you ready? Good afternoon. It's episode three of Visual PR Live. Greetings. I hope everybody is well. It's Monday. I know I come at you on a difficult day of the week to really get your enthusiasm, but come on, it's in the afternoon. So we're halfway through the first day of the week. I hope you're all well. I'm quite relieved that I've got a voice. I've just, I got back late last night from two days commentating at Donington Park on some incredibly exciting racing.
where people that know me know that I almost spontaneously combust with excitement levels as I'm commentating on that. But thankfully, the voice is here. I say thankfully, you may say otherwise, but I am here. Right, I'm delighted for episode three. The title for this one is Authentic Connections, The Right Message.
And it is about making sure not just that we're increasing our level of connections, but they're real, they're genuine connections that people get what we're about and we get what the people that we're connecting with are about. And that also very much involves making sure that the message is correct. It's all too easy to go off in the direction you think is right and it's wrong.
So I'm delighted to say I'm going to be joined in about a quarter of an hour or so by a very special guest, a lady that I know well from all the business networking. And he's an expert on brand voicing amongst other things. She's a copywriter, et cetera. But we'll find out more from her. But Joe Starr is going to be joining to me. And as everybody knows, in these visual PR live shows, a real passion for me as part of this was doing a charity spotlight section.
That's not just suddenly a charity come on and go help us raise money. I realise that charities, they have an objective and there are multiple ways that they can do that, not just from giving, but there's all sorts of things that we need to do. But we are hearing about all sorts of charities and we can sometimes lose the message of why they exist, why they're doing what they're doing.
how they're doing, what they're doing, what the outcome is, etc. And in actual fact, the guest I've got on for that charity spotlight today is a person that helped me sort of almost piece that niggle in my mind that I was getting about it into one central piece. And that would be Brian Avery from Swim Taika, a great example that I didn't get. until he explained it to me and I realized, wow, I could have had written material and missed that point altogether.
So he's gonna be our charity spotlight. First things first though, it is a visual PR section and it's just something I want to touch on. So hopefully give you some little nuggets to help with your PR, with your marketing, because that's what visual PR is about. It sits in that gap between PR and marketing and brings all of it to life and joins it together and adds a little bit more. And I'll explain that in the context of the authentic connections, right messages this time.
So the key thing that I really understood to start with that was the motivation of this business just a year ago. I think I've probably reached my one year anniversary now. I've been so busy, it's a whirlwind and the team's about to grow again soon as well, which is really exciting, is everything has its place. Those examples can include quite simply written PR or printed marketing.
corporate videos or adverts or even where people do these personal pieces to cameras that still got their place podcasts we're all really into our podcasts recording podcasts listening to it's being devoured at an incredible rate of knots and webinars or seminars we still do them in person you know not just all remote but uh yeah webinars and seminars they've all got their really big place.
However, what I realized for my businesses, and this is where it came from originally, was sort of, okay, if I did written alone, and I do written PR, I've got a PR lady that does articles that go in, say, the business exchange and things like that. And of course, copy for entering competitions and what have you. But if I did just written, would the article be read at all? How much of that article would they actually read? And would it be read in the tone and emotions that I intend it to be?
The answer is probably not. And even more importantly, I'll never have an idea. I will never know the answer to those questions because they're picking up a journal or whatever it might be. And I won't know. I will always do it. It's vital to have that there, in my opinion. But it still leaves me with a gap as a business. The move was to corporate videos. Brilliant. Absolutely love corporate videos. However, if it was corporate videos alone, they're perfect. They're polished. They're scripted.
They're censored. And that can sometimes make people question the authenticity of it. Normally unfairly, but they will question that authenticity. And let's be honest, us trying to present a script to camera is not going to come out as the authentic us either. It just won't. You'll have friends and family watching going, that's not the person I know. The other one is quite often is that I'm sure you're not too dissimilar to me is that you look at it and go, I'm being sold to next.
You won't even give it chance to give you the message because you will assume it's so perfect I'm about to be sold to. And it might have been really useful to you, but you won't ever find out. If we did webinars or seminars alone, they tend to be regimented. You know, it's very structured of what's happening. It's more often not fairly one way. It can be death by PowerPoint.
And even if it's not going to be, our perception is, oh, it's going to be another death by PowerPoint, which might be totally unfair. And the person is presenting rather than conversing. I mean, even now I'm hopefully trying to actually converse with you all. By the way, if you're watching and you've got questions, you've got comments, wherever you're watching, please put those comments or questions because I can put them on the screen.
The bad news for you is it does actually include that it will show you your profile photo and your name. Not sure what's happened to my camera all of a sudden there. It's changed the way it looks. I have to have a look at that in a minute. If it's given the illusion away now, isn't it? You can suddenly tell I've got a green screen all of a sudden behind me. I'll just quickly show you. There it is. But for some reason, it has changed a little bit. There we go. That's better.
As if by magic, I'm back in my studio. You ain't seen me, right? So if we've got webinars and seminars, it's presenting rather than conversing, which doesn't feel as natural to the presenter, doesn't feel as natural to the people absorbing that information. The final comment of that list that I did, podcasts, they're brilliant. I mean, it's like this because you do get to have that conversational piece in those podcasts. It's as natural as can be.
But the problem is when it's audio only, how is it being found? Lots of people are doing it and then getting frustrated because they're not getting the downloads or the listens that they were hoping for. And they get frustrated with it. Well, it's just a bit harder to find it.
still vital and again do it and we have it with ours that we strip out the audio and you put it as a podcast as well so you've got both but it's about finding it and that's where we try to come in and again this was because it was missing for me I needed those authentic connections and the right connections with the right people if we're doing it via video like this youtube Love it or hate it, it is the world's second largest search engine. You can actually just go to Google and search things.
I did it. I needed to repair an oven. Yes, I do DIY as well, even though they're peachy hands, I do, okay? And I did a search and I found this guy from Wolverhampton, I think it was, mending the same oven I've got. And I was able to follow the instructions, work out a piece that I needed and then find out where I could get it from. And of course, I then clicked follow that guy because he was really helpful. And that's the nature.
Of course, let's not forget that you also when you search Google, what's the first thing that comes up there is your YouTube videos. You are now helping yourself get found more with the videos. We've got not just the content. We've got tags. We've got descriptions. We always make sure that SEO in mind. And so it's a perfect place to put it. We also broadcast, so this is going out on YouTube, and it will also be on Facebook and LinkedIn.
And that enables me to go and find my, and I'm going to just say customers, because it can be anything. When we bring Brian out as a charity, he's trying to find people that are going to work with them, support them, help them, whatever it is. So I'm still kind of lumping customers in inverted commas. Our people, our targets, we can find where they're hiding. We can find where they're living because that is the nature of both of those platforms.
And we are able to bring the content to them in a way that they can watch it. They can just listen to it because I've had it in the past where I've put my device down and I'm just listening to the content. I don't actually need to watch it. Plus, we then afterwards create a full post-production list of assets to further enhance your PR, your marketing, the content that we've created live or as live, because it's always like this. You can tell by that mistake earlier, it is live.
But We also make sure that the message is out there in the right place and that it connects with all of our post-production collateral as well. That includes, as I say, stripping the audio out. So we put it as a podcast. And of course, in your YouTube, you say, click here to listen to the podcast. On your platforms, you click here to view on YouTube or click here to view, listen to the podcast. Everything interlinks back through to each other.
We create video clips from the episode that go out so that if people don't watch your whole episode, some of the key messages or some of the human bits that were funny, that were emotional, whatever it might be, you're then able to be putting them out over a sequence of weeks or months. And in fact, even in a year's time, they're able to be regurgitated, of course, because you're creating an evergreen resource here. Those messages with those clips will then link to all of those things again.
We can create transcripts from the conversation. So this show can have a whole transcript that can either be used for SEO purposes or it's your blog post. You know that page that gets updated once every two years on your website at the moment? Well, suddenly you're guaranteed if you've got an episode a month or more, that's at least once a month that it has been updated with content. And I come back to Google and things like that.
So we're suddenly not just making connections with our people, but we're helping people find us. And that's a critical thing. Heck, we can even create branded QR codes that can then be added to go with your written PR or your printed marketing collateral that enables people with their mobile device to zap back to the episode that discussed what that written PR piece was about or what that marketing piece you want them to go and have a look.
And if you use dynamic QR codes, which we do for our clients, You could even choose to change that. So that billboard or whatever it might be you've got with a QR code, heck, we'll now update that so that it redirects to this month's episode, to next month's episode, etc. So we're linking everything up together. Ironically, as you've seen from what we've done at the outset of this video, episode, sorry, is that I can play videos within it. So suddenly we're able to play those corporate videos.
Quite often I host them for my clients, but it's not always the case because there are a number of my clients already that have got people internally that they choose to use and I just turn into producer.
And that's fine, but it means that everybody's comfortable using a lot more natural one of the key messages so again coming back to this authentic connections is what I loved and fell in really fell in love with and got from about pr is that the sales message is not overtly out there it's not in your face the sales message is under the surface it is you know a much more authentic conversation piece that even the written stuff that you're putting in is that joe uh joe smith
that would do my pr would always come out and say no you've gone into advertorial mode because as a business owner that's where I'll always go I'll inadvertently want to shout and scream about my company my products my services my people and it's understandable but it becomes an advertorial. It's not suddenly a PR piece.
And that's where people like Joe Starr that's coming on in a moment as a copywriter, drag people like me back from that to get it to conversational content, connecting content that people really buy into and appreciate. And it means that they are able to learn from that. And so we do that in these, that it is very much as we're going to find out when we get these guests out is it's conversational piece.
And it could be, internal people you know meet the teams it could be customers suppliers partners experts special guests special locations we could be coming from uh because we can do it remote in person or hybrid a bit of both of them with with my whole virtual studio not a problem we can do hybrid and so it opens up what you can bring to light what we can enable people to get on the inside I even do it with sporting worlds that people get to see behind the scenes Business environments where
people get to see what's going out, some of the magic really happening. Magic, have I exaggerated that one? That's fine, I'll go with it. The point being is that you've got content that's going out there that the viewers are suddenly gonna, it's gonna resonate with them. They're gonna go, wow, do you know what? I've experienced that and I've not really thought about it or I never realized there was an alternative. I just assumed that's what it was.
And you've now educated them that, hey, we have experience of this. We get involved in that. We team up with certain people to have the answers and that's gonna start the conversations, the meaningful conversations that is not a cold call. They come into you and say, I saw the episode.
And I honestly, I get so many of my clients that tell me now that they go yeah we had either existing clients or people that come to us to be clients because they've gone I saw that episode on x y and z that was really funny and that was really helpful and I really need to speak to you about that so it gives that content that resonates with them to start the conversation and I've already said it's more natural for the presenter it's more natural there for the people it helps us get
to the real you It helps you present the real you and it helps people see that. And I think that nicely leads me on to my next, my first guest, who is very much about that brand voice. And I still know a smidge of this because she's educating me brilliantly. And I think we're going to delve a little bit deeper. So I'm going to welcome out Jo Star. Greetings, Joel. Greetings, Chris. Lovely to see you.
And, you know, hopefully, and I think I could see you in the green room back there, sort of like jotting down some bits and pieces of notes, although I'm sure some of that is for you and I to speak about in general anyway. I would imagine that there's some chunks of that that is, and I know it is from where we spoke, is like really strings, you know, strikes a chord with you because it's the challenge you face with your clients every day. Yeah, absolutely.
I bang on to anyone who will listen about the need to be authentic, authentic in everything you do in business. And you need it for that connection. And that's one of the words that I wrote down from what you were saying earlier. It's all about making that connection to your audience, but not just any old audience. It's making that connection an authentic connection on a level that will reach the people it's meant to reach. Because we're all in business and we want to do well in business.
We want to attract clients, or in Brian's case, attract people who are going to support his charity. But when we're in business, isn't it much nicer if we can attract the kind of clients who we really get on with, who really share our ethos, who we can really be happy about working with because they get us and we get them. And that's incredibly important. And that's a key element for me is that that authentic you is very difficult to get across on two levels.
One, how many times do you think you know someone because you've been conversing with over email, possibly by phone, so you've at least spoken to them. but you've never really met them. And there's so much you don't know about that person that probably means the relationship isn't even as strong as it could be. And secondly, if you throw people either on a stage or in a room, I know we do networking breakfast and people stand up and do that thing.
And it's hard to be the authentic you when you're nervous. And in front of a camera, even in front of a camera, we're still not necessarily seeing that authentic you until you're relaxed into this conversational style. Yeah, exactly. And it's what we were talking about before we went live today. It's feeling comfortable and as if you're having a chat with a mate down the pub. And that's the point that I get across to my clients when I talk to them about their brand voice.
Number one, they say, what the hell is a brand voice? And then I explain to them that it's all of that communication that you put out to the outside world. It's your brand's personality. It's your core messaging. It's everything that conveys your story, your backstory, and your values. When I'm working with my clients, I say to them, why are you, what are you worrying about when you're putting your message out online or on social media or on your website or your newsletters, whatever it is?
Why are you being someone different? Why are you trying to be something you're not? You know, if I met you down the pub, would you talk in this weird, stilted tone? kind of way no of course you wouldn't you'd be yourself um so that's that's what I'm really passionate about getting across to my clients is be you you know genuinely be honest in a world of ai fakery you know people are getting more and more you know we just crave uh honesty Honest, authentic communication.
We don't want to be sold to. We don't want to think that the person is trying to get our business by trying to be someone they're not. We want them to be honest and upfront and we want them to be themselves with us. Yeah, I agree. And I mean, I like that the world of AI fakery is so true. And I think I've said it in numerous places in an ever more disconnected world as well.
I think that was accelerated by the pandemic where we were forced to suddenly have to do everything remotely and a lot is good that it stayed, but you know, there are other bits that, that kind of, we still need that, that, that connection.
And it's very, I mean, again as a business owner you sit there and kind of go well I've got I don't know what's what's the phrase for me to use corporate responsibility that I've got to give it in a certain message I've got to have a certain tone and it's like other than yes being you know having decorum in the right places and and things you shouldn't do the rest of it is that I i genuinely believe in in being being you absolutely find a way to do that I mean we were talking
about the networking we stand up and do the 60 120 seconds whatever it might be but actually it's the conversations either side of that that an awful lot more is gained of course because because the pressure is off then you know people don't feel like a performing monkey you know they're able to revert back to to their natural state and and it's again, you know, I bang on about this whole authenticity thing all the time and have been doing so for many years now.
And it's just a case of getting over yourself, you know, actually getting over the fear of putting yourself out there, putting yourself out there on social media or, you know, doing something like you do with the visual PR or writing on your website. Don't just churn out something formulaic. Don't Don't churn out something that your neighbor or your competitor is churning out. Don't compare yourself to anyone else. Stay in your lane and be yourself. You know, embrace your crazy.
Embrace your inner geek. You know, if you're an educator, if you're a, you know, whatever it might be, embrace it. Embrace it because you will find your tribe out there and they'll be waiting for you. That's the other thing. They will be waiting to hear from you because they'll finally go. Wow, someone who gets me, someone who's speaking directly to me.
know the inner geek you know they get me they maybe don't even know what they're thinking or feeling and they they suddenly kind of go oh my gosh yeah and it's because they're connecting to the person first the message uh second absolutely they get that one I'm just going to put up a couple oh good to hear from you rob it's uh rob furman from bespoke guardians says totally agree authenticity is crucial definitely rob so good to hear from you my friend Absolutely.
Romulo, that obviously is in our group, he says, Christian Joe, you're amazing. Well done. Bless you, Romulo. Obligado. And apparently he's going to be amazing on the barbecue as well. So we look forward to it. Although I won't be there, but I missed that one, sadly. Well, I'll eat yours then. I'll eat your two, basically. You will, you will.
But I mean, all that sort of that, that authenticity being you, et cetera, which as I say, totally, that is, is one of the remits that I really wanted to give an outlet for people to be able to do that. Yeah. In many ways, you know, like this, where I'm sort of like able to interview experts, but we could have, have a laugh. We could do something exciting. We could do something news related, whatever it is, but we're doing it in our style. Yeah. Yeah. You can't. Yeah, it was the rule, wasn't it?
Yeah. It was the rule. I'm being a very good girl. I'm finding it very hard.
But so far... don't tempt fake don't tempt fake that's right but how do you I mean I guess yours must be even harder to try and do that in written form than for me because I get to to welcome the real you well and and sort of like have fun if you will with the real you on screen whereas you've got to somehow find a way to portray that in writing for people's websites or for wherever else they're putting that Yeah, and it's the same elements apply.
If you are naturally, if I'm writing for someone who's naturally funny, I work intuitively. So I really, it's like I step into their mind in a slightly schizophrenic way. It's sort of, you know, I get into their heads and I become them. And so- If they're jokey, you know, you can use you can use different tones. So it's not just a brand voice is your overall personality. But that can change and that never changes. You know, that's who you are.
That encompasses your values and your ethos and your mission and all of those lovely things. But what can change is your tone within that. So your brand voice remains the same. It's true to who you are. It's how you speak. It's it's all of that, all of all of that stuff that encompasses you as a person and a business. But then within that, you can change the tone. You can alter the tone. So, for instance, if you're speaking to your I don't know, you're speaking to your mother in law.
You know, you would use a different tone and different words than you would if you were with some mates down the pub. So it's. it's just getting that personality across in the words that you choose, in the phrasing, yeah, a little bit of humour, or if it's somebody who's studious or slightly geeky, you know, it's getting across cultural references that can really form that connection with the people that they want to connect with, their particular set of clients, right?
And they will understand it. They will immediately go, ah, yeah, there's a reference to whatever it might be. Oh, I get that. They're on my wavelength. So there are certain nuances you can use when writing. And also, if clients of mine are writing for themselves, I will always say to them, write how you speak. And if you find that difficult to physically write the things down on the screen, Do a, you know, dictate it. Yes. Get one of those voice to voice to type apps and then dictate it.
So just speak. Imagine one person. Imagine one client, one person. Visualize them. Speak to that one person and then you get it down on on your screen. which again comes back to sort of backing up what Visual PR attempts to do as well is the fact that we can transcribe the whole episodes and things like that is it does that, it converts it to text because I love how I do get the authentic person.
Maybe not for the first couple of minutes where they might still be a little bit nervous, but eventually the amount of times people say, I forgot the camera was even on and it just flows and it's natural. And that's where I try to get people to. Thanks for reminding me, by the way. I know, I knew as I said it, yeah.
But how do you deal with, and I touched on this already in my part, is that us... especially us business owners, proud business owners with our head full of ideas and possibilities and targets. And it never goes away. I mean, we heard from Rob Furman and I know with Bespoke Guardians is that he's helping so many people and they're looking to do more and branch out to the rest of the world and all sorts of things like this, growing their premises. And we're always full of ideas.
My team's growing and I'm gonna offer additional services and et cetera, et cetera. You've got to take that massive information. And we've talked about it on my website because I know my content on my website is just like me vomiting all over it with my ideas, basically. It is. But that's usually, it is common, isn't it? And that's what we do. How do you, A, do you sort of pull that back?
And B, how do you get people like me to start pulling back ourselves as well when we're putting it out there? Okay. First of all, remove the fear because quite often it's, It's through a need to be, you know, like me, like me, like me. This is who I am, you know, like me, like me and buy my stuff, like me and buy my stuff. You know, that's the common... Including trying to justify the existence of the products or services. Exactly. It is that neediness in a way. It's visual neediness.
It's this is who I am and then... they usually list all their qualifications, and why, why I'm amazing, and, and actually people don't, yes, yes, they kind of want to know that, but when somebody, especially on a website, you know, you probably know this yourself, you go to a website, you've got an agenda on that website, you know, you, you want to know that the person is who they say they are, hopefully there's a lovely photograph of the person, so you can go,
oh yeah, they look legitimate, they look warm, friendly, you know, professional, whatever it might be. They want the information that they want, and they want it in the, you know, they don't want to have to click very often to get that information.
And they want it in bite sized pieces, because people have got the the attention span of a of a you know a squash carrot they they they want it they want the information and they want it immediately so you make it easy for them less is more less is definitely more um and also you you it's it needs to be less about you and more about them what are you doing for them They're not that bothered about where you grew up and what qualifications to a point that you have.
They want to know what you can do for them. How is it going to positively affect them? How much is going to cost them? Yes, you can do your job. And how do I get in contact with you? That's it, basically. So this kind of vomiting information onto the screen is a little bit off-putting. So it's educating. It's educating my clients.
And then in many cases, it's taking everything that they've written, scrubbing it, starting again in a format that will appeal to their audience and speak directly to their audience. Less is more. Yeah. Yeah. And I know that's a key one. And it is an irony because... And I know that it's a mistake. Even I've edited mine since I think we've spoken. So I don't know if you've seen it, but it's still going to be too much because you feel you've got to explain every bit, justify every bit, et cetera.
And it's ironic because I have another business called Open Doors Training, where I do public speaking and media training and things. And one of the things that I've worked on with a number of individuals and organizations is where they they over-explain something and you can all think of this.
If you've been in a meeting or if you've been in a presentation where they'll say the same thing four different ways and it's because they're trying to go, just in case they don't understand that, just in case they ask me this, just in case they don't get that part, we go and say it in all these different ways to try and stop them. It's like, actually, give enough to get the point over And let them come and ask the questions that they may have. Don't second guess what their question might be.
Let them come to you with it. So that information is enough to make them want to come and ask you the questions. Yeah. And it is, again, it boils down to that lovely word, authenticity. It's being authentically you. It's giving them enough information so they understand that you are capable and you will make a difference to their life.
you know, in whatever way that is, whether you're selling a service, whether you're selling a product, it's all about how you come across as a person, whether they like you, you know, because there is that whole, you know, no like trust element and people want to feel safe with you. They want to feel that you can do what you say you're going to do. You can solve their problems, ease their pain, and that you seem like a really decent person who is on their wavelength and shares their values.
Or not and be okay with it. Yes. Oh, yeah. We're not able to sell to absolutely everybody, are we? No. And again, I will say I deliver workshops. I deliver brand voice workshops. and also a workshop with a fabulous business colleague of mine, Victoria Marshall, who she is an incredible digital marketer. And so we run a workshop that is specifically designed to help you find your brand voice and then know exactly where to place it to get the best impact.
And one thing I will always say is, you know, stay in your lane. Why be influenced by anyone else? Why try and be someone you're not? Be yourself. You will not appeal to everyone. And you know what? That's okay. That's okay. Just let's go back to the pub. You know, you're walking to a pub. Not everyone in that pub is going to like you or be drawn to want to come to talk to you. So it's exactly the same in business. Attract the people you are meant to attract. Don't worry about the others.
Don't worry about it. We couldn't survive if we were attracting everybody anyway to it. You know, you wouldn't be able to provide your product or service to them. I need to introduce you to Rob Furman from Bespoke Gardens, if you don't already know him, because they're at the forefront of working with children with adverse childhood experiences. And they build bespoke packages for local authorities consisting of a handpicked team.
and train them specifically for that child's needs, just as a brief synopsis. And his question is, is it possible to create a brand voice in such a controversial industry or in any controversial industry? Yes, absolutely. I have a client who works, let's say, she works in pelvic health, both male and female pelvic health.
she no one is prepared to give her a google review uh because it's all very very personal and the the things that she talks about are incredibly sensitive and very personal and I worked with her in order to to help her create a voice that um would connect with the right people so yes it's it's absolutely um Yeah, it's... Yes, no doubt about it. You can create a voice for anything.
And I'm thinking, you know, even a couple of simple parts on that that stand out in my mind is the less is more is going to be very relevant there. It will only become controversial if you try dumping all that information. It means you're going to start sending yourself down a rabbit war. Yeah, exactly. I mean, Waze, for instance, we worked around it and then things that we talked about were, you know, do you have... Do you have a need to pee immediately when your key goes in the front door?
You know, is your bladder suddenly going, I'm home, let me just, you know. So we have ways of working around things. We added a little bit of humour, not too much because then that, you know, people maybe are a little sensitive to that, but a little bit of humour. and a little bit of sensitivity. And there are ways of saying things without actually saying things. Absolutely.
I've actually added a third to these, the things that stick out to me as well is the other one is, and I know you and I have touched on this, try thinking more about the benefits rather than the features because it's also easy to feature dump and that can again take you down the rabbit warren. And the final one is that I have a phrase in my public speaking training as well, dead cow or beefsteak, both exactly the same thing, but one sounds a damn sight nicer than the other.
And I'm very mindful of thinking about how you're saying something can make a difference. Yeah, very, very, very much so. And it is thinking about your client, your audience, what are they getting out of it? What is the benefit for them? Always putting them first. And then you can't go far wrong. You can work it back from there. What do they need to feel at the end of it? What do they need to feel? What does your service provide? What does your product do for them?
How does it enhance their life? How is their well-being after they've done business with you? Well, I keep trying to remember, because it was Mike Land from Nickel Design was the one that really said, speaking to you, because I know you and he have done bits and pieces together. And he said that from his perspective, but even he could make a mistake from the actual brand, the physical branding, et cetera, and you with that brand voice.
is guided I'm trying to remember the exact example it was one of the um brands of tools and that they had this titanium titanium tipped drill bit or whatever it is and it's like don't be selling that it's a titanium tipped drill bit sell the fact that do you want to make sure you're able to get through whatever surface you are trying to make that hole in can you drill a hole first time yeah you know I've done that down but that's the essence is rip into that yeah it is nobody's worried about the
the you know the titanium diamond encrusted tip of this amazing super duper whatever it is does it drill the hole I want it to drill yeah will it will it work yes exactly will it survive yeah will it survive will it work will it drill the hole If the answer to those things are yes, great. Then it's got added diamonds and I don't know what else. But can it do the job? That did definitely stick with me. Last couple of bits, picking your brains.
The first one was you heard me talk about written, audio, video. I know your... I was going to say your focus is on the written, but it's not. It's on the word rather than just being written. I know you're a copywriter, but... It's on the voice. It's on the voice. Correct. But my key point being is that those three things complement each other, need to coexist, and you can't just rely on one over any of the other two. No. When you're communicating to your audience...
You need to communicate, especially in 2024, you need to be able to communicate across all platforms. You don't necessarily need to be on them all, but you choose the ones where you are likely to find your audience. So that comes back to knowing your audience, knowing who they are. Really important in finding your voice is knowing who your audience are, knowing where they hang out. And so therefore, you don't need to be on every single platform. But if you choose to be, then why not?
Why not do visual PR? Why not be on YouTube? Why not have a website? Why not be on social media? if you're getting your message out, the only thing I would say is make sure that you are consistent across everything. 100%, yes. Because authenticity and consistency are key to getting the right message across and getting it across to the right people. If you don't have the consistency, you're stuffed. You're absolutely stuffed. If you don't have the authenticity, you're stuffed.
Initially, you might be okay, but then people kind of get wind of who you are or who you're not. And then you'll lose that following. So authenticity, consistency are really key. I like that. I mean, that probably answers my next one, unless you've got one up your sleeve. I was going to say, have you got a big tip or two to leave our audience with from your perspective? Well, Chris, it just so happens I have. From my sleeve. Yeah, just up my, yeah, I've got five. Five tips for you.
Five very short tips. So you need to get clear on the following. So number one is your ethos and values. You need to know yourself. First and foremost, know yourself. Who are you? What do you stand for? What are your values? What's your ethos? Really important, because how are you going to get your message across to the outside world if you don't even know who you are? And that falls into knowing your business as well. Why are you in business? What is your point? What is your why?
Number two, know your clients. Really important. Who are they? They might fall into several niches and that's okay. Providing that you clearly define each niche or you might have one niche, but you really need to know your clients. You need to know their needs and you need to know their wants. Number three, get clear on your messaging. What do you want to say? You know, don't just go onto a page or social media and just go, oh, I know, I'm just going to give it a little bit of thought.
You know, get clear on your messaging, what it is you want to say, what purpose does it serve? Really important. Why am I doing this? Why am I writing this? Why am I communicating this message? What is the point of it? Four, be authentically you. It's what we've been banging on about for the last however long. Be authentically you. Don't get sidetracked by what your competitors are doing, what anybody else is doing. Be you, and you will not go far wrong.
And the last one, five, is All of the above, review, update and adjust regularly. So especially if things change in your business, you know, I know you're going through a period of growth at the moment and expansion. So don't just, you know, go, oh, that's great. I've got a nice brand voice and I know what I'm doing and I know what my mission is. And then just leave it for five years, you know, regularly evaluate it. Does it need adjusting? What's changed in my business?
Maybe you've launched a new product or a new service that will appeal to a different audience. Do I need to adjust the way I'm speaking? Do I need to adjust the things I'm saying? Do I need to adjust my web content? Well, and I think it's not just even just new product, new service, is that I've been finding over this last 12 years is
that you're... It sounds weird, but I've kind of learned this is the case, is that you learn... more about your own business over time because that messaging might need to change. Things have happened in the world that suddenly mean that's now more important or that's the way I should say it. That's what's going to get people's interest and whatever else. And it has evolved even over the first 12 months. And I can see that it's going to keep going. Yeah, very much so. And we evolve as people.
We're evolving all the time. And we're growing up. Our businesses are growing up. I'll never grow up. No, I know, me neither. It's just something you have to say, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I can be an adult, but I don't ever have to grow up. No, exactly. Yeah, so your business might change. You might change. So re-evaluate. So always update, adjust, re-evaluate on a regular basis. So those are my tips. Amazing, Jo. Thank you so much. I wasn't expecting as many tips as that.
So ladies and gentlemen watching, you've been absolutely spoilt there without question to pick that up. You saw that I put up as well the way that I think LinkedIn was the best way to get hold of you, isn't it, Jo? Yeah, absolutely. Do you know, I don't have a website yet. I've never needed one. So all of my business has been through word of mouth and recommendation. So maybe one of these days I'll have a website and be grown up.
Yeah. that you see on the screen linkedin.com forward slash I n forward slash joe j o dash star s t a r r and you can get hold of joe thank you so much for that joe I'm going to now bring out our next guest who I have to thank for being so patient but I'm sure he understands that it was priceless information We're now going to move on to a part of this show that is very close to my heart. It is the, hang on, let me just quickly, just to put this, Jo, is that Rob Furman says, amazing, thanks, Jo.
Oh, pleasure. Pleasure, Rob. I hope you recovered from the ice hockey on Saturday. I missed that game and it was amazing, apparently. But we're through to Coventry, get in. So thanks for getting involved, Rob. But yes, this charity spotlight is very, very close to my heart. And I'm absolutely delighted that I've managed to get someone that, not that he was aware he was doing this, but he helped me formulate what was going through my head.
Quite some time ago now, I'm gonna bring out our charity spotlight. It's Swim Tiger. Alone, we can do so little, but together we can do so much. Visual PR's charity spotlight is about shining a light on the amazing work and objectives of charities, as they do not do it for publicity, but it is important that we know about them, what they do, and understand why. Charity is not just about making a donation, it is about making a difference.
yeah I know I apologize it's still my voice but I'm a voiceover artist as well so why wouldn't I let me change it around brian avery welcome to the show my friend thank you so much for coming on and your patience there It's good to see you. It's been a while, hasn't it? It has indeed, Chris. Yeah. Nice to see you. And thanks very much for all the tips. That was really interesting.
It's nice to see when you were talking about all the different items and the five things we've been running as a charity for seven years and we evolve all the time in regards to doing things. But the five key things you're pointing out and the things we try to do about every three to four months, just reevaluate going through because things do change. You're a good boy.
I suppose also the fact that depending who your audience is, and that changes with regards to what you do and how you do things. And I'm sure Chris will go through with regards to who our audience is coming up. Well, and that's the key one. Let's start off with this. First off, give us a synopsis, Brian. You're obviously the founder of this charity. What is Swim Taika? So what Simtaika essentially does, it's all about drowning prevention, reducing down the number of drownings around the world.
And what we do is we help organisation and we have partnerships in different locations. Imagine that you go on holiday somewhere, you go to the Bahamas, you go to the Indian Ocean, you go to beautiful locations and you go swimming. And you enjoy the swimming, you enjoy the snorkelling, you enjoy the scuba diving.
If you ever ask the local people with regards to whether they can swim or not, I can almost guarantee to you they'll say no. and it's just something we as westerners we just don't think about we just use those services so what swimtiker does is what we partner up with local organizations that are already in those communities and we have drowning prevention educations and swimming lessons to encourage them to go swimming and learn the fact that swimming is a life skill at the end of
the day they're living by the water why aren't they in it because they're scared of the water because they They're afraid to go in. And we try to give them the confidence to be able to get in the water. Because if they were to fall in the water, they would surely drown or get carried away by currents or they wouldn't know what to do. And invariably, these are countries that are, I was going to say landlocked. Is that the right?
Because that doesn't sound right to me where it's got sea all the way around. You know, they are surrounded by oceans or rivers or both and everything else. So it becomes vital. A lot of them, even they're, Lives and livelihood are based on water. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, so we have a program in Peru, for example, where all the local fishermen go out on these tiny little canoes, and they can't swim. They just can't swim. So if they're falling and lose sight of their canoe, that's it.
It'll be over for them. So we're trying to instill it into the youngsters. We start with young children from the age of seven upwards, all the way up to about 18, 19-year-olds. Okay. I mean, I've got so many different directions I want to take this. The first one is an easy question because I've heard you answer this one. What's the origin of the name Swim Taika?
So we actually started in Peru many, many years ago, about seven or eight or nine years ago, we actually started forming the charity in Peru. I went there to just set things up to see what was happening, realized there was a need. And as I was traveling through Peru, you know, your mind's wondering in regards to how can we do this? What can happen? It wasn't until we got to Lake Titicaca until we eventually formed the charity.
And in Lake Titicaca, there's an indigenous tribe there that live on the water. Wow. The Imerian people. And I'm trying to come up with a name again. It needs to be something which people ask questions. Why? Like you said, why swim taika? Well, swim's the obvious part. Taika means mother in Imerian. It's an old Peruvian language. So the idea being is the fact that we're mothering the children to be able to swim. Oh, wow. That is really nice. I knew you'd like that, Jo. Play on the word.
Love that story, that story behind it. That really gives it heart and soul and I love that. I want to take that deeper for a second, Brian, because there was obviously a motivation before you even got to that stage. So what is that? What was that motivation? And so I've always been a swimmer. I used to be a competitive swimmer when I was younger. And I suppose for me, It's following your passion, regardless of whatever your passion is. When I was younger, I used to be a competitive swimmer.
I used to do lots of swimming. Then I got married, had kids. That all stopped. But I always had an ambition to do something when I was a teenager. And that was when I went to Dover. And when I was down in Dover, I saw somebody training to swim the English Channel. And I said, I can do that. I can swim all the way across the France. I can swim that 21 miles. And it wasn't until I was in my 40s that I decided to do it in 2013. But what I realised, doing something like that is an immense feat.
It's like climbing Everest. It's one of the hardest swims in the world to do. And it took 14 and a half hours to complete.
But the biggest thing I found from it was my... excitement my enthusiasm for swimming was actually rubbing off with other people without me realizing it more people were getting involved was because I had such a passion for it people were coming to the lake people were going in the water for the very first time and just swimming with me just because I loved it um I suppose my dog's the same so I have a black labrador and she comes into the water whereas my most labs are
going to the water so about pick a stick up come back no she'll swim with me three or four kilometers at a time because I have the confidence to take her with me and that's that's what happens with the swimming as well so wow I love that and I don't think I knew that full story so that's that's really quite incredible I want to take you through to a thought process that went through my mind because as I say you unintentionally were a motivation for me for this charity spotlight
to sort of shine the light on the the whys and the hows and everything else uh in in a fog of information about a lot of charities that we can we can lose the reason and it was like I was there like you I used to be a swimmer as well and allegedly at least the way I learned to swim is that my dad threw me in the deep end of swimming pool and I with survival mode swam to the edge and I then got to a national level swimmer standard uh and so I'm there going well surely there isn't a need to go
around the world teaching people this because I was thrown in and and did but that's oversimplifying the situation isn't it and sometimes it's too late so so one of the things we try to do is try to work out regards to what why children are or why parents aren't being taught to swim and the biggest reason is the parents put the fear into children to keep them away from water of course so by keeping them away from water means that they'll be protected from it that's like the barrier
they put up yeah but of course if they fall in or they do something due to peer pressure what do they do then Yeah, no, and exactly that was what really struck with me going, I'd have never have thought of that, is that we do, we have these, you know, influenced fears, don't we, I guess is the easiest way to do it. And yet it's actually even the more vulnerable. So you therefore have decided that you want to go and try and help.
And it's not by you suddenly this single man crusade is that you are setting up these centres around the world that, yes, you are the founder of the charity, but to try and make them self-sufficient around the world, presumably. Yeah, so what we do, we partner up with other organisations, other charities, other non-profits who are already in the location. They're already supporting the local community.
The children who are in centres where they need the support because they don't have the financial support to be able to do things, the low resource environment, the shanty towns, all those type of areas. So there are already communities that have that. And what we do is we come to them and say, well, Your communities buy water. Do you have swimming lessons? No, they don't. Why don't you? Because they don't have the expertise to be able to do it.
So what we do is we go through a lot of due diligence with these organizations, whether it be in Peru, Brazil, Uganda, Bali, wherever it might be. just to see with regards to whether what they're doing will work with us so we can then support them. And once we've got that connection with them, we then give them a commitment for five years. And the reason for the five years is the fact that we'll start off by sending swimming instructors to them to be able to help get the program going.
to the point that local people will then start being taught how to be swimming instructors. So teach the teacher type thing. So then there's local people running it. Then we'll get local businesses involved, local government, local schools and expanding out going to more and more children and keep going to the point that it will be financially stable after five years. They'll be able to run it themselves, be able to promote it themselves and be able to grow themselves. Fantastic. I do love it.
I mean, it comes back to the phrase and the lyrics in the song and all of that is that give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, teach a man a fish and he'll eat forever. Very, very similar. Yeah, absolutely.
And that's why we try to... aim at children because they're the next generation that will come up and then once once they get older adults have their own children then it will just be a natural progression to teach them to swim because they live by the water because they have a love for it and go on sorry go on Brian and funny enough so most of the children have a desire to go in the water that they all do at a young age and what we quite often find is the children will
go in the water and they'll bob in the water they'll push from the bottom that they'll jump over the waves as they have a strong confidence in the water they've just never been taught to swim and the reason beings it's like it like in in in the western world to learn to swim you've got to pay for it uh most of these children can't afford to pay for the parents can't afford to pay for it so they've never been taught there are about three or four countries in the world
that have it part of the curriculum. And the UK happened. We're very fortunate that we have that as part of the schooling that we do. But these children don't do it. So when we come along and the swimming instructor gets inside, sorts them all out, tells them what's happening, they get in the pool. Within a couple of days, they swim five, 10 meters. Wow. They're just being taught how to float, how to do their stroke. Because they already have the confidence in doing it.
And that gives them the ability that if they do fall in the water or it's too deep, they're not gonna panic. Yeah. Does that mean that you're also having to train the adults, not just to swim, so either parents I'm thinking here, to stop having that fear of their kids going in the water? So one of the biggest issues we have is in the Western world, we have to get the parents permission. We get them to sign a form to say, yes, we're gonna take them to swimming lessons.
However, it's gonna be slightly dangerous because it's water. There's a danger involved in doing it. In the Western world we accept that because we understand that the teacher is responsible, they know what they're doing. Whereas across there they don't, they've still got that fear. And the issues we've had, just to get the parents to be able to trust us, to be able to take us, it's huge, enormous. And that's why we work with the local partners. So they have that trust, I'm pulling that trust.
Got you, yeah, that already exists then. The trust is already there. But do you have to do non-practical education for any of them, or is it purely swimming lessons? No, so drowning prevention isn't just about swimming lessons. It's about building up barriers, resuscitation, first aid, all those elements. So we run those as well. Other things which people won't realise is the fact that in Bangladesh, for example, and Vietnam, there's deltas everywhere, so every corner there's water.
But the parents have to go out to work to be able to survive, both of them do, and quite often they'll leave them with younger children. So the children will be with their siblings, looking after them at home. But of course, there's water nearby and quite often they'll drown as a result of that. So just having a kindergarten, for example, a nursery for the children to go to prevents drowning. And it's been able to get that across the local communities.
If you do this and set this up, it will protect the children from drowning because the parents are off at work. They can't look after them and just have that sense of security as well.
It must be incredibly rewarding for you, Brian, seeing this growing around the world and knowing it genuinely is helping and it's not just the physical what's happening now is that you're I love I've not heard the description where you're trying to then enable it to be not just self-sufficient but self-growing that you're leaving that legacy swim tiger are leaving that legacy that's going to become itself and bigger and and and off it goes because that's your ultimate goal it is yeah I
think it's more to do with because I have a passion for it. I love doing it. I just then love other local people picking up on that passion. In fact, we have a number of what we call ambassadors now who go out to our program to help run the program and structure it in a way. And I remember Robert, one of our ambassadors, went out to Mozambique to one of our projects, and he's been a swimming teacher for 30, 35 years. He knows everything about swimming teaching.
And he went out to the Mozambique project, and he got out there, and after two weeks, he phoned me up and says, I love this. This is this is what makes me I can see why why you're doing this. I can see why what this is about. And it's that level of passion that we're trying to instill, not just in our volunteers, but the local people as well and make them realize the fact that water gives you life. We're all part of water. And if you can appreciate and love it, you can be part of it.
It makes sense. Any questions that you wanted to ask or have I been covering them? One thing we do try to follow is the World Health Organization and their guidance. I think that's a very good point to point with regards to where to do things and how to do things. It's like, for example, why do we teach seven-year-olds upwards? Why not any younger?
uh and as a world health organization did a study on children generally especially learning to swim that if you teach children below the age of seven today come back in a year's time you have to re-teach them to be able to do it so remember it so from seven upwards um once you've taught them once they will remember Is that right? They'll take that forwards to do swimming anyway. That's what the study was finding out. It's not to say we won't teach children under the age of seven.
It's just we try to aim it at the age group from seven upwards. Yeah, which I think probably sticks with even over here. It was probably around that sort of age that they start taking them at the primary school, which my daughter was ahead of with my background. We had a proficient and competing by then, to be honest with you anyway. But the schools all went off. So, yeah, I didn't know that was the reasons. I just thought that was just when it was. So that makes more sense.
But, Jo, anything from you, Jo? It's just a fantastic thing you're doing. It's an amazing initiative because swimming is a life skill. I think we take it for granted over here that we have access to that when we're at school. Our kids all trundle off to the swimming pool and learn how to swim. And much like Chris, I could swim before I could walk. And I'm a real water baby and scuba dived and all the rest of it. And I've been to some of the most incredible places on Earth.
And you're absolutely right. You very rarely see somewhere like the Maldives or in the Caribbean, you very rarely see local children swimming in the sea. So it really resonated with me that you've spotted that and kind of gone, okay, let's do something about it. Let's make sure that this isn't the case. Let's make sure that also those children have access to an absolute joy, a joyous thing.
Going and swimming, if you've got a beach as beautiful as some of those in some of the places you work in, it's just, it's such a shame that they don't then get to enjoy it. And I agree. I think it's awesome. I think it's absolutely awesome what you're doing. And I agree with that because we like going paddle boarding up at the, obviously we're very blessed with the lakes just outside Swindon here in the Cotswold Water Park and everything.
And we go out there paddle boarding, which I find wonderful exercise and escape and everything. And my daughter will come and we'll be family friends and what have you. And so the kids will be playing.
They spend more time in the water by choice than on the paddleboard and they're jumping off their paddleboard and in and they're messing about in this passage and I agree with you joe is that it's one of life's delights that would be missing yeah um by not being able to and they're in better water than we get so so it's so it's too far you're not only teaching them a valuable life skill and then educating also so so they then pass that on to their children and their
children's children but also you you are you are injecting joy into their lives. You're giving them access to something that is truly wonderful. So I think it's amazing what you're doing. One thing we try to do also is not just our volunteers or regards to what they're doing and teaching the children, but everything we do with regards to fundraising and people raising money for us, because that's the primary, we've got to try and get money into the charity to be able to support these.
All our fundraising is to do with water, whether it be an aquathon or swimming, in the thames or swimming in the lakes or or swimming the english channel and of course chris you're the ideal person if you've been a competitive swimmer before this is just the perfect place for you to be able to support the charity even more and come and join us as on a relay teams across the english channel You're on the spot here, Chris. I feel a stitch up taking place. There is a bit.
I mean, speak to us about that in all seriousness, Brian. I mean, this is, so it's not that one person swimming the whole channel. You are putting together a relay to achieve it for the team. We do, yes, yes. So swimming the English Channel, you can do it solo, of course. But we basically put teams of six people and each person swims for one hour at a time. It takes anywhere from 12 hours to 18 hours.
two lots of two lots of one hours or three lots all together uh you basically take it in turns you work as a team to be able to do it it's not about speed definitely not about speed because you're not going to break any world records in the english channel because the only person you're fighting against is mother nature and mother nature ships get out of the way they do yes yes they do um but um yeah so we put teams together um swimming is only 10 20 of swimming the english channel uh the rest
is dealing with your fears building your team up uh but being able to um it's the journey that people take to get there uh the um swimming you can train for you can go to the pool you can go to the lakes you can go to the sea and you can train for it the things which are harder is swimming at night swimming with jellyfish swimming out in the English Channel in the open so you can't see the lane on the bottom of the pool, the thought of just being out there by yourself,
the fears that you have and the mammals you might come across and the seasickness. All these other things are far greater than the actual swimming part because, like I say, the swimming you can train for, the other bits and pieces are things you've got to overcome and they are your fears.
um so we hate the feeling of achievement at the end huge absolutely huge yeah yeah just just the fact that um there's so many things going against you with regards to your team mother nature the boat uh the smell smell of diesel sometimes depending what the weather's like um and the boat going really really slowly uh the white cliffs of dover always looking huge no matter how many hours away you are from it six hours later they haven't got any smaller There's mind games and
everything else that happens. So it's a huge, huge thing. And presumably swimtiker.org that I've put on screen there, that's how they can find out more about that? They can under events, yes. But whether they want to come and volunteer on our programs or whether they want to partake in swimming the English Channel or swimming Lake Geneva or the Thames Marathon or doing an aquathon, it's all on there. Brilliant. And that is the key way that people can help.
Is there any other ways that people can help Swimtiker? So we're always looking for trustees in different areas. And that's the key that keeps it going. So at the minute we're a strong five, six stroke trustees, but we're looking to grow to about 12 altogether. That's the optimum that we want to be able to have. And we meet every, four months and it's all online. But we want people from different areas to be able to compliment with regards to what we do.
We don't just want people that are fascinated about swimming. Yes, we will try and get them to swim the English Channel, but to be able to help form the charity and enable it to be able to grow. Okay. So what's the best way for people to find out more about that? Go onto our website. You'll see a little bot come up. That bot will take you to WhatsApp. Then you'll be talking directly to us and you'll get a human being practically straight away. Brilliant.
Okay. Anything else that we haven't covered in this conversation, Brian?
could talk all day can't we chris you know I know we could I know I know we could but I think you know I hope that it's got the message over of of like how you're doing it we've got the the feeling of why you did it in the first place and why it's growing how it's going to go how people can help and as I say I think it was just such a great example that that you know and I've been honest to you wasn't I that the first time we met and you said about it I was there going Why is that necessary?
I don't get why that's even needed. And it made me realize there's a lot of charities that we miss the point because we might not read the whole of the leaflet or we might not go onto their website and read everything. But the conversation with you and I'm pretty sure I asked the question and you then explained most of what you've explained today. And I went. oh yeah, okay, I didn't understand that. I'd never thought of it that way.
And you've given birth to this section of the Visual PR Live show. So I had to get you on to promote Swim Tiger because I wanted to anyway, because it's swimming obviously close to my heart, but also because you were the inspiration, Brian, for that. Thank you very much. Glad, glad. Well, thank you so much for coming on. Rob Furman from Bespoke Gardens says, great charity. Love it. Glad to hear it. If Rob's not with you, or you know anyone, Rob, link up with Brian, definitely, equally.
now bespoke gardens isn't a charity it's run as an organization but it's it's an amazing cause and everything and helping lots of people so I know why it will resonate with with the likes of rob so thanks for your comments rob and I'll catch up with you soon I'm sure brian avery thank you so much for coming on and talking everything swim tiger keep up the great work my friend thank you very much chris thank you very much for coming on it's been a pleasure thank you for all
the tips that we got from you as well it's been an absolute treat don't disappear when I put you to the back to the green room but from everyone watching thank you so much uh for joining on this show it's been a pleasure you can watch bits you've missed back and if you've got any questions either for Joe Starr from the Brand Invoice, from Brian Avery from the Swim Tiger, or with myself with Visual PR about how we may be able to assist with your efforts of connecting with people,
giving yourself that authentic connection, then give us a call. For me, I've put everyone else's up. Let me just quickly, I haven't done that. Get hold of me there at chris.visual-pr.co.uk. But it's been a pleasure. Have a great rest of the week and we'll see you all next month for episode. What will it be next month? Episode four. Four. Yeah. Thanks all. Cheers. Bye.