aronberg: And so, yeah, I love to circulate that and help in any way.

Lisa Drennon: Yeah, that'd be awesome. So helping authors out there with their PR, tell us more about how our audience can connect with you that way, because I know there's a lot of people out there that would love to do that.

Lynn Aronberg: The best way to contact me would probably be just via email. My email is lynn, l-y-n-n at lynnarenberg.com. ⁓ I would suggest putting in the subject, the name of the podcast or Lisa, Lisa ⁓ Lyn ⁓ or anything like that to kind of catch my attention because I don't want them I would hate for any listener to get lost in there. ⁓

Lisa Drennon: Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for sharing all that information. For those of you listening, check the show notes for that email address, subject line, IDATE MONEY, and just tell Lynn that you heard her on the podcast, refer to her episode, share this with someone that you know needs help with the PR, especially if you just have questions and you're like, I'm ⁓ sure if I'm ready for PR, but I really want my business to get to the next level. You know, you're hitting those multiple six figures, getting ready to go to seven figures, and you're like ready for that next step. PR might be a good way for you to boost your visibility so that not only can you have brand awareness, but you can reach globally more people to help more people because that's what you're here for. And this is what brings in money, right? By your desire to help others. Because remember, it doesn't matter how much money you have, it's what you do with it.