How to powerfully share your opinions in the media

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Big topic today. We're going to talk about how to powerfully share your opinions in the media. Catherine, we've got so much to say about this, haven't we?

Speaker 2 0:12

Yeah, lots to cover. So I think the first thing is to acknowledge that all of us have an absolute ton of opinions about everything, everyone. There's so much we could say. So that what we're really wanting to hone in on today is how do you decide which ones you should be going out into the world and sharing in the media on your social media to a wider audience in a way that builds your brand, attracts the right people, and um aligns with your values, what you what's important to you? Um, because I think that's a really crucial thing. I know Luana, you've got personal experience in that you often share your opinion as part of our dauntless social media, don't you?

Speaker 1 1:09

So I'm right, I think how do you pick the things that are important for you to share, do you think? So the main thing I think about is who am I attracting with this opinion and who am I repelling with this opinion? And then if I'm happy to repel to attract one set of people and repel everybody else, then I'm gonna go ahead and share that opinion. Um but that doesn't mean that I share all of my opinions, you know, because there are people, you know, I might have an opinion that's different to somebody else's, but it doesn't mean that either of us are right or wrong and that I don't want to work with that person, but I do see a lot of people who um share just absolutely everything that comes to mind without giving without giving it thought. And what they tend to do a lot of the time, and this kills me when I see it, is that they repel the very people that they want to attract, you know, like basically if if you've got a strong opinion to share, be damn sure that you're happy to attract the people who agree with you and to repel the people who don't.

unknown 2:27

Yeah.

Speaker 1 2:27

If you go, you know, and that you are the right people, the right person to be sharing that opinion. Like, for an example, um I wouldn't be the right person to comment on a black woman's experience, for example. Um like I'm not the right voice for that. It's it's like, what have I got lived experience on? You know, what am I basing these opinions on?

Speaker 2 3:02

Yeah. I um just to kind of add to that being the right voice. So when during my journalism career, I kind of went through a spell where I did a little bit of freelance opinion piece writing. So you're kind of pitching an opinion that you're then going to write an article about for national newspapers. And one of the key things I had to learn really quickly is not only, you know, what is my opinion, making sure I actually fully knew what my opinion was and I backed it, and that I could um that I'd researched it, that it was an informed opinion, that I wasn't just sort of pulling it out of thin air, but also I had to accept that sometimes I would have a really great opinion, it'll be really considered, it'd be really informed, but I personally wouldn't be the right person to be commissioned to write that for the media. So it might have been something I could have written on my social media or talked about with my friends, but I wouldn't have been the right person to be in the media talk about it for exactly what you've said, but I wasn't the right voice. So, for example, um during the Black Lives Matter protests, I could have probably written some really good, nuanced pieces talking about the different things, but I would have been depriving a black writer from writing that based on a personal perspective, a lived experience, uh a level of expertise in what they were writing about that I wouldn't have had. So I think sometimes it's okay to acknowledge that you feel really strongly about someone, but you're maybe not the right voice to amplify that in the wider media. Doesn't mean you can't still hold that opinion and be passionate about it. But if you're putting yourself up, say for an interview on the radio or an interview on the TV or something like that, you probably should be like an important voice on that. You should be an expert or have experience of what you're talking about, or a perspective that maybe no one else is talking about. So your voice is one that needs to be heard. I think for me, one of the biggest questions people should ask themselves is okay, not only what is my opinion, but why do I want to share it? That's a really important one. So for some people, it might be really, really core to their business. It might be an opinion that they feel will really help people. Maybe people are doing something that they realize that if they maybe looked at something a different way or did something a different way, it would really help them, it would make their lives better. Those are the kind of opinions that we should all be sharing. If they are ones that like really align with our message and our purpose, so those are the ones that I'd love to see people being a bit braver about and really sharing those totally the ones that you maybe feel nervous about, it's kind of asking yourself, why do I feel nervous? If you feel nervous because you're worried what your auntie down the road might think, or your um someone you went to school with, but actually your target market is really, really going to listen to it and benefit from it, then in those circumstances, I think absolutely lean into the fear and do it anyway, because you will always have people that look at what you're doing and they don't get it, and they're not your people because maybe you know your auntie Margaret and your person from school would not be an ideal client, they're just someone who you've got in your life because you've known them a long time and that kind of thing. So, in those cases, you should absolutely go for it. But if it's something that's really, really polarizing and it's polarising the people you want to reach, then that's something that I think doesn't mean don't I'm not saying drop your opinion and don't hold your opinion, but maybe don't make that opinion like a focal point of what you're saying, because actually you might miss out on some brilliant clients if if it's something that's like a marmite opinion where people are gonna really love it or hate it, but it's not crucial to you. It doesn't it doesn't mean that you're betraying your values, not saying it, it's not something that really kind of speaks to your heart and is crucial to your brand, if it's something just like I hate marma and make it a really big thing, or like I really anything where you're being judgmental, I think, about another group of people where it maybe isn't um gonna serve you. So I often think you've got the different types of opinions, so you've got your core value opinions, but then you've also got like your bad day opinions. So we've all had a bad day, haven't we? And at the end of it, we just think, oh, and we're annoyed by everyone and everything, even people that sometimes we actually really like, they're just annoying us because we're having a bad day, we're tired. That is not the time to share your opinion with the world. Because you and you know, we've we've all been there, haven't we? All of us have been there where we've we've wanted to get onto a soapbox and rant and rave about something, and actually, in the times when people have done that, often they find if they have a sleep and they have something to eat and then they come back to it and they go, Oh, don't you went? I probably went a bit strong on that. So that's probably a sign that maybe if you're having a a day where you suddenly feel really driven to post something, um, but you weren't really driven to post something the day before, or and it's not something that is completely core message, sleep on it. I think that would be my thing, sleep on it and see how you feel in the morning. Because if it was that you just felt really frustrated with the world and people, then if it's a temporary thing the next day, you won't be bothered about sharing that opinion. If the next day you wake up and you still feel as strongly, then maybe dig a bit deeper. Okay, so is this something that does need to be said? Am I the right person to say it on my social media? Um am I the right person to say it wider than that? You know, to actually pitch myself to talk about it in the media and actually look into it. But I think it's that thing of asking yourself the questions before you just jump in and share all your thoughts.

Speaker 1 10:16

I think that's so important. So, so, so important because what I see a lot, and this is something that makes leaders look weak, is when um they're sharing an opinion, but they didn't really think it through. So they shared their opinion and then other people disagree with them, which is fine, that's always going to happen when you share an opinion, but then that person goes back on that what they originally said. It doesn't show them, it doesn't position them then as being the strong, powerful leader. It shows them as being unsure, like not confident, not really sure of themselves and what they're saying. So, you know, before you share an opinion, just make sure that you it is actually your opinion and that you can back it up. That isn't something that you've seen somebody else post or whatever, and just go, oh, that seems cool. Lots of people seem to be agreeing with that, so that must be my opinion. Make sure that it is actually your opinion, and that there's some sort of value to it.

Speaker 2 11:26

I think this is so I'm gonna say something now that some people might think on the surface sounds really harsh, and they might they might think, oh, I don't like that thing, but not all opinions are worth the same. We've been kind of taught and built up to be like, oh, my opinion is as valid as anybody else's, but I don't believe that is always the case, and when I say that, I'm not saying oh, there's some people are more important than others, that's not what I mean at all. No, no, but for some things, you are not gonna know the topic as well as somebody else. So, for example, I often will listen to some debate programs, some so you know, on on the radio or on the TV, and they'll try on both sides an argument, and you'll get a ridiculous situation. And I bet if I say this, we'll all have seen something similar where we'll have gone, oh, that's a bit crazy, and they'll have something like a climate change scientist who's studied it for 30 years, and then they'll have like a bloke who just thinks it's nonsense, and it will be like it won't if they don't also have something to back it up, some actual knowledge and expertise and credentials, their opinion on that topic, not their opinion on everything, but their opinion on that topic is not as valuable and shouldn't be given the same way. For example, you know, I Luana has an acting background, I don't. If I suddenly weighed in with my opinion on how people should act based on nothing more than just my opinion seeing it and what I might think, doesn't mean my opinion is worthless, but it wouldn't be as valuable as someone who actually has experience and could say, Well, I know from my own experience and from working with other people that this is why this happens and this is what we do, and that kind of thing. So there is often in arguments a real tendency for people to say, Well, it's just my opinion, and like for that to be the end of the matter, and it's kind of like, Well, you can have an opinion, but it doesn't necessarily mean everyone has to value your opinion. Your opinion might be trash, you know. If I was to come on here and rant and rave about, you know, not liking my next door neighbour because he wore a particular type of hat or something and just making something up. That wouldn't be valuable, but it wouldn't be a valuable opinion, it might be my opinion, but it wouldn't be a valuable one that matters and that should be like tolerated and shared and spread. It might be the kind of thing that you tell like your long-suffering friend who just kind of goes, Oh, okay, great. Um, or like you close circle, but I think we all kind of have a bit of a responsibility. Social media has kind of made us all into publishers, so we all have an audience and we all put things out into the world that can be seen by other people. So when you're sharing opinions, sometimes people will go, Well, I'm not going in the media, I'm just going in front of my own audience. If it's something that you might have to apologize for later that you wouldn't want everyone to see, that actually you haven't really thought through, then just don't post it. Just think about it. Like I say, have an app, have something to eat, just have a think about it. Because we can all think of people who have come into the public eye, they've become a lot more famous, a lot more visible, and suddenly they're being called up for tweets from years ago that were maybe racist or sexist or bigoted in some way, or maybe just really ill-informed opinions that make them look silly. And what I would say is if you know, and we all deep down know if we've shared some absolutely trashy opinions in the past, if you're about to start trying to make yourself visible, or you're already in the process of doing PR and making yourself more visible, and you want to become a really respected figure in your niche, you want to be someone that people look at, and you know that your social media accounts from a few years ago are a bit shady. There's some things there that you wouldn't do now that you did. Go and delete it. Go and delete those things. Do it not because you're not being authentic and you're not being honest, and you're not just because if you no longer stand by those things, yeah, if you no longer stand by it, just take it off. It's not worth it because it can really damage your brand. There have been some really famous PR examples of people doing insane things without thinking. I mean, I'm gonna show my age here because anyone under the age of about 40 probably won't remember this. But um, in the UK there was a jewellery firm called Ratners, and the owner of the jewellery firm, Gerald Ratner, said in an interview that his jewellery was crap, and it was just I remember, and it became a sensation of people going and it completely killed the business, and it was something that he may have thought, he may have genuinely thought that that was a load of rubbish, but it wasn't something he should ever have said because he was actually damaging his own brand. So if there's anything that you do as a brand that you think, oh well, I think it's a load of rubbish, really, but I just do it because people like to pay for it, like don't share that out loud, you know. Or if you if you have certain what you don't believe in, even yeah, but and if you have certain clients that maybe inside you are judging them a little bit or thinking they're a bit daft or a bit silly. Again, we can't police what you actually think, but don't share it if it's about people that you want to work with.

Speaker 1 17:59

I see people posting about their clients, like shaming them. Like I can't even fathom. I mean, anybody who does that, that they're just instantly breaking the trust of their whole audience immediately, and I see it a lot. But you you said one word then that made me think like this is what I think a lot of this comes down to. People trying to be authentic, because there's so many messages out there. Oh, you've got to be authentic, share your thoughts, share your opinions, and all of this. And what that leads to is people doing that in a way that's completely unfiltered, and that's positioned in a way that, oh, you should share your unfiltered thoughts, that that's the right way of doing it, but being truly, truly unfiltered isn't or is unlikely to do your brand good when you're just saying stuff without thinking it through and without thinking about the impact that that can have on the people that you want to reach.

Speaker 2 19:11

Absolutely, and you know, there's there's opinions that just don't serve you. I think this is the thing that it's like, what are is it going to serve you in your business? So if it's that someone's really annoyed you, and I have seen this, these are all things I've seen people doing, people that are trying to be more visible as well, not just people who are happily on the social media just doing their own private lives, but people who maybe they had a bad sales call, or maybe they were annoyed by something a client did. And instead of sort of processing that privately and thinking, are there any lessons that I need to learn? Maybe there are some important messages that you could say as a result of it and that need to be said, but instead of sort of allowing that to settle and to think, what are the messages that I need to tell people that might avoid these situations in the future? Maybe are some things that people had misunderstood before they got on a sales call. And actually, if you make it more clear, that would be a good thing. What they do is they do, like I say, the bad day opinion, where they come on and they just rant and rave about a particular person, and occasionally that might be worth it, you know. If if if someone had done something absolutely terrible and they needed to be called out, and it was a situation that you think, you know, this I need to talk about this because this is not okay. This is something that but you just need to give yourself pause, pause and think, is it worth it? Yeah, is it worth doing this? Is there a purpose to this? Will it serve me? Or will it just make me feel a little bit better? And will it just get me a bit of attention from people where they all be like, okay, hun, PM me and that kind of you know? Right. If someone's just like, oh, are you okay? Let me know what's happened, then usually that's not a good business message. If people are trying to, they're coming in to try and find out the dirt, the gossip, like what's happening with what you want about, right?

Speaker 1 21:25

And they think, right, the problem is that those posts get a hell of a lot of engagement, so then the person who posts it thinks, oh, this is fantastic. I'm getting loads of engagement. This works, but they and engagement doesn't equal currency, like doesn't mean that they're gonna buy it, they're usually not that person, and so I I think a really, really important thing to ask before posting or sharing something in the media is is this going to give to the audience or is it going to take from the audience? Um And if it's just some mindless rant or something, then you know that's just likely to take. Where if it's something meaningful with depth and with actual lessons, then that's something else. And something I do, like if I'm pissing off about something and I want to share about it, I'll I'll write the post. I'll write it, but I won't send it. I'll write it and then I'll pause. And then if 24 hours later I go back and I review it. And what I usually, what usually happens at that point, is usually I go, oh what? Oh no, like that that wouldn't have been right to share at all. Or I go, okay, well, yeah, there's a good message in here, but it just needs refining. And then I'll refine it with a clear, non-emotional head.

unknown 22:53

Yeah.

Speaker 2 22:54

Absolutely. And you know, when you are um putting yourself forward to share things in the mainstream media, so we're talking things like on podcasts, in TV, radio, just have a think about what you want to say before you say it. And that sounds ridiculously simple. You would think, well, of course I'm going to, but you would be amazed at how many people have like a tiny slither of an opinion that they've thought through, and then they just go and they let themselves um just talk and talk, and they're just sort of pulling it out of thin air because they haven't really thought it through. So if it's something that matters enough to you that you want to talk about it in the media, just have a little think around it. Think what what am I, I think, if someone challenges it, will I be able to sort of um defend it or put it, will I be able to stand by it and be like, as soon as somebody says, Oh, I don't agree with you on that, will you go, oh well, yeah, maybe it is a bit over the top? Or will you say, No, I genuinely think this is a really important thing that we need to talk about? Because when you are sharing opinions in the media, most of the time when it's an opinion, it will be challenged. It might be challenged. So sometimes you might be invited on a show where someone is arguing the opposite side to you, or you might be in a magazine where you're doing one side of the argument and someone else is doing the other. Even if you're not directly being challenged in that way, you can bet if it's out there in the media, people on social media will start talking about your opinion and they might not like it. And sometimes people will say that's trolling, but I kind of think I don't count that as trolling. For me, trolling is when people come and they say just horrible things for no reason. Yes, if someone's disagreeing with you, I don't see that as trolling. Because actually, if you're expressing an opinion, you have to also accept that other people are going to have opinions too that you might not agree with, that you might not like. If you want them to listen to your opinion, you have to accept that they're going to want to share their own opinion, and that might be a completely different opinion to yours. And we are in a society at the moment that people are divided on lots and lots and lots of issues, and there's lots of things you could say that someone will genuinely believe the opposite. Um, and we all believe that we're the ones that are right and they're wrong, but they also believe that they also believe that they're right and you're wrong, and you know, so I think it's also to think that through and be like, am I okay with this opinion being challenged? That's another question to ask yourself.

Speaker 1 26:00

Yeah, and if if you can still stand strong and back yourself if you have thousands of people disagreeing with you and you can still back yourself, then go for it.

Speaker 2 26:13

Yeah. One thing I don't want is for people to listen to all this and think, oh well, I'll just never, it's just easier to never share an opinion.

Speaker 1 26:21

Oh no, not that either.

Speaker 2 26:23

We don't, I think people thrive when they see who you are as a person, what your values are, what's important to you. So there are a lot of questions to ask yourself, but the answers will be different for everyone. It's not to say, oh, just don't just don't share opinion. It would be really easy for me to say. And in fact, I used to say to people, people that you know we work with, I would say, oh, never share opinions on politics and religion, it's not worth it. And I don't actually agree with myself anymore. If it's important to your core values, I don't think we should just randomly go and share opinions on politics and religion all the time for no reason. But if it's something that actually is important to your message, your mission, your purpose, then actually, yes, sometimes it is important to say what you believe in, to stand up against things that you think are wrong, to challenge things that you think are hateful and negative. If you believe that what you have got to say is positive and is gonna help people, and maybe you might want to say something because you know that not enough people are standing up for a group of people and you want to be an ally, and that's things like that are all really worthwhile things to do. It's just to make sure that you do it in an informed way, that you've thought thought it through, and you've decided that that is somewhere that you're happy to draw a line in the side and be like, yep, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna talk out on this. Um, so don't think that we're saying, Oh, just don't, just don't express opinions. In fact, we really encourage our clients at Dauntless to share their views.

Speaker 1 28:30

Leaders have to have strong opinions. If you if you don't stand for something, then you're standing for nothing and you're not gonna cut through the noise. Yeah.

Speaker 2 28:39

And don't sit on the fence. I always say as well, like, don't share an opinion that is you if you remember at school and we were like you were taught to write essays and you were told like put one side of the story forward, then put the other side, and then come up with a conclusion where you're tying it all up. In real life, that's not um not gonna cut through the noise, you know. If your opinion is, well, I think both sides are just as bad or just as good as each other, that's just a sort of it might again, it might be your real opinion, but it's not one that's important to share because it's just you sort of saying, Yeah, I kind of don't really have an opinion on this, and that's okay too. There are some things that you won't have an opinion on, and you don't need to have an opinion, you don't have to have a world-shattering opinion on every single thing that that crosses your crosses your path. Sometimes you can just say, I don't know enough about this, I'm gonna sit this one out. But if you do have an opinion, like make sure you are like picking a side of the fence that it's like a clear opinion, that you can explain why you think it rather than just you think it, that you can back it up when people challenge it, and that you've thought through who you want to attract, like um Luana said at the start. Um, if you are someone who works mainly with women, for example, I wouldn't share an opinion that was one that would actually upset them or make them feel alienated, or vice versa. If you mainly work with men, I wouldn't share something that is very critical of a group of people. Um, so just think that through and think, well, some of your criticisms might be valid criticisms, but if they are actually just gonna make your ideal clients feel defensive and attacked, then they're not gonna come to you as your trusted person. And I think this goes back to when people, when we were saying people share things where they criticize people on social media, even if people are called out by you and they recognize themselves in what you're being quite negative about, and they might make them think about themselves, they're probably still not gonna come to you because you're the one that called them out. They might do a little bit of inner work and they might go to see somebody else about it later. But if you're the one that's told them that they're an idiot, they're probably not gonna come to you as a safe space to work. They're probably gonna say, I they might sort of think they've got a point, but they're not gonna kind of flock to work with you if you've basically told them that what they're doing is absolute nonsense, and that you know, I see it all the time with people going, if you're doing X, Y, and Z, then you're wasting your time. If you're doing this, you should be doing this, and really sort of dictatorial posts, and they're not going to they're not gonna respond to that and be like, Oh, yes, you've called me out, but I I'd love, I'd love to get on a call so you can tell me some more things that I'm doing terribly.

Speaker 1 32:01

Rule number one your audience has to feel safe with you, yeah. I saw, oh my gosh, I saw a post the other day that really drills this in. Well, it was more she was talking about her strategies and how I mean the I I can see the intention behind the post was to show how much she had grown over a couple of years, and it was like a light-hearted post, and it was gently ribbing herself, not her audience, but herself, for the techniques that she used to use at the beginning of when she started a business. And the thing that really got me was a comment. I think you've probably guessed what that comment is going to be by somebody who worked with her during that time who felt cheated, like, oh, so if you're saying now that that strategy was nonsense, but you sold me that nonsense for two grand, and then this person was understandably cross. But what what that what that's gonna do is um this person thought that they were just gently ribbing themselves, you know, that it was just a light-hearted self-depreciation kind of pose to show how far they had come. But actually, what it did was it completely broke trust in her audience because they were the audience that bore into that thing that she now calls nonsense. So, what she was doing was without saying the words, saying her audience must be stupid for buying it. You know, that's the kind of feeling that she was bringing across without saying the words, yeah.

Speaker 2 33:50

And I think that there is that thing of thinking through the implications of what you're saying, because and again saying to a friend, oh my goodness, I can't believe I used to do that. What absolute nonsense! I've completely changed now, is a completely different vibe to going and saying it to people who absolutely loved what you said back then, really valued that, and paid for it, paid for it. Maybe still the reason that they're still seeing your posts is because they trust you from that point in your life. I think it's fine to acknowledge that you may have changed things and improved things and evolved, yeah, but I think um don't go too hard on yourself when that actually ends up going hard on other people. So, another sort of an example I could think of where people will really go in apparently on themselves, but actually within that, they are also going in on a lot of other people in their space. So um, I often see within the coaching space, coaches criticizing other coaches and what they're doing, and that seems to be quite a common thing, and sometimes that will be under the guise of kind of criticizing themselves, but they're dragging everyone else down with them because they know it's something that a lot of people do, so they're actually on the surface saying uh it's about themselves, but actually a lot of people are gonna go, Well, I I do that as well. That's what I do. That's a bit of shade to me. And again, there might be opinions that you have about what other people are doing that are worth sharing, but if you're just doing it in a critical way, I think it's just really thinking: does this give value? Is it important? Does this align with my values? Is it worth it? Um, if you feel that strongly that the way that certain people within your industry are doing things and you feel like it's really important to shine a light on it, that's different than just being like, oh, I don't like the way that some people do Facebook ads about such and such. And you know, it's there's a difference between sort of throwing shade on other people, your competition, and actually standing up for something you believe in.

Speaker 1 36:28

That's it, it always makes me feel a bit when I see people like throwing shade at their competitors. I don't like that word either. Um, you know, like there's room for us all, like one strategy being great doesn't mean that another one has to be absolute toss, you know. There can be they can all be great strategies that work for different different people and different preferences, can't they? Yeah, there's room for us all. But the main thing that I would love to finish with um this point that if you have got something that you feel really, really strongly about that is in line with who you want to be and how you want to be portrayed, and you feel on a deep, deep level that it is important in case people don't agree with you, but you can absolutely back yourself, then stop thinking and just post that opinion and make sure that you are also happy with attracting the right people in and repelling the others because that that is what it will do, and it is a really powerful move to do that. Um, no strong leader like doesn't share their opinions, it's just knowing when is the right ones to show for you, like which ones are the right ones to show for you. Okay, we will finish up there and we will see you next time.

Speaker 38:03

And that's it for today's dose of Unfiltered PR truths. To find out more about how you can work with Dauntless PR, drop me a message on Facebook, Luana Ribeira, or email hello at dauntlesspr.com