“Everyone who wants a job can find a job, no senior fears for the security of retirement, and an America where every parent knows their child will get an education which leads them to a good job and a bright horizon” says Romney.
Every other part of his speech was remarkable. The quoted statement however, is where he went wrong. This is how he could have better worded it. “Where everyone is encouraged to find or create a job, where no one fears for retirement because they learn to fund it themselves early on, and an America where the school system has been changed so that it teaches dreams and promotes passion so that every student does what they love and provides a brighter horizon to others.”
I wrote this when I was younger and was determined that I would become President in 2028.
“I’m a man of heart, not soul. I believe in humans, I will not hesitate to deliver a blow, nor will I be the first to deliver one. […]
Over the years our economy had to take a few steps back to understand itself and others. […] Life is worldwide not only America.
Our aim needs to be to improve all of life by building an America that helps others.”
This is a prime example (2:40) of what separates the old age of PR and the new.
The old PR would see this video and say that his glasses are his image. He can build a reputation from those glasses, he can build an audience from those glasses, he can build an enterprise from those glasses.
The new PR would see this video and say that the fact he took his glasses off makes him real. It makes him human, and in this digital PR revolution, that is priceless.
We may have liberty, but we still have a lizard brain
Who has heard about the lizard brain? No one? Well I’ll have to change that.
The lizard brain is what makes us not do what we say we are going to do. It’s what stops us from checking tasks off our to-do list, it stops us from writing the book we want, stops us from sending that application in, it stops us from living a meaningful, adventurous, exciting life. The lizard brain can also be referred to as the Amygdala, the part of our brain which registers fear. This fear has a voice and it tells us to compromise, to play it safe, to stay where we are comfortable. This reference to the lizard brain was coined by Seth Godin, author, marketer, and revolutionary starter.
During this mass media age, I believe Seth Godin to be one of the most insightful and helpful authors to us digital natives. Seth Godin has written more than 14 books that have all been best sellers and translated into over 30 languages. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything. Even if a five-mile wide meteor struck the earth today, you could still say that Seth Godin has made a larger impact on society.
You may think this author is important because you imagine him to be the motivating type. He is no more motivating than a rock. He is however a person who can bring you to understand why you do what you do, rather, why you don’t do what you don’t do. He explains in his most infamous book, Linchpin¸how the closer you get to delivering something, to accomplishment, to taking a risk, the harder the lizard brain works to stop you. This ability, to make us aware, is what makes Seth Godin so important.
If it’s not clear already, Seth is an idol of mine. Heck, I flew out to New York to see him and wrote about that experience here. Seth has taught me how to build a tribe, inspired me to keep shipping, and has helped me realize the inner workings of my brain and ego in such a simplistic manner. I continue to read his books and build off his ideas and will do my absolute best to get a one-on-one interview with him over the holidays because I am planning a trip to NYC. I truly owe it to Seth for getting me to where I am today. (HT to Seth Godin)
Side note: If anyone has someone they can introduce me to through email/phone/person that either lives in New York or has other contacts in New York, I would greatly appreciate it. I plan on spending the summer in New York to find an opportunity to become more of a writer and to connect with some of the most brilliant minded people. Michelle being one of them, she’s something special! Thank you!
Stay Positive & People Help People, Who Help People, Who Help Other People, Who Help More People …
Public Relations is a lot about reaching out to a specific group, your target audience. When you reach out to your audience, you want to develop positive awareness that turns into an action that everyone takes.
A big problem before going out with a press release or other form of an announcement is that there is more than one thing you want your target audience to do.
Don’t just buy the new iPhone 5, tweet about it, tell us what you think about it, write a blog post about it, get someone else to buy one, show it off to your coworkers, try our app on it … the list goes on.
At times, yes, PR is about target, precision, and getting your audience to take one action at a time, but this current digital revolution has created the 100-focus-mind. Everyone can and does focus on a hundred things through the day and never is there a time that only one item is focused on. It’s a two-or-more interactive world.
Every digital native audience is capable of handling it, so why do PR specialists still focus on one-group-one-action strategies? It seems to me that you can reach out to each individual member of your audience and give them the option of what to do. As a result, you will have created sub-audiences – people who are taking the same action (listening to the same tune) bundle together and then you can focus on their progress.
Basically it’s about letting every member of your audience dance to their own tune. Whether it is communicating to the entire audience or subgroups, they are all still dancing.
