Help A Reporter Out and Enjoy Good Karma — Pass It Forward

When it came time for me to sell my beloved 1966 vintage VW Squareback in the early 1990s, I bought a classified ad in the San Francisco Chronicle that read something like this:

1966 VW Squareback — All new engine and transmission. Low mileage. Second owner. Excellent karma. $1,200 or BO.

I vowed that I would know the right person for my car because he or she would understand car karma when he or she called about the car. (I *really* loved this car and could not sell her to just anyone.)

I received lots of calls from people who wanted to know about the “Karmen Ghia” for sale.

I received lots of calls from people who wanted to buy the car for considerably less than $1,000.

One day I received a call from an older gentleman. He started out by saying, “I’m calling about the Squareback with excellent karma.” The clouds opened up and angels started singing. Not really — but you get the idea.

He ended up buying my car later that day.

Such is the way of karma — and what goes around truly comes around.

I’m happy to report that karma also works in business and here’s my chance to pass some karma forward.

In her latest blog post, personal brand expert Lyn Chamberlin writes about how Peter Shankman is now offering a free daily email list, called HARO (Help A Reporter Out), that includes 15 – 30 queries from real reporters.

As Peter states on his landing page, he built the list because

. . .  a lot of my friends are reporters, and they call me all the time for sources. Rather than go through my contact lists each time, I figured I could push the requests out to people who actually have something to say.

If you’re a small business person looking for press or you work with clients who want press, subscribe to his daily listings.

Then, pass the karma forward.